good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this friday morning the 15th of may i've brought some friends whom we met before two or three weeks ago but they looked very different now because these are the little chicks you saw when they were just hatched still inside now in the sunshine for an hour they've come out to begin their life in the bigger world and i've got in my hand for a moment or two the little gray ball of fluff that you met there's a a baby bought in blue who is now becoming rather feathered and beginning to look like the little character that she will become i'm going to put her back in a moment to rejoin her friends but we're going to begin our morning prayers this is a day this 15th of may which in our prayer we will also remember the american poetess emily dickinson who died on this day in 1886 her poetry has been an inspiration to so many and we'll remember that when we're having our reflection following the reading at the later part of the service but for now we begin our morning prayers oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice alleluia blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as once you ransomed your people from egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your risen son may we the firstfruits of your new creation rejoice in this new day you have made and praise you for your mighty acts blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever i think before we go on i'm going to allow her to go back with her friends to enjoy the service with them there we are the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind for as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever are men our son this morning on the 15th day of the month is psalm 77 i cry aloud to god i cry aloud to god and he will hear me in the day of my trouble i have sought the lord by night my hand is stretched out and does not tire my soul refuses comfort i think upon god and i groan i ponder and my spirit faints you will not let my eyelids close i am so troubled that i cannot speak i consider the days of old i remember the years long past i commune with my heart in the night my spirit searches for understanding will the lord cast us off forever will he no more show us his favor has his loving mercy clean gone forever has his promise come to an end forevermore has god forgotten to be gracious has he shut up his compassion and displeasure and i said my grief is this that the right hand of the most high has lost its strength but no i will remember the works of the lord and call to mind his wonders of old time i will meditate on all his works and ponder his mighty deeds your way o god is holy who is so great a god as our god you are the god who worked wonders and declared your power among the peoples so we turned to our lesson for this morning and after saint matthias day yesterday we returned now to the regular reading of the gospel of saint luke we are at chapter 6 beginning at verse 1. on a sabbath day while jesus was going through the cornfields his disciples plucked and at some ears of corn rubbing them in their hands but some of the pharisees said why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath and jesus answered them have you not read what david did when he was hungry he and those who were with him how he entered the house of god and took and at the bread of the presence which is not lawful for any but the priest through each and also gave it to those with him and he said to them the son of man is lord of the sabbas on another sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching and a man was there whose right hand was withered and the scribes and the pharisees were watching jesus to see whether he would heal on the sabbath said that they might find reason to accuse him but jesus knew their thoughts and he said to the man with the withered hand come and stand here and the man rose and stood there and jesus said to them i ask you is it lawful on the sabbath day to do good or to do harm to save life or to destroy it and after looking around at them all he said to them to the man with the withered hand stretch out your hand and the man did so and his hand was restored but they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to jesus [Music] jesus and the disciples we don't know how many were going through the cornfields and being hungry they plucked ears of corn and at them to enjoy perhaps their breakfast here we have some corn in front of me the chicks are too young to eat this yet but later on it will be the most fantastic treat for them it's not something they should have too often but nevertheless it's one of those things which makes life enjoyable for them as they enjoy the ordinary food normally we we went to try and find an ear of grain from one of the harvest sheaves which had been put into the barn but i think little fairy friends have eaten the top of the head but you you you see the stalk of wheat that the disciples were taking the wheat from rubbing it in their hands and those who wanted a strict observance of the law said that is work and you don't do it on the sabbath day in the same way that they said to jesus when he healed the man with the withered hand that is work you don't do that on the sabbath day jesus opens wide the interpretation of what the sabbath law is it's a law of welfare a law of healing a law of doing good rather than harm we've used this net to protect the chicks this morning and we've used it before to show how people were gathered into the good news and how it was a sign of the fisherman being called simply to do good and to give good news to love and to heal every day of the week while still being faithful to the law of god and his precepts which the psalms set before us so many times there are many predators for these little chicks and so they're being protected later on they will be bigger and they'll go by themselves into the hen house and enjoy life there but still there will be protection from things like peregrine falcons which are beautiful when they fly in the sky and nest in the cathedral tower but they're a danger to these little ones this morning and they will continue to be so this is the day as i said that we remember emily dickinson she wrote a most beautiful poem about hope and she likened it to the feathered quality of these chicks or the garden warbler who is singing to us at the moment she says hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all and sweetest in the gale is heard and saw must be the storm that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm i've heard it in the chilliest land and on the strangest sea yet never in extremity it asked a crumb of me hope is a gift given like the bird's song this morning so delicate and fragile like our little borton blues and our growing copper black marrons and yet these things can come at any time as a gift from heaven to give hope where there was none the lovely thing about emily dickinson is that all her truths are contained in such small sentences that's a gift when we're reading the scriptures to expect suddenly in the middle of a psalm that we've read a hundred times before suddenly a little message of hope given to us for that morning or just one verse of the gospel or the epistles or the old testament when we're reading it i love some of her sentences and we could read many of them but i love the sentence where she said forever is composed of nows the present moment added together together together going on into the future means the forever which christ calls us into not only in this world but well beyond to the next another of her sentences we turn not older with years but newer every day and lastly on a beautiful morning like this the inspiration of her sentences to a friend we never know how high we are called to rise then if we are true to form our statures touch the skies she was a lady who spent a lot of time in seclusion at her home at amherst in massachusetts and she thought of herself in perhaps one of her most famous lines i am nobody who are you are you a nobody too but she will realize that nobody is not a concept known to god either for our feathered friends or for us the particularity of each of us is precious in the same way that the particularity of every picture given to us in scripture and on earth is precious to us because as god created all all must speak of god if we have eyes and stature to expect it in the nows that make forever let's uh say our prayers and first of all let's begin with the places that we remember in the anglican world today nagpur in north india and paul jupari the bishop there and his people and the diocese of abba in nigeria at present vacant of a bishop but we remember the people there and those choosing a new bishop for them here in the diocese of canterbury we remember the parish of all saints at luce and pray for steve price and chris tom in their ministry there and chris watson lee the curate barbara lewis the reader and all their people there we pray in our hearts and minds for all those whom we would wish to pray for on this beautiful morning the collect for today almighty god who through your only begotten son jesus christ have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life grant that as your by your special grace going before us you put into our minds good desires so by your continual help we may bring them to good effect through jesus christ our lord amen and the son collect god our shepherd you led us and saved us in times of old do not forget your people in their troubles but raise up your power to sustain the poor and helpless for the honor of jesus christ our lord amen so we say the prayer that jesus taught us in whatever language and in whichever way you like to say it our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen moment of silence into the sound of birdsong we make our own prayers this morning the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus that great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love those you would pray for today and always are men you