do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] is [Music] the roasted that lies in the dish shallow senses is his wings were brave [Music] his wings were great now let us good morning early in the morning on this 12th day of christmas twelfth night is normally called but the day has hardly broken yet and we've risen early because of course we have to deal and make decisions about the government's new announcement with many many more restrictions on our life in the next few weeks and later today i will make a new message for our website to say what kind of changes that will mean to our life here but it will certainly make a lot of change to us at home and so we pray very much for each other on this morning my thanks to the revels chorus who sang those two twelfth night songs twelfth night is very much a time of rejoicing and many making as we are on epiphany eve and the journey of the wise men is coming to a conclusion and tomorrow on the feast of the epiphany we shall mark their arrival to worship at the manger but for today we are giving thanks for these 12 days of christmas um the first song was very much a story about herod it went there was a star in david's land in david's land appeared and in in king hera's bedroom so bright it did shine there the wise men they soon spied it they told the king on high that a princely babe was born that night no man could ever destroy if this be true king herod said that you being telling me this roasted fowl that's in the dish shall grow full fences three well the fowl soon feathered and thrusted well by the work of god's own hands three times that roasted did crow in the dish where he did stand a charming legend but of course it's a folk song being sung by the folk band our soloist in this point but the the next one is very much like our our carol the 12 days of christmas and it goes through uh a whole line of creatures on the way down but there's a chorus jolly old hawk in his wings were gray now let us sing who's going to win the girl but me it's a great song for reveling and then come the list of the animals sent to my love on the 12th miss day 12 old bears eleven old mares ten old nine old boars jolly old hawk and his wings were gray sent to my love on the twelfth most day eight old bulls seven old calves six old cows five for fifth and a fairy no idea what that means jolly old hawk and his wings were grey sent to my love on the twelfth most day a four-feeted pig and a three thistle and two little birds and a jolly old hawk jolly old hawk and his wings were gray now let us sing who's going to win the girl but me twelfth night has always been a time of festivity and the solemnity of this day with the government's announcement is countered by the fact that human celebration can never be quenched and the sense of the year being hard at the beginning but opening up gradually into springtime and with any really good wind the sense of the vaccine beginning to make a difference to all that we're doing but for now we need patients we need courage we need encouragement we need all these things for one another and we are saying our morning prayers in order to give that rhythm and that sense of being together even in this way virtually so let's say our prayers wherever you are in the world and what whatever your particular phases have locked down or dealing with this pandemic and we bring our own intentions on this 12th day of christmas oh lord open our lips and our mouths shall proclaim your praise you lay the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands blessed are you sovereign god creator of heaven and earth to you be praise and glory forever as your living word eternal in heaven assume the frailty of our mortal flesh may the light of your love be born in us to fill our hearts with joy as we sing blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this fifth morning of the month is psalm 24 the earth is the lord's and all that fills it the compass of the world and all who dwell therein for he has founded it upon the seas and set it firm upon the rivers of the deep who shall ascend the hill of the lord or who can rise up in his holy place those who have clean hands and a pure heart who have not lifted up their soul to an idol nor sworn an oath to a lie they shall receive a blessing from the lord a just reward from the god of their salvation such is the company of those who seek him of those who seek your face so god of jacob lift up your heads though gates be lifted up you everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in who is the king of glory the lord strong and mighty the lord who is mighty in battle lift up your heads though gates be lifted up you everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in who is this king of glory the lord of hosts he is the king of glory this morning i'm going to read not the new testament lesson but part of the prophecy of isaiah it's a prophecy which is a prelude to the arrival of the magi but we shall think of where they went first today and also we shall consider the prophecies from isaiah which speaks of the light to lighten the nations and people coming to that light from other nations we thought uh yesterday the day before of the child jesus and the grown man jesus the child jesus in the temple surrounded by the doctrines of the law the adult jesus at the wedding in cana of galilee knowing that his hour was not yet but nevertheless responding with compassion to the needs of the wedding guests and we thought of the little boy in the temple having pondered prophecies able to talk to the doctors of the law and ask questions and no doubt they were questions about what was growing inside him as to what that vocation might mean when he comes at the age as luke tells us of 30 into his own synagogue where everyone knows him where he grew up at nazareth it's the prophet isaiah he takes and chooses to read and that passage that he reads is part of our reading this morning these are verses from isaiah chapter 60 61 and 62. arise shine for your light has come and the glory of the lord has risen upon you for darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples but the lord will arise upon you and his glory will appear over you nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn the spirit of the lord god is upon me because the lord has anointed me he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners to proclaim the year of the lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our god to comfort all who mourn to provide for those who mourn in zion to give them a garland instead of ashes the oil of gladness instead of mourning the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit they will be called oaks of righteousness the planting of the lord to display his glory for zion's sake i will not keep silent and for jerusalem's sake i will not rest until her vindication shines out like the dawn and her salvation like a burning torch the nations shall see your vindication and all the kings your glory and you shall be called by a new name that the mouths of the lords will give you shall be a crown of beauty in the hands of the lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your god beautiful verses of prophecy and prophecy was something which spoke of the inner dimension the heavenly dimension of things which one day would find fulfillment somewhere and in someone and it's clear that when jesus reads that passage of comfort and good news and liberation to his own people in the synagogue at nazareth that she is applying that to himself and at the end of reading them remember he says to the people today in your very hearing this scripture has been fulfilled at the end of his ministry on earth in the days following his resurrection when he was conversing with those who went to emmaus and also took the disciples he speaks of the way in which the law and the prophets and the psalms have been fulfilled fulfilled in his own life and vocation but today and tomorrow we register the journey of those who have seen the rising of his star and have come from other nations magi the wise the wise men traditionally and with these prophecies in mind often the three kings but the most important thing to think of today on this eve of the feast of the epiphany is where did their human wisdom take them first they were certainly seeking a king that's quite clear from their questions when they arrive and the full story we'll read as our new testament lesson tomorrow but let's think of them coming first of course if this is a king to the capital city to jerusalem and seeking out another king going to the royal palace perhaps they thought that a newborn baby had been born to the royal presence in the royal palace and here their human wisdom let them down they brought gifts as the queen of sheba brought when she visited solomon in his temple injury in his palace in jerusalem but this time their wisdom their human wisdom has led them astray the star is guiding them further but they haven't perceived that yet so let's think of them on the eve of their coming to that goal of their journey coming before a monster of a king a symbol of corrupt earthly power and of great power i'm not saying that just because in nativity plays herod is played by someone always acting the part of almost an ogre that wasn't too far wrong in the way herod the great treated those whom he felt to be a threat those even of his own family whom he felt to be a threat he was a violent operator and he was an emblem of the all-power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely dictum which is well known to us here standing before the king in the royal palace are three searchers after the light which has been prophesied in those chapters of isaiah and one remembers again the story of philip in the ethiopian philip hears the ethiopian in his chariot in the acts of the apostles reading the scroll of the book of the prophet isaiah and when philip goes near the ethiopians said about whom is the writer speaking about himself or about another we might ask the same question but jesus himself clearly with the prophecy of isaiah knew that this would be accomplished in himself and one doesn't have to go further than the conversation at the well in samaria later on to find that verified again in the fourth gospel an important passage not the lucan one of today in your very hearing this text has come true this prophecy has come true but this time to the woman of samaria when she says we know that messiah will come and then the answer i who i'm speaking to you um he but not only stories of that sort but images of light and the star a star which will in the end be eclipsed by the dawning and resurrection light of jesus himself but here we are on the eve of that discovery when human power will be left behind and the representatives of the other nations will go to seek a power of a different kind that's tomorrow's story for the moment the christmas lights still shine around us and we give thanks for the birth at bethlehem as the shepherds have a light for their own people a message given to them in bethlehem but the message is so much greater and the eve of the epiphany has always been a time of enormous celebration and rejoicing 12th night well the minute you say it it conjures up the shakespeare play and there's no more musical play in the whole of shakespeare really it starts of course with the sentence if music be the food of love play on and music of course heartens us i got here a book of one of my favorite songwriters roger quilter and he loved to find beautiful verses to compose songs too little cameos and this is a book full of poetry because his music is set to poetry but three of the shakespeare songs in this particular book of quilters songs come from twelfth night come away come away death and in sad cyprus let me be laid fly away fly away breath i am slain by a fair cruel maid these are love songs and lovers who are not sure of the love given or have been jilted are all sure that the sword will pierce them to the quick and they will die of love but these are some of culture's best songs again from twelfth night oh mistress mine where are you roaming oh stay and hear your true love's coming that can sing both high and low trip no further pretty sweeting journeys end in lovers meeting every wise man's son doth know these are human lessons but they're talking of foretastes of heaven and the gift of love is something which is a foretaste of heaven and becomes more so in the depths of total love given in all sorts of particular ways and the last one of the ones which comes from here is that childlike song hey ho the wind and the rain and it's the song which ends twelfth night which is a comedy of the best sort played out for the tudor court in order that they might keep twelfth night properly christmas is a time of rejoicing and our lord's message that was given based on the prophecies of isaiah the scroll he read and saw fulfilled in his own life is a story of good news of release for captives of recovery of sight for the blind of broken victims being allowed to go free there will be many times in these days and weeks ahead in the darkness of winter and sometimes for some of you the loneliness of lockdown and others the boredom of lockdown and the sense of what we might call cabin fever and wanting so much to go out but the larger mesh message has so much to stay in our minds that we are doing this for the welfare of each other and there are many ways that we can keep in touch with patient and imaginative encouragement for each other we shall do our best you and i to encourage each other over the days and weeks to come we shall worship when we can but in body mind and spirit we shall look out for those who are lonely and in need it's the what was being called many times the lord's nazareth manifesto the spirit of the lord is upon me he has caused me anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor and all that wonderful list but at epiphany which means the showing force the showing of the light we see our lord as a light not just for the local community of nazareth who knew him well nor even for galilee and the disciples on the lakeside nor even for his own people in jerusalem and bethlehem but for the whole world and that message grows as a flame grows as it begins to catch and consume and give light and warmth to all around let's say our prayers on this morning of the twelfth day of christmas and wherever you are in the world bring your own prayers because there will be different problems in each nation and center of different cultures and different problems also for different communities and different families so join your prayers with the thousands who are praying with us this morning here is the connect the special prayer for today almighty god in the birth of your son you have poured on us the new light of your incarnate word and shown us the fullness of your love help us to walk in his light and dwell in his love that we may know the fullness of his joy who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen today in our anglican communion as we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth we're praying especially for the diocese of ebony aberdeen and orkney in the scottish episcopal church and we're continuing also to pray for that list of villages which i've read on the past two days comprising the north stands benefits we're praying for the southern parishes today looked after by mark pavey and pray for him in his ministry and as we do so we remember all who in their communities are having to make new decisions about how life goes forward in work and in community and say together the prayer our lord taught us in whatever language you like to use 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 now as we say our own prayers for today may christ who by his coming at christmas time gathered into one the things of earth and the things of heaven fill you and those whom you remember with the spirit of peace and goodwill at this season and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and upon those whom you love and would pray for today 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