good afternoon and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this friday afternoon of july the 24th tomorrow the 25th of july is the feast day of st james the great the apostle who was the brother of st john and called for his from his fishing nets at the beginning of the gospel of saint mark so we have the tradition of keeping the even song before that feast as a first even song of the feast of st james we say our evening prayers together as the sun is still quite high in the heavens because it's very very a time of very long days at the moment and we enjoy the color of the flowers around us in this summer afternoon wherever you are in the world please feel welcome as we say our evening prayers together and bring your concerns to those prayers oh lord open thou our lips and our mouth shall show forth thy praise oh god make speed to save us oh lord make haste to help us glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen praise ye the lord the lord's name be praised the evening psalm for the 24th day of the month the 24th evening is the beginning of psalm 119. blessed are those that are undefiled in the way and walk in the law of the lord blessed are they that keep his testimonies and seek him with their whole heart for they who do no wickedness walk in his ways thou has charged that we shall diligently keep thy commandments oh that my ways were made so direct that i might keep thy statutes so shall i not be confounded while i have respect unto thy commandments i will thank thee with an unfeigned heart when i shall have learned the judgments of thy righteousness i will keep thy ceremonies oh forsake me not utterly glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen our old testament lesson this afternoon on this first even song of the feast of st james is written in the 30th chapter of the book deuteronomy beginning at the 11th verse for this commandment that i command you today is not too hard for you neither is it far off it is not in heaven that you should say who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it neither is it beyond the sea that you should say who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it but the word is very near you it is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it see i have set before you today life and good death and evil if you obey the commandments of the lord your god that i command you today by loving the lord your god by walking in his ways and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules then you shall live and multiply and the lord your god will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it but if your heart turns away and you will not hear but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them i declare to you today that you shall surely perish you shall not live long in the land that you are going over the jordan to enter and possess i call heaven and earth to witness against you today that i have set before you life and death blessing and curse therefore choose life that you and your offspring may live loving the lord your god obeying his voice and holding fast to him for he is your life and length of days that you may dwell in the land that the lord swore to your forefathers to abraham to isaac and to jacob to give them here ends the first lesson you say the magnificat the song of mary my soul doth magnify the lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in god my savior for he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed for he that is mighty hath magnified me and holy is his name and his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations he has showed strength with his arms he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts he had put down the mighty from their seat and have exalted the humble and meek he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away he remembering his mercy has opened his servant israel as he promised to our forefathers abraham and his seed forever glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen the second lesson on this even song of st james is written in the fifth chapter of the gospel of saint mark it starts at the 21st verse and when jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side of the sea a great crowd and he was beside the sea then came one of the rulers of the synagogue jairus by name and seeing him he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly saying my little daughter is at the point of death come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live and jesus went with him and a great crowd followed him and thronged about him and there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse she had heard the reports about jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment for she said if i touch even his garments i will be made well and immediately the flow of blondes dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease and jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him immediately turned about in the crowd and said who touched my garments and his disciples said to him you see the crowd pressing around you and yet you say who touched me but jesus looked round to see who had done it but the woman knowing what had happened to her came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth and he said to her daughter your faith has made you well go in peace and be healed of your disease while he was still speaking there came from the ruler's house some who said your daughter is dead why trouble the teacher any further but overhearing what they said jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue do not fear only believe and he allowed no one to follow him except peter and james and john the brother of james they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and jesus saw a commotion people weeping and wailing loudly and when he had entered he said to them why are you making a commotion and weeping the child is not dead but sleeping and they laughed at him but jesus put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was taking her by the hand he said to her talitha kumai which means little girl i say to you get up and immediately the girl got up and began walking for she was 12 years of age and they were immediately overcome with amazement but jesus strictly charged them that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat here ends the second reading lord now let us out thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou has prepared before the face of all people to be a light to lighten the gentiles and to be the glory of thy people israel glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen i believe in god the father almighty maker of heaven and earth and in jesus christ his only son our lord who was conceived by the holy ghost born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of god the father almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead i believe in the holy ghost the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen let us pray lord have mercy upon us christ have mercy upon us lord have mercy upon us our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil amen the lord shall thy mercy upon us and grant us thy salvation o lord save the queen and mercifully hear us when we call upon thee end you thy ministers with righteousness and make thy chosen people joyful o lord save thy people and bless sign inheritance give peace in our time o lord because there is none other that fighteth for us but only thou o god o god make clean our hearts within us and take not thy holy spirit from us grant o merciful god that as thine holy apostle saint james leaving his father and all that he had without delay was obedient unto the calling of thy son jesus christ and followed him so we forsaking all worldly and carnal affections may be ever more ready to follow thy holy commandments through jesus christ our lord amen o god from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all just works to proceed give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness through the merits of jesus christ our savior amen lighten our darkness we beseech thee o lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy only son our savior jesus christ amen this is a summer feast very much a summer feast when i was serving a group of parishes in the very rural diocese of salisbury in wiltshire one of them which was a little removed from the main village there the main village was called tisbury and this one was called ansti and it was a village that had its church dedicated to saint james the great as he's called a name to distinguish him from the other james in the list of apostles james the son of alpheus often called james the less awesome james the younger and this village was through lovely country lanes and so on the evening of the feast of st james itself or the nearest sunday to it the church choir of the parish of tisbury would get onto a farmer's wagon with hay bales on it and a tractor would pull us robed through the country lanes to go and sing even song with the little parish of st james i remember it well because it's very much a country festival in my mind and there was great happiness as we went there and the the people there would spread a picnic after for us so i think of it as a happy feast and the readings that we have tonight and tomorrow morning and in the communion tomorrow and tomorrow evening all mention saint james well let's think about him on this summer evening the eve of his feast for he was called from his nets with his brother john at the same time as simon who was later called peter and andrew his brother they left their father james and john they left their father zebedee and the hired hands mending the nets at the end of a night's fishing probably and were called by jesus no doubt they had heard his teaching before and in being called they were following someone that their hearts and minds were ready to follow but nevertheless they were leaving what was clearly a thriving business on the side of the sea of galilee yet it's clear that members of their family were sympathetic to that for we find odd references to them all the way through the gospel stories but on this occasion that we've told about tonight jesus takes with him into the bedroom of the little girl who in the people's mind lies dead and he goes in with the father and mother jairus and his wife and they shut the door those who've laughed at him for saying she is not dead but sleeping are left outside but he has brought with him three of the disciples simon peter and james and john the two brothers and simon and they've come in to witness a scene which is redolent of that lesson that we had read in deuteronomy saying see i have set before you life and death and if we look at the figure of james who was witness to the incident that was about to happen an incident of healing and resurrection which was made oh so ordinary and compassionate at the end as the little girl got up and began to walk about and what does jesus say give her something to eat such a human thing to say james is observing that see i have set before you life and death choose life if we look at those three disciples who have come with jesus to the bedside and witnessed this event with the parents not knowing whether to be more amazed or full of gratitude then we think of peter later as the leader of the church the one who would be the rock on whom the church was founded and john the one who witnessed right to the end and traditionally thought to have lived long but was clearly in the epistles of sin paul a leader of the church in a different way and one whose teaching under wrote the whole of the fourth gospel what if james choose life and yet james james the great the elder brother of john was the first of the disciples to die for the faith cut down in the streets of jerusalem by the surgery who were wanting to persecute christians he chose life in following the word of jesus but it was a much larger life than one might have imagined for he died young and his bleeding body in the street there was another sign of the good news it was so much to be embraced in this world and witnessed to that those who were called were ready to give up their human life to point the way with a capital w that the word also with a capital w was proclaiming followers of the way would die in great numbers from then on and yet they saw that death as the gate to eternal life so right at the beginning james is the one who began that pilgrimage first went through the gates of death violently but to in his mind the certainty of eternal life we give thanks for him as we keep the eve of his feast day but he will be in all our stories all the way through tomorrow so let's keep silent for a moment as we say our evening prayers for those whom we would want to remember on this summer night almighty god who has given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee and as promised that when two or three are gathered together in thy name now we'll grant their requests fulfill now o lord the desires and petitions of thy servants as may be most expedient for them granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting amen the grace of our lord jesus christ and the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with us all and remain with us and with those whom we love and would pray for this night and always amen [Music]