good morning and welcome on this first day of a new month and also it's the day after the feast of pentecost when we step into what we might call ordinary time the ordinary rhythm of the week and as we say our morning prayers we pray for all those who may be returning to their work today and traveling and also pray for those who are still in lockdown at this time of coronavirus oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation lord and sustain us with your gracious spirit so come let us sing to the lord let us heartily rejoice in the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving and be glad in him with psalms for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand glory to the father and to the son and to the holy spirit as it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever amen i said this was ordinary time in fact there's quite a little collection of different commemorations for today it is the feast of justin martyr an early christian saint and philosopher and teacher who was martyred in rome in the year 165 maybe his teaching is best known for the kind of teaching that's in peter was giving in his thinking at the house of of cornelius now i see that god has no partiality but he finds those in every nation who will be faithful in some way to him and they are acceptable to him all of that is the teaching of justin martyr and we give thanks for him some will also be transferring the feast of the visitation of the blessed virgin mary to her cousin elizabeth and others will be remembering other things we remember also this is the birthday of john maysfield who was important not only as a poet laureate but also as one who like t.s eliot wrote plays for this place and they were performed to the glory of god perhaps the most famous of the ones that he wrote with music by gustav host was a play called the coming of christ so we shall remember maysville's poetic words in our reflections later but let's continue with our morning prayers blessed are you sovereign god creator of all do you be glory and praise forever you founded the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands in the fullness of time you made us in your image and in these last days you have spoken to us in your son jesus christ the word made flesh as we rejoice in the gift of your presence among us let the light of your love always shine in our hearts your spirit ever renews our lives and your praises ever be on our lips blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever i forgot two very important commemorations today is international children's day and some children will be starting school again in certain years we pray for them it's also international milk day when dairy products are exalted and so for the sake of my friend here who's crazy about milk i have given him an indulgence this morning with a jug of his own so tiger is here with us celebrating international milk day we're going to celebrate with psalm 1 at the beginning of the sultan because this is the first day of the month blessed are they who have not walked in the council of the wicked nor lingered in the way of sinners nor sat in the assembly of the scornful their delight is in the law of the lord and they meditate on his law day and night like a tree planted by streams of water bearing fruit in due season with leaves that do not wither whatever they do it shall prosper as for the wicked it is not so with them they are like chaff which the wind blows away therefore the wicked shall not be able to stand in the judgment nor the sinner in the congregation of the righteous for the lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked shall perish glory to the father and to the son and to the holy spirit as it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever our men so we return to our reading of the gospel of saint luke and we come to the point after the feeding of the 5000 verse 18 of chapter nine now it happened that as jesus was praying alone the disciples were with him and he asked them who do the crowds say that i am and they answered some say john the baptist others elijah and others that one of the prophets of old has risen then jesus said to them but you who do you say that i am and peter answered you are the christ of god and jesus strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one saying the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised and he said to all if anyone would come after me let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me for whoever would save their life will lose it but whoever will lose their life for my sake will save it for what does it profit anyone if they gain the whole world and lose or forfeit themselves for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words of them will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the father and of the holy angels but i tell you truly there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of god we are still in galilee we are still wrestling with jesus with his own vocation and his struggle to share that vocation with the disciples it is a struggle for their concept of what it means to be as peter says the christ of god has been educated by a traditional upbringing in that provincial society of galilee which believes in the power of the messiah over all things and we keep stumbling over that in the gospels with the disciples perception or lack of perception in the development of jesus's own concept of the fact that in losing his life he will gain it not only for himself but potentially for the whole world and perhaps those sentences of whoever would follow me let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me and also whoever would lose their life will gain it and those who will attempt to gain their life will lose it the paradox like the paradox of the beatitudes shows us jesus is in a struggle with what is going on they are moving towards the mountain of transfiguration but that's for tomorrow for today their journey is a difficult one i said we'd come to maizefield actually i have a a wonderful photograph of the cast of the coming of christ sitting outside the door of the deanery on either side of the the dean that mazefield is there host is is that and one has the most amazing flavor of how that play must have developed locally amongst the community and how much they enjoyed at the earliest of canterbury festivals performing those plays but maysfield was a sailor maysfield was one who wanted to journey maysfield was one who was not frightened of the waves and maybe the best poem to read for him on this particular day the day of his birth is sea fever the journeying developing just as all of us are called to journey and follow our own vocation he wrote i must go down to the sea again to the lonely sea and the sky and all i ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by and the wheels kick and the wind song and the white sails shaking and a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking i must go down to the seas again for the call of the running tide is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied and all i ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying and the flung spray and the blown spume and the seagulls crying i must go down to the seas again to the vagrant gypsy life to the gull's way in the wales way where the wind's like a wetted knife and all i ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover and a quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over may's field but perhaps we might also read his little poem epilogue on this day just four lines i have seen flowers come in stony places and kind things done by men with ugly faces and the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races so i trust too so simple but both those lessons from mace field are good for us today the lesson of the call of our individual vocation with the unique gifts that god has given to us and the struggle on the way just like the sea all around us and the wind blowing but the knowledge that to be true to ourselves and to our god we we must go on and then his little epilogue expect to find beautiful things in the most unexpected places and wonderful things done by people that we would least expect them from say we trust too we give thanks for the disciples struggle those fishermen who loved the lakeside but were called to a different different journey and we give thanks for our lord's own vocation as we say our prayers on this first day of the month today in the anglican communion we're praying for the diocese of nebraska in the episcopal church and scott barker the bishop there and his people the diocese of akkot in south sudan and bishop isaac du atta and his people and the vacant bishopric of the diocese of ireland esseodo in nigeria and those who will choose the new bishop and all the people who are in that diocese we continue here to pray for the many villages within the compass of the north downes benefits and they are bursted hollingborn leeds broomfield autumn langley hucking sternum detling grove green and boxley we pray for john corbyn and mark pavey in their ministry there pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and also for tim bishop at lambeth in his episcopal ministry there so we say the prayer for this day first a prayer of pentecost o lord from whom all good things come grant to us your humble servants that by your holy inspiration we may think those things that are good and by your merciful guiding may perform the same through our lord jesus christ amen and the prayer commemorating justin martyr god our redeemer who through the folly of the cross taught your martyr justin the surpassing knowledge of jesus christ remove from us every kind of error that we like him may be firmly grounded in the faith and make your name known to all peoples through jesus christ our lord amen for those of you keeping the visitation of the blessed virgin mary to elizabeth there will be a eucharist celebrated and placed online at 12 o'clock and we use that colleague too mighty god by whose grace elizabeth rejoiced with mary and greeted her as the mother of the lord look with favor on your lowly servants that with mary we may magnify your holy name and rejoice to acclaim her son our savior who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so we say each in our own language the prayer our lord taught us to pray whenever we meet together as we set out step by step in ordinary time 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 on this day [Music] unto god's most gracious mercy and protection we commit you the lord bless you and keep you the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you give you his peace and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and those whom you love and would pray for today and always amen