good morning we've come into the garden this morning to find some winter color and we find it first in the seeds of our native iris they're very prominent here along the border on this wonderful morning the rain the heavy rain that we had yesterday when we were in the greenhouse eventually died away and late in the evening from the east the most beautiful half moon a waning half moon rose with orange colors lighting up the sky and the stars became bright and orion was showing over the cathedral and so there was a sense of weather patterns changing and true enough this morning there's no wind the sky is blue the sun is rising and at the same time there was a touch of frost over the lawns which the the the weather of the the sun rising is now melting away and uh a slight mist has risen so there's great beauty in the landscape around the iris the the berries of the orcuba here beside me this great bush also gives some color but next in front of them the remains of the hydrangea those dried hydrangea heads earlier on in the autumn are used and we were taught this gift by our friend nancy mead in rhode island she always cuts them and sprays them with gold for christmas color in decorations and they make really fine decorations and i'm sitting under the rose arbor of course but it's bear of roses and gives the blue sky shining through and the great tree of heaven the elanthus above and there's a a wonderful little bird here looking down at me and uh the birds are enjoying the weather absolutely hugely it's a robin of course it's a robbie it's sitting on the branch looking at me the friendliest birds in the in the in the garden and uh the uh robin came to to join us at uh solemn even song the other night in the cathedral itself so um we begin our prayers this morning with all the all the uh uh intentions from here but you bring your own intentions wherever you are in the world your concerns at this this time of of enormous uh effort to defeat this pandemic which is a worldwide effort so in that we support one another this is the 4th of february so the year is going on oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made as we wake refresh from the depths of sleep open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you praise 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 aptly enough the morning psalm for the fourth morning of the month is psalm 19 which is one of the wonderful psalms of creation proclaiming how all creation tells the story of their creator in their own way all aspects of his creation the heavens are telling the glory of god and the firmament proclaims his handiwork one day pours out its song to another and one night unfolds knowledge to another they have neither speech nor language and their voices are not heard yet their sound has gone out into all lands and their words to the ends of the world in them has he set a tabernacle for the sun that comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoices as a champion to run his course it goes forth from the end of the heavens and runs to the very end again and there is nothing hidden from its heat the law of the lord is perfect reviving the soul the testimony of the lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple the statutes of the lord are right and rejoice the heart the commandment of the lord is pure and gives light to the eyes the fear of the lord is clean and endures forever the judgments of the lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold more than much fine gold sweeter also than honey dripping from the honeycomb by them also is your servant taught and in keeping them there is great reward who can tell how often they offend oh cleanse me from my secret faults keep your servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get dominion over me so shall i be undefiled and innocent of great offence let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight o lord my strengths and my redeemer a wonderful psalm of creation advocating that we look around not to hear human language proclaiming god but the sights and sounds of creation itself which as we've seen in these early chapters of st mark's gospel jesus was always pointing out as lessons to be learned little parables in their own right about the way in which our creator expects us to enjoy but also use his creation and to trust in him in joy and in sorrow let's turn then to our lesson from the gospel of saint mark taking up again from yesterday and i'm verse 7 of chapter 6. and jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits he charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff no bread no bag no money in their belts but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics and he said to them whenever you enter a house stay there until you depart from there and if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you when you leave shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them so they went out and proclaimed that people should repent and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them quite a short story but a very important one for the twelve are now being given their commission and sent out two by two on their first errand to be jesus in the villages around them he's trusting them with his vocation and off they go it's a swift journey they have to make for the time is short not only because of sin mark's gospel taking us through fast but also jesus himself sensing that he has only a short time in human terms to achieve this human ministry and then to entrust it with the gift of the spirit to others but here is the the first outing shall we say of the apostles it's not an easy one and the twelve set out to peter and andrew and james and john it must have felt a little bit like their first fishing expedition with their fathers perhaps on the sea of galilee learning what the dangers were learning how the water behaved learning all the tricks of their particular craft as fishermen but when of course jesus called them he said i will call you to become fishers of people well here's their first go without him present and sin mark makes it into one of his sandwich stories so that today we set them off and then tomorrow the story is broken into by a completely different story which will surprise us when we get there and then after that story is over we return to the first story just as we did with the healing of jairus's daughter and the woman who had spent all her money on doctors with her hemorrhages and came to jesus to touch the hem of his garment mark's little sandwiches which allow us almost like any kind of of modern series we might watch in television to have a short episode and then just to leave that episode and go to someone else and then to come back to that episode it keeps us in suspense but it takes us through and where are they are they in holy places not at all they're walking through villages we're in rural galilee it's their own country and as they walk about they're told to proclaim the good news and perform the ministry of healing and restoring calm and wholeness body mind and spirit to those they meet who need that calling the people to repent but at the same time giving gifts which give those people hope and jesus has been doing that through those villages the psalm tends to do the same thing it starts us with creation and then it comes to the law of the lord and the way in which we ourselves find wholeness and peace and then ends with that uh sentence which is so often used at the beginning of the of sermons may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be now unacceptable in your sight oh lord our strength in our redeemer the last verse of psalm 19. but we think of the apostles going out and to show it's going to be a fast journey they're allowed to take nothing with them except a staff and a pair of sandals and the clothes they're standing up in there they're up they're going to receive hospitality wherever they can find it and if they're not received jesus says don't worry just shake off the dust of their features and start again and go to the next place and go on so they go out in pairs and the the the uh commission to go out reminds me of a story which comes from my own childhood of a party a christmas party with family and cousins and everyone around and uh it must have been in 1959 christmas 59 because the the hit music uh traveling light had just been uh recorded and and used by cliff richard in the shadows and it became an absolute best seller so we were playing a party game where uh we were given secretly something that we had to draw and everyone then had to guess what the title of whatever it was uh was and so uh i was given traveling light now being not the coolest they would say uh a person at the age of uh what would have been then 12. um i i had nothing i had no idea what the thing was at all and uh so i i drew a picture of a horse with a candle in a candle holder on its back walking along to me that was the traveling light but of course it completely fox everyone they had no idea what this was at all and in the end i said and then they laughed themselves silly about it and i felt really embarrassed but because the the the song the minute you hear the words actually is much more about this this mission of the apostles here are the words i got no bags and bags to slow me down when i'm traveling so fast my feet ain't touching the ground travel in light no comb and no toothbrush i got nothing to haul i'm carrying only a pocketful of dreams and a heart full of love and they weigh nothing at all of course i can see that now but actually at the same time when i think of the the mission of the twelve i don't think my little drawing was far from the mark because that that candle traveling was part of what they were doing of course physically they were travelling light but they themselves had a heart full of dreams a full of dreams and a heart full of love given to them by jesus to extend to the people they were traveling lights in the darkness at that time and so that story actually gives me pleasure when i look back at the time it filled me with embarrassment that of course is why i've remembered it and this this little story where nothing nothing is carriage shows the kind of ministry that jesus is so much involved in they're passing through villages bringing good news of course the synagogue was important to them on the sabbath day of course the temple was a place which jesus loved and respected as his father's house but the ministry was out in god's good air surrounded by all the sights and sounds of the seasons and the creations and the activity of a human community the work done is not this the carpenter we heard them saying yesterday and the answer is yes of course it is and that sense of knowing what it was for hands to touch wood here and also others the fishermen to know what it was to have fishing nets in their hands and all of those around him men women and children they're not forgotten in the images used and the rising sun every morning becomes an image of resurrection but also of a new dawn the gift of a new day and all the possibilities that that day might bring so on this particular day we remember certain initiatives february the 4th in 2002 cancer research uk was founded it's the world's largest independent cancer research charity and we give enormous thanks for that work which must continue despite us focusing on this pandemic at the moment and we join with that the memory that on this day also in the year 2000 there was a world summit against cancer for the new millennium and the president of france at the time jacques iraq and the director general of unesco signed a charter of paris and it created february iv this day as world cancer day from then on we remember those beginnings of hope at that time in the united states today is rosa parks day her birthday the great civil rights leader there we remember that and also we remember in 1859 that on this day the codex santiaticus was discovered in st catherine's monastery sinai it's not the oldest version of the the bible discover it's a fourth century bible written in greek all of the new testament and much of the old testament and is one of the most venerable documents of the scriptures the the the oldest i think probably goes to the the uh codex uh uh vaticanus and that's just a bit older than that but these old scriptures being handed through give up a sort of handhold link back to not only the words of and stories of the new testament but also of course the the foundation stones laid in the ancient scriptures so we give thanks for that as the sun continues to rise on this day we give thanks for the various things that we enjoy in our own lives and the ability to use them as signs and symbols of god's presence with us it's how jesus and his apostles taught us to use them and one is a filled with a great sense of a dawn breaking this morning and spring not near but being sensed in the garden on this day whenever i see the sunrise in this way i think of a friend philippe gilabo i've mentioned her before that when i was in the south sudan in the city of juba and it was surrounded in those days in the middle of civil war and she was every morning and i could see her from my room across the garden she would come out in the cool of the morning and sit in her chair before she began her continuation of translating the scriptures or the new testament into bari the language of the people there and she would sit absolutely still and watch the sunrise and i had read a book by taya dashada with jesuit when he had been by himself without the means to celebrate the mass which was his daily offering he would stand and watch as the sun came up in its golden glory across the sea the disc and he would see in that disc the same presence of christ as the bread we rise in a a disc above the water at celebrations and feel the presence of god in that they have neither speech nor language that they have certainly plentiful music in the birds but the silence of the sun and the moon and the stars tell the story of their creator and jesus taught us to use that as signs to receive the perfection of god's vocation god's law and god's spirit in our lives day by day and to see each day as a new beginning believing as our creed says in the power of forgiveness after repentance to wipe away all that we felt was wrong with yesterday and receive the gift of the new day so traveling light we're going to say our prayers and uh wherever you are in the world please feel welcome here to bring your own intentions and and your your your particular concerns today we had a little shock last night because uh the jet black uh cat who's really the senior cat here and is never really out of my sight um had and has always suffered a little bit with a heart murmur ever since he was he was a little kitten but i've never been in garden or house usually without being able to see him though he's never been very much keen on being on film but he uh he's he's now uh um how old almost 14 because uh he was born on march the first in uh 2007 and tonight and last night we we'd seen him sitting in the library there where i'd been working during the day but he didn't follow us around and then we realized that something had gone wrong with his his back legs and so our friend the vet christophe reichman who of course looked after tiger when he had his his uh cancer in his front leg came and and has taken monkey away which to to just see what's gone wrong so we're thinking of him this morning we're missing him being around because he's someone who gives calm to the day always and great insight and of course you're thinking of friends and family and everyone that you want to to pray for so this morning we are praying for the diocese of amity in the church of nigeria in the anglican communion and also as we pray for archbishop justin and bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lambeth were praying in the diocese for the parish of saint dunstan's at cranbrook quite a long way from here uh in the uh western part of kent and we're praying for anne pollington in her ministry there and all her people beautiful place cranbrook so let's say the prayer for today and we're in ordinary time glorious ordinary time and the collect is for the third sunday before lent almighty god who alone can bring order to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity give your people grace so to love what you command and to desire what you promise that among the many changes of this world our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found through jesus christ our lord amen so we say each in our own language the prayer our lord taught us and taught his disciples and the twelve to say 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 for you to say your own prayers [Music] the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and his son jesus christ our lord and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always amen [Music] okay [Music] you