good morning and welcome on this wednesday morning the 13th of january as we come to say our morning prayers outside it's still raining we're promised a day of rain and so we've come to the turkey greenhouse with uh jane here and darcy and lizzy and i'm going to give them their breakfast so that they stop bothering me and there's also here is what we call mummy hen who's been our best hatcher of eggs and she is always longing to be mummy again so if we put eggs under here here we are girls and darcy and let's put that down there and special treat this morning because we're here a little bit of extra protein for you and they will be our congregation this morning here together with all of you wherever you are in the world i'm sorry we may be a bit late this morning we've had some microphone troubles and uh i'm no technician but now it's been fixed and so uh we wanted good clear sound and so here we are um yesterday in great sadness because of the rise of numbers with coronavirus i've had once again to say that public worship physical public worship in the cathedral can no longer happen we shall still be live streaming even song each evening but with recorded music uh psalms of the choir and motets but that will still come out at half past five each evening and on sunday morning we shall live stream the eucharist but sadly no one at the moment can be in attendance it is too dangerous for people to come together with this particularly virulent uh contagious strand of the virus here in england and numbers need to be controlled because of the safety of people and their welfare and also the ability of hospitals and the national health service to cope so apologies to any of you who come to live services and the moments that we can do this again with safety and according to proper rules we shall do so but apart from that we shall be here online for you and of course these services morning and evening will continue in their normal way so this morning we're saying our prayers on this particular not cold winter day but rather wet winter day and every forecast says that the rain will get worse so we're happily dry with these rather elegant turkeys and lovely mummy hen and they will wander around and and be quite placid and calm as we go along let's say our prayers o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your light springs up for the righteous and all the peoples have seen your glory blessed are you sovereign god king of the nations to you be praise and glory forever from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is proclaimed in all the world as the son of righteousness dawns in our hearts anoint our lips with the seal of your spirit that we may witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the earth 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this 13th morning of the month is the long psalm 68 so i shall read verses from that now let god arise and let his enemies be scattered let those that hate him flee before him as the smoke vanishes so may they vanish away as wax melts at the fire so let the wicked perish at the presence of god but let the righteous be glad and rejoice before god let them make merry with gladness sing to god sing praises to his name exalt him who rides on the clouds the lord is his name rejoice before him father of the fatherless defender of widows god in his holy habitation god gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners to songs of welcome but the rebellious inhabit a burning desert oh god when you went forth before your people when you marched through the wilderness the earth shook and the heavens dropped down rain at the presence of god the lord of sinai at the presence of god the god of israel you sent down a gracious rain oh god you refreshed your inheritance when it was weary your people came to dwell there in your goodness oh god you provide for the poor blessed be the lord who bears our burdens day by day for god is our salvation god is for us the god of our salvation god is the lord who can deliver from death sing to god you kingdoms of the earth make music in praise of the lord he rides on the ancient heaven of heavens and sends forth his voice a mighty voice ascribe power to god whose splendor is over israel whose power is above the clouds how terrible is god in his holy sanctuary the god of israel who gives power and strength to his people blessed be god powerful psalm but i think if i wanted to take any verse from that today i would take the verse blessed be the lord who bears our burdens day by day so we come to our reading which is the reading for the gospel on this day and as i said yesterday as communions have stopped in the cathedral day by day in the morning i'm choosing to read the gospel so that we can go through a gospel together the gospel of saint mark and yesterday you remember that jesus in the synagogue at capernaum spoke to the people and gave comfort and healing and eventually quietness to the one who was disturbed and shouting and the people were amazed and saying about two aspects of what he did what is this a new teaching he speaks with authority and not as our scribes and then also amazed at the way in which the man with what they called the unclean spirit a disorder probably of the the mind in some way was comforted quietened and the disorder seemed to go away with the presence of jesus there and they said he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him well we're continuing completely from there in chapter 1 verse 29 this morning and immediately jesus left the synagogue and entered the house of simon and andrew with james and john now simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever and immediately they told jesus about her and he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and the fever left her and she began to serve them that evening at sunset they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons and the whole city was gathered together at the door and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons and he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him and rising very early in the morning while it was still dark he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed that simon and those who were with him searched for him and they found him and said to him everyone is looking for you and jesus said to them let us go on to the next towns that i may preach there also for that is what i came for and he went throughout all galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons this little we learned the word yesterday pericope little cameo of the gospels and we're used to doing that with the gospels at any mass communion service celebration of the lord's supper whatever your tradition is to call that offering of christ and sharing of christ in bread and wine we are used to a cutting out of a section of the gospels and we're faithful that to that cutting out that showing of a pericope a short passage in the gospel because of course that's how in the beginning the stories were handed around but what mark has given us in this first chapter is seemingly a whole day a pretty active day and a sabbath day but we learned certain things about jesus first of all we're in capernaum on the lakeside a a much larger place a city in those terms and a trading place on the trade routes as we said yesterday 30 miles from the highland town of nazareth which jesus had grown up in and a very different atmosphere much more cosmopolitan atmosphere but there he is in the synagogue and recognized as having enough authority with the scriptures to be asked to come and speak to the people and here there is no dissension it's the sabbath day and later on in st mark's gospel when the authorities begin to be worried about jesus then what begins to happen is that they criticize anything he does which is on the sabbath day but here the people are wondrous at his teaching and quite content and amazed that he has comforted and given healing to the man with the disturbed or unclean as the translation here um spirit and there is no dissension there is a sort of wonderment at what has gone on but what we learn about jesus is and we find that in st luke that it was his custom on the sabbath to go to synagogue and here he is and it's capernaum and so the families of those you've called are no doubt there as well and simon and andrew and james and john the fisherman he's called from the lake and james and john have left their nets and their fathers zebedee's hired hands a fishing business there and now here they go into the synagogue on the sabbath day and listen to jesus talking afterwards one can think in one's own tradition i think of sort of sunday lunch after church and sometimes going home and the house was smelling wonderful with uh the the sunday roast and and everyone getting ready for a a lovely time together and we find simon saying come to our house for this so simon and andrew and james and john and jesus in capernaum go to simon's house and simon's mother-in-law is sick and we've no idea what the sickness is notice those words coming again the greek word yusuf immediately it comes twice at the beginning here immediately he goes into the situation immediately he leaves the synagogue immediately he is told about simon's mother three times but one of those was from yesterday and uh the the intensity of moving forward in this day gives a sense of the busyness but once again jesus goes to simon's mother-in-law and brings healing and new strengths and energy and she gets up this is like a bethany story with martha and serves serves their need we've got here a domestic scene and we shall see in the next few chapters that coming back to capernaum is quite often just described as coming home the gospels aren't biographies and we with our passion for knowing details of people's lives expect everything to be a biography we're expecting to be told who's there what it's like and all of that it's not like that the one message that mark wants to get through is the immediacy of the good news which brings healing and strength and new vision to body mind and spirit with the people that jesus is teaching and healing and just being among with his physical presence but we learn something else first of all the sabbath rules are not broken for the sabbath ended with sunset and at sunset they are allowed to carry those whom they want to be near jesus to the door of the house and after sunset jesus heals and no doubt speaks to people and and and is with them and until obviously it gets dark and then suddenly we go into the next day in in mark's gospel and we hear that very early in the morning while it was still dark jesus goes out to be by himself to a desolate place says he can't have gone far because they find him easily but it's it's a time when he feels he needs to should we say recharge the batteries that's what we were fiddling around with with the microphone earlier on if power's gone then somehow new energy is needed and if you've got that feeling that i really do need to be by myself in order to recharge spirit or mind or body and we do that in different ways then oftentimes you find a place by yourself and the rhythm of jesus's life shows him doing that again and again at important times at the time of deciding who were to be the twelve or at the time of wrestling with his own vocation very often climbing up onto a mountain or going to the other side of the lake or wanting space necessary space to place himself in the presence of the father and to feel his vocation strengthened he's just come from a time in the wilderness but what we're seeing here is mark with the apostolic witness quite strong here and that kind of story where simon peter as he's later called remembers his mother-in-law being ill on that day sounds very very much like a piece of apostolic witness straight there a white hot apostolic witness from a real human situation and as that goes forward we find that immediacy very much in mark's gospel but at the same time we learn the pattern of jesus's own vocation how it develops how it strengthens and as we were saying yesterday how the jigsaw pieces are put together for him and that means going back and his mind is full of this he knows the prophets he knows the psalms he knows the law he knows the writings of the scriptures and he mixes them with his sense of god's creation around him the father whom he calls abba and at the same time uh the situations that humanity finds itself in he is there to help carry their burdens and to write what is disordered and he does this in his ministry as he goes around some resist as they will with hostility when they begin to see that their authority is challenged but meanwhile here he is in galilee rural galilee by the lakeside a small independent client state with its own king it's tetrarch herod who was herod antipas was the son of head of the great who was the tetrarch or monarch of that little plant state of the roman empire all the way through jesus's own human life here with us on earth right to the end and say we'll come across him from time to time let's think about the things that happened today because one of them can i think help us i wanted to mention that in 1691 george fox the english founder of the society of friends who were more used to calling quakers died and we respect him and remember him with all our friends in the society of friends i've known so many during my ministry and their dimension of spirituality and social action and their courage in times of war proclaiming peace uh is is something that is a light held up to us all so we give thanks for that strand of christian response in the society of friends today and pray for all our friends who are quakers and then also um this is a day of uh three birthdays i was going to say three kent birthdays and i think i can almost say that two ken birthdays orlando bloom the actor who was actually uh born here in canterbury and uh after peter's message school went to our junior king school and then to st edmund school and so his roots are very very much here in canterbury and uh when he only a few years ago came to receive an honorary degree at the university of kent we took him to the top of belharry said that he could look back over the the city that he knew so many people in earlier on and uh um fletcher here remembers him well in those days but uh i um i'm also gonna mention ruth wilson who was the actress probably best known as jane eyre in the the representation of that in film and she is uh having a birthday today she was born in ashford nearby and finally but born in hastings so he's lived in in whitstable for most of his life suggs the lead singer of madness and so we give thanks for all three of those performing artists and it causes us again to give thanks for the performing arts but also to recognize that they are having enormous difficulty at the moment because just as we can't have public attendance at the cathedral also theaters are are closed down as well and so we we remember all concert halls theaters and people who are finding their life badly interrupted by this kovid 19 and the pandemic which continues and then and this is very cheerful uh this in 1926 january the 13th was the birthday of michael bond and michael bond first of all was a bbc cameraman and then an inventor of various uh children's programs for the television um some of you may remember the herbs which was a little sort of puppet children's show i remember them all the characters were named after a herb and there was serbazil and lady rosemary and parsley the very shy lion and sage the owl and they all had each of them had their song so that when they came on they sang their song but that's not what he's famous for he's most famous for in 1958 writing a book called a bear called paddington and paddington bear has become one of the great figures of uh of of our mentality especially as as now that the films have started about him but the books went across those years and uh the books are always better to go back to because with all these things films can only tell part of the story and they also have to highlight bits that are uh are more sensational whereas um the bear called paddington actually lived a very rhythmic life with the brown family and was found as you know on paddington station when mr mrs brown were waiting for judy to come back from school on the train and john and judy the two children and also mrs bird the housekeeper when paddington is brought home remember he was sitting there on his case with the little notice saying please look after this there uh thank you and that's become the the rather moving uh little tag which is put on all uh toys when they're made in that way of paddington and we remember his story of leaving darkest peru and his aunt lucy who'd gone into a retirement home for for um retired bears but the brown family embrace paddington much to the disorder of their life and all kinds of catastrophes the only thing he's brought with him is a pot of marmalade he makes friends remember with mr gruber down the road and has a sort of rhythm to his day as he goes to the antique shop for a little chat and mr gruber always calls him mr brown very politely and then of course you've got to have a bit of a villain there's not much of a villain and you've got reginald curry the other neighbor the nosy neighbor who's always wanting to get in on the scene who simply calls paddington very disrespectfully bear and so all those things going on as stories develop a little community which we always like the same characters coming and paddington's marmalade michael bond said he couldn't use honey because winnie the pooh already had the honey and so for paddington it was marmalade though nobody can make you want breakfast more than paddington um for breakfast is described in the brown household so many times with bacon and toast and all the rest of the things but marmalade is everything and i wanted to say this is the time of year when we make marmalade and the several orange oranges are coming in and that too is a collective thing to do we're talking about the community of galilee well here's the community of coming together of making marmalade um two or three years ago um philip baldwin and monica gugersberg were involved in a project of of glass which we'll explore further one day because i don't want to stay with that i want to say that that um philip who is not from england came into the deanery kitchen and all of us were there cutting up oranges and the whole house smelt of the the uh making of marmalade and he said what on earth is going on it took five minutes to get him involved and he spent the whole morning with us learning how to make marmalade and and then went away smelling very much of of of citrus and sugar but uh what happens at this time of year also is that there is a marmalade festival in the lake district and our friends robert and jane hazel mccosh there at domain house actually host a huge marmalade festival where people exhibit their marmalades that they've made and prizes are given and we went up so i could preach at the marmalade festival at st andrews church at dejka and made some some marmalade as well that first time and fletcher was proud to have made marmalade that got higher points than hugh fernley whitting stalls marmalade on the same store we didn't win gold prize or anything of that sort that means your marmalade is sold for a year in fortnum masons but it was a festive thing to do in winter and ul's water in the lake district and i noticed that this year even that has to be put off because the collecting together can't come so they will announce the uh winners but they're hoping in june to have a festival on june the 20th when people can come and have a garden party instead all these things are community activities and what we get today in our pericope from st mark's gospel is the community that jesus knew well mark has conflated the whole thing as we shall see but nevertheless we're getting a flavor of the little community of galilee and the rhythms of its life according to synagogue and the faith that was faithfully being adhered to and so we give thanks for that well we give thanks also for our lord's own spirituality in teaching us to go and find times for quiet when either body mind or spirit need to be recharged so let's say our prayers and recharge our batteries a bit and we are praying today for first of all the anglican communion diocese of the horn of africa which is in the new episcopal anglican province of alexandria pray for all who are in that diocese and we're praying also for justin our archbishop and rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth and for the parish here in this diocese of canterbury of kingstown creekside and high downs and the parish priests steve lillicrapp who is also the area dean of that area the auspringe area deanery so we give thanks for them and we also pray for our own friends family community those with whom we engage and give thanks for the activities that normally we will be involved in with them and pray for that time to come again pray for those who are fighting this pandemic which is proving hard to eradicate and as we go forward with the rolling out of vaccines we pray for the safety of all involved in caring for our health here is the collect for this week eternal father who at the baptism of jesus revealed him to be your son anointing him with the holy spirit grant to us who are born again by water and the spirit that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children through jesus christ our lord amen so we say the prayer that our lord taught us to say in whatever language you like to use our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come i 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 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 this day the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and of his son jesus christ our lord 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 are men we thank jane and lizzy and darcy and mummy hen for their hospitality in the warmth of their particular home here we've been very good congregation [Music] 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