[Music] [Music] i [Music] now [Music] now so [Music] and welcome on this morning of sunday the 6th of september as we meet for morning prayers in the garden of the deanery at canterbury cathedral feel welcome wherever you are across the world as you bring your own concerns to this day if we look back on this 6th of september probably the most important historic event that we will want to deal with is the 1626th of september setting out of the mayflower with 149 pilgrims from plymouth across the atlantic seeking to escape religious and political and economic controversies and problems in a new world which they would settle we shall come back to that with its many canterbury connections in our reflection but let's think also of other things which happened on this day in history in 1651 charles ii as he was to be had just lost the battle of worcester his father had been executed uh two years before in 1649 and he made one last desperate attempt to defeat cromwell's armies and and failed but on this day hid himself in an oak tree all night as they searched for him and managed to make good his escape to the low countries later on on this day also in 1642 the parliament after taking control of the nation before the civil war was ended banned all stage plays because that was seen not to be according to their religious beliefs and we remember on this day all those who at the moment are finding enormous difficulty in mounting stage plays because of the pandemic and any kind of public performance we remember in sadness as we often do creation destruction the appalling massacre of nine israeli athletes and a german policeman at the olympic games in munich in 1972 and also the assassination of president mckinley of america in 1901 we remember as we think of musicians and performance that this was the day that luciano pavarotti died the great tenor in 2007 and we've thought on a day or two past of national welsh rabbit day and national fish and chip day well today is national reader book day and you can make of that what you will with the books that you are reading but let's begin our prayers at this time o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the true the only light banish all darkness from our hearts and minds 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 refreshed 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this sixth morning of the month is psalm 30. i will exalt you o lord because you have raised me up and have not let my foes triumph over me o lord my god i cried out to you and you have healed me you brought me up o lord from the dead you restored me to life from among those that go down to the pit sing to the lord you servants of his give thanks to his holy name for his roth's indoors but the twinkling of an eye his favor for a lifetime heaviness may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning in my prosperity i said i shall never be moved you lord of your goodness have made my hill so strong and then you hid your face from me and i was utterly dismayed to you o lord i cried to the lord i made my supplication what prophet is there in my blood if i go down to the pit will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness hear o lord and have mercy upon me o lord be my helper you have turned my morning into dancing you have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing o lord my god i will give you thanks forever so on this sunday morning for the fourth and last time on sundays we turn to the book of jonah and we are reading today the last chapter when god saw what the people of nineveh did how they turned from their evil way god relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them and he did not do it but it displeased jonah exceedingly and he was angry and he prayed to the lord and said oh lord is not this what i said when i was yet in my country that is why i made haste to flee to tashish for i knew that you are a gracious god and merciful slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster therefore now o lord please take my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live and the lord said do you do well to be angry jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a shelter for himself there he sat under it in the shade till he should see what would become of the city now the lord god appointed a good and made it grow up over jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort so jonah was exceedingly glad because of the god but when dawn came up the next day god appointed a worm that attacked the gourd so that it withered when the sun rose god appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of jonah so that he was faint and he asked that he might die and said it is better for me to die than to live but god said to jonah do you do well to be angry for the good and he said yes i do well to be angry angry enough to die and the lord said you pity the plant for which you did not labor nor did you make it grow which came into being in a night and perished in a night and should i not pity nineveh that great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left and also many animals it's a wonderful ending to this parable and if we think back again on the whole parable of the book of jonah just four short chapters and one of them a psalm or rather a prayer spoken from the belly of the whale in enormous distress then we try to explore what the writer is telling us first of all as we've seen he is telling us that jonah attempts to escape the particular task that the lord has for him and him alone to cry out to nineveh to repent from its ways of behavior he takes ship as far as he can go tashish with no idea where that was but we suspect as far as anyone could think about in the western mediterranean and we know what happens to the ship and we know what happens to jonah we've read that in the last three weeks and then jonah is saved but what are we looking at in terms of faithfulness there and it's not jonah who himself is still at the mercy and also the call of god whom he's trying to escape it's the sailors the pagan sailors whom he has met at joppa and that connects us with simon peter through the week in the acts of the apostles for exit joppa that the messengers come to him on the coast looking out to the great sea surely beyond that sea i shall be out of god's reach says jonah and he's not so he comes back and the thing is presented to him again and this time he is faithful to it but grudgingly faithful and last week we saw him announcing in the streets of nineveh repent from your evil ways or destruction will come upon you and the people repent even to the putting of sackcloth on the animals everyone fasts and the lord relents and jonah is fed up i knew this is how it would be he says because turning to the scriptures of the old testament you are a compassionate and long-suffering god having mercy where you will show mercy but what jonah is forgetting is that all things are affected in this way in our human communities by what has been called almost a double agency of humanity working in partnership with the creation and the creator and the creator's purpose the spirit of god which has now been given in our new testament readings as a gift the holy spirit in the apostles and those who follow them but here is jonah who goes out and shelters under a gourd and here we have a shelter around me made in our squash garden here under the willow tree and we see how it leaves and fruits and then the god dies and jonah is even more angry it reminds us really of elijah under the what was called and is still in the mendelssohn translation of elijah a juniper bush and do you remember how elijah having faced the wrath of jezebel and still facing that seek shelter under the juniper bush and that lovely melody that mendelssohn gives to the cello it is enough lord take away my life but god has more plans and the voice comes to jonah do you do well to be angry that this plant which you did not cause to grow has withered and died yes very angry he's facing the scorching heat then should not i grieve and take care of therefore the great city of nineveh not only with its 120 000 people but also many animals that's where it ends and it ends as a warning to us that nowhere is outside god's care for nineveh is certainly a city well beyond the range of the faith which juno jonah has been brought up in and the whole parable is illustrating the prophet isaiah in the song of the suffering servant a light to lighten all nations this is what jonah has been called to be a messenger of well let's turn to our other aspect this morning the 149 pilgrims in the mayflower who set sail from plymouth seeking a new world not wanting to escape god but wanting to take god with them to that new world and to be able to worship in a way that they chose and set up a community that they chose to make faithful to their calling [Music] robert cushman who was born in rovendon near tenterdon in 1578 and who moved to canterbury as an apprentice under george masters a grocer and tallow candler he himself was active in the puritan movement challenging the beliefs and practices of the established church and we see in records in 1603 he appeared before the canterbury diocesan court and was warned and then excommunicated for not coming to church and then after that it became a legal matter that he was not doing this and in 1605 he appeared before the quarter sessions he even spent time in the westgate prisons in the towers that we now well now know well in 1606 at the age of 28 he had married sarah rieder actually who lived in these precincts and then when they were finding that there was still too much constriction on how they could worship he and his wife and their new baby thomas moved to the low countries but he began to plan and plan the finances for the mayflower expedition when it sailed he sailed on another ship the speedwell which was declared unseaworthy so then the mayflower went on the the the cushmans turned back and caught another ship called the fortune and arrived in plymouth massachusetts in 1621 and he later returned to further the cause of that community in the states and while he was here he died at benindon in 1625. it's quite a story but it goes on for the little baby that he took across there thomas cushman became the ruling elder of the plymouth community in massachusetts and married the last surviving passenger of the mayflower itself mary allerton one of their descendants direct descendants is the president franklin d roosevelt and we remember all that as a pilgrim story jonah racing to escape his vocation robert cushman and his wife bravely going on to embrace their vocation and believing that wherever they went god would be with them let's say our prayers on this sunday morning on this day as our choir starts to sing again live in the cathedral and that will be put on line the eucharist at 12 noon we're praying for church musicians and let's do that for church musicians the world over not just for this diocese we remember the difficulties that all performing arts have and the difficulties with which those who are directing church musicians have to work at presence with social distancing and the rules that we are firmly obeying for each other's welfare in the anglican communion today we're praying for the anglican church of southern africa and archbishop tabo makgoba and he is the archbishop of cape town but also primate of southern africa that whole province we pray for him and for all his people there and we pray for justin our archbishop fort rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and on this day as i say for all who make music in our churches giving thanks for them so bring your own prayers and concerns whatever they may be on this 13th sunday after trinity as we say the prayer for today almighty god who called your church to bear witness that you were in christ reconciling the world to yourself help us to proclaim the good news of your love that all who hear it may be drawn to you through him who was lifted up on the cross and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so in whatever language you like to say the prayer our savior taught us join in with that now as you bring your own concerns to our morning prayers 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 it's a moment of silence now as we bring our own prayers [Music] 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 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