good morning and welcome to the deanery itself on this particular day 29th of june tuesday the 29th of june the feast of st peter and saint paul and we're starting with the watery scene outside because it's wet outside today and the garden is fresh and lovely not too much wind but we thought we would come inside to a watery scene here too when i was growing up there were two books on the shelf in the drawing room as part of my mother and father's former reading and two books that were felt precious enough to keep both of them had white writing on the covers the dust jackets had gone they've been read and they've been borrowed the first was simply called the robe and the second the big fisherman they were written both by an american minister lloyd c douglas and mother and father i think love them both but the big fisherman it was explained to me in early years was peter himself and today we're thinking of sin peter we've been thinking of sinful quite a lot on sunday mornings in watery scenes in shipwrecked last sunday morning with the spas of the broken ship beside him today we'll think more about st peter but remembering that traditionally the two were held together in this great feast at this time of year when vocations become very much the order of the day and vocations will be responded to with ordination here on saturday afternoon in the cathedral church for those who've been preparing for ordination as deacons then those who are going to be ordained priests as well will be at the same weekend uh ordained and uh that will have happened either last weekend or will be happening this weekend in all cathedral churches so our thoughts are for them too but we've come inside today and the water is seen here is the watery scene of two of our fish tanks and they are great fruit for meditation and thoughtfulness in a watery world which we humans have to be protected from if we dip down into the sea and begin to look there we need air and we need protection but at the same time one enters a very different world fish became part of our life when about 14 or 15 years ago and fletcher was still working at his career in london he decided to restore the fish pond in the front garden here and we would sit by the side of the fishbond watching the fish and probably one day i said it's going to be winter soon and we'll we won't be able to sit out here in this way and when i was away on a a visit to american churches in cathedral and taking a retreat in virginia um in the blue ridge mountains there fled at shrine monster and in the blue ridge mountains which is a cathedral in the open air which the bishop of virginia and at that time it was our great friend peter lee and we think of him and his wife christy because peter is in great sickness at the moment but he's making good recovery and he for years was the chair of the friends of canterbury cathedral in the states so when i was away fletcher planned a surprise and i came back to find our first first fish tank so that we could sit by a watery world and see it even in bad weather and we're sharing that with you today you see the fish behind me in this nearer tank they are nearly all live-bearing fish so that uh they uh mate and then carriers their babies and and have them born from that the other tank is is different it contains some of our older fish and some of them have been there right from the very beginning but here also you will see that the fish are at different levels of swimming and we've done that in permaculture outside as in the air how creatures and plants go in different levels and then the air itself belongs to the birds and the bats of course at night but here we have ground feeders like the catfish and even beneath the loaches we have fish that go upwards and downwards on the glass like the plex and then we also have fish that like to swim at this level and fish that like to swim and feed at this level and they're mightily colorful and we could spend the whole time discussing the fish there's one particular fish in here which is a replacement for one that i used to love trying to find he i used to call stick fish in fact uh he he's not actually he's a a whiptail catfish but he's an expert an absolute expert at disguising himself and becoming part of the rock or part of the leaf or part of the background so hunt for stick fish became something and we had one for years and years which eventually died and now we've replaced by another much smaller but we shall watch him grow and disguise himself and give us puzzling times as we play hunt the stick fish so let's say our prayers on this day of the big fisherman and our thoughts will all be on st peter but with a thought for paul whom we shall return to in his watery scene on sunday when the acts of the apostles come back to be read again at that position of the shipwreck so let's begin on this in peter's day oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen so today our psalm on this 29th morning of the month is the wonderful psalm 139 o lord you have searched me out and known me you know my sitting down and my rising up you discern my thoughts from afar you mark out my journeys and my resting place and are acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word on my tongue but you o lord know it all together you encompass me behind and before and lay your hand upon me such knowledge is too wonderful for me so high that i cannot attain it where can i go then from your spirit or where can i flee from your presence if i climb up to heaven you are there if i go down into hell you are there also if i take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there your hand shall lead me your right hand hold me fast if i say surely the darkness will cover me and the light around me turn to night even darkness is no darkness with you the night is as clear as the day darkness and light to you are both alike for you yourself created my inmost parts you knit me together in my mother's womb i thank you for i am fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous are your works my soul knows well my frame was not hidden from you when i was made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth your eyes beheld my form as yet unfinished already in your book were all my members written as day by day they were fashioned when as yet there was none of them how deep are your counsels to me oh god how great is the sum of them if i count them they are more in number than the sand and at the end i am still in your presence [Music] so we turn to a lesson special for this day and this is a lesson about peter as i've said on sunday morning we'll return to paul and both of them are in our mind on this feast day for traditionally the church has held them together on this day our own old book of common prayer was saint peter alone and we're following that a little bit today because we'll have time for paul as well and both are massive subjects for reflection so i'm in chapter 11 of the acts of the apostles and i'm beginning at verse 1 and peter is coming back to the church in jerusalem having accomplished something which is in his own mind new and marvelous something he's witnessed something he wants to share but something that makes him nervous in the presence of the church in jerusalem for they were traditional jewish christians and as yet the vision which peter has had of the dimension of the gospel and the good news worldwide is not known to them so he's coming back nervously to report to the church in jerusalem now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout judea heard that the gentiles also had received the word of god so when peter went up to jerusalem the circumcision party criticized him saying you went to uncircumcised men and act with them but peter began and explained to them in order i was in the city of joppa praying and in a trance i saw a vision something like a great sheet descending being let down from heaven by its four corners and it came down to me looking at it closely i observed animals and creatures beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air and i heard a voice saying to me rise peter kill and eat but i said by no means lord for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth but the voice answered a second time from heaven what god has made clean do not call common this happened three times and all was drawn up again into heaven and behold at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were sent to me from caesarea and the spirit told me to go with them making no distinction these six brothers also accompanied me and we entered the man's house and he told us how he had seen the angels stand in his house and say send to joppa and bring simon who is called peter he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved you and all your household as i began to speak the holy spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning and i remembered the word of the lord how he said john baptized with water but you will be baptized with the holy spirit if then god gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the lord jesus christ who was i that i could stand in god's way when they heard these things they felt silent and they glorified god saying then to the gentiles also god has granted repentance that leads to life something quite new and something once again about the character of peter and it tells us a little bit why jesus created him as the rock on which he would build his church it might seem strange that peter or kyfas one's using the greek for the rock it might seem strange that he is the one that jesus chose of all the twelve since we've seen both in the gospel of mark and of luke and of matthew and of john that peter is always always putting his foot in it by getting the wrong answer and his wrong answer is born also of love for jesus and wanting to protect him or to be the one who understands what jesus is trying to give them and so while the others are a bit silent and puzzled and get things wrong as we saw with james and john getting things wrong in in matthew's gospel that peter is the one who immediately leaps forward he's impetuous he's strong he is the big fisherman [Music] but called from the galilean lake and his nets and called by his brother andrew ins in john's gospel first of all he is the leader of that little galilean group of fishermen who are with jesus all the way through in thick and thin though sometimes their fear gets the better of them and peter is the example of all that he's the one who speaks for our humanity and he is the one who speaks for our capacity to embrace divine truths blessed are you simon barjona for flesh and blood has not told this to you but my father who is in heaven says jesus to him and then just a few verses on after the keys of the kingdom have been given to peter peter in once again impetuously getting things wrong and taking the human way of protection for his friend and his master whom he loves dearly is turned on by jesus spotting in peter's words the very temptations of the desert once again and the response not blessed are you simon barjona for flesh and blood could not have given you this message flesh and blood has given him this message and so instead it's get behind me satan for you speak with the tongue of humankind and not as god speaks peter is by words well intended shifting jesus from his focus as the anointed one which he has been trying so much to share with them on the way how many things could we say about peter this morning for the scriptures are not silent about the big fisherman not only the keys of the kingdom of heaven but also first of all in the gospels themselves being there at the feast of the transfiguration as we see it now but being there on the mountaintop and once again being the one who speaks in the puzzlement lord it's good for us to be here let's stay here let me build some shelters and then as that cloud of wonder on the transfiguration mountain disappears as things always do when spiritual things are grasped for and trying to be brought down in human form rather the inspiration needs to stay with them as they go back down the mountain and peter at that point looks up and sees only jesus in his humanity leading them down the mountain again to where the disciples are failing to help the father with the epileptic boy and jesus at that time has to say bring him to me yet jesus his faith in peter never really falters even when he knows that the claim even if i die with you i will never forsake you well tonight before the goes twice you will deny me three times the tradition of the church is that the memories of peter are in the gospel of saint mark mark the one whom paul wouldn't take with them again to have a second chance and in that gospel it's written loud and clear that peter denied even knowing his lord because of his human fear and limitations three times the rock to whom the keys of the kingdom had been given and he had to live with that failure all through those desperate days between in our liturgical calendar good friday and easter morning and then had to live with that almost fear and nervousness when jesus appears in resurrection glory holding out still wounded hands and saying peace be with you and it's only on the lakeside back again to the watery scene only on the lakeside that eventually forgiveness is offered three times after peter's repentance but first rather is uh paul with a shipwreck have something to eat first you've been fishing come in have something to eat there's joy at the presence of the lord the risen lord they're with them and the breakfast which has eucharistic flavor written all over it come and have breakfast strengthen yourselves strengthen hearts and minds and with the presence of jesus their strengths and spirits too be ready to go on but first unfinished business simon son of jonah do you love me and the question as you well know repeated three times three denials three questions of affirmation lord you know i love you and then the commission given again not in the images of keys of opening the kingdom of heaven but in the image this time a pastoral image not of the the the fishing which has been going on and the the the net of the diversity of fish of all kinds brought in but this time of the pastor and perhaps we think of people like lloyd c douglas a pastor in the church in a minister in the church in in the united states writing in the 1940s his first book written at the age of 50. he died before his bit the robe was made into that very famous film but nevertheless his books were treasured by people like my parents in that generation and opened up in imagination the the sense not only of the preciousness of the seamless robe but also the preciousness of the concept of the big fisherman who failed in humanity as we do over and over again and was lifted and because of that the rock was much stronger failing and forgiveness failing repentance forgiveness building the rock on which the church can be based but still someone who had all the limitations of humanity and of his upbringing and we saw that this morning he's been given that vision of the diversity of humankind to which the good news needs to be given and the spirit will be the gift just as it was with us as peter describes it but even after that happening peter is very nervous he may be the rock on which the church is built he's not the leader of the church in jerusalem that task is given to the lord's brother james and james is a leader of the church as paul says in his epistles it was james that paul eventually had to appear before and it was james who chaired the council of jerusalem for the mission of peter and paul was to leave their roots and to go forward and testify even to death in rome and the church took a new beginning there in the midst eventually of persecution which peter and paul lost their lives in it interests me the relationship between peter and paul how different the galilean fisherman who no doubt knew uh corny grief in its rough state he must have done to be trading fish at that time in that area around the sea of galilee but very much a local galilean and one of the ones to be called from the friends around the lakeside and at the same time the sophisticated scholar from tarsus who had studied at the feet of gamaliel whose scholarship was impeccable whose background as a pharisee impeccable and who also was born a roman citizen the two of them make very unlikely companions and both as we know are impetuous but we'll go back to paul on sunday and for the moment let's stay with peter's vocation and give huge thanks for that on this in peter's day no wonder we think of vocation and ordain at this time of year and vocation is a much wider thing than priestly or diaconal ministry it's something which god offers to all of us from time to time at the right time but often it's built most strongly on failure and realization and areas which are threatening to us the watery world is is a threat even to the big fisherman when he tries to walk and then loses faith and begins to sink and the waves and the sea are threatening to him but all those threats have jesus's hand there when he shout lord save me all these images of areas which threaten us where we fail through fear and as jesus brings him into the boat into the safety of the beach learning is going on and one of the biggest lessons is learning to repent not only to the lord in our prayers but creatively to one another and to receive forgiveness so just as saint peter embraced his vocation let's say our prayers that day by day we may have power to confess our failings to receive forgiveness and also to receive whatever vocation for today or for longer or for life that the lord may be calling us to the prayers for today are on this 29th in the anglican communion for the diocese of coimbatore in the united church of south india and here in canterbury diocese as we pray for archbishop justin and for bishop rose and for bishop tim at lambeth we pray for the parish church of saint luke's ramsgate that's by the sea and very much a place from which boats set off and we pray for paul worldage there in his ministry and all who are served by the church of saint luke's ramsgate so we say the prayer first for sin peter and sin paul and then the special prayer for saint peter bring your own intentions and give thanks for christ's rock peter built in failure in restoration and in human experience but also the ability to embrace that which is divine almighty god whose blessed apostles peter and paul glorified you in their death as in their life grant that your church inspired by their teaching and example and made one by your spirit may ever stand firm upon the one foundation jesus christ your son our lord amen almighty god who inspired your apostles in peter to confess jesus as christ and son of the living god build up your church upon this rock that in unity and peace it may proclaim one truth and follow one lord your son our savior jesus christ amen say the prayer our savior taught us together with the watery world beside us 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 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 important day of the church's year so so so [Music] so god give you grace to follow sin peter and sin paul and all his saints in faith and hope and love and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and upon all whom you love or would pray for today and always amen so i'm going to play hunts tit fish for two or three seconds before going off to work and i'll leave you looking as well ah he's there i can see him right at the back facing forward and feeding on the rock there well that's made my day so i hope that you find your own stick fish whatever that may be today in the same way to give you joy [Music] so [Music] so so [Music] 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