good morning happy saint david's day as we give thanks for the people of wales the land of song and also for the life of the patron saint saint david and the city of saint david's the most beautiful cathedral city in the united kingdom in our opinion with the pembrokeshire coast all around it a very holy place indeed and the place of pilgrimage david died in the year 589 a.d and that's i think eight years before augustine ever came to canterbury so we remember that place and the sign of wales is the daffodil and no better time of year for that in the orchard because we're surrounded by yellow daffodils and yellow is the color of leo's collar today here and i've even in honor of wales put on yellow socks so that they'll line up with the daffodils and brought in a golden yellow uh welsh rabbit from the breakfast table to remind us not only of whales but all the lovely things that we find there in that nation which loves to sing well we can talk about that a great deal the way in which we love to stand on the pembrokeshire coast it's in david's and look out at the atlantic ocean and knowing that the next landmass is where our friends in canada and the united states are normally we're used to looking 20 21 miles across the english channel from st david's you look 3400 miles across to canada and the united states and all that beauty will remember this morning but there's lots to talk about it's a grey morning the wind has turned north easterly but there is no wind really to speak of so the coldness of a northeasterly wind is here but not blowing on us and above us the light cloud is making the daffodils seem all the more luminous for whales we pulled a leak also from the garden on the way up to the orchard another symbol of wales so let's say our prayers on this particular day with enormous thanksgiving force in david o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice o lord according to your faithful love according to your judgments give us life blessed are you god of god of command compassion and mercy to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of our sin your light breaks forth like the dawn and your healing springs up for deliverance as we rejoice in the gift of your saving help sustain us with your bountiful spirit and open our lips to sing your 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 our psalm on this first day of the month is naturally psalm 1. 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 but the way of the wicked shall perish so we turn on this monday morning back to the gospel of saint john and we were in chapter six on saturday morning and here we are again taking up where we left off we're beginning chapter 6 at verse 41 so the jews grumbled about jesus because he said i am the bread that came down from heaven they said is not this jesus the son of joseph whose father and mother we know how does he now say i have come down from heaven jesus answered them do not grumble among yourselves no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws them to him and i will raise them up on the last day it is written in the prophets and they will all be taught by god everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me not that anyone has seen the father except the one who is from god he has seen the father truly truly i say to you whoever believes has eternal life i am the bread of life your fathers at the manor in the wilderness and they died this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die i am the living bread that came down from heaven if anyone eats of this bread they will live forever and the bread that i will give for the life of the world is my flesh jesus exasperated again with the jewish authorities remind ourselves that although the collective word for the whole nation seem to be used it's the jewish authorities that are nervous of jesus and that jesus is being exasperated with and he says on this occasion three times the new way of teaching the using the new way of teaching i am the bread i am the bread of life i am the living bread and talking again on the two plains method metaphorically earth and heaven and the word he uses at the end which this translation translates flesh sarks in the greek means our physicality that we are people yes of mind and spirit and the spirit can enter into realms of infinite dimension and the mind can dream and imagine but the body also is lifted by our lord into the ability to receive and carry that which is divine and we know that because we're called into physical partnership with our creator in every creative work that we do jesus is giving us a new way of believing and thinking and coming to him and we give thanks for that on this particular morning everything is rooted in the present tense truly truly is still there with its double underlining because the mind has to receive the teaching too but the i am is the giving of his own physicality his body and the eating of the sarks the physicality of jesus the consuming into our physicality which we do at the eucharist sacramentally and receive into our own physicality the ability to be creators with our creator and that we're asked to do day by day in body mind and spirit i suppose there's no word that i've used more in my ministry than the word body because i say it every time i share the bread with someone the body of christ the body of christ speaking of jesus not just giving us his thinking and intention and not just giving us the spiritual teaching but actually giving his physical life for us and this gospel more than any other witnesses to that when we get to the last chapters but for the moment let's give thanks for his way of teaching which is always present tense i am the living bread whoever comes to me shall never hunger as he'd said to the woman at the well living water i can give you and whoever comes to me shall never cease using human physical appetite to speak of human mental and spiritual longings and realization in the gift of the spirit well these daffodils show such brightness in illumination like the spots of lovely things that we read about in john's gospel shining through so let's think of all kinds of things i could go on for a very long time about saint david so we have to be careful of the time this morning but let's think of things which have happened on this day but connections with this day many of you will have friends in wales throughout the world many of our garden congregation will say well i have welsh blood in me or something of that kind and we give thanks for that in our physicality we give thanks for that but also in the cultural references which are made from that land of song and green valleys and and wonderful uh areas of of wales north and south which many of you will know but particularly st david's itself tiny city right at the east end of wales with the pembrokeshire coast so unspoiled all around it we love to go there and when we're there the cathedral always gives that enveloping solace and protection sitting low you climb down to the cathedral and then climb up again to stand and look out at the sea at ramsey island and all the coasts and the beautiful bay is wonderful for swimming in white sands bay particularly wonderful for swimming and surfing and doing all kinds of things that give pleasure to one's physicality but the cathedral feeds one spirit and speaks of all that jesus is speaking to us and david was a monk and he was the son of sin none now the legend is that she was ravished against her will by a local nobleman and made pregnant and gave birth to saint david's before that she was celibate and after celebrate two but from this act of violence to which she did not consent came david and david was god's blessing to us all to the people of wales also his teaching in all its simplicity its belief in the body doing the work with mind and spirit the balance of the rule of sin benedict but david is of celtic tradition which of course has come from earlier roman times and gone to the west and here we see the fruition of it neaters in david's cathedral is non-swell which is a place of great healing and as one walks around from a a great uh welsh breakfast at at the the hotel we tend to stay at at the which used to be the choir school the victorian choir school building there you walk down to saint nonswell down the steps uh little chapel above it and the water there is water of healing and the beginning of a walk around the pembrokeshire coast if you don't know that area then i'm being a a tourist guide this morning then get to know it if you possibly can because that walk is sublime or take a boat ride out around ramsey island and see the seals popping out of the water looking at you and being inquisitive a totally unspoiled place of course there are other areas of wales that we think of today and other welsh friends whom we'll mention crick howl is another place that we like to go to and we think of our friends uh james and ingrid and their family there now house penny bond down in the valley with water running by it and the enjoyment of all of the things that give refreshment to body mind and spirit and hospitality in days when we can share that it's a day for memories it's also a day when we shall eat welsh food make welsh cakes if you don't know how to make a welsh cake for your tea we've included a link with margaret jones who was well known as the uh next door neighbor in gavin in stacy and gives great humor sadly she's she's died in in old age but she is on this link telling you how to make a welsh cake in her wonderful welsh accent as she tells you how to do it so try that and maybe that's a physical thing to do today and eat a welsh cake and give thanks for st david's and also we've attached today a whole medley of welsh songs including the welsh national anthem it's sung by catherine jenkins but the people in their hundreds watching her physically join in and you'll find also welsh hymns there are plenty the english hymnal is the green english hymnal which rather form williams put together is full of welsh tunes which he added to give enrichment and one of those which we sing to the english words guide me o thy great redeemer catherine jenkins sings and of course all the welsh who are there know the words uh by heart and various other welsh hymns sung in welsh or english so if you want to click on that link do but we've also included a link from a great friend of ours she ministers in wales carys arwin hughes and we've included a link to greenfield baptist church where she was taking a service and i've included it because she one of our garden congregation daily she shows just how encouragement can be by imaginatively used can help another out of what the psalmist calls the pit she talks about a time in her sermon there of depression and how psalm 77 spoke to her and then how when she was feeling god absent and holding on and simply using the word help people rang and not knowing she was in that state gave her encouragement and also something to plan and to do and then another rang and encourage that encouragement and in the end the fruitfulness comes out not only in her sermon but in her reviving in terms of creativity body mind and spirit i've said to you with your notebooks day by day pluck something not just a thought but an idea for physical creativity or mental creativity or spiritual creativity each day something perfectly simple complication always means that we stop doing it but if we choose something simple then it develops in some way deep but caris is giving a wonderful message in that welsh baptist church in the link that we've given you and then let's think of other things uh welsh because i lived so much of my life certainly my first 18 years on the gloucestershire side of the river seven going across the river seven was wales but in those days of course you had to catch the ferry from aust and we had an aunt it mumbles in just beyond swansea or we would go on the train very exciting under the seven tunnel there was no bridge and as we went to swansea we then transferred to a wonderful tram line which went along the coast there going on to the gower peninsula but it took us to mumbles where aunt phyllis and uncle tom lived and then on to the lovely bays and beaches uh both of us have connections with that area fletcher has family who live there on the gara coast and that too is a nice connection but also you will have people that you're thinking of in different parts of wales as we do today but i think of saint david's because of taking the parish church choir there from tisbury parish church in wiltshire where i was the priest for almost 10 years and we went to sing a wonderful week in david's cathedral the morning after breakfast would be rehearsing the afternoon spent on the sunny beach i always remember it in full sunshine and then uh the uh evening even song sung very proudly by the parish church choir in that beautiful cathedral and then uh in the evening for the adults the farmer's arms and telling lovely stories with a welsh supper while the children amongst us went back to their houses looked after by those mothers who had come to be those who looked after the children happy days of saint david's and the lovely time there and david power and his family he was our choir master at the time and mary his wife would come and all his family would be there as well on the beach enjoying the time and enjoying the singing for as i keep saying wales is a land of song i have to mention rowan williams who for 10 years was our welsh archbishop we welcomed him in on that in uh day when i installed and enthroned him and we welcomed him in with the music of the welsh harp played by the daughter of a friend because he came as archbishop of wales and ended the services archbishop of canterbury so we give thanks for him and his beautiful base voice he could sing and recite poetry just so wonderfully well and is a poet himself so his poetry we think of today i wish i could stay with you longer talking about this but i want to read something welsh and i thought today of the um poets and and writers and i've chosen two both named thomas first of all dylan thomas and i've got this lovely book this little book which fletcher gave me at christmas time which is actually a charles christmas in wales by dylan thomas illustrated by edward artizzoni i could have read any bit of it really and i was tempted first to read the time when the boys were snowballing the cats of mrs prothero but in fact i wanted to do something musical so i'm choosing the bit at the end of christmas lunch and christmas tea when they're absolutely full of wonderful christmas food when they go out carol singing and um here we are with dylan thomas i'll read it in an english voice sir but uh think of it in a welsh voice bring out the tall tales now that we told by the fire as the gaslight bubbled like a diver ghosts wooed like owls in the long nights when i dared not look over my shoulder animals lurked in the cubby hole under the stairs where the gas meter ticked and i remember that we went singing carols once when there wasn't the shaving of a moon to light the flying streets at the end of a long road was a drive that led to a large house and we stumbled up the darkness of the drive that night each one of us afraid each one holding a stone in his hand in case and all of us too brave to say a word the wind through the trees made noises as of old and unpleasant and maybe webb-footed men wheezing in caves we reach the black bulk of the old house what shall we give them arc the herald no sit jack go king once one two three and we began to sing our voices high and seemingly distant in the snow the snow-felted darkness round the house that was occupied by nobody we knew we stood close together near the dark door good king wenceslas looked out on the feast of stephen and then a small dry voice like the voice of someone who has not spoken for a long time joined our singing a small dry eggshell voice from the other side of the door a small dry voice through the keyhole and when we stopped running we were outside our house the front room was lovely balloons floated under the hot water bottle gulping gas everything was good again and shone over the town perhaps it was a ghost jim said perhaps it was trolls dan said who was always reading let's go in and see if there's any jelly left jack said and we did that always on christmas night there was music an uncle played the fiddle a cousin sang cherry ripe and another uncle sang drake's drum it was very warm in the little house auntie hannah who had got on to the parsnip wine sang a song about bleeding hearts and death and then another in which she said her heart was like a bird's nest and then everybody laughed again and then i went to bed looking through my bedroom window out onto the moonlight and the unending smoke-colored snow i could see the lights in the windows of all the other houses on our hill and hear the music rising from them up the long steadily falling night i turned the gas down i got into bed i said some words to the close and holy darkness and then i slept lovely dylan thomas i wish i could read you the whole book this morning but at the same time there is another one that i wanted to read just a poem by rs thomas the welsh anglican priest who was also a wonderful poet it's called the bright field i have seen the sun break through to illuminate a small field for a while and gone my way and forgotten it but that was the pearl of great price the one field that had treasure in it i realize now that i must give all that i have to possess it [Music] life is not hurrying on to a receding future nor hankering after an imagined past it is the turning aside like moses to the miracle of the lit bush to a brightness that seemed as transitory as your use once but is the eternity that awaits you beautiful verse by rs thomas the welsh poet there are other dates today we might name thomas addis the great english composer born in 1971 chopa born in 1810 david niven the actor born in 1910 pugin born in 1812. they can wait for another day for this is wales's day but one last memory and that is of going on september the 8th 1966 to see the queen open the first seven bridge and after her majesty had left us and gone we walked over to wales it's amazing how bridges can make connections and this morning the most lovely thing in terms of connections virtually to the whole garden congregation i was talking to one in new york a mother of boy will remembering last night and she was in new york and as our conversation was ending she uh she said it tomorrow's in david's day and i said i know and she said i've welsh connections so i shall be making welsh cakes well there's a coincidence because so shall we and eating lamb call tonight okay let's say our prayers before i'm in danger of going on far too long on this day this is a day when we remember the diocese of armadale in the anglican church of australia in the province of new south wales and we remember too in our own diocese justin our archbishop and rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth and today we're asked by the diocese they've not asked for prayers for any parish in particular they are saying that we're to think of listening and discerning on the way well if we think of the way that will be one of the present tense i am statements of jesus later in st john's gospel here is the collect first for sin david's day and then for uh this week come on louie leo come back i think you're feeling the northeasterly wind don't you almighty god who called your servant david to be a faithful and wise steward of your mysteries for the people of wales in your mercy grant that following his purity of life and zeal for the gospel of christ we may with him receive the crown of everlasting life through jesus christ our lord amen and then the collect for this week almighty god you show to those who are in error the light of your truth that they may return to the way of righteousness grant to all those who are admitted into the fellowship of christ's religion that they may reject those things that are contrary to their profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language we say the our father which our savior taught 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 now amongst the daffodils as we say our own prayers perhaps before the blessing one last story i might be permitted as i looked out for my bedroom window as a child to the west that was where wales was across there the city of bristol hidden in the hollow and the river seven hidden but beyond and oftentimes the planet venus would be shining bright and bright in the sky the western sky and following the sun down and i used to call it my star and sometimes of course the planet venus is visible in the morning so there was no planet that night and father when he came to say prayers uh would look out to the window and say no star which of course is good night in welsh nostal and i remember that as a precious memory so leo we're going to go inside and i've spoken far too long this morning and apologies for that okay god bless you all i haven't said a blessing sorry christ give you grace to grow in holiness to deny yourself take up your cross daily and follow him 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] me me [Music] oh [Applause] is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is is is [Music] foreign [Music] you