good morning and welcome on this lovely Saturday morning the 13th of June we're approaching the longest days of daylight and although it's early in the morning the sun has already risen above the old city wall at the other side of the Garden and we're sitting here in morning sunshine so welcome to the Deery Garden wherever you are in the world as we say our morning prayers oh Lord open our lips and our mouths 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 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 13th morning of the month is Psalm 68 it's a long one and we read some verses from it this morning 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 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 Reign 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 who Bears our burdens day by day for God is our Salvation God is for us the god of Salvation God is the Lord who can deliver from Death we see your solemn processions oh God your processions into the sanctuary my God and my king the singers go before the musicians follow after sing to God you kingdoms of the Earth make music in Praise of the Lord who rides on the ancient Heaven of heavens and sends forth his voice a mighty voice ascribe power to God whose power is above the clouds over the last day or two we've been keeping the Thanksgiving of the church for the gift of the Holy Communion on the Feast of Corpus Christi on Thursday on Friday yesterday we celebrated St Barnabas the Apostle but today we return to our regular reading of St Luke we were reading through chapter 11 but we've missed several days and as I said when we began it it's a long chapter I'm just going to use a section of those things that we missed and you yourselves could read the chapter at home it becomes full of hostility amongst the Pharisees and the scribes and those with authority against Jesus it's also full of crowds trying to hear his teaching and the arguments and hostility seem to get in the way but in the middle there's a little set of verses which capture a particular image as Jesus says on verse 24 of chapter 11 when the unclean Spirit has gone out of a person it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none it says I will return to my house from which I came and when it comes it finds the house swep wept and put in order then it goes and brings seven other Spirits more evil than itself and they enter and dwell there and the last state of that person is worse than the first and as he said these things a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to Jesus blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed but he said blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it and when the crowds were increasing he began to say this generation is an evil generation it seeks for a sign but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah for as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh so will the son of man be to this generation the queen of the South will rise up at the Judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them for she came from the ends of the Earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here the people of Nineveh will rise up at the Judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah behold something greater than Jonah is here no one after lighting a lamp puts it in a Cellar or under a basket but on a stand so that those who enter may see the light your eye is the lamp of your body when your eye is healthy your whole body is full of light but when it is bad your body is full of Darkness therefore be careful lest the light in you be Darkness if then your whole body is full of light having no part dark it will be holy bright as when a lamp with with its Rays gives you light it's a strong image and a very simple one that there are times in life and we go back to the parable of the SE as the seed of the word of God falls on different grounds and there are times we receive it with joy and in doing so we cleanse out our life and are determined to make a A New Beginning it's as though all things that were evil in us have been driven out by that experience nothing will ever be the same again we shall be different people we all know that experience I certainly do but Jesus marks that as a very dangerous time and he tells this little Cameo Imagining the evil which has been cast out going out and thinking it's not much fun out here I was comfortable where I was before and returning and finding everything beautiful and new and clean and ready for occupation and so off goes the spirit in the story and brings back seven other Spirits much more wicked than itself and comes in and inhabits that lovely new space well we could at this time of year use it as a a gardening image of plenty of work done in cleaning ground and then thinking right now the job is finished and coming back 3 or 4 weeks later and finding it completely filled with growing weeds or we can use it as an image of work left undone halfway through having thought it was finished but we can also use it as a a desire for total Simplicity and finding peace in that and the lesson is the same throughout unless something is embraced which so fills that new space that it is over filled with fruits and flowers to use metaphorical images and buds which are good and beautiful and fragrant and healthy and healing then it's a lost cause and Jesus is offering the power of the spirit which totally fills him as a gift to us but that power must be taken and the fruits of the spirit be allowed to develop or everything will be worse than before today in 1865 William B Yates the great Irish poet was born he wrote so many poems but the one probably which is most famous was written when he was 25 years old feeling lonely in London longing for the countryside and freshness of his own home homesick walking down Fleet Street he saw as a shop window display a little Fountain playing with a little glass ball balanced on the water as it spouted up and dancing in the light and it reminded him of so many things but particularly of one scene at home and he remembered an island in inisfree on the lake there and he wrote three verses I will arise and go now and go to inisfree and a small cabin build there of clay and watles made nine Bean rows will I have there a hive for the honeybee and live alone in the bee loud Glade and I shall have some peace there for peace comes dropping slow dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings there Midnight's all a glimmer and noon a purple glow and evening full of the linit Wings I will arise and go now for always night and day I hear Lake water lapping with low Sounds by the shore while I stand on the roadway or on the Pavements gray I hear it in the Deep heart's core something is calling him and there's the thought that if I could be there in all that Simplicity I would have peace and here I stand on a London pavement hearing what reminds me of the sound of the waters longing for that freshness that Eden of new beginnings and Jesus tells us all that is perfectly possible but it has to happen where you are it's not a Land of Make Believe nor even only a land of memory those can be Inspirations for that at any time but the place where the fruits of the spirit of love and joy and peace and patience and humility the place where those flourish is within our own human life as a foraste of The Eternity Beyond Yates never stopped yearning poem after poem after poem think thinking of his sailing to Byzantium all of those things and yet in his free is still the poem that people know best and this morning it helps us with the image of the swept room it's no good by our own efforts to think that that room can be filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit it only happens when the spirit Waters that ground to use the gardening image daily furnishes the swept room to use the household image with the fruits of the spirit and our morning prayers are prayers asking for that to happen in a difficult world we sense in our imaginings and memories those aspects of Peace but we ourselves have to be the lamps full of Shining Light chapter 11 is full of beautiful images but remember it began our instruction in prayer the gift of our Lord's Prayer to us and the instruction in our prayers to ask and seek and knock so that the space we create is not empty and therefore full of possibilities for evil but filled by Grace with the gifts that our Lord through the Holy Spirit longs to give us so let's say our prayers on this day of the month the 13th day and the prayers for our Anglican communion throughout the world today go to the dasis of Newcastle in Australia praying for Peter Stewart and his people there and Newcastle in England praying for Christine Hardman the bishop there and her people we pray for Justin Archbishop of Canterbury for Rose Bishop of DOA for Tim Bishop at lambus and to today we are praying with the sitting born dinery for Ministry in the parishes and Villages and communities around sitting born praying for the area Dean Mike retch the lay chair Phil bromich and Joe youngson and David Gilbert in their roles as secretary and Treasurer to that area dinery we ask for prayers for all areas of the world which know no peace this morning communities which will wake to demonstrations and also long with them for gifts of justice and gifts also of welfare for all we remember the gifts of the Spirit causing us to seek the welfare of one another not just among those whom we know but worldwide as we say our prayers this morning so first the prayer for this week Almighty and everlasting God you have given us your servants Grace by the confession of a true Faith to acknowledge the glory of the Eternal Trinity and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the unity keep us steadfast in this face that we may everm more be defended from all adversities through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen and the psalm collect blessed are you gracious God you make your home among the weak You Deliver us from death and you bring us joy beyond our imagining to the praise of Jesus Christ Our Lord amen so if you like we reach in our prayers for that piece of equipment to prompt prayer which Jesus gave us at the beginning of Luke chap 11 and elsewhere in the gospels as we say together in whatever language and in whichever way you like to say it 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 as we pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to fill all the spaces of Our Lives [Applause] and pray above all that having received those Graces we may go out and share the gift the peace of God which passes all understanding keep 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 and remain with you always amen