and welcome to the deanery garden on this tuesday the 3rd of november we generally associate very strong winds with the month of march but in fact we've been buffeted by strong winds this morning and really heavy rain has only just stopped falling but we've now been able to come into the garden in a patch of sunshine but i don't think we'll be seeing any of our wise cat friends or feathered friends this morning it's not that sort of morning the leaves are falling around us but we will brave the garden for this morning to give us some fresh air and wherever you are in the world please feel free to join us it's a very significant morning because it's the morning of the presidential election in the united states and we pray for that nation we pray also for the city of vienna and the austrian nation this morning following the acts of terrorism there yesterday pray for those whose task it is to keep people safe in 1838 on november the 3rd the times of india began publication and it's the world's largest circulated english language broadsheet i always enjoy reading it if i'm working in india in 1918 though on this day thousands of german sailors mutinied at keel and we remember that here because in 2018 at the anniversary of the end of the great war as an act of reconciliation and thanksgiving for the end of that war one of our organists adrian bautry composed a cantata and a choir from keel came to sing it with singers from here it was a wonderful and very powerful and moving occasion in the cathedral nave and if you click on below you can hear little bits and pieces of it we had hoped to get the whole thing recorded but we couldn't find a donor at the time but maybe one day that work will be recorded we very much hope so for all our sakes and for adrian's music sake in 2014 the one world trade center officially opened on this day after the destruction of the world trade center's twin towers 13 years before in 9 11. what else happened on this day 1954 the artist matisse died in nice in 1801 the opera composer bellini composer of la solambila was born and in 1507 leonardo da vinci was commissioned to paint the mona lisa well that's really quite enough of all that and uh we have two names that are actually in our calendar which will come up in our reflection but let's begin our prayers before the rain returns o 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 the 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever are men the three psalms for the third morning of the month 15 16 17 are all very beautiful but i'm choosing today to read 16 preserve me o god for in you have i taken refuge i have said to the lord you are my lord all my good depends on you all my delight is upon the godly that are in the land upon those who are noble in heart though the idols are legion that many run after their drink offerings of blood i will not offer neither make mention of their names upon my lips the lord himself is my portion and my cup in your hands alone is my fortune share has fallen in a fair land indeed i have a goodly heritage i will bless the lord who has given me counsel and in the night watches he instructs my heart i have set the lord always before me he is at my right hand i shall not fall wherefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices my flesh also shall rest secure for you will not abandon my soul to death nor suffer your faithful one to see the pit you will show me the path of life in your presence is the fullness of joy and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore so we turn once again to the revelation to john which we began yesterday and we come now to chapter two where the letters to the seven churches begin i'm reading from verse one to the angel of the church in ephesus write the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands i know your works your toil and your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false i know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and you have not grown weary but i have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the works you did it first if not i will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent yet this you have you hate the work of the nicolaitans which i also hate whoever has an ear let them hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers i will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of god and to the angel of the church in smyrna write the words of the first and the last who died and came to life i know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich and the slander of those who say that they are jews and are not but are a synagogue of satan do not fear what you are about to suffer behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and for ten days you will have tribulation be faithful unto death and i will give you the crown of life whoever has an ear let them hear what the spirit says to the churches the one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death so we begin the letters to the seven churches and if you like this writer john who gives us his name and the details of where his vision was given to him which he has now set out in a letter to seven of the churches and as we said yesterday seven is the whole and holy number representing the whole church at that time in so many different places where it has begun to develop at the end of the first century and here are seven as tokens but they seem to be well known to john and the journey he begins at ephesus or the courier of the letter begins at ephesus takes us on a journey each time 30 or 40 miles between the various cities where the seven churches are located ephesus smyrna pergamum thyatira sardis philadelphia laodicea a real journey and a real letter to real churches but the apocalyptic pictures which we have in front of us which will develop in great color and also sometimes horrifyingly and terrifyingly are symbolic of what is to happen and what is to happen seems to be great persecution our lord himself has prophesied that when he prophesied that there would be wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and and famines in many countries but don't fear when you are dragged before courts for governors the spirit will teach you what to say he said and john wants to reinforce that he's speaking first to the church in ephesus now ephesus figures so much in the uh letters of the early church and the life of the early church we've seen it ourself when we went through the acts of the apostles that the apostle paul probably about 40 years before this this revelation was written uh spent three years of his ministry in ephesus with the people there and loved them dearly and then of course the letter to timothy was written to timothy in ephesus the letter to the ephesians one of paul's great letters written to ephesus an important trading post not the roman center of the province pergamum had that honor and smyrna also contested the right to be seen as the senior port but we shall come on to smyrna in a moment ephesus was a place where the christian church had really developed and the letter commends ephesus for its faithfulness in patient endurance in testing those who come to them to see that the true gospel is being given but one of the qualities that goes when you're being severe about judgment of things on the way round is the open-hearted love which they had it the beginning and john in this letter exhorts them to rediscover that love as well as their patient endurance and their watchfulness for patient endurance and courage and steadfastness can make one too hard and severe and the quality of love must be recaptured or their lamp will go out paul talks about their watchfulness against the nicolet and none of us quite know who they were it was some kind of heresy which didn't last too long but at that time clearly it was a something they were fighting but it's the quality of love that's being asked for here and 20 years after this um ignatius the bishop of antioch will write a letter his first letter his longest letter to the ephesian church and it's a letter of unqualified joy in their life he calls it a deservedly happy church so then the second letter and this is written to smyrna as we say a seaport rome's oldest ally alexander the great had planned the city of smyrna never saw it built but it was then built and was again a really important place and the reignation letters just manner as well but here too there is unqualified praise for the life of that church which is suffering something it looks like accusations from those who had been troubling the church in the acts of the apostles saying that all the rules of the old covenant were having to be obeyed and smyrna was fighting against that and then because the people who were accusing them felt threatened by them they were taking them to law courts no doubt and hence the threat of imprisonment but once again they are they are encouraged to endure with patience knowing that this kind of suffering and even death was part of the spreading of the gospel and the martyr's death was the death of a witness and once again too this happens at the end of every one of the seven letters the one who is promised a reward is the conqueror the one who overcomes that's the reward and each time the rewards symbolically given is given in beautiful imagery the crown of life and to this one the fact that they cannot be touched by the second death and remember how our lord said do not fear those who can kill the body but after that can do nothing fear the one who once the body is dead can kill the soul yes fear that one and here is the promise you will not be touched by the second death so all of that we will come again to as we go to the letters to the other five churches but i said there were two two people that we needed to remember today the first of them is richard hooker who was a a scholar and a parish priest and his parish was really not more than 10 minutes drive away from here in the beautiful born valley near to bourne park the little village of bishops born where hooker the parish priest is buried and where in his will he paid for a new pulpit to proclaim the word and that pulpit still stands there he died in 1600s and bishops born rejoices not only in him as an author of an extremely important work to the anglican communion but also being the home of joseph conrad and jocelyn brooke two other famous writers and hooker himself wrote his laws of ecclesial ecclesiastical polity the fifth volume which is longer than the other four put together was written that bishop sworn and in that that series of books he laid the theological and philosophical foundation of the anglican strand of the holy catholic church he rested himself on an ordered ministry and liturgy it was a strong defense of that and it rested on the authority of scripture tradition and shall we call it a redeemed reason those three pillars scripture tradition and reason have always been dear as authorities to those who love the ordered way of ministry and and uh liturgy of worship such as we're using this morning in our prayer book of the anglican church so on this day we give thanks for the writing and theology and prayer life and pastoral care of the villages he looked after of richard hooker but also this is the day when we celebrate the life of saint martin de porres the peruvian dominican who died on this day in 1639 he is the patron saint and see how relevant all these things are he is the patron saint of mixed race people of which he was himself one and because he was born of of uh an illegitimate we call it in those days uh relationship as it was seen he was not allowed first of all to be a dominican and then was allowed to be a lay brother but ordination was something a step too far and uh he is therefore the patron saint of mixed race people of barbers and they're going to close here in england tomorrow night so we think of all of them of innkeepers and pubs too will close of public health workers and all seeking racial harmony he was someone who gave himself to all and uh knew that charity was better than than the the severity of of of teaching before that charity was given and many times he was rebuked by his superiors at the monastery for bringing people in to care for them before taking them on he's the patron saint of barbers because of course in those days and for a long time medical um care and and the cutting of hair seemed to come together there are signs sometimes against saints names and when you see a picture of saint martin de forest the signs that he is associated with is a little scene where a dog and a cat and a bird and a mouse are all eating from the same dish as a sign of reconciliation and a quality of life that he wanted and also another sign is a broom because he himself was a person who believed in domestic work for others with others and the broom is a sign of that the crucifix as a sign of christ giving himself it totally the rosary is a sign of regular prayer and the heart because that was where charity love and compassion came from so on this day a special thanksgiving for the life of that wonderful dominican peruvian saint who died in 1639 saint martin de paris so let's say our prayers for today as we think of our own concerns around the world and on this day we are praying in our anglican communion for the diocese of rockhampton in australia it lists the bishopric as as vacant in my list but maybe one has been appointed by now but we certainly pray for that diocese and then delhi in north india and the bishop there waris masi and his people and the diocese of katugi in nigeria and jeremiah colo the bishop down his people and here as we pray in this diocese of canterbury for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth we remember the parish of xavier westgate on sea and pray for karen gooding in her ministry there and all her people so we come to the prayer for this week the fourth sunday before advent and the prayer goes through the week almighty and eternal god you have kindled the flame of love in the hearts of the saints grant us the same faith and power of love that as we rejoice in their triumphs we may be sustained by their example and fellowship through jesus christ our lord men so we pray each in our own language the prayer 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 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 now to the sound of the wind as we say our own prayers 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 are men [Music] you