good morning it's candle last day a principal feast of the church february the second 40 days from christmas day a feast with three titles in our prayer books it's called the presentation of christ in the temple or in the old prayer book the purification of saint mary the virgin or commonly candle mass for very good reasons but we've come into the garden to sit by the old mulberry tree though it's spotting a little bit with rain and it's a grey morning but the brightness is given to us by all the clumps of little flowers that are springing up all around me and pride of place today has to go to the snowdrop because this is the snowdrops day in parts of our country they are known as mary's tears because of the prophecy of old simeon on this day to the mother of jesus that she would suffer much before coming to final joy and glory and the snowdrops are often brought into church on this day known as mary's tears but around them are springing up yellow aconites and helibars and even daffodils and the hazel cat catkins are hanging long and and lush now and so there is a sign of spring around it's a day when we begin to look forward rather than back to christmas but on this day it's looking back to the occasion of the bringing of the infant child 40 days old into the temple as we say our prayers wherever you are in the world feel welcome here bring your own concerns in the northern hemisphere it's mid-winter in the southern hemisphere it's summer but nevertheless darkness and light are ever-present realities both in night and day and in seasons but also in times in our lives when we use them as metaphors for hard times and really wonderful times of resurrection and new life let's begin our prayers o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise you'll lay the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands blessed are you sovereign god creator of heaven and earth to you be praise and glory forever as your living word eternal in heaven assume the frailty of our mortal flesh may the light of your love be born in us to fill our hearts with joy as we sing 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 our psalm on the second morning of the month is psalm nine it's a psalm when the psalmist is finding life difficult and crying out to god for help not only for the writer of the psalm themselves but also for those who are suffering much in the world [Music] i will give thanks to you lord with my whole heart i will tell of all your marvelous works i will be glad and rejoice in you i will make music to your name almost high when my enemies are driven back they stumble and perish at your presence for you have maintained my right and my cause you sat on your throne giving righteous judgment you have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked you have blotted out their name forever and ever the enemy was utterly laid waste you uprooted their cities their very memory has perished but the lord shall endure forever he has made fast his throne for judgment for he shall rule the world with righteousness and govern the peoples with equity then will the lord be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in time of trouble and those who know your name will put their trust in you for you lord have never failed those who seek you sing praises to the lord who dwells in zion declare among the peoples the things he has done the avenger of blood has remembered them he did not forget the cry of the oppressed have mercy upon me o lord consider the trouble i suffer from those who hate me you that lift me up from the gates of death that i may tell all your praises in the gates of the city of zion and rejoice in your salvation the nation shall sink into the pit of their making and in the snare which they set will their own foot be taken the lord makes himself known by his acts of justice the wicked are snared in the works of their own hands they shall return to the land of darkness all the nations that forget god for the needy shall not always be forgotten and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever arise o lord and let not mortals have the upper hand let the nations be judged before your face put them in fear o lord that the nations may know themselves to be but mortal so on this day we read the story of the presentation of jesus as a child 40 days old in the arms of his mother and father in the temple according to the law we're in sin luke today chapter 2 and beginning at verse 22 and when the time came for their purification according to the law of moses mary and joseph brought jesus up to jerusalem to present him to the lord as it is written in the law of the lord every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the lord a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons now there was a man in jerusalem whose name was simeon and this man was righteous and devout waiting for the consolation of israel and the holy spirit was upon him and it had been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the lord's christ and he came in the spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law simeon took him up in his arms and blessed god and said lord now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people israel and the child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him but simeon blessed them and said to mary his mother behold this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in israel and for a sign that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your own soul also so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed and there was a prophet anna the daughter of samuel of the tribe of asher she was advanced in years having lived without her husband seven years from when she was a virgin and then as a widow until she was 84 she did not depart from the temple worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day and coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to god and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of jerusalem a significant moment indeed in all sorts of ways and these themes of lighting a candle in the darkness have never been more important but neither two the theme of the fact that today we are beginning to look towards the future journey of the next couple of months as we leave the themes of christmas behind and go into the journey which will lead us through lent and on through passion tide holy week and then to easter a time for looking forward rather than looking back but as gandhi said in his seven sins that we were thinking of the other day that people tend towards and nations tend towards one of them was worship without sacrifice worship without counting the cost and so one of the themes of course is the word to mary that she will suffer much as she goes through her own journey and that is a theme of this candle mass but it's called candle mass because normally we would be lighting candles for people to carry in their hands and as they carried them around the cathedral church or in their churches it would be a sign of carrying not only the frailty of humanity in the tiny 40-day year old baby the 40-day old baby and of jesus brought into the temple by mary and joseph but also carrying the light for each other which has been a constant theme for us imaginative encouragement using our light to help others in their darkness one of the themes another of the themes of course is that it's not not the young and strong in all their activity and pace of life who recognize the moment it's the old who are waiting patiently and who know the cost of worship in terms of sacrifice that means that simeon and anna become almost the hero and the heroine of this particular feast they have been waiting for their long lives in this particular time and now they prophesy both of them in their different ways and simeon gives us that song which we sing at all times at evensong say it at the moment and shall this afternoon when we stream a candle mass service with candles lit online and the nunc dimittis lord you let your servant go in peace but of course the the phrase which gives this day its com its character in the middle of that nunc dimitris is not simeon laying down his vocation because it's been fulfilled but simeon saying this child is destined to be a light to lighten the nations all nations it's a wonderful prophecy and luke when he writes up this story no doubt exalted in it no wonder we sing it day by day at evensong as the lamps are lit it's always been part of the church's service of either edensong or complin but as we said at the beginning darkness can be a metaphorical darkness for dark times in our lives so the nunc dimittis becomes a light to lighten one another at this time and those who are patient in watching and waiting very often are those who know the cost of sacrifice in vocation and also those who by their patient watching are first given the message of god within his creation and recognize the christ the divine image in the human not only in the tiny baby but also in each other as we've said from day to day recently so we shall look around our world and give thanks for it and also at this time pray for those in the darkest of places those where fear of the pandemic but other fears also is very very strong and also those can be simple individuals for this command and challenge to carry the light and realize the divine message is given to individuals is given to families and communities it's given to nations but it's also given to the whole of humanity a light to lighten the nations so on this day as we look at the various things which have happened on the 2nd of february in the past i'll just pick a few some are of course always of hope and cheerfulness we have first of all the uh two comedians here allez dawson who used to make us laugh a great deal in uh born in 1931 on this day and also david jason and david jason we give immense thanks for for his characterization of del boy and only fools and horses and granville in open all hours and pop larkin in darling buzz of may the a.g bates novel so versatile in all things so we give thanks for him he's 81 today so it's actually happy birthday to uh to david jason and at the same time we are thinking of events which happened on this day in the in in westminster abbey king charles the first was crowned on in 1626 and a prophecy of sorrow could well have been given on on that day we've seen that this week on the day of his execution or earlier on on the 30th of january in 1649 also on this day we have the death of gene kelly who's best known for one thing in his life and that is his singing of singing in the rain in all that torrential rain he went on singing and we're told that he had an extreme cold at the time and was feeling pretty dreadful you wouldn't know any of that he had flu at the time and and really sings on through all the splashing with the policeman looking at him in the rain it's one of those times when it's not light in darkness but it's definitely cheerfulness in adversity so we give thanks for him there are there are city stories on this day as well because in 1653 the city of new amsterdam was incorporated as a city and that later of course became new york city in a different stage of of of its existence it's how we know it now and friends of in new york are telling us today and we're telling us yesterday that new york at the moment is blanketed with deep snow and so we think of that winter time there but snow always gives a lightness as well when one looks at it on this day also in 1899 the australian premiers conference decided to locate australia's capital in canberra between melbourne and sydney i'm sure there were other contenders there are other things today we've attached at the bottom the newsletter of the anglican center in rome our friends there who have a worldwide ministry with archbishop jan and his wife kamla and we remember them and the secretary there nikki with that newsletter which is all about thomas becket and the ceremonies that we were to have had and hopefully can have some of them later this year and also i wanted to remember that this day and this fits with mary's sorrow and vocation in 1585 hamlet shakespeare was baptized william shakespeare's only son he died aged 11 and one might think that a little speech in the play which isn't so often performed king john might well be thoughts from shakespeare himself its constance's speech at the loss of her child and shakespeare writes grief fills the room up of my absent child lies in his bed walks up and down with me puts on his pretty looks repeats his words remembers me of all his gracious parts stuffs out his vacant garments with his form then have i reasoned to remember grief the grief that constance is feeling is filled with the personality of her child and the grief which mary feels in the paeters of the world as we look at them holding the body of her son is the same prophecy that simeon had given her of sorrow before joy we have a prayer in early lent which says whose most dear son went not up to joy before he suffered pain and those who are called to follow him find that too along the way but to light a candle in the darkness is a very important aspect so i'm going to do that before we say our prayers today and if it'll light we will do exactly that yes despite the raindrops our candle is burning this in america is uh in the united states of america is groundhog day and uh i don't know if you know anything about it groundhog because we don't have them here and i think that the the the habit of groundhog day came from germany with badger day and then through holland and then into the states but rather like the little bit of folklore we were looking at yesterday and uh since switzerland's day later on in july um it's said that if the groundhog comes out of his burrow and finds it's a fine day the groundhog will go back into the burrow and there'll be six more weeks of winter but if it's a wet day which it is here today uh then the the spring will come early well i hope all these flowers are meaning that the spring will come early but mary's tears the snowdrops are cheering us on this day as we remember her vocation and sorrow and light a candle and carry it not only physically here but in our own lives for each other in encouraging each other with imagination on this day so looking just back to christmas for the first time with the infant child of jesus and then tomorrow our journey begins looking forward here is the special prayer for candleness and we're praying also this morning within the anglican communion for the diocese of allah in the province of the episcopal church of south sudan and the people there and in our own diocese as we pray for archbishop justin bishop rose of dover bishop tim at lambeth we are praying for the good stewardship of resources throughout our whole diocese on this day here is the prayer for this day almighty and ever-living god clothed in majesty whose beloved son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh grant that we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts by your son jesus christ our lord amen so we say each in our own language the prayer that jesus 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 justices 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 are men moment of silence now for your 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 well you've come back you don't like the rain much do you but we can go in now what you've done is scared off our friend the robin who is around in the tops of the trees so when we go in he can come down and enjoy bits of your breakfast let's go come on you're very wet come on come on give me this