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today sunday the 31st of january is the third day of the national bird watch the garden bird watch which uh many of you are joining us with both in this country and across the world and we ourselves today are intending to do our hour of bird watching to see which birds we can identify in this particular garden this is done at a time of year in winter when only the resident birds are present and the count will be important right across the land some of you will be doing it in your garden some in balconies some in parks and some will have already done it we certainly couldn't have done it yesterday because yesterday as you remember was a day when we had to be in the greenhouse with tiger as the rain poured down and the wind blew but no two days could be different more different today the sun is rising on a still garden and when we came out there were birds all over our birds feeder our friend leo was with us so they soon scattered but now he's gone away again so maybe during our time together they will return but if not we certainly will sit quietly this afternoon probably and see which birds are around here and count them i've got here the material for the big garden bird watch in england and uh we've got the pictures of those birds that we're most likely to see this afternoon but we shall see more certainly in this garden because different parts of the country have different common birds and their song is all around us so wherever you are in the world please feel welcome this morning and bring your own prayers as we say our prayers together on this sunday morning it's a mixture of themes in the cathedral today because it's always been our custom the sunday nearest to candlemas to the feast of the presentation of jesus in the temple by mary and joseph which is on date the 2nd of february so that's on tuesday it's been our custom on the sunday nearest to have a candlemast sunday when we change change gear really from looking back to all that happened in christmas and epiphany and begin to look forward towards passion tied and lent ash wednesday is on the 17th of february this year easter rather early and so the main eucharist which will be of course live streamed later will be a candlemass service with that theme but we ourselves will also be keeping that and in the cathedral with the solemn even song on tuesday the actual feast of the presentation in the temple so my theme is not that this morning we will do that on tuesday morning so let's uh say our prayers together give thanks for this sunday and give thanks for this turning point when we cease to look back to the liturgical season and begin to make the journey forward to lent and passion tied and on through holy week to easter say our prayers together wherever you are bring your own concerns to our morning prayers o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your light springs up for the righteous and all the peoples have seen your glory blessed are you sovereign god king of the nations to you be praise and glory forever from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is proclaimed in all the world as the son of righteousness dawns in our hearts anoint our lips with the seal of your spirit that we may witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the earth 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 this 31st morning of the month is psalm 145 it's a long psalm and so i'm going to read some of the verses now i will exalt you o god my king and bless your name forever and ever every day will i bless you and praise your name forever and ever the lord is loving to everyone and his mercy is over all his creatures all your works praise you o lord and your faithful servants bless you they tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your mighty power to make known to all people your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom your dominion endures throughout all ages the lord is sure in all his words and faithful in all his deeds the lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all those who are bowed down the eyes of all wait upon you o lord and you give them their food in due season you open wide your hand and fill all things living with plenty the lord is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works the lord is near to those who call upon him to all who call upon him faithfully he fulfills the desire of those who fear him he hears their cry and saves them so we turn to our reading i want to explain what i'm going to do over the next few days normally we would leave the regular reading of sid mark to take a sunday reading but the sunday reading for us here is a reading for candlemas and that means that we should do that on tuesday so i don't want to miss anything of the galilean ministry of jesus the rural ministry in galilee and the nearby provinces around the lake of galilee and in other places and we would do that if we interrupted today and interrupted again with the uh special lesson on tuesday so we've come to chapter five and we leave the the short almost one word at times parables of the kingdom of heaven of growth and rootedness and fruitfulness all those things that we've been thinking of as jesus goes around the villages of galilee and points out to things that are around him and shows people how to use them as parables we now come to two long stories the second one is in two parts and i'm intending to do the first one this morning and then tomorrow the second one and the first one is full of turbulence and drama and the second one also full of heart-rending human stories but they are about 20 verses each so i'm going to read the first one now and this is chapter 5 of st mark's gospel verse 1 up to verse 20. jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the lake to the country of the gerasenes and when jesus had stepped out of the boat immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit he lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore not even with a chain for he had often been bound with shackles and chains but he wrenched the chains apart he broke the shackles in pieces no one had the strength to subdue him night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones and when he saw jesus from afar he ran and fell down before him and crying out with a loud voice he said what have you to do with me jesus son of the most high god i adore you by god do not torment me for he was saying to him come out of the man you unclean spirit and jesus asked him what is your name and the man replied my name is legion for we are many and he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside and they begged him saying send us to the pigs let us enter them so he gave them permission and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs and the herd numbering about 2000 rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea and the herdsmen fled and towed it in the city and in the country and people came to see what it was that had happened and they came to jesus and saw the demon-possessed man the one who had had the legion sitting there closed and in his right mind and they were afraid and those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs and they began to beg jesus to depart from their region as he was getting into the boat the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him but jesus did not permit him but said to him go home to your friends and tell them how much the lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you and he went away and began to proclaim in the decapolis how much jesus had done for him and everyone marveled this is a disrupted scene disrupted with everything that's going on we can't tell because of that word useless which is so much used in st mark's gospel immediately mark is telling the story fast and bits and pieces of that story get put together from reminiscence and tales told afterwards about what had happened to the man for immediately is in our words a kind of time thing which says this happened the minute jesus getting out of the boat this happened and then everything happened and then jesus got back i actually don't think that's how it was i think that jesus had gone across and there had been ministry in that to the disciples rather foreign part even though it's not too far away the other side of the great lake the sea as it's so often called in the gospels and the tones of the decapolis were foreign lands for the disciples themselves from rural galilee they knew the lakeside and they had many dealings because bethsaida itself was just over the border from there and capernaum just around the lake but then all around there the towns were filled with people who were foreign and the sign of that of course is that there are pigs feeding animals that the jews themselves wouldn't have kept remember the pigs when the portable sun in st luke goes away to a far country and it's he's feeding the pigs they are to them certainly not to us it's a sign of uncleanness and at the same time the propensity of a herd and i don't think count was made but a large had to stampede when all kinds of disturbing things are happening we see that even with our little group and here there is a disaster waiting to happen but at the same time a disaster which has already happened and we're going to focus on the man himself for this man obviously terrified the people he had the extremist kind of mental disturbance within him which had taken him captive and was getting worse and worse and his intense strength which is told in the the images of shackling him with chains and him wrenching them apart had caused him to be outcast outcast from his own society outcasts there on the hills and the people who herded the pigs were the ones who were around watching this but i think probably there were other people about because jesus would have been just working through villages on that side and the man when he comes and we're told that he he was used to crying out cutting his body with the stones because he had no control over himself jesus when he comes to him and the the man is is shouting with things that he has heard and the the demons inside him shouting out what are you to do with me and then at that moment jesus says giving him or attempting to give him his humanity back what is your name and the man says legion because there are so many demons inside me it's that's not his name it's what the people have begun to call him and jesus is there to see the inner person that god created and to restore calm in this situation but the restoration of khan is itself a restoration which causes immense disturbance yesterday it was the storm on the lake before that all the hostility of the scribes coming up from jerusalem and now it's this when the husband who've run away after all the disturbance and come back with townsfolk when they come back they are astonished to see the one that they had given up as a fearful caricature almost of humanity and a terrifying one at that sitting and i love this phrase closed and in his right mind the calm as on the lake peace be still is restored to this human being who now will have his name back and our names are very important he'll no longer be legion and the the townsfolk and the herdsmen begged jesus to go away they want no more of this kind of disturbance it's too terrifying and as he's getting into the boat the man comes and says can't i come with you and jesus says no go home the translation given is to your friends the actual greek words mean to those who are yours and you are theirs and tell them what god has done for you and we're told by saint mark this is what has been heard afterwards clearly and it's a small community and mark is writing years later we're told that he went home but in the towns of the decapolis which were not just jewish towns he began to tell people what jesus had done for him this man who had been restored to his home and his friends and his family and given back his humanity which is a wonderful though very very disturbing story and we shall go to another parable and i mean a miracle story tomorrow and a story of healing like the parables but each has challenges for us and this really is a challenge about our own humanity and how we see others inner personality now we generally look at it at dates on these days and i began by speaking about of course the bird watch which is an important part of this day and i shall then take um you through that in a moment or two because we have all the books and things around for us and there's a robin around who's become very much part of everything that is going on here but we are seeing today various dates in the past which have been significant i can only deal with a few of them some of them are iconic like the fact that on this day in 1867 the four bronze lions which are in trafalgar square were completed and also on this day in 1977 the pompidou center was entered and was opened in paris the building of richard rogers and renzo piano and we give thanks for the life of that center a performing arts and exhibition center and all the things that it does there we have in 1953 here's another disturbance the great storm an enormous storm over the united kingdom the netherlands belgium in which over 2 000 people were killed by flooding and the car ferry uh sinking in the irish sea winds of over 100 miles per hour those things happen across the way we find that in 1573 this is a lovely musical event monteverdi was born and we remember just a few years ago walking into the huge franciscan church the largest church in venice and finding we confess that we didn't know it was there the tomb of monteverdi just with a single rose lying on it which had been placed there by someone with great thanksgiving we give thanks for his musical works which we use in our liturgy and also oftentimes in concerts which being held in the cathedral the great creative power of monteverdi and also in 1797 of franz schubert born near vienna on this day symphonies chamber music piano sonatas which is fun to play but most of all schubert's songs the tunes of which some were turned into to chamber music like the song about the trout but also the song about the hedgerows and simple songs of that sort of dramatic songs like the earl king that are fun to play on the piano fun to sing but also with tremendous depth and the two song cycles uh the the the the second of them the winterizer the winter's journey very very powerful indeed as a man going on a winter's journey who has lost the absolute love of his life feels his humanity being challenged by that desperate sadness and the music gets simpler and simpler and simpler until you get to the very powerful song simplest of all almost the organ grinder at the end then what else do we have thomas merton the great spiritual teacher trappist monk was born on this day in 1915 and in 1956 a.a milne died where we've done lots and lots of milne stories and poems recently so we give thanks for him but i could mention so many more things i just want to mention one this morning and spend some time on it there is a lady called mary burkett in the city of columbia in south carolina she is a friend of a very dear friend of ours our friend is archdeacon caliwarpo and she is the archdeacon in south carolina but also she is on the cathedral staff of dean michael in charleston itself and so we pray for that cathedral there but we also give thanks for the introduction that cali has given to us to marry birkit whom we never met and we've seen her only on the video which cali sent us and which there's a link to this morning mary burkett begins her her video conversation with us by saying um i'm not an artist i was a nurse i'm a retired nurse and in 2017 as a new year's resolution in retirement i made a resolution to draw and i i bought a pad and some pencils and in the the video as you'll see you can see all that and then she wanted something to draw and looking through various books sheet magazines she she found a picture of a little boy which seemed to speak to her and she tells the story watch it because in her own words it's so much better than me telling it and she says that that face seemed to say to her draw me and she began to draw the picture of this little boy and astonishingly in a few hours his eyes were looking at her from her newly bought pad and her own creative skills became evident but she explains that almost you'd had no lessons she and and yet in a way it seemed not to be her skill that was doing this it was as though the the the drawing of the boy was already in the paper asking to be set free that's just an image of parable if you like in its way but then she looked at the history of this little boy and found that he had been killed murdered she said in auschwitz along with so many children uh 1.5 million i think and the the children of auschwitz she was used to as grainy black and white films or pictures just standing in groups they were victims but she had the call to see the humanity of this little boy as his mother had dressed him in the photograph and the love that she the mother had had for him whom mary burkett didn't know and she was not of the jewish faith she herself a roman catholic and yet she felt that god was in this creative activity and gradually she knew her vocation was to show the world not the victim but the humanity of the little boy and when this had created a wonderful drawing she began to do it for other children at auschwitz so that it became a real pilgrimage of showing how these children were beloved by their families by their friends and what had happened to them and to their humanity and her mission was to restore their humanity and she has done i think in the video to my memory 27 of these beautiful drawings not as an artist but as a retired nurse and a caring mother of her own children and she's done something rather as jesus did for the man whom they had labeled legion completely out of the human compass caught him back gave him back his name his friends his family his humanity that kind of act of creativity becomes a really important thing that we can do for one another to see beyond the divinity the image of god within every human being child adult aged person someone suffering with all kinds of disabilities people whose memory has gone and can hardly be themselves when they talk to us people who are very disturbed but within the most important thing is the humanity that god created and our capacity of helping to release that or respect that as they continue their journey towards that infinite light where god makes all things new and all tears are wiped away do watch the little video because it's very powerful indeed from an ordinary human being who learned a new skill and then shared it with those like us who can take enormous comfort and also creative encouragement from it let's say our prayers and then before i say the blessing i'll speak a little bit more about bird watch we're going this morning to pray in our anglican communion for the diocese of algoma in the anglican church of canada i muddled the days as i so often do yesterday and uh so we were praying for the church in brazil yesterday so we pray for both of them and then also we're still with the wheeled deanery of the pledgian people and villages of the wheeled in kent an area of kentia playing for the arya dean rodney dreyer and the late chair graham coddling as they act as leaders of the community of parishes in that lovely area of kent we pray for archbishop justin for bishop rose of dover for bishop tim urch lambis and we say our prayers together please bring your own prayers and intentions on this day god our creator who in the beginning commanded the light to shine out of darkness we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of christ may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief shine into the hearts of all your people and reveal the knowledge of your glory in the face of jesus christ your son our lord amen so together in whatever language we normally use we say 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 are men moment of silence now on this still and lovely morning here in england as we say our prayers so before the blessing um we've returned to our advice about the bird watch and we've brought various books out here um but this one is one of our favorites which is a book which actually will play a particular bird song we found the north american one in the botanical gardens in new york and then when we came back to england we found the the british one and so uh there are as you open the pages and see the pictures buttons magically that you can press and you will get just a short snatch of the bird's song here and uh that is a wonderful thing to do here they all are as they go through and uh it will be beyond me to produce any kind of sound out of it this morning quickly um but but you can find but books of that sort which can help you but not today today is the day simply to watch and listen wherever you are and then to fill in your form if you're in this nation or if you want to uh fill in at the canterbury link which is there which will be an international one from the garden congregation if you like and we shall see what birds you're watching right across the world so let's give thanks for all the creativity not only of mary burkitt but everyone's imaginative creativity which discovers god's image in each other and the true humanity that she created 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 so the sun is shining behind me and i can begin to look at the various garden birds this book is full of all kinds of birds but here's my absolute favorite bird of all time and that's the song thrush we shall certainly see the sun flash here today and hear the song thrash too