Transcription
[Music] Hallelujah. [Music] [Music] Thank you. [Music] [Music] The name of Christ. Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Praise him. Praise him. He is mercy. uses. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Grace and peace to you from God our creator and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Well, it's lovely to welcome you whether you're here in the cathedral or with us online at this time of festival and fringe. It's this is part of a series of services in which we celebrate that creative spark within us which is a reflection of our creator God. And you can see that not only in the city out there, but also around us here in the cathedral. So with that in mind, we pray together.
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord. Amen.
My election [Music] So many heart. [Music] Glorious. [Music] Glories. [Music] We all [Music] know she [Music] Call me [Music] to sorrow to sorrow to sorrow to sorrow us. Glory. [Music] Amen. Amen. [Music] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. [Music]
Almighty God, we are taught by your word that all our doings without love are worth nothing. Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
A reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah. The word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Then I said, "Ah, Lord God, truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, I am only a boy, for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to Oh, great. Mighty God [Music] [Applause] All the Oh, [Music] we shall sit. Hallelujah. Jesus my heart and spy of the holy of the praise. [Music] My heart [Music] to the earth sing. Alleluah. [Music] Hallelujah. Halleluah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Speak Lord for your servant is listening. You have the word of eternal life. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Christ. Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for 18 years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound for 18 long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day." When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
Give thanks Lord for his glorious gospel. Praise to Christ our Lord You are [Music] in the name of God, source of all being, eternal word and holy spirit. Amen.
Immediately she stood up straight. It's a dramatic story, the one we've just heard. 18 years bent double, then a touch and a kind word and it all changes. You can almost hear the creaking bones, feel the stretching ligaments, the aching muscles. And that leader in the story, the one who opposes Jesus, so caught up with his own ideology about the Sabbath that he overlooks the suffering of someone standing right in front of him. But ideologies tend to do that whether they're religious or political. They can blur our vision. They distract our attention so we don't see the human being in front of us. Indeed, the leader seems to have misunderstood what the Sabbath is about. A day of rest from labor certainly, but also a weekly anticipation of a time to come of liberation and release. So what better day than the Sabbath for a healing? She stood up straight. I can't help seeing in this something more than a physical restoration. There's a kind of metaphor here for human aspiration. The need to stand up straight before God, to hold your head up high, to walk tall and look the world right in the eye. Yes. Illusions to two popular songs from very different eras. But I'm old, so I can do that. This sense that human beings are meant to live with dignity and self-respect that infiltrates our culture. As such, the crippled woman in that story is an example of so many on this earth metaphorically bent double under the heavy burdens. Their lives focused on survival and not daring to look up from the ground to peer towards a horizon. What are the ideologies I wonder that find reasons to keep them that way? What are the insecurities, the obsessions, the addictions that us? How might a touch or a word bring healing? What do we need to do? What do we need to unbend us and help us to stand up straight before God?
The Edinburgh Festival and Fringe is a great celebration of all that makes us human. Movement and laughter, theater and music. Some parts are enjoyable but not very profound. Others are profound but let's face it, not very enjoyable. But at its best, it offers us the opportunity to reflect on the depths and the heights of human experience, to enter into profoundly the things that give life and the things that destroy life, and to explore the virtues that we might cultivate and the ways we might coexist on earth. It is about truth. It's about seeking truth even when that is uncomfortable or shameful. So the theme of this year's festival, the truth we seek, which has all sorts of resonances with our faith, for Jesus speaks of the truth that sets us free. The Holy Spirit who leads us into truth. The arts and spirituality are close companions, allies in this supposedly posttruth and fake news world where truth is manipulated, ignored, discarded, derided to serve the interests of the unscrupulous. Whereas our faith maintains that whilst truth is of course complex and often elusive, yet it is worth pursuing because it matters. And there's one especially important truth hidden away in our first reading. God's call to Jeremiah the prophet. Before I formed you in the womb, God tells him, I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you. I remember as a young man about the same age as Jeremiah is reputed to have been about 20 being fired up by this same reading. And I was thrilled to discover it was one of the readings for this my final sermon as the the dasis and bishop. Not that I was to be a prophet like Jeremiah or if I was to be then I've missed that particular part of the call. But that I too might have a place in God's purposes. I too might be touched by God as he was and known by God. And if I was known by God even before I was born, then perhaps I have a place in God's purposes too and might have the tmerity to stand up and speak God's word. And that reading still gives me hope that the God who shaped me in infancy will accompany me still in old age. But not just me, of course. Generations of believers have been inspired by Jeremiah's call and have heard God speaking to them the deepest of all truths. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And is it is it possible that these words were spoken not just to believers but to everyone that everyone can hear that same deep truth. That it may be true for the asylum seeker just as it is true for the thug shouting racist abuse outside the asylum seekers hotel. that it may be true for the Ukrainian family surveying the wreckage of their home as well as for those who press the buttons to send the missiles on their way. that it is true for the Garzen child, orphaned, hungry, traumatized, as well as for the regime deliberately and systematically destroying the only community she has ever known. True too for anyone struggling with life as well as for those of us who pass by on the other side. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I consecrated you. That in the a spark in God's mind, God sees the holiness in each person. What would be needed for all these lives? All those lives I've just described as well as our lives. All those aspects of life which are crippled by fear and violence and injustice and callous disregard. What would it mean for them to find a Sabbath day on which we might stand up straight and look each other in the eye and discover that that person too, the one we call our enemy, the one we fear or hate or who makes us feel uncomfortable because they are different is actually in the end just like us. made by God, loved by God even before they were born, holy in God's sight.
Others arrive at this point, of course, by a different route. They may use different words to describe it. But until we all achieve this sense of mutual belonging, of common identity, no political or religious philosophy can ever lead us to peace. In his seinal book, After Virtue, published in 1981, Alistister McIntyre lamented the loss of such common values. He tentatively compared the world of 1981 with the decline and collapse of the Roman Empire 1500 years before where barbarians stood at the door as it were where civilization was about to collapse and where the socalled dark ages loomed. It was only the monastic movement, McIntyre argued, and great leaders like St. Benedict who kept alive communities of godly learning, civility, and charity. writing of his age. And 44 years later, McIntyre's analysis still seems chillingly apt. He argues that quote, "The barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers. They have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament. We are waiting not for Agadoo but for another doubtless very different St. Benedict unquote. Now whether the dark ages were quite so dark as McIntyre supposed or whether recent experience may make us understandably wary of messianic individuals, his challenge to us remains, how are we, we who consider ourselves to be people of goodwill and generosity, how are we to build and sustain a pattern of community life and belonging in which civility and morality and commitment to seeking the truth may thrive not just in our culture but across the world. I don't ask these questions because I'm pessimistic about the world. Although we can all rehearse reasons to be so. On the contrary, I can see all sorts of signs of hope, little sparks of true humanity breaking through, of resistance to the barbarians, if you like, of determination to allow those bowed down to stand upright. Jesus was, after all, just one man speaking in one synagogue, healing one woman. What was that when set against the immense and pervasive power of evil? Yet for him it was these small things in these small things that the world is changed. Read on just beyond the passage we heard in our gospel reading from Luke and you find Jesus comparing the kingdom of God to a tiny mustard seed that grows into a big shrub in which birds come to roost. or he likens it to a tiny amount of leaven that makes the bread rise. Whether we get another St. Benedict or not, what will really make a difference will be lots and lots of people doing lots and lots of small things, sming, sewing small seeds that will have effects far beyond their present size. I suppose that that's what Edinburgh's about in August in all its eccentricity and noise and irreverence. And at its best, it's what the church is here for too.
May our experience of faith and festival encourage us to recognize the holiness within each person. those we see and those we shall never see. May we never by our action or our inaction lay burdens on others. May our dignity never be won at the expense of others humiliation. And may the leavenven of our lives, the tiny seeds of compassion we sow bear a rich harvest. So that like the woman in the gospel reading, we may stand up straight, confident in God's love and mercy. The God who knew us even before we were born. To this God be all praise and glory. Amen.
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven. By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and was made human. For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. On the third day, he rose again in accordance with the scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy, Catholic, and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Let us pray. In the prayers to the words, "Oh God, hear us." Please respond, "God, graciously hear us. Oh God, you knew us before we were formed in the womb and you know already what is in our hearts. Still you invite us to come to you in prayer. And as we do, oh God, hear us. God graciously hear us. We pray for the church here and throughout the world where we are bent over. Raise us up straight to praise you and all your wonderful works. Give us discernment and courage to speak your truth to the world and put your words in our mouths as we tell of your love. We pray for the life and work and witness of this cathedral and all who visit this place at festival time. We hold before you the Edinburgh Dascese and especially we ask your blessing on Bishop John, giving thanks for his ministry and service amongst us and praying for good health and enjoyment of life for him and Clare in the coming years. Oh God, hear us. God, graciously hear us. Loving God, we pray for your hurting world. Damaged by our constant failure to act justly and with empathy in our dealings with others and the whole of creation. We cry out to you for all our sisters and brothers who suffer because of warfare and violence. In particular, those who are in desperate need of food, water, shelter, medical aid. We continue to pray for Palestinians and Israelis, for Ukrainians and Russians, for the people of Sudan. We pray too for political and military leaders as we yearn for them to balance their power with mercy and to show compassion. We long for your peace. Oh God, hear us. God, graciously hear us. We pray for all who suffer in mind or body, those known to us and those whose needs we do not know. We ask you to comfort all who are in pain or distress and give strength and encouragement to health workers and caregivers. We bring before you by name Caitlyn, Harvey, Carrie, Janice, Helen, and name in our hearts any whom we know to need our prayers. Oh God, hear us. God, graciously hear us. We pray for all who have died and for individuals and communities in mourning. We call to mind those whom we ourselves have loved but see no longer and any whose anniversary falls at this time. Amongst the recently departed, we pray for Alistister Ferguson. Grant them eternal rest and let light perpetual shine upon them. Oh God, hear us. God, graciously hear us. Finally, in a few moments of silence, we each bring before you the concerns of our own hearts. that we offer these and all our prayers to God for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
And having offered our prayers to God, we now seek God's forgiveness and absolution. For God is love and we are God's children. There is no room for fear in love. We love because God loved us first. Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith. God our Father, we confess to you and to our fellow members in the body of Christ that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed and in what we have failed to do. We are truly sorry. Forgive us our sins and deliver us from the power of evil for the sake of your son who died for us, Jesus Christ our Lord. God who is both power and love forgive you and free you from your sins, heal and strengthen you by the Holy Spirit, and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.
Invite you to stand if you are able. We meet in Christ's name. Let us share his peace. [Applause] Heat. Heat. My soul in Swing [Music] Tell me to Praise and glorious. [Music] Christ sing mighty God. Oh my god. [Music] for Jesus for my Christmas Jesus. Christ I Great. Heat. through the sky. [Music] He Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness, we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life. Blessed be God forever. Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness, we have this wine to offer. Fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become the cup of our salvation. Blessed be God forever. The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Worship and praise belong to you, Father, in every place and at all times. All power is yours. You created the heavens and established the earth. You sustain in being all that is. In Christ, your son, our life and yours are brought together in a wonderful exchange. He made his home among us that we might forever dwell in you. Through your Holy Spirit, you call us to new birth in a creation restored by love. As children of your redeeming purpose, we offer you our praise. with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven singing the hymn of your unending glory. [Music] Just [Music] [Music] take a sun [Music] Glorana [Music] ines. [Music] Hana [Music] [Music] [Applause] churches. [Music] We are angels. [Music] We all [Music] Glory. [Music] What the heels? [Music] Hosana. Hosana. Hosana. Hosana. inesanes. [Music] churches. [Music] Glory and thanksgiving be to you, most loving Father, for the gift of your son, born in human flesh. He is the word existing beyond time, both source and final purpose, bringing to wholeness all that is made. Obedient to your will, he died upon the cross. By your power, you raised him from the dead. He broke the bonds of evil and set your people free to be his body in the world. On the night when he was given up to death, knowing that his hour had come, having loved his own, he loved them to the end. At supper with his disciples, he took bread and offered you thanks. He broke the bread and gave it to them, saying, "Take, eat. This is my body. It is broken for you. After supper, he took the cup. He offered you thanks and gave it to them, saying, "Drink this all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant. It is poured out for you and for all that sins may be forgiven. Do this in remembrance of me." We now obey your son's command. We recall his blessed passion and death, his glorious resurrection and ascension. And we look for the coming of his kingdom, made one with him, we offer you these gifts, and with them ourselves a single, holy, living sacrifice. Hear us, most merciful Father, and send your Holy Spirit upon us and upon this bread and this wine, that overshadowed by your spirit's life-giving power, they may be the body and blood of your son, and we may be kindled with the fire of your love and renewed for the service of your kingdom. Help us who are baptized into the fellowship of Christ's body to live and work to your praise and glory. May we grow together in unity and love until at last in your new creation we enter into our heritage in the company of the Virgin Mary, the apostles and prophets and of all our brothers and sisters living and departed through Jesus Christ our Lord with whom and in whom in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory be to you Lord of all ages world without end. Amen.
The living bread is broken for the life of the world. Lord, unite us in this sign. As our savior has taught us, so we pray.
Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Do not bring us to the time of trial, but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.
My heart alone. All day [Music] by your soul. [Music] God say [Music] [Applause] [Music] Rejoice my daughter [Music] is your God. [Music] God [Music] is [Music] glor [Music] of glory. [Music] shall [Music] not [Music] [Applause] know is all I know is [Music] a glorious [Music] [Music] is forune. Don't let your misfortune know. [Music] [Music] Oh my god. [Music] [Music] [Music] glor. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Oh, [Music] come. You [Music] to [Music] [Laughter] [Music] The spirit of God in reaching Lord, [Music] you are Amen. Amen. [Music]
Give thanks to our gracious God whose mercy endures forever. Loving God, your steadfast purpose is the completion of all things in your son. May we who have received the pledges of the kingdom, live by faith, walk in hope, and be renewed in love until the world reflects your glory and you are all in all. through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Uh number of notices to give you today. First of all, um if you're a visitor here, um please know that we serve tea and coffee after the service. Um and you're most welcome to join us there for that. Um, long-standing members of the cathedral will have heard, if you'd not already heard the news in the sessions, that Alistister Ferguson, who was a long-standing member of the congregation here, died peacefully on Tuesday in St. Clber's Hospice. His funeral will be on Friday the 5th of September, a week on Friday, at 11:00 a.m. here in the cathedral. Um, and that will be in next week's notices. um that will be followed by a burial in Dean Cemetery to which you also um welcome. The festival continues this week. Um there is an organ recital um at approximately 5:00 p.m. this evening. It may end up being a little bit later because we have things to get through before that. Um but at 5:00 pm this evening, uh Image and Morgan, our assistant director of music, is giving an organ recital. Um our lunchtime concerts uh continue throughout the week. Um and there are other uh talks and performances. Um perhaps I could draw your attention in particular to a conversation that's happening tomorrow evening up at the high altar uh between the vice prost myself and Joe Clifford who's an Edinburgh playwright particularly and perhaps best known for writing the gospel according to Jesus Queen of Heaven. Um that's going to be a conversation on issues around transgender identity um around the recent Supreme Court ruling and also what Christian theology might have to offer into that conversation. So do join us at 700 p.m. tomorrow evening. There's then going to be a performance of Jesus Queen of Heaven uh a week today in the evening.
Today's a day of uh farewells as we already know. Um let me begin by saying that Alistister Barry who um some of you will have met uh who's been an ordinand on placement with us from the Church of England um this is his last day with us today. So Alistister thank you for your gracious presence uh amongst us and we wish you well. Please do let us know um what's happening to you in a year's time when um you get assigned accuracy and we look forward to um praying for you as you make that transition. But thank you for being with us. Our choir finishes their festival residency uh today and so today is also the last day for this year's senior chesters and so I wonder whether I can just call out our senior chorusers just come and stand in the middle of the choir so that people can uh see you. So maybe Kirsty, Mike, Joseph, Rose, and Susanna just come and stand out in the middle please. And um you've been wonderful senior coristers all this year. Just come and stand in a line. Well, come come come forward so people can see you. Come front. Come forward. Come right up. Come right up. Don't be shy. There we are. Wonderful. Uh thank you very much. Thank you for all your efforts in guiding and leading all the coristers. It's been most appreciated and we wish you all the best in the years to come. Don't be strangers. Come back and see us. Um thank you very much and I'm sure I express all your thanks and appreciation to the whole choir to Mr. Ferguson uh Miss Morgan and the whole choir for all their efforts during the festival and there'll be a formal sendoff for our senior choristers as part of the coral even song this afternoon. Um, but uh that will also be our opportunity to say um uh goodbye and our thanks express our thanks to Bishop John. The whole dasis will be gathering here or people from across the dasis will be gathering here to to say that that thank you. I don't want to anticipate the thanks that belongs to the whole dasis. Um, but uh as a cathedral congregation we have been very blessed to have you ministering amongst us Bishop John. um particularly at Christmas and Easter uh but at other times of the year as well. Um, so just in appreciation of that of your presence uh gathering us around the altar and uh speaking to us, we do offer want to offer uh our own particular thanks. Um, in the spirit of your Christmas sermons, I wondered about um buying you some novelty gift that impromptu you would have to put on and and find some theological rationale for, but I didn't think I'd put you quite on the spot like that. Um, those of you who've been here for um, Bishop John's Christmas sermons will know to what I refer um, to which his family uh, are owed our thanks uh, for that particular bit of creativity. Um, but the children do have something to offer you. Uh and also a card from the from the cathedral congregation before the thanks this afternoon. So please to Bishop John. [Applause] Looks like you've got something to say. Go on, you you say it. Bishop John, this is a gift from the Sunday Club. Thank you for your service and thank you for always looking at what we have done in Sunday Club and asking us questions. We hope you will find times to wear this stall, smile, and remember us. Enjoy your retirement. Thank you very Thank you very much. Look at that. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you very much indeed, children, for this. And I shall enjoy having a proper look at this beautiful stole and seeing what the pictures are and what they're telling me. And thank you for this lovely card as well for which is full of people's names and it's a personalized card. Bishop John, happy retirement. May your days be filled with joy, fulfillment, and too much fun. That's really lovely. I I've really enjoyed my association with the cathedral. Um, it's a wonderful mother church to have in the dasis and I think over the years with with Graeme the prophet and now John the prophet I've seen you emerge as a congregation and have an impact which is really quite considerable not only in the life of the dasis but in the life of the city and beyond. So I want to thank John and Marian Janet and Paul and Esther and all the team and Duncan for the wonderful music. Um, I've always felt welcome here. I've always felt affirmed in my ministry and um, all I can say is thank you. It's been a delight. Um, it's going to be it's going to be quite um, a testing experience. I think retirement at first, but I do think the time is right both for me and for the dasis. Um, and I wish you well. I wish the dasis well. I'll say more about that this afternoon. But I wish this cathedral congregation well too because I have a sense that great things are ahead of you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
So please let us stand for our final hymn. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh my god. [Applause] [Music] us. set our So for us [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] 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 among you and remain with you always. Amen. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. In the name of Christ. Amen. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Applause]