大象传媒

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.
It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

OPENING ANNO:
Radio 4聽 Sunday Worship for Rogation Sunday comes from St Nicholas' Church in Carrickfergus, County Antrim and is led by the Rector, Archdeacon George Davison. The service begins with an Introit , O Come ye servants of the Lord
MUSIC聽 O come ye servants of the Lord (Christopher Tye)

ARCHDEACON
Welcome to Carrickfergus- a town on the shore of Belfast Lough still dominated by its castle, built by the Norman knight, John de Courcy who also established this church in 1180 although very, very little of his church remains. .
The earth is the Lord鈥檚 and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it;
for he has founded it on the seas,
and established it on the rivers.
Today is Rogation Sunday, a time when many of our ancestors would have marked
as the beginning of the growing season,
when they acknowledged their dependence on the Lord of Life
and asked his blessing on the seed being sown.
For them the whole agricultural cycle was seen as
as a joint venture involving both God and man,
or as our opening hymn (one more normally associated with Harvest)
puts it
WE plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land
But it is fed and watered by GOD'S Almighty Hand.

MUSIC We plough the fields and scatter聽 (JAP Schulz)

ARCHDEACON
Let us pray:
We praise and bless you , Lord
Your greatness is beyond our understanding,
Your goodness - more than we could ever describe; or deserve.
You have created all things - the galaxies, suns and planets,
The earth and all that is in it.
You have provided for your creatures
So we give you thanks for the regular return of the seasons - summer and winter, seedtime and harvest.
And bless you for your love, drawing near to us in Jesus Christ for our redemption.
As we do so, we acknowledge before you our many faults and weaknesses.
We often fail to show gratitude for your many gifts
Our misuse and abuse of them.
We can be readier to exploit your creation than to care for it
We can be infected with greed which squeezes you out of our lives.
Merciful Lord, grant to your faithful people pardon and peace, that we may be cleansed from all our sins, and serve you with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
AMEN

ARCHDEACON Our choir this morning is from Carrickfergus Grammar School. The introit you heard earlier was by Christopher Tye and they鈥檙e now going to sing an anthem by a composer from the next generation of great English church musicians, Orlando Gibbons - Almighty and everlasting God.
MUSIC Almighty and Everlasting God (Gibbons)

ARCHDEACON聽 After the reading our preacher this morning Canon Noel Battye will preach the first part of his sermon For 28 years Noel was Rector of a church in Belfast and is a regular broadcaster.

READER A reading from the book of the prophet Joel, the 2nd chapter and the 21st verse.
Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice,
for the LORD has done great things! Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield.
O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. The threshing-floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you.
You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

CANON BATTYE
Words from that reading for Rogation Day 鈥淒O NOT FEAR, O SOIL, BE GLAD AND REJOICE鈥� 鈥�
for most people today
the word 鈥榮oil鈥� means nuisance 鈥�
something to be washed from our cars and wiped from our boots.
It is something that marks our shiny laminate floors
and is often equated with what is dirty.
Dirty clothes are referred to as 鈥榮oiled鈥�
and of course we all know about soiled reputations these days.
At best soil is regarded as a necessary evil 鈥� at least for gardeners,
but even then, we鈥檇 never go as far as a former gardening expert for whom
the answer to everything 鈥渓ies firmly in the soil!鈥�
For that reason I found the address which I heard given by
Dr Gordon Gatward, former CEO of the Arthur Rank Centre
at a Harvest Festival in York Minster last October
so very stimulating.
He spoke of the soil as
one of the most neglected, yet most magnificent parts of God鈥檚 creation
whose life forms are so incredibly diverse
that they should take our breath away.
For example 鈥� in just one handful of soil there are more life forms
than there are people living on this planet
and amongst those life forms in that handful you will find
thousands of different species of bacteria
hundreds of different species of fungi and protozoa - single cell organisms
and dozens of different kinds of those nematodes or round worms
some of which are so beloved of gardeners these days.
.....and it鈥檚 not just the life forms that are so diverse
the SOIL itself is also incredibly rich and varied .....
In the UK alone apparently there are over 700 soil types
In the US over 20,000
and globally 100,000 plus
and yet we dismiss it all like dirt!!鈥�
鈥淲hat is man that thou art mindful of him,鈥� we ask God when we behold the wonder of a starry sky stretching out into all infinity 鈥�
But there seems to be no such sense of wonder
when it comes to the topsoil
that shallow six or eight inch covering of much of our planet
without which life as we know it would cease to be:
no crops, no plants, no fruit, no veg.
No grasses for livestock or cereal for food 鈥�
this dusty earth upon which Christ once doodled on the ground this dusty earth with which he smeared a blind man鈥檚 eyes and gave him
not just sight
but a whole new life as well
this dust that we are,
which gave us form and gives us life, and to which someday
we will each of us return.

MUSIC: For the Beauty of the Earth (David Evans)

READER
A reading from the 4th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark at the first verse.
Again Jesus began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them :鈥滾isten! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain .Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.鈥� And he said, 鈥楲et anyone with ears to hear listen!鈥�
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

CANON BATTYE聽 At Rogationtide in times past
people would have taken time out
simply to ask for God鈥檚 blessing
not only on the land and upon the seed being sown at this time
but also on their very work as well 鈥� their human labour.
In such rural societies it was easy to see a clear connection
between a Creator God and the land
where man鈥檚 labour supplied the vital link between the two.
The whole thing was seen as an act of co-operation between the human
and the divine.
Human labour, infused with the power of prayer
became part of the whole creative process,
and within that context
it was very easy to discern a real sense of vocation.
Again there was a time when the same would have been said about other occupations as well,
from the caring professions
to those who learned their trades at what were known as Vocational schools
and each was perceived as being of immense value
to the society of which they were a part.
In our world however
where the impression one often gets
is that work is just a necessary evil
something to pay the mortgage
provide for the family
pay for the many holidays
and get us to the weekend.
There would seem to be little sense
in which our labours are seen as honourable
part of a wider corporate effort in which we all participate
our contribution to society
but certainly not the unthinkable 鈥渟omething we do for God.鈥�
a place where we find our vocation and true fulfilment in life,
and THAT, I believe, is a great shame,
because after all
the workplace is the one where we spend
most of the YOUNGEST and BEST years of our lives
and if THAT DOESN鈥橳 provide a certain fulfilment
it would seem a terrible waste of energies
* a waste for which no financial reward
could ever repay us adequately.
鈥淏ut not every occupation provides us with that much about which
to be high-minded,鈥� you say.
And yes, there is more than an element of drudgery
in the routine of every occupation.
No one knew that better than the French, Brother Lawrence
who entered a monastery to serve God
in a life of contemplation and prayer, he thought
only to find himself in the gloomy depths of the Abbey
peeling vegetables all day, mending shoes and washing endless dishes
for the boys upstairs!!!
This Brother Lawrence, who in his spiritual classic
鈥淭he Practice of the Presence of God鈥�
explained his constant happiness by saying
鈥渋t is because each potato I peel, I do it for God
and that makes me very glad.鈥�
A bit like the poet George Herbert
who gave up a glittering career in the Court of King James to become
vicar of some rural backwaters
where he wrote such hymns as
鈥淭each me my God and King, in all things Thee to see
And what I do in anything, to do it as for Thee.鈥�
Now while none of that is to underestimate the grind
which is involved in daily labour,
nor the fact that for some there can be personal circumstances,
which makes things so much more difficult for them,
we still have to ask the question
What is it, that enables some
often the people who give most endlessly and unselfishly
to be totally positive about their work,
while for others, the same work is viewed only
as toil to be tolerated,
or at best, a passing step on the ladder of success?
Isn鈥檛 there something badly wrong when one finds such negativity
in one of the richest countries in the world
to which so many others want to enter?
In my more negative moments it seems to me
as if some all pervading disease
has infected the whole of our society,
one which I feel can only be defined as greed.
And yes, I know that depending on our perspective
it would be very easy to point a finger
at one group or another at this stage,
but the fact is,
that here is something that has infected us all, from top to bottom
from the former bastions of respectability
* the politicians, the bankers, the professions,
all of them in recent headlines
even the once clean-cut sportsmen
right down to those whom the most negative commentators
of very different outlooks would describes as scroungers
鈥渢hose who neither work nor want
and yet go on demanding and expecting even more for nothing.鈥�
Whereas the fact is that we are all tainted by this disease
whether we are driven by the greed of the powerful
or that spirit of self-preservation
which caused聽some in the South Yorkshire Police force
to protect themselves at the cost of others.
So there is no point in becoming a Hamlet
bemoaning the ills of our world
and pointing to a rottenness at the heart of things
especially when we can turn to one who has already confronted
this very problem long before us.
The One who had warned against the impossibility of being the servants
both of God and mammon or materialism
the One who told parables about rich men outlining expansive futures
only to leave them all behind in the face of death,
the One who wept over the sins of his beloved city where he finds that
even the very place of worship, the most hallowed shrine
has become a centre of trade
* the same one who continues to ask of both them and us,
and indeed those of every generation
that very searching question
which most of us would still prefer to avoid
鈥渁nd what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?鈥�
and yet the one who despite all of those stark warnings
reveals his true and perfect motivation
when he compares himself to a mother hen
longing to draw back her wayward chicks from danger
into the shelter of her wings
* the one who in order to protect us
still calls us back, each and every one of us
so that once more we may turn to him in prayer
and rededicate ourselves just as we do now in the hymn
which we are about to sing.

MUSIC: Teach me my God and King (English traditional melody)

ARCHDEACON聽 We turn to God in prayer. As Noel has reminded us, we can see purpose in the dazzling variety of organisms in even a handful of soil and find meaning in even the most menial of work. So let us pray:
SPEAKER 1 Lord you are with us at all times and in all places
Be with us now, as we pray for our world and for its needs
for the work we undertake each day. But first we pray for your Church within that world
that we may be faithful to the tasks to which you call us day by day

SPEAKER 2 Grant O Lord that your Church may be constant in spreading the good seed of your word that it may be faithful in proclaiming the Gospel, compassionate in its concern for the suffering and courageous in its testimony to truth and righteousness that your Kingdom may be furthered and your name glorified.
SPEAKER 1 Many who live in the countryside see these as uncertain times for the farming community, when others may not understand the struggle of many to survive. We pray for their work - that we may all play our part in the building up of a world,worthy of the One who gives it into our keeping.
SPEAKER 2 Lord you taught us to pray for our daily bread so we ask your blessing on the sowing of the seed and the labours of all who work on the land, that the earth may yield its full harvest and the needs of all may be supplied.
SPEAKER 1 We now ask for God's blessing on our daily places of work
both in terms of their end products
and their daily relationships within that environment.
And at the end of a week when a police force was found wanting with some terrible and lasting
consequences, we聽 remember all who work as public servants:
SPEAKER 2 Lord help us to carry into our daily work your care for every part of human life,
a genuine interest in everyone we encounter
Diligence of purpose, honesty and integrity.
and our calling as women and men to be lights to the world..

SPEAKER 1 At a time of so much sorrow in our world.
Where one major tragedy seems to follow another
and where those in one week's headlines are quietly forgotten as others take their place.
We think especially today of those who were traumatized and continue to be traumatized by the
Hillsborough Disaster
We pray for all who continue to cope with sorrow and for all who seek to bring them help and comfort.
SPEAKER 2聽 We bring to you Lord the sufferings of those we think of and whom we now name in the silence of our hearts (brief silence_
Help is to respond to their needs in whatever way we can
ARCHDEACON聽 And we sum up these and all our prayers in the words our Saviour taught us, as we pray, OUR FATHER..
Lord's Prayer

ARCHDEACON聽 The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep you 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 with you and remain with you always聽 AMEN

MUSIC Be thou my vision聽 (Irish traditional melody)

Sunday Worship came live from St Nicholas' Church in Carrickfergus, County Antrim. The leader was the Rector, Archdeacon George Davison and the preacher the Revd Noel Battye. the Choir of Carrickfergus Grammar School was directed by Edward Craig and the Organist was Stephen Hamill. The producer was Bert Tosh.

Next week Sunday worship comes live from Holy Trinity Church Platt in South Manchester.
Radio 4's Celebration of Ascension Day comes from St Martin-in-the-Fields this Thursday, the 5th of May at 8 o'clock in the evening. It features the music of John Rutter and a new Jazz Missa Brevis.