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Please note:

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.

RADIO 4 OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT:
It鈥檚 ten past eight, and time now for the first of Radio 4鈥檚 Sunday Worship programmes during Lent. The service comes live from St Matthew鈥檚 Church in Westminster, and is led by the vicar Father Philip Chester. The preacher is Canon Jeremy Davies, who reflects on the poetry of George Herbert. The service begins now with a Lenten motet by Thomas Morley.

CHOIR: Nolo mortem peccatoris (Morley) [c.2鈥�30]

PHILIP:
Good morning and welcome to St Matthew鈥檚 in the heart of London. When this church was built in 1849, this corner of Westminster stood geographically at a crossroads between the powerful and the powerless. Echoes of that 19th century urban mix still shape our community life today, surrounded as we are by departments of state alongside hostels for people who are homeless, social housing amongst some of the most expensive real estate in the city.听 Our parish includes embassies, think tanks, shops and offices, including that of our immediate neighbours, the charity Prison Fellowship. We seek to be a church that creates community, where all can find a welcome, without condition.
We have just begun the season of Lent, which is a forty day time of preparation for the joyful celebration of Easter. Traditionally Lent was a time when new Christians, whose imaginations had been caught and whose lives were being transformed by the good news of Jesus, were prepared for baptism on Easter Day. And indeed all baptised Christians 鈥� the whole church 鈥� came to see this Lenten season as a time to take stock of their lives, a time to acknowledge their faults and ask God鈥檚 forgiveness, so that they 鈥� we indeed 鈥� might be renewed. And the motet the choir has just sung reminds us of this penitential theme: Nolo mortem peccatoris, I do not desire the death of a sinner.

Before we ask God鈥檚 forgiveness for our misusings of his love, let us remind ourselves of just how much God does love us and how often he forgives us, as we sing the hymn: There鈥檚 a wideness in God鈥檚 mercy, like the wideness of the sea.

CHOIR & ORGAN: Hymn 鈥� There鈥檚 a wideness in God鈥檚 mercy like the wideness of the sea (tune Corvedale) [2鈥�45]

PHILIP:
Thankful that God鈥檚 love is indeed broader than the measure of our mind, and that the heart of the eternal is most wonderfully kind, let us ask God鈥檚 forgiveness and his grace to amend our lives:听

We have turned aside from your ways,
and have not loved you with our whole heart.
Lord, have mercy.听
ALL: Lord, have mercy.

PHILIP:
We have wounded your love and marred your image in us.
Christ, have mercy.听
ALL: Christ, have mercy.

PHILIP:
Lord, forgive us when we have failed to proclaim you.
Lord, have mercy.听
ALL: Christ, have mercy.
PHILIP:
Almighty God,
have mercy upon us,
forgive us our sins
and bring us to eternal life.
Amen.

The forty days of Lent recall the forty days and forty nights that Jesus after his baptism spent in the wilderness. Here is St Mark鈥檚 sparse account of those events.

RACHEL: Mark 1 vv.9-13
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.听 And a voice came from heaven, 鈥淵ou are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.鈥� And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

PHILIP:
The well-known hymn Forty Days and Forty Nights allows us with a bit of poetic imagination to enter into the sacred text and get a feel of some of the privations Jesus must have endured - the scorching sunbeams and the chilly dew drops, prowling beasts and stony pillow!

CHOIR & ORGAN: Hymn: Forty days and forty nights [c.2鈥�30]

PHILIP:
As Jesus comes out of the Jordan river a voice is heard identifying Jesus as the favoured one of God 鈥� God鈥檚 Son indeed, the beloved. But being God鈥檚 Son does not free Jesus from the human predicament. Being Son of God gives him the privilege not of exemption, but of immersion 鈥� full immersion you might say 鈥� in the problems and pains and pressures (as well as the possibilities) of what it is to be human. His immersion in the river was a symbol of his total involvement in our life. And so it is as he leaves the dark waters of the Jordan that he is immediately confronted by the consequences of his humanity. He is tempted by the same temptations that all of us are 鈥� though St Mark in his account doesn鈥檛 give us the colourful vignettes that we get in Matthew and Luke.

Jesus is lured by selfishness and self-centredness, whether in the form of personal ambition, greed, or desire to control and dominate. Jesus who knows he is loved by the Father and that he enjoys the Father鈥檚 favour is tempted as we are by the seductions of worldly power and glory. And Jesus 鈥� who did not think his equality with God was something he needed to hoard or grab hold of or flaunt in any way 鈥� recognises these seductions for what they are. For all their attractiveness he recognises the prison into which he is being lured 鈥� and on which he turns his back.

CHOIR [& ORGAN]: Psalm 142

PHILIP:
鈥楤ring my soul out of prison鈥� pleads the psalmist. He鈥檚 probably not literally in prison but held captive none the less by the circumstances of life - by persecutors maybe who lay a snare for him, but there is also a recognition that there is no-one who knows him, and no-one who cares for him. Life feels like a prison sometimes from which we can鈥檛 escape - whether it鈥檚 an addiction, an obsession, or just worrying about the limited resources available to us. And quite apart from the circumstances of life the prison which most constrains us is our own wilfulness 鈥� our own capacity and readiness to indulge our selfish passions. The very same enticements that were dangled before Jesus 鈥� in his case to no avail. Ours is a different story. When the sixteenth century priest poet George Herbert came to reflect both on the human condition and how that condition was rescued by a loving saviour, he recognised how relentless and seemingly interminable was the prison in which our human kind is locked. In a moment we鈥檒l hear from our preacher, Canon Jeremy Davies, but first here鈥檚听 George Herbert鈥檚 poem Sin鈥檚 Round.

MARY: Poem 鈥� Sinnes Round (George Herbert)

Sorry I am, my God, sorry I am,
That my offences course it in a ring.
My thoughts are working like a busy flame,
Until their cockatrice they hatch and bring:
And when they once have perfected their draughts,
My words take fire from my inflamed thoughts.

My words take fire from my inflamed thoughts,
Which spit it forth like the Sicilian hill.
They vent their wares, and pass them with their faults,
And by their breathing ventilate the ill.
But words suffice not, where are lewd intentions:
My hands do join to finish the inventions.

My hands do join to finish the inventions:
And so my sins ascend three stories high,
As Babel grew, before there were dissentions.
Let ill deeds loiter not: for they supply
New thoughts of sinning:
wherefore, to my shame,
Sorry I am, my God, sorry I am.

JEREMY:
George Herbert was a musician as well as a priest and a poet and it is no surprise therefore that musical images as well as a varied range of rhythm and rhyme occur in his poetry. Here, in Sin鈥檚 Round he chooses the image of a musical round to illustrate the prison in which we are enclosed. A round is a musical device which involves the repetition of a simple melody which creates harmony by different voices starting the tune at a number of different points in the course of the song. Fr猫re Jacques is probably the one we are all familiar with and have often sung. Harmony is created - but where do you stop? There are no obvious stopping points in a round - in theory a round is interminable, constantly repeated, relentless. And that鈥檚 George Herbert鈥檚 point in Sin鈥檚 Round. We are on a relentless treadmill, a spiral of sin into which we are locked without it seems and escape or end in sight. A round may be a pleasant and gentle musical image - but its unendingness makes it seem as harsh as any prison. It鈥檚 as though we are locked inside and the jailer has thrown away the key.

George Herbert conveys the sense of a round by beginning and ending his poem with the same line 鈥楽orry I am my God, sorry I am鈥�, - no sooner do we seem to get to the end of the poem than we return to the beginning again and the round is never completed. And each verse ends with a line with which the next verse begins - handing on the baton of sin to the next verse as it were. In the three verses of the poem George Herbert takes three different examples of human waywardness - in verse one it is our thoughts 鈥榳orking like a busy flame鈥� which involve us in sin. But worse yet, our sinful thoughts lead on to sinful deeds - the subject of the second verse - 鈥榤y words take fire from my inflamed thoughts鈥� the poet laments. But our round of sinning is still not complete, nor ever will be. For words give way to actions. And we are caught in a never-ending, constantly-repeated web of wrong-doing. And no sooner do we get to the end, as it seems, of the poem than we are off again 鈥業ll deeds loiter not, for they supply new thoughts of sinning鈥� and we are back at the beginning of the merry-go-round 鈥� sinning again in thought, word and deed.

However, forensic as the poet鈥檚 scrutiny of the human condition is, and however accurate his view of our incorrigibility may be, he is also profoundly aware that God is love 鈥� a God who bids us welcome to the banquet he has prepared for us, and who will not take no for an answer, however wayward we have been - and wayward we certainly are! Built into this poem of relentless backsliding is a moment of grace. The poem begins and ends, as I say, with same words 鈥楽orry I am my God, sorry I am鈥� Those words of penitence and contrition allow grace to abound. It is the only way that we are released from sin鈥檚 round. Only God鈥檚 grace responding to our contrition frees us from the treadmill of our delinquency. Like the prodigal returning home from the far country, we see ourselves as we truly are, as we kneel in penitence asking for forgiveness,
鈥楩ather I have sinned against heaven and before you鈥�
鈥楽orry I am my God, sorry I am鈥�
And what do we receive? Our just deserts? The punishment that others, and we ourselves, might deem appropriate? No.
The Father runs to meet us, orders sandals for our feet, the royal robe of welcome to enfold us, the fatted calf to be roasted in our honour. We are not just restored to our old place in the pecking order, but given a place of intimacy, closest to the Father鈥檚 heart.
Sin鈥檚 round has been replaced by Love鈥檚 welcome.
As George Herbert, maybe with the parable of the prodigal鈥檚 homecoming in mind, wrote in his loveliest poem:
You must sit down says Love and taste my meat
So I did sit and eat.
CHOIR & ORGAN: Anthem 鈥� Requests: I asked for peace (Words by D Mackworth-Dolben, Music by Anthony Caesar) [c.2鈥�00]

PHILIP:
This season of Lent is an opportunity for self-knowledge to grow so that we may recognise that whatever we think, say or do, we are loved by the God who stands ever ready to welcome us home. And that sense of being loved beyond our wildest dreams is the beginning of our transformation. Jesus said that he had come to fulfil the prophecy of old to bring good news to the poor, give new sight to the blind, set the downtrodden free and proclaim liberty to captives. Easter Day in a few weeks time will be our celebration that he delivered on that promise - we are set free, redeemed, loved.

Of course there are many in our world for whom prison is not simply a metaphor for life鈥檚 exigencies crowding in on us. Prison is for some a harsh reality, a loss of freedom imposed often unjustly upon men and women for their political or religious allegiances, or the colour of their skin or their sexual orientation. Lent is an appropriate time to remember such prisoners of conscience and others in our world who suffer indignities and oppression at the hands of those whose arbitrary exercise of justice is no justice at all.

And let us also remember those who are in prison because of their wrong doing, and who suffer appropriate punishment for their crimes against individuals and against society. In a moment we shall hear from a member of our congregation, former MP Jonathan Aitken, about his experiences during and after his imprisonment, which will help inform our prayers as we remember all who are in prison 鈥� recognising that we are all children of God made in his image and likeness, all loved by him who is constantly waiting and looking out to the far horizon for his children鈥檚 return, longing to welcome them home.

But let us first hear words from Psalm 25, set to music by Richard Farrant.

CHOIR: Anthem 鈥� Call to remembrance (R Farrant) [c.2鈥�00]

JONATHAN:
鈥淚 was in prison and you visited me鈥� said Jesus in his parable of the sheep and the goats.

When I was a prisoner I was hugely grateful to those who took the trouble to visit me 鈥� including members of this congregation, especially our Vicar, Father Philip, who came to see me six times in seven months when I was serving my sentence for perjury.

Many prisoners are far less fortunate.
They feel spurned, isolated and forgotten.

Their low self-esteem can plummet still further after they are released when they discover that the phrase 鈥淭he Rehabilitation of Offenders鈥� is often an empty aspiration rather than a practical reality.
In the spiritual world, our Faith teaches us that God in his mercy offers second chances to sinners.

The material world is much harsher.听 Ex-offenders find it difficult to get interviews, let alone jobs.

Since coming out of prison eighteen years ago, I have worked with churches and charities which help ex- offenders to change the direction of their lives and to make a fresh start.

In the last two years a charity I have worked with, founded by Yorkshire Prison Officers, has mentored 156 offenders, before and after their release from Armley, Wealstrom, Hatfield and Askham Grange Prisons, guiding them into full time jobs in the Leeds/Bradford area.听

Only two of the 156 have gone back to jail.听 The other 154 are real life examples of successful rehabilitation.

So there are encouraging stories of hope in this field.听 But we need many more mentors
chaplaincy volunteers
enlightened employers
and dedicated charity workers

all doing their bit to improve the second chances for those ex-prisoners who sincerely want to transform their lives and go straight.

As we turn now to our merciful God in prayer, we ask during Lent that this rehabilitation of offenders work will continue to grow and to flourish.

JAMIE:
Prayer 1: A prayer of the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, imprisoned by the Nazi regime during the Second World War and executed in 1945. As we use Bonhoeffer鈥檚 words we pray for all prisoners of conscience in our own day, and all who are suffering for their religious beliefs, their personal commitments or their political allegiances.

God, our Father, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray and to think only of you.
In me there is darkness
But with you there is light.
I am lonely but you never leave me.
I am feeble in heart, but you are always strong.
I am restless but in you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you patience.
Your ways are beyond my understanding,
But you know the way for me.
Lord Jesus Christ,
You were poor and wretched,
You were a captive as I am,
Cut off from your friends as I am.
You know all our human distress.
You abide in me, in my isolation.
You do not forget me, but seek me out.
You desire that I should know and love you.
Lord, I hear your call and follow you.

Holy Spirit,
Grant me the faith that will protect me from despair.
Pour into me such love for you and for all my fellow humans,
That any hatred and bitterness may be blotted out.
Grant me the faith that will deliver me from fear.
My Lord and my God for ever
Amen.

Prayer 2:
We pray for all who are in trouble, need, despair or sickness.听 God of compassion, comforter of the sorrowful, let the prayers of all who cry out of any suffering come to you, that they may know your presence in their lives, and find peace in their hearts.
听
We remember especially all who are confined in prison for whatever reason, and we pray for their families and loved ones.听

Grant to all who long for a fresh start release from brokenness and failure, courage to step out towards new possibility, hope in dark times, perseverance in slow times, and trust in your mercy and love shown to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.听 Amen.听

And so we gather all our prayers together in the words which Jesus taught us:

ALL:
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,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

鈥�
Hymn: Praise the Lord, for he has given (Words: Jeremy Davies Tune: Blaenwern) [c.3鈥�30]

PHILIP:
May Christ, who out of defeat brings new hope and a new future, fill you with his new life, and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be among you and remain with you always.
Amen

ORGAN: Voluntary: Prelude in C minor听 (Bach)

听