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The Rt Revd Jan McFarlane, DeanÌý

Good morning, and welcome to Lichfield Cathedral, situated here in beautiful Staffordshire.ÌýÌý

We're delighted you can join us today as we mark seventeen hundred years since the Nicene Creed was written - that's the great statement of Christian faith still used in churches around the world today.Ìý

This morning, we're focusing on one particular line from the Creed: "Maker of all that is, seen and unseen - through Him all things were made." In other words, we're celebrating God as the creator of everything in our universe.Ìý

We'll explore this theme together through readings from the Bible, beautiful music from Lichfield Cathedral's Chamber Choir, and through moments of quiet reflection and prayer. It's our way of worshipping God as both the one who made all things, and the one who saves us.Ìý

So whether you're with us here at the Cathedral,Ìý listening at home, in the car, or wherever this morning finds you, we invite you to be part of this service of worship and celebration.Ìý

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Canon Andrew Stead

Let us pray:Ìý

Almighty God,Ìý

You have created the heavens and the earthÌý

And made us in your own image:Ìý

Teach us to discern your hand in all your worksÌý

And your likeness in all your children;Ìý

Through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,Ìý

Who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,Ìý

Now and for ever.Ìý Amen.Ìý

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Hymn: Thou whose almighty word.ÌýÌý

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Canon Andrew:Ìý

In this profound passage from Paul's letter to the Romans, we encounter one of the most striking images in Christian scripture - that of all creation itself groaning like a woman in childbirth, waiting for redemption. The apostle presents a cosmic vision where humanity's spiritual transformation is intimately connected to the liberation of the entire natural world from decay and futility.Ìý

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Reading:Ìý Romans 8.19-25ÌýÌýÌý

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Talk 1: Maker of All That IsÌý

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The opening words of the Bible. The story of salvation begins here.Ìý

Fifteen hundred years later, John the Evangelist reflects on this truth in his Gospel: All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. And seventeen hundred years ago, the Church gathered at Nicaea to affirm this extraordinary truth as fundamental to our faith.Ìý

What better time to remember this than now? When the harvest is reaped. When God's bounty from earth and sky and sea yields up its fruits. His gifts. His handiwork.Ìý

But we too easily gloss over this truth: that God is in all things; at work in all things; the origin of all things.Ìý

And in glossing over it, we gloss over our hope.Ìý

For if God has made all things and has made himself known to us in human form through Christ Jesus, then our hope is this: that in knowing Jesus, we can begin to know ourselves more truly. We can understand how God is in our world, and who God is for our world.Ìý

St Augustine of Hippo spent years seeking purpose in life. Enjoying all the good things, in every sense! Experiences, activities, material pleasures. Then one day he realised something startling. The truth and purpose of life was to love, praise, and be with God.Ìý

Even more startling? God wasn't an object 'out there' to be found. God was with him, and in him, all along.Ìý

In his Confessions, Augustine writes with lyrical joy: 'Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new! You were within, but I outside, seeking everywhere for you.’Ìý

When we look for traces of God in our lives, we realise something remarkable. He's not far away, like a lost object. He's knit into the very fabric of our nature. We bear his imprint. We bear the maker's mark.Ìý

And so does all creation.Ìý

Another saint seeking his calling was St Ignatius of Loyola, a sixteenth-century Spanish soldier. He lived the swashbuckling life, fighting in wars, until he was badly injured. As he reflected on his life, God gave him revelations, visions that showed him that God was not only in his own heart, but present in nature and all created life.Ìý

God, he concluded - because he had made all things - could be found in all things.Ìý

From his experiences he wrote the Spiritual Exercises: ‘All the things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely, and serve him more faithfully.’Ìý

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He is not hidden from us. We need only seek him - the one who made us, who also, as the anthem says ‘maketh the seven stars and Orion, the sun to rule the day, the moon and the stars to govern the night.’Ìý

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Choir Anthem:Ìý Seek him that maketh the seven stars – Antony JouleÌý

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Canon Andrew:Ìý

The reading from the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that God's Son is the one who made everything that exists, holds it all together, and has also rescued us from our wrongdoing.Ìý

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ReadingÌý Hebrews 1.1-4ÌýÌý

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Talk 2: Seen and UnseenÌý

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‘No-one has ever seen God’, John the Evangelist tells us. Moses nearly sees God, but covers his eyes. At the same time, we see God's mark on all created things. And we don't just see his mark - we feel his presence.Ìý

ÌýOur world is increasingly material. Things, stuff, objects, dominate our lives. We are rarely disconnected from our phones. Perhaps we're materialistic because what we can touch and see reassures us and settles our minds.Ìý

ÌýBut God is also maker of what cannot be seen.Ìý

ÌýWhere would we be without love? Without friendship? Without feelings?Ìý

ÌýIt's not just the emotional things we cannot see. You cannot see gravity, but it's essential for everyday life. Our atmosphere contains twenty-one per cent oxygen. If that varies by more than a couple of per cent, human life is in trouble. Yet it remains constant. Invisible.Ìý

ÌýThat God's ongoing action in creation extends far beyond what we can see reminds us of his majesty and power. But also, his covenant, his relationship, his promise to be with us. It reminds us there's a power and presence beyond what we can sense and touch.Ìý

ÌýBut it means we must trust. And be thankful.Ìý

ÌýWe trust in gravity. We trust that oxygen remains constant. That our hearts will beat and our lungs expand. We have no control over these functions. Nothing we can see controls them either.Ìý

ÌýSuch is the power of the Creator. He not only brings us into being, but sustains us, often unseen.Ìý

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And it's not just physically that God sustains us, but through the prayers of his body, the Church. People wonder if their prayers are answered. Whether prayer 'works'. Perhaps we should wonder something else. What would happen if everyone stopped praying at once? If we lost that communion with God?Ìý

ÌýIt's easy to forget God. To miss his actions. Because many prayers are answered unseen, it's easy to ignore them or simply miss them.Ìý

ÌýCS Lewis wrote memorably: ‘We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.’Ìý

ÌýA chef can attune her taste buds to detect flavours beyond imagining. Similarly, through a sixth sense of prayer, we can look for God's unseen acts. Mindfulness might seem like 'new age' fancy. But of course, it's as old as time. We call it prayer, or communion. It's how we see the unmoved mover, God, at work beyond the naked eye.Ìý

ÌýThe theologian Edward Farley encourages us to develop what he calls a 'habitus' - to tune our senses and our prayer into God. He says it's like a sixth sense, a disposition of the soul. A sixth sense that calls us to trust and calls us into closeness with God.Ìý

ÌýAs the words of our anthem remind us,’Mine eyes for beauty pine’- yet perhaps what we truly long to see is not beauty itself, but Beauty's source. The one who makes all lovely things, even when he remains himself unseen.Ìý

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Chamber Choir:Ìý My Eyes for beauty pine Elizabeth and Thomas Coxhead

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Prayer:ÌýÌý Canon AndrewÌý

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Canon Andrew:ÌýÌý

The reading from Paul's Letter to the Ephesians reminds us that because there is one God who is Father of all and works through all creation, we too are called to live as one united family. Paul urges us to show the same love and patience with each other that reflects God's care for everything he has made.Ìý

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Reading:Ìý Ephesians 6.1-6ÌýÌý

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ÌýTalk 3: Through Him All Things Were MadeÌý

ÌýYou've probably heard of the Butterfly Effect, coined by mathematician Edward Lorenz, when he memorably asked ‘Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?’Ìý

ÌýThe smallest change can lead to massive consequences. When we dip our toe in the sea, we're changing the shape of the ocean worldwide.Ìý

ÌýIt reminds us how connected our world is through nature alone. Add extraordinary advances in technology, and we're more connected than ever before.Ìý

ÌýYet this surge in connectedness has been paralleled by dislocation.ÌýÌý

ÌýClimate change is a worrying reminder that we affect each other more than we notice. Our world's equilibrium is unstable.Ìý

ÌýIs there a connection between technological progress and our loss of touch with the divine? Professor Richard Dawkins has argued that as scientific understanding increases, the need for God diminishes. The statistics seem to support him. In advanced nations, faith does appear to be diminishing.Ìý

ÌýBut as we notice these trends, people don't question further. Does this mean the world is better?Ìý

ÌýIt's hard to argue everything is improving. Yes, people live longer. Many illnesses are treatable. Yet for all our progress in science and technology, moral progress seems far slower.Ìý

ÌýAs Pope Benedict wrote: ‘’If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man’s ethical formation, in man's inner growth, then it is not progress at all.’Ìý

ÌýWe live in a world where conflicts proliferate, where culture wars thrive. Where truth is now seen as opinion. Where people grow ever lonelier.Ìý

If butterfly wings can create storms continents away, perhaps we're all more connected through creation - and through the Creator - than we'd ever realised?Ìý

ÌýImagine a world where moral progress advanced as rapidly as quantum computing! Where we all allowed God's image to be seen in its fullness.Ìý

It would be nothing less than a new world. As John the Divine describes it, a new Jerusalem.Ìý

ÌýThen I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.Ìý

ÌýIf a butterfly's wings can change the world, how much more can our recognition through praise of the Creator who made all things? Who is in all things? Who is making all things new?Ìý

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Sing Praise to God - Richard LloydÌý

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Prayer: Canon AndrewÌý

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Hymn:Ìý Immortal Invisible.Ìý

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Intercession:Ìý Dean Jan.ÌýÌý

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Let us ask the God of Creation to send a blessing upon us.Ìý

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Upon the rich earth send a blessing, O Lord.Ìý

Let the earth be fruitfulÌý

and its resources be hallowed.Ìý

We ask in faith: Hear us, good Lord.Ìý

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Upon human labour send a blessing, O Lord.Ìý

Prosper the work of our hands;Ìý

may all find dignity and just reward in their work;Ìý

free the exploited and oppressed.Ìý

We ask in faith: Hear us, good Lord.Ìý

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Upon the produce of the earth send a blessing, O Lord.Ìý

Guide us into a sustainable future,Ìý

and give us the will to share the fruits of the world.Ìý

We ask in faith: Hear us, good Lord.Ìý

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Upon the seas and waters send a blessing, O Lord.Ìý

Teach us to cherish the water of the earth,Ìý

and to conserve the seas, lakes and rivers.Ìý

We ask in faith: Hear us, good Lord.Ìý

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Upon aid agencies send a blessing, O Lord.Ìý

Where the earth is parched and the well has run dry;Ìý

where war brings want, and children go hungry;Ìý

where the poor cry out for bread and for justice,Ìý

give hands to care and heal, and compel us to be generous.Ìý

We ask in faith: Hear us, good Lord.Ìý

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We ask you to hear us, good Lord,Ìý

for the sake of your Son,Ìý

our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.Ìý

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Lord’s Prayer:Ìý Dean JanÌý

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Jesus taught us to call God our Father, and so we have the courage to say:Ìý

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name;Ìý

thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.ÌýÌý

Give us this day our daily bread.Ìý And forgive us our trespasses,ÌýÌý

as we forgive those who trespass against us.ÌýÌý

And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.ÌýÌý

For thine is the kingdom, the power,ÌýÌý

and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.Ìý

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ÌýHymn – 558Ìý Lobe den Herren (Praxis Pietatis)Ìý

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Blessing:Ìý Canon AndrewÌý

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May GodÌý

who clothes the lilies of the field and feeds the birds of the air,Ìý

who leads the lambs to pasture and the deer to water,Ìý

who multiplied loaves and fishes, and changed water into wine,Ìý

lead us and feed us,Ìý

and change us to reflect the glory of our CreatorÌý

now and through all eternity;Ìý

and the blessing of God almighty,Ìý

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,Ìý

be among you and remain with you always.Ìý

Amen.Ìý

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14. Organ Voluntary: ‘Carillon de Longpont’ from 24 Pièces en style libre, Op.31 – Louis VierneÌýÌý