good morning and welcome to the generally at canterbury cathedral on this morning of thursday the 2nd of december people look east the time is near and we've come up to this tower at the northern end of the deanery which looks out to the east and it's from here and from the windows looking east that we see the sunrise over the hills and morning declaring itself one of the great messages of advent and one of the great hymns that we sing at advent time people look east the time is near so wherever you are in the world bring your prayers and your intentions as we join together in morning prayer oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise reveal among us the light of your presence that we may behold your power and glory blessed are you sovereign god of all to you be praise and glory forever in your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night as we look for your coming among us this day open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you praise 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 does 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 amen our psalm this morning is psalm 11 for the second morning of the month in the lord have i taken refuge how then can you say to me flee like a bird to the hills foresee how the wicked bend the bow and fit their arrows to the string to shoot from the shadows at the true of heart when the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do the lord is in his holy temple the lord's throne is in heaven his eyes behold his eyelids try every immortal being the lord tries the righteous as well as the wicked but those who delight in violence his soul abhors upon the wicked he shall reign codes of fire and burning sulphur scorching wind shall be their portion to drink for the lord is righteous he loves righteous deeds and those who are upright shall behold his face it's a psalm of judgment a psalm also of someone in a difficult position sensing that everything about them wants to run away from it but then we have that verse which is a memorable verse when the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do it's part of the righteous task to protect the foundations they might be physical foundations in stone or they might be the foundations of liturgy and worship or of any kind of thinking that needs protecting or announcing it's a wonderful psalm on this advent morning but we're going back now to the epistle to the hebrews and we're sitting particularly here because we have in the psalm and in the hebrews a sense of singing and worshiping the lord and i said this is from where we see the sun rise and the morning declare itself it's also on this side of the house and particularly when the windows are open in summertime or springtime or early autumn the music of the song school next door of the choristers singing the music which will be sung at evensong and as we hear that music it encourages us to remember the words of the tunes perhaps we're catching on the air for that morning sometimes they're words of psalms sometimes of anthem sometimes of canticles like magnificat or the non-dimitis and as we do so then the lord declares himself in word and the foundations are held for the lord is himself our foundation let's go then to the epistle to the hebrews and today we are beginning from where we left off yesterday we're starting at the verse 1 of chapter 3 and we shall read this whole chapter therefore holy brothers and sisters you who share in a heavenly calling consider jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession who was faithful to him who appointed him just as moses also was faithful in all god's house for jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than moses as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself for every house is built by someone but the builder of all things is god now moses was faithful in all god's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later but christ is faithful over god's house as a son and we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope therefore as the holy spirit says today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years therefore i was provoked with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart they have not known my ways as i swore in my roth they shall not enter my rest take care brothers and sisters lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living god but exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for we have come to share in christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end as it is said today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion for who were those who had and yet rebelled was it not all those who left egypt led by moses and with whom was god provoked for 40 years was it not with those who sinned whose bodies fell in the wilderness and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who were disobedient so we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief because of falling away if you like from an earlier faithfulness and as we think about that we hear once again the writer of the epistle to the hebrews quoting psalms and this time the psalm is psalm 95 now psalm 95 has a very special place in all liturgies and for a long time in the morning prayer of prayer books the old book of common prayer and many of the breviaries which preceded it psalm 95 was after the words oh lord open our lips the opening vesicles was the beginning of all worship and it's hardly surprising the writer to the hebrews doesn't quote those first seven verses we use them today often but not every morning anymore before it was a foundation of all worship and so i'm going to read it as i read psalm 8 yesterday and as we do so think of that as a foundation for morning worship here it is psalm 95 oh come let us sing to the lord let us heartily rejoice in the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving and be glad in him with psalms for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods in his hand are the depths of the earth and the heights of the mountains are his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands have molded the dry land come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand oh that today you would listen to his voice harden not your hearts as at meribah on that day at masa in the wilderness when your forebears tested me and put me to the proof though they had seen my works forty years long i detested that generation and said this people are wayward in their hearts they do not know my ways so i swore in my roth they shall not enter into my rest well let's think first of the beginning of this wonderful psalm and then think of the end because it's the end that the the last four verses that the writer to the hebrews is interested in sharing with us and with those he's writing to and here we are verses one to seven and twice in that there is an invitation it's not not a command not an imperative like people look east that's that's an instruction almost from the hymn writer and as the hymn writer at elena fargen uh uh announces that people look east the time is near but these are not these are invitations set out in a subjunctive case so that it's it's sort of inviting you in not commanding but giving something that might happen if we're willing oh come let us sing to the lord and the latin word for come venite and then follows another verb for the verb as we get it instructively is an imperative o come let us sing to the lord it suddenly becomes an invitation and at the same time in verse six and this was a verse where in the old liturgies we always used to bow ourselves slightly come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker the first invitation of the morning venite adoramas now come let us worship or if you like because it's the chorus of the odessa vidalia so come all you faithful which we sing gladly on christmas day oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him christ the lord and that invitation comes at the end of each verse and here it is in psalm 95 a foundation stone we remember that sentence if the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do well here's a foundation stone that we are invited to lay every morning a foundation of music oh come let us sing to the lord and join the choirs of angels which that at this day for daily so come on you faithful speaks about seeing choirs of angels but we are the ones who are being invited into that worship and then verse six come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands these natural images always coming into the psalms it mentions the heights of the earth the mountains the depths of the earth everything in god's hands the sea and the dry land we're back in the creator's own terminology in creation but in the middle of it all those two invitations come let us sing to the lord and come let us worship and bow down and then comes the warning so often i've heard this psalm and it's stopped just it we are the people of his pastor and the sheep of his hand but there's always a warning there because the psalm is being written about those who did not keep faith as well and the warning comes as it came later to those who would sing this psalm as jesus must have many times but it came later to all those who said that sound day by day through the christian centuries and at the same time to us today it's a foundation a foundation stone if you want an image a rock on which to build and that image is right there in verse one let us heartily rejoice in the rock of our salvation and then we come to verse 8 and here is a plea oh that today and the writer to the hebrews is addressing us his brothers and sisters oh that today brothers and sisters you would listen to his voice harden not your hearts as at meribah on that day at masa in the wilderness those two places which we looked at when we were reading through the book of exodus earlier uh in weeks gone by but not too long ago those places where the people tested god and there became almost a rebellion against moses and aryan they picked up stones not to use as a foundation but to stone them and find themselves new leaders who would take them back in the old ways back to egypt but here we are over today you would listen to his voice being spoken to us now harden not your hearts and then the reminder of what happened in history and then the corollary in verse 11 they shall not enter into my rest that too our writer to the hebrews mate much of the word rest is a lovely one it means that everything about us is tranquil and we can reflect but rest you might say go and have a rest and people mean mostly go and sit down for a bit go and lie down for a bit physical activity but you and i know well that if our hearts and minds and spirits are not at rest it's no good for the body to lie down to sleep because our restlessness is there keeping us awake the perfect idea of rest and we come back to this quality tomorrow because the writer to the hebrews in chapter four begins to express that in different ways but the perfect rest hello lily you like it on the roof didn't you the perfect rest is uh a rest where the totality of not only us as individuals but of our community is at rest it's a totality that gives the chance for vision to be explored and shared but to enter into that rest there must be certain recognitions and the psalmist is giving us that and to lay the foundation of that rest then we receive the invitation with the gift of each new morning as we look east and the sun even if hidden by cloud gives light and definition to the created world and as we do so and look east in that way then we're invited to sing to the lord and see him as the rock of our salvation and then oh come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker well that too kneeling might be a physical activity it might just be an acknowledgement that our lives are in god's hands and the good news that our lord himself has given us in his humanity is that god respects that and answers that and hardness of heart is a way of shutting down his access and at the same time of unfaithfulness the temptations are set out with historic illustrations and at the same time the morning is allowed to begin once the foundation is laid so come let us sing to the lord let us heartily rejoice in the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving and show ourselves glad in him with psalms well we do it's practically the first thing we do after we've said the opening greeting to one another the psalm and then with the sense of opening the scriptures laying the foundation now come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker for he is the lord our god and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand always natural imagery looking around at the created order let's just look at one or two dates today well only two actually um on this day and i'm talking about uh tranquility and and quiet insight into one another as well but the first is very much a sense of a leader trying to make things as peaceful as he can for his people so that other things can be concentrated on without worry about shall we say violence on the border or something of that kind in 1823 president james monroe of the united states only the fifth president of the united states and james monroe had a knowledge of the world he had been the united states representative in paris in the really troublesome years of the 1790s when everything was in the midst of turmoil and revolution and also he had been the united states ambassador if you like to the united kingdom as well he had knowledge of europe but he was someone who loved to shall we say mend fences and put things in order so that other things could be concentrated on and on this day in 1823 in a presidential address he established what we've come to know as the monroe doctrine he's known in other parts of the world in fact the capital of liberia is called after him monrovia but for the moment let's uh let's just think of his position as the president of the united states in those days from 1817 to 1825 and he's considered high on the list of those who were reckoned to be really good presidents but clearly was a a quiet person and in setting that monroe doctrine he said this nation is going to concentrate on the western hemisphere its own area of the americas and it will resist interference but at the same time we commit ourselves not to interfere in other areas of the world the monroe doctrine well it's something of course which in modern times has proved to be ever an impossibility because often the rest of the world have needed the help of other nations and particularly strong nations so that crossing the atlantic and crossing the pacific is uh uh a a natural thing to do if the piece of our whole planet and this is much more a global dimension now than it was in 1823 nevertheless this sense of accommodation one with another to find tranquility so that other things creative things as a community can be worked at and that individuals may have safety and welfare is something which all leaders strive for and here is someone who is striving for that so that people may enter into a a rest in this earthly life but at the same time have peaceful times to imagine there will be other times in this finite world there are all as our lord says there will be wars and rumors of wars there will be earthquakes and famines in many places all of that but those who are able to make just an area of accommodation by seeing important things and trying to reduce conflict and at the same time have an area of creative activity for their people so that things can be done which are necessary to the community to make them a better community let's just take that as an emblem for a moment and then go on to someone completely different here's an american citizen too she though was honored with royal honours here in the united kingdom and was well known in many countries she spoke different languages and it may be a name you don't know her name is ruth draper and she was born on december the 2nd 1884 and she lived until 1956 and she was an actress but she was a specialist in monologues it was her own particular gift all alone on the stage without many props sometimes a shawl sometimes an occasional table and the chair she was sitting on and various different forms of dress according to what she was doing but just her and as she did that and we can think of others who've copied her since and have named the fact that they were copying her and thinks that people like joyce grenfell or even emma thompson or maggie smith who've done monologues in this way but ruth draper was the foundation stone of all this in theater and in broadcasting and right across the world ever popular but very quiet and not one given to broadcasting about herself she would create on the stage roomfuls of imaginary people which you entered into she is counted to have had about 58 named characters in her monologues and the titles of the monologues give something of the way in which ruth draper could convey an atmosphere but also get right into the soul of the people that no doubt she'd been listening to in occasions when she was being social and she was sociable but she wasn't publicly uh apt to make um interviews with the press and everything else she she simply was sociable among friends and she counted as her friends all kinds of literary people and folk who just loved her company and once she said to the novelist henry james uh that probably she should she should take and she should take lessons in acting and henry james is said to have responded to her ruth quite quietly ruth you've in your own way and uh in a very special way woven your own beautiful persian carpet i'd advise you not to think of taking acting classes but to stand on the beauty of that carpet with all its threads and dimensions and go on with this wonderful way of communicating with people and letting them understand other people i don't think henry james said all that he simply said it in the metaphor you've created the persian carpet stand on it and enjoy and let us enjoy here are the titles of some of her monologues the italian lesson three women and mr clifford doctors and diets a church in italy and as she went on with those she then added at an english house party or the miner's wife or a french dressmaker or in county carry clearly an irish one opening a bazaar and finally at an art exhibition there are reams of these and thankfully so many of them are recorded and to have that sense of being with her and imagining the many people not only that she is describing on the stage by talking to them that they're not there but also playing herself in a very very different uh set of circumstances sometimes sorrowful sometimes joyful sometimes hugely humorous and the in the two royal command performances given to george v and queen mary and then later on to uh king george vi and queen elizabeth um at that point uh receiving honours here but nations longed to give her honors because she was someone who showed people themselves and that's a wonderful gift but she did so by reflection and listening and shall we say entering into them so this is a day when we give thanks for that and that capacity of one to enter into another but also that we take warning from the writer to the epistle to the hebrews and from psalm 95 to make sure of our foundations day by day the gift of this new day and psalm 95 gives us a good beginning with its first seven verses and a warning with the last four and at the same time to strive to enter into god's rest we'll come back to that tomorrow so let's begin our prayers this morning as we sit here looking east we've been joined on the roof by leo now and uh we're praying this morning in the anglican communion for the diocese of ifo in the church of nigeria yesterday we were praying for the dances of ife east in the abadan province this is the diocese of epho in the lagos province and in the the uh diocese itself our own canterbury diocese were praying for the area deanery of sandwich those communities around the town of sandwich and praying for all those clergy with permission to officiate which which gives them a power in retirement or in whatever other occupation they're doing to help out in the communities and churches there a long list of them and we pray for them all this morning pray for archbishop justin and for bishop rose of dover and for bishop emma at lambus so we use the collect for the advent season bring your own prayers and intentions almighty god give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life in which your son jesus christ came to visit us in great humility that in the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men so we say each in our own language 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 people look east the time is near and as we reflect we think of our advent time of preparation and our invitation from the psalmist to worship the lord and sing to him with songs of thank giving [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] christ the son of righteousness shine upon you scatter the darkness from before your path and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory 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 amen so we've looked east together and uh we go off to continue our advent journey in worship but also in our daily lives