good morning and welcome early in the morning to canterbury cathedral on this 26th of may it's an important day for us it's the feast day of central augustine of canterbury is regarded as the founder of this cathedral church and is known as the apostle to the english he was sent as we'll think about a bit later on he was sent by saint gregory the great to be the apostle to the english from his monastery his benedictine monastery of san gregorio in rome to england with 40 monks and he came to a land which had been christian in the roman occupation but that was a long while back and he had to start again so we think of augustine's mission today and also we remembered another event just as a a side thought which was important to canterbury for in 1660 this was the day when the king was restored to england after the 11 years of the protectorate and the young charles ii came to canterbury and held his first privy council and also said prayers for his mother and father in the cathedral and spent the night here before going on to london we'll think about that later in the week but for today we give thanks for saint augustine of canterbury oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servant bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more 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 as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen the psalm for today is a section of psalm 119 beginning at verse 105 five sections of this psalm in eight verses each are set out for this morning and i'm going to use two of them your word is a lantern to my feet and a light upon my path i have sworn and will fulfill it to keep your righteous judgments i am troubled above measure give me life o lord according to your word accept the free will offering of my mouth o lord and teach me your judgments my soul is ever in my hand yet i do not forget your law the wicked have laid a snare for me but i have not strayed from your commandments your testimonies have i claimed as my heritage forever for they are the very joy of my heart your testimonies are wonderful therefore my soul keeps them the opening of your word gives light it gives understanding to the simple i open my mouth and draw in my breath as i long for your commandments turn to me and be gracious to me as is your way with those who love your name order my steps by your word and let no wickedness have dominion over me redeem me from earthly oppressors so that i may keep your commandments show the light of your countenance upon your servant and teach me your statutes my eyes run down with streams of water because the wicked do not keep your law as we to turn to our our regular reading day by day of luke's gospel today we begin at chapter 8 and read the first 15 verses soon afterwards jesus went on through cities and villages proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of god and the twelve were with him and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities mary called magdalene from whom seven demons had gone out and joanna the wife of chooser herod's household manager and susanna and many others who provided for them out of their means and when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him he said in a parable a sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot and the birds of the air devoured it and some fell on the rock and as it grew up it withered away because it had no moisture and some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with it and choked it and some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold and as jesus said these things he called out let the one who has ears to hear let them hear now when the disciples asked jesus what this parable meant he said to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of god but for others they are in parables so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand now the parable is this the seed is the word of god the ones along the path are those who have heard then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved and the ones on the rock are those who when they hear the word receive it with joy but these have no root they believe for a while and in time of testing fall away and as for what fell among the thorns they are those who hear but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and their fruit does not mature as for that in the good soil they are those who hearing the word hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience probably the most well known of jesus is parables it appears in the gospels of saint matthew mark sent luke it appears in so many images we have wonderful 12th century stained glass panels in the cathedral showing the sower sowing seed it also always reminds me this parable of the wonderful statue in the botanical gardens at queue of the sower sowing the statue by james thornecroft and the serra powerfully is going out as though it's a wonderful morning with the seed in his hand and his arm is flung back having flung seed as far as he can in all his strength a morning of sowing as we remember augustine coming with the seed of the gospel to the english people we learned several things from this parable in saint luke and it's special to read it from this gospel i wonder where you imagine jesus is when he's telling this story because immediately i think of him sitting in a boat teaching the people on the shore and his words going out to them noticing some not listening some listening hard who will go away and forget it and so on and so forth why am i thinking in a boat because in sin mark's gospel that's exactly where you find him he tells the the apostles push the boat out a bit and i can speak to the people in luke's gospel nothing of the kind is somewhere in the towns or villages we know not where but certainly not in a boat on the seashore takes us back to the fact that jesus must have told this story many times it also gives us an insight as to those who were sowing the seed with him not only the twelve but the women who were following him they were women of means they provided for them out of their means and see how they are described in st luke's gospel here is a little picture of the group who are following jesus a group of faithfulness and a group of intention a group which had to be brave with him 40 monks came with augustine to england and he was nervous very nervous he'd been sent by st gregory from his quiet abbey of saint gregory on the challenge hill in rome i had the privilege of celebrating at the altar of saint gregory when we were doing some work in rome a year or two ago and there in rome one saw how this quiet benedictine life of central augustine who was the prior there was interrupted by the command from gregory to go and take the good news to the english gregory had wanted to go himself but he'd been elected pope and so those whom he'd first known as children as slaves in the slave market and had the desire the intention to go and sow the seed of the gospel the freedom of christ to those people he had to pass that on to augustine certain people wonder why augustine augustine was a scholar he was obviously rather tentative and shy he was an ordered benedictine prior and off he went and in the south of france it seems he got rather cold feet and wrote to gregory and said may we not come back it's rather a dangerous mission and instead gregory writing said no you go on and sent the gift of a beautifully illustrated set of gospels which have been carbon tested they still exist i have held them now for two archbishops rowan williams and justin welby to make their oath of faithfulness to this place when they were installed as archbishops of canterbury in the chair of central augustine this was a gift take this book these words of christ illustrated with little cameos almost like strip cartoons and we've carbon tested the book from it comes from tuscany in the uh sixth century so there's no doubt about its provenance but off it went with augustine and it came to england he landed at peg well bell at bay not far from here and just like those women around jesus and the twelve he found a friend when he got here she was the queen of kent she was french bertha her name and already by the terms of her marriage agreement the pagan king ethelbert very powerful man with his palace here in canterbury had given permission for her to worship at the old roman church which had been from roman times she restored it and with her chaplain was worshiping already what a helper for the shy augustine the tentative augustine who came with his gospel book but together they formed a powerful team bertha and augustine and soon the king was baptized and then it seems his people gradually flocked to be baptized here in kent land was given for the building of an abbey and a cathedral church here and then land was given by the king for a cathedral church in rochester and land was given by the king for a cathedral church in london but the capital here in canterbury was where augustine wanted to stay he set up his mission here and for that we give thanks for here is the chair of augustine now why am i sitting here well because of course this is a field of sowing around me are young vegetables and they're all in danger so i'm actually sitting under a net to keep them away from the first dangers of young things the birds came down and at the seed they can't nor can cats get in here because they too can do damage to the vegetables and at the time of the sowing of course you have to decide where they go so that they're in places where they can root themselves and we keep them free from weeds and we don't place them in rocky places the vine isn't right there but you don't go too near the wall all those things are there in the countryman jesus's parable but at the same time augustine knew these things about how people learned the rhythms of the faith and gregory said to him use what you can help the people to use what they already have the image here maybe a parable is the fact that we've used kentish hop poles to build this enormous protective cage for young plants and the hops which aren't grown so much in kent now have now got the hot pills they've got a new lease of life augustine looked around at the customs of the pagan english people and with the help of bertha began to use things to teach the good news a lesson for us all so many lessons today but one last lesson and one last gift of gregory when we had a primates conference here a couple of years ago or so and we wanted to give a perspective a worldwide perspective of unity the gospels of augustine were brought from where they're kept in corpus christi college cambridge library and placed amongst the primates but also as a gift from the pope in rome pope francis allowed the coming here of the crozier the the head of the bishop's pastoral staff of saint gregory the great and the two artifacts which probably hadn't been together since 595 lay in the crypt to give perspective around the bishops as the primates as they as they've watched the seat of augustine is here in canterbury the seat of gregory is in the monastery of san gregorio alcelio and it's thought to have been his family seat before ever he founded the monastery so many routes in history going right back down in but it's today we're interested in because we need well rooted faith we need to clear the stones away we need for in early days protection and we need also all the things which stop the choking of our growth so that we can become strong disciples surrounded by others as we journey today this feast day of central augustine of canterbury let's say our prayers on this particular day as we pray for canterbury cathedral in its life we also pray for the diocese of natal in south africa and for bishop dino gabriel and his people and the diocese of aguata in nigeria and samuel ezio4 and his people there and in this diocese of canterbury in our course of prayer for the parishes we remember all the parishes of the north downes area dinnery under its area dean john corbyn and the laychair rhianbanum and pray for the life of all those parishes on this particular day so we say the prayer of augustine of canterbury and then also the prayer for this day almighty god whose servant augustine was sent as the apostle of the english people grant that as he labored in the spirit to preach christ's gospel in this land so all who hear the good news may strive to make your truth known in all the world through jesus christ our lord amen o god the king of glory you have exalted your only son jesus christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven we beseech you leave us not comfortless but send your holy spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to the place where our savior christ is gone before who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men as we come to say the prayer our lord taught us we think of all those we would want to pray for in the difficulties of this world surrounded in their growth and family life by dangers and threats of ill health during this time of coronavirus of loneliness during this time of lockdown we think of them all and picture them and we say in whatever language you you normally use the prayer our lord 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 lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen moment of silence for our own thoughts and prayers this morning may christ the good shepherd make you faithful and strong to do his will and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and remain with you always amen it