good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of the 19th of january tuesday the 19th of january as we come to say our morning prayers it's a winter morning and it's rained all night but i'm surrounded by the scent of this winter box a sweet himalayan winter box with its white flowers and it's beautiful shining blackberries it's a true winter flowering plant from the himalayas and grows well here but i wish that you virtually could smell the scent of this because it's overpowering and very beautiful this is a corner of winter scents because beyond it the daphne bush is beginning to come into flower and that too has the most wonderful scent but this box bush is having it all to itself on this particular morning and we're enjoying because we're near the house the company of lily who rarely joins us in the winter because she'd rather have the warmth of the house and the fire but she's here this morning just outside testing the air for a little bit so let's say our prayers on the second day of the week of prayer for christian unity and prayer pray for the unity of all christians throughout the world from every denomination that that may be a sign of the unity of all humanity at this particular time we keep in mind of course our friends in the united states of america as they prepare for the inauguration of their new president tomorrow oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your light springs up for the righteous and all peoples have seen your glory blessed are you sovereign god king of the nations to you be praise and glory forever from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is proclaimed in all the world as the son of righteousness dawns in our hearts anoint our lips with the seal of your spirit that we may witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the earth 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 on this 19th morning of the month is psalm 96 sing to the lord a new song sing to the lord all the earth sing to the lord and bless his name turn out his salvation from day to day declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples for great is the lord and greatly to be praised he is more to be feared than all gods for all the gods of the nations are but idols it is the lord who made the heavens honor and majesty are before him power and splendor are in his sanctuary ascribe to the lord you families of the peoples ascribe to the lord honor and strength ascribe to the lord the honor due to his name bring offerings and come into his courts o worship the lord in the beauty of holiness let the whole earth tremble before him tell it out among the nations that the lord is king he has made the world so firm that it cannot be moved he will judge the peoples with equity let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad let the sea thunder and all that is in it let the fields be joyful and all that is in them let all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the lord for he comes he comes to judge the earth with righteousness he will judge the world and the peoples with his truth so we turn again to the gospel for today which is the passage from saint mark which follows the one that we were reading yesterday in chapter two it's the very end of chapter two and we're starting at verse 23. one sabbath jesus was going through the cornfields and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck ears of corn and the pharisees were saying to him look why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath and jesus said to them have you never read what david did when he was in need and was hungry he and those who were with him how he entered the house of god in the time of abiatha the high priest and at the bread of the presence which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat and also gave it to those who were with him and he said to them the sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath so the son of man is lord even of the sabbath we see once again this beginning of the nitpicking of those who are wanting now to begin to criticize jesus to call into question the authority he has to call into question the teaching that he gives as being inconsistent with the law and the prophets and jesus is always very firm i did not come to abolish the law and the prophets i came to fulfill them law prophets and psalms and writings of the ancient scriptures which were his daily bread in his mind and heart and the basis of his teaching whenever he is teaching in the synagogues reading from the scroll of the prophet isaiah in the synagogue at nazareth or coming to teach the people in the synagogue at capernaum all of that is very important to the foundations laid for the prophecies and the way that the christ the anointed one is seen and received as his vocation begins to develop excuse me so we get to this point now where the authorities once again are nitpicking and the kind of nitpicking we're seeing this time is with jesus and his disciples going through the cornfield on the sabbath day and the disciples are just plucking off the ears of corn perfectly acceptable in the lord a little bit of gleaning and refreshing themselves by just chewing on the corn no doubt rubbing it in their hands and and uh getting rid of the the husks and blowing away the chaff and and eating the corn as they went along and this is seen by those who are very very strict and have interpreted the law in that strictness as the breaking of the law on the sabbath jesus i think is is fairly irritated by this as you can see but there's a rather important little bit in this short story for either jesus or the evangelist gets the name of the high priest who fed david and his men with the showbread as it was called which was really only loyal for the priests of of food for the the priests themselves to eat and he gets the name wrong for it was not a biaser who was the high priest in you can find the passage in the first book of samuel chapter 21 it was his father a himalay and a biaser later becomes very important indeed because he is one of those who escapes from saul's massacre of the priests because ahimalek gives david support at that time not knowing in any way that he is displeasing the king but you remember saul sheppard doe eggs the edomite hears all this and reports it back to saul and saul in his rage slays ahimalek and all the priests but a biatha runs away well and that's not an important story for this morning except that our lord references it saying sometimes the needs of humanity um uh are over the requirements of the sabbath but i think he thinks this is a very very small transgression if it's a transgression at all and so whether it's in mark or whether it's jesus who gets that name wrong what is important is that matthew and luke correct it they leave out in this story the name abayatha thus causing us to have a piece of evidence that in correcting they come later than mark and knew mark's gospel that's fairly accepted scholarship but it's important to look at this little passage and think ah there we are and mark therefore has given us a name from the scriptures or jesus has given it in my irritations quite often i'll get something wrong of that sort searching in one's mind for the the name and someone said no you mean and of course i mean that and remember that our lord has the limitations and the temptations of humanity but take this as you will um we're seeing an important little passage in st mark's gospel but and more important than that is that the divine expression of our humanity which jesus calls the son of man and refers it to himself from that prophecy in the book of daniel he's called himself this week the bridegroom in celebration and images of that sort but today the divine expression of our humanity which we are to both receive the spirit from but also to emulate and follow by our searching the gospels and and realizing what jesus was was developing in this vocation as our christ our messiah right up unto the day of his offering of his own life and then resurrection and glorious ascension but for the moment here we are in the cornfields with the disciples out in the country and in one line a huge piece of teaching is given the sabbath was made for humanity not the other way round it's there to give rest it's there to give opportunity for worship it's there to anchor us in creation for that's where that law finds its establishment all those things for our own refreshment but for our own rhythm of life the seventh day when god rested and jesus himself kept that seventh day at synagogue as we see from the gospels again and again as well as enjoying the company of friends and also refreshment out in the open air in the cornfields well now this is in wolfston's day wolfston was the bishop of uh worcester from 10 62 to 10 95 he'd been born in 1008 at long itchington in warwickshire now that places him right across a particular period here's the here's the sweet box our garden is full of box of one sort or another it's a useful and attractive evergreen plant but it's used to delineate sections of the garden often in little hedges and that delineation means now we're here and there's a border and you cross that and perhaps it's a good thing to remind us this morning because wolveston spanned the whole of the period of the norman conquest of england itself and he was bishop of worcester at that time and was the only bishop to keep his bishopric through and became an advisor to the norman archbishops and monarchs at that time we remember him for being a person of intense energy and organization and advisor to land frank to anselm as archbishops an advisor to the monarchs but at the same time the founder of molven priory and the rebuilder in norman style of worcester cathedral hereford cathedral tewksbury abbey one could go on and on his life was written by his chancellor when he died coleman his name was but it was written in the english language as it then was old english and wollstone himself wrote well in that language but william of malmsbury translated that into latin so that the life of wolfston became an important one and one of the little uh aspects of that that i enjoy is the fact that wolveston when he rode around from place to place with his following of monks he was a monk of benedictine monk as well as being bishop of worcester he would recite the psalms and pause to say again and this was all from memory pause to say again anything that seemed to him a prayer a verse it might seem to be a prayer and his followers got used to that and that recitation again like the delineation between the saxon church and the norman church the box hedge and and wolveston crossing that and giving continuity and at the same time we think of the way in which he delineated the time with the benedictine recitation of the hours and the psalms which in his head he would say or perhaps sing with his monks who knows as they rode around stopping to repeat a verse if it seemed to be to him a prayer good for today well it's a nice lesson to learn um on this day in in uh january 1839 the painter cezanne paul cezanne was born at exxon provence and he died in 1906 at exxon promonce and provence actually is his area of painting 30 times at least he painted the beautiful monster vitois which looks down on exxon provence and motoring around that and seeing that mountain in so many different ways we're denied that pleasure at the moment because we can't even cross the channel during this lockdown but when we do there is the sense that we understand why again and again he came back to that and tried to give an image of its depths of course we know him for many other paintings but the ground base of everything is monsant victoire that huge mountain giving majesty and in the way he wanted to to convey its spiritual depth in creation we give thanks for him and take another lesson from that to go back again and again to something that gives us inspiration and try again in words or music or artistic activity or any way you like to recreate that simply by telling the story of it if we use words there are there are three women today that i wanted to remember because there are significant dates in their lives and each of them is an artist and again we pray for all performing arts at this time of lockdown because they find it impossible at this time to to do their work properly and we pray for the day when we shall be not only entertained but taught by the performing arts the first of these 18 year old margot fontaine on this day the 19th of january in 1937 made her debut in giselle at sadler's wells that lovely point i mean gizelle's entry from the cottage generally as she dances onto the stage is one of the most memorable points of ballet in my mind and those steps are so memorable and and to think of marco fonchain the absolute star of english ballet for so many years and still an icon at 18 years old doing that we want to give thanks for for that today it's a moment of beauty a moment of inspiration and a moment of encouragement for us then again we've got the um birthday of the singer songwriter dolly parton so we wish her a happy 75th birthday today and then we also um have the day on which lovely sheila sim the actress died in 2016. now she has a very special place in the hearts of canterbury the wife of of lord attenborough richard attenborough uh and uh certainly members of her family nearby charlotte and and and uh graham and we we pray for them today as graham recovers his health and strength but let's think of sheila herself because in 1944 she starred in a film called a canterbury tale and it's set in the war and the filming of it is magnificent in black and white you see the villages in 1944 of ikem and ford which and chilem and life going on there you see canterbury cathedral boarded up and you see the the effect of the great biodegrade the bombing around but essentially you have this lovely tail and the the tail is one of pilgrimage and really the underlying message for each of the people in it is miracles happen in canterbury well pray god that they do but we put the link onto that film for you today and i will remember we will remember in 2004 the 60th anniversary of the making of that film chile came back with her husband and sat in the cathedral we filled the nave put up a huge screen and gave a special showing of a canterbury tale and she spoke about how it felt to be filming at that war time when canterbury lay mostly in ruins to the south of the cathedral so god bless the memory and the activity of those three women who represent the arts and the performing arts in in such a wonderful way just as cezanne did in his day well we could think of so many other things today but we need to say our prayers and our prayers are scented not with incense today but the same kind of flavor by this this box which is giving wonderful wonderful scent and soon it will be the turn of the daphne and the rain has held off for us as well so let's see who we're playing for today and we are in the anglican communion on this 19th of january of course praying for the unity of all christian denominations throughout the world in this week of prayer for christian unity but also for the diocese of ajay crowder in the church of nigeria and the people there praying for the uh the um area deanery of sittingbourne a nearby town and the villages around and they have a special initiative called ignite and the enablers and the enablers of that initiative karen burgess and matt and helene spokya we pray for this morning in the work they do and the people to whom they minister pray for justin archbishop of canterbury and a special hooray and prayer for rose bishop of dover on a very significant birthday today so happy birthday bishop rose and we pray for uh bishop tim of lambeth and bring our own prayers and intentions this morning first of all the prayer which is the colleague for saint wolfson's day as we pray for the bishop and diocese of worcester today as well lord god who raised up woolston to be a bishop among your people and the leader of your church help us after his example to live simply to work diligently and to make your kingdom known through jesus christ our lord amen perhaps i should have said that wolfston is seen as the patron saint of dieters and vegetarians piece of irrelevant information and we're going to use the the prayer for the second week of this epiphany season almighty god in christ you make all things new transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language we say the prayer our lord his daughters 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 amen moment of silence now for your own prayers the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your 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 upon you upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always amen