in 2017 a jewish student in the college of charleston who had come to europe to see what the history of her own people in the second world war actually was and had gone to the places of concentration camps went home and decided that daffodils should be planted in their thousands so that their yellow flowers could represent the yellow stars which have people had been forced to wear both in the streets and later in concentration camps this is the day in 1945 when russian forces liberated auschwitz the largest of the concentration camps and this has become now our national holocaust memorial day the daffodils therefore are still symbols of that and are still being planted on these days to make them flower and for people to remember they're also a sign of course of spring and new growth and new beginnings but this is a day for remembering with our jewish friends all that their nation suffered in those desperate years of nazi germany and also the horrors that were uncovered by those liberating the camps as they themselves say to us it was certainly not only jews who suffered death and the horrors of concentration camps it was people of other ethnicities of other orientations and also of uh different capacities in their disability who were if you like tidied away but also those who supported them simply taken away and the pain of all those who survived and watch it happen and had to make very difficult choices for the safety of their own families is something also that we remember on this day it's national holocaust memorial day and it's also an international memory as well and we remember again with the encouragement of our jewish friends other acts of genocide which have happened since where particular groups of people have been singled out and killed in their thousands it's a day of sadness for humanity it's also a day of hope and the daffodils here in the garden are hopes of a new beginning so that when we say our prayers and all day long this will be the case where asked to be the light in the darkness that's the theme given us for this national memorial day of the holocaust and of so much genocide so we remember that as we charlotte even song this afternoon as well and we're asked also to light a candle in our windows as a memory of that and hopes the brightness to be the light in darkness but the real light in darkness is of course as we keep saying during the days of this pandemic our encouragement of one another so good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on a really lovely morning no frost no wind plentiful bad song and the real freshness of the daffodils beginning to come up in the garden on this day to help us in our intention to be the light in the darkness do we say our prayers together on this particular day bring your own intentions wherever you are in the world and your own memories oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your light springs up for the righteous and all the 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 sun 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 are men our psalm on this 27th day of the month is psalm 121 i lift up my eyes to the hills from where is my help to come my help comes from the lord the maker of heaven and earth he will not suffer your foot to stumble he who watches over you will not sleep behold he who keeps watch over israel shall neither slumber nor sleep the lord himself watches over you the lord is your shade at your right hand so that the sun shall not strike you by day neither the moon by night the lord shall keep you from all evil it is he who shall keep your soul the lord shall keep watch over your going out and you're coming in from this time forth forevermore so we turn to our reading from the gospel of saint mark and we take up from where we left off yesterday and i'm starting now at chapter four and i'm reading from verse one again jesus began to teach beside the sea and a very large crowd gathered about him said that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land and he was teaching them many things in parables and in his teaching he said to them listen behold a sower went out to sow and as he sowed some seed fell along the path and the birds came and devoured it other siege fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it sprang up since it had no depth of soil and when the sun rose it was scorched and since it had no root it withered away other seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no grain and other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain growing up and increasing and yielding 30-fold and 60-fold and a hundred-fold and jesus said whoever has ears to hear let them hear and when he was alone those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables and he said to them to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of god but for those outside everything is in parables so that they may indeed see but not perceive and may indeed hear but not understand should turn and be forgiven he said to them do not understand this parable how then will you understand all the parables the sower sows the word and these are the ones along the path where the word is sown when they hear satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them and these are the ones sown on rocky ground the ones who when they hear the word immediately receive it with joy and they have no root in themselves but endure for a while then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately they fall away and others are the ones sown among thorns they are those who hear the word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful but those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty-fold and sixty-fold and a hundred fold it's a wonderful picture i mean not the parable but the picture of jesus teaching the crowds from the boat which his fisherman friends among the 12 have pushed out a little from the shore so that the side of the sea of galilee becomes a natural amphitheater and jesus teaches the crowds and here too is what we expect usually of a parable not just a word like light or truth or way or word itself with a capital w nor yet just a single sentence or two like the strong man fully armed guarding his house which we came across in mark's gospel but a full story rather like luke's good samaritan or luke's prodigal son and here is mark telling the story of the sower as jesus tells it and the first section draws a natural picture you can imagine and you still can if you stand on the shore of the sea of galilee as many of you will have done and look out across the water and feel behind you the fruitful land you still can feel the sense of yes this is this is how the seasons move and this is how it was in terms of a human being having to go out with enormous bags of seed on their side and scatter them and the seed fell in different places so in a way it's a parable also of the soils the different capacity of the areas in which the seed fell some germinated and some instantly were seized and eaten by the birds fell on the path and then you get the other capacity of the soils where rock was just below the surface and roots couldn't develop and sun would scorch and then you get the the the weeds choking and the thorns and thistles and finally the fruitfulness on good ground and then you get an explanation now i think we've got to beware of two definite explanations of parables because in my experience of reading them and experiencing them and mixing them with life they have a multitude of different meanings and they themselves are things which root and grow in us and bear fruit as the parables are given so that when those around jesus and it's not just the twelve as we heard it's a a larger group of people who are shall we say his followers and his wider family as he called them yesterday ask for the answer the answer that jesus gives in that way i think is really only a tiny fraction of the answer he expects us to explore and receive it's the same with every parable the more you define it the more it eludes you and then comes round and surprises you with different meanings and certainly when he says the seed is the word then even that as we've seen in john's gospel is a parable in itself word representing the totality of jesus in infinite terms as well or else representing simply the sentences spoken in that way to that particular crowd for one cannot for a second believe that that parable wasn't used again and again at the right moment for different groups there was no recording of what went on with jesus only the memories of the apostles and the memories of the crowds as they hear and so we think of that happening over and over again in different communities in rural galilee and then beyond in different sections of that society until in mark's gospel of course the one journey up to jerusalem begins to happen and the teaching goes on now we give enormous thanks for parables and stories and images and most of them are images of creation as we look around in the images of the developing seasons but on this particular day we have to think of very different lessons that come with parables too in looking at the list of things which happened on january the 27th in years gone by of course what i described happening in southwestern poland in auschwitz in 1945 is a very powerful image of the depths to which humanity can can sink in in violent activity towards one another but also there are other sadnesses on this day for example in 2003 in a nightclub fire in brazil in the city of santa maria rio grande de sol the uh a nightclub caught fire and 242 lost their lives a sadness but not an intention as the holocaust gives us an intention of people actually planning the pain and destruction of other groups there are lovely creative things which happened today on the 27th of january um lewis carroll whom we've come across um quite recently who wrote us the alice's adventures in wonderland and and also all kinds of logical problems in his through the looking glass was born in 1832 he was born 1888 the national geographic society was founded in washington dc and the first magazine published in october of that year and also in 1901 the great opera composer verdi died in milan and we remember his massive creativity we could stay with that this morning or in 1805 the wonderful painter and artist samuel palmer was born who gave us so many pastoral pictures and also the imagination that she dealt with the countryside with the the fields of corn in samuel palmer have a an enormous life to them we could stay with that we could also see that on this particular day in 1756 mozart was born how we could use this perl meditation on his works for how he has both plumbed the depths and taken us to laughter in his operas and also shared some of his agony and despair but somehow risen above it we think of all of that but the one thing which for me linked mozart with this day of holocaust memorial is a little book by sir michael morpurgo called the mozart question and i think how on this lawn here on a sunny day i think in june 2016 um he came and brought with him with claire his wife uh a quartet a string quartet and an extra solo violinist so that he might read us in our big shirley paul where you've seen orchestras of our cathedral school the king of school performing stand on the stage and read us the story of this book helped by the quartet and the violinist now those of you who know this book will know how this is a story of holocaust they had rehearsed beforehand and then i remember having tea with them here on the lawn we sat here with them together and um i was at the time on a stick i remember because i was about to have a hip operation and michael talking with claire and the quintet and fletcher here on the lawn in the sunshine um we were talking and he said i remember him saying you've got a poorly leg because he's no idea why i was carrying the stiff and i said yes i'm going in soon to have a hip operation and he he was lying on the lawn and he said let me show you something and uh he said i i've had this operation let me show you how to get up off the lawn from a lie down position without hurting yourself and he showed me i've almost remembered that lesson from michael but the lesson he taught later with the quintet or the quartet and the solo violinist in the great shirley hall was powerful indeed for those of you who've read the book will know it's the story of an interview with a young journalist who's been sent to interview a famous violinist paolo levy and the journalist is told do not go into the mozart question why paulo won't play mozart and then we get the full story of how paulo's parents who were musicians were in a concentration camp and with others were forced to play mozart's music to calm those being led through to death and that to them and to paulo's father who was a barber and wouldn't touch the violin again that to them was an act of treachery it saved their lives but they lived with the guilt of survivors and it took young paulo to find when he was a little boy another person who had been in that situation all this acts that happens by accident who played the violin and taught hit the young boy first to play the violin and go on to open up all of that so that it could be shared and the holocaust became something that could be talked about the experiences talked about for it's seldom that people have to make decisions which will cost either the life of their families or else the life of others and for folk to make people make those decisions becomes part of that depravity of the holocaust and the genocide i do read the book it is an absolutely fantastic or i don't want to say too much more about it because of course it will be a spoiler as they say these days but it is one of michael's most powerful books and we remember that we remember also a story which is given this morning of of uh the united states master sergeant roddy edmonds who on january the 27th in 1945 again was one of a thousand united states soldiers captured after the battle of the bulge and taken to camp stalag 9a at ziegenhein in germany and he ordered his men when the nazis said to them separate out your jewish soldiers to reply we are all jews here very powerful message he survived and died in 1985 but that act of courage on the part of him and his men resounds in history as humanity standing beside humanity at a time of desperate evil and a time of decisions which are always conflicting different loyalties different fears and it's hard to imagine oneself in those positions and we remember usually in a service which we began fletcher had the idea that two years ago now we would invite jewish friends and also at that time the leader of the synagogue who would come and the mourner's kaddish would be part of our service and for us the same kind of music as represented in the russian kentuckian for the dead a very powerful service indeed and again last year we were able still to do that but this year of course we can't because we can't gather together but we can do things virtually and we remember that the lament is part of our worship and part of our penitence the lamentations of jeremiah which we share with our jewish friends as part of our scriptures and the way in which the writer mourns over the death and destruction and ruin and rubble of the city of jerusalem how does the city sit solitary which was once so full of people begins a proper lament but in the middle like these little daffodils growing up through all the dead foliage of last year in the middle of all that beautiful sentences his mercies never fail us they are new every morning a sentence from the lamentations of jeremiah which john keeble turned into one of my favorite hymns new every morning is the love our awakening and uprising prove through sleep and darkness safely brought restored to life and power and thought ready for a new beginning and also the line which follows which actually forms the first line of another hymn which is very popular great is thy faithfulness right in the middle of the lamentation of jeremiah in the middle of all that horror the capacity of humanity to stand beside those suffering and to kindle lights within themselves is something which holocaust memorial day gives us an opportunity to do and reflect on well every day does that to be fruitful soil for the seed of the word not just the spoken word but the life of the word which was made flesh in jesus himself we shall worship this afternoon but overarching the kaddish is the omnipotence of the divine creator may his great name be blessed forever and to all eternity blessed the english translation runs may his great name be blessed for all eternity blessed and praised glorified exalted and extolled honored adored and lorded be the name of the holy one blessed be he and that in the middle of all this horror we need to stand beside one another and need so much to take the advice of the committee of the national holocaust memorial day which has given us this theme this year be a light in the darkness for one another so let's say our prayers and on this day bring all our own thoughts and intentions and in our own calendar of prayer this morning we are praying for the villages of tunstall with bredgar and milstead and frinstead and the ministry of alan pinega and paula jardine rose in those parishes we pray for justin our archbishop and also for rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth we think of our own friends across the world also in those villages we think of rose kingston uh who's a friend of ours and takes a huge interest in all the natural life of the garden here and we remember also in our prayers on this day in our anglican communion uh the diocese of alaska in the episcopal church of the united states so bring your own intentions as we stand beside our jewish friends and any communities which have suffered genocide almighty god whose son revealed in signs and miracles the wonder of your saving presence renew your people with your heavenly grace and in all our weakness sustain us by your mighty power through jesus christ our lord amen so we pray each in our own language 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 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 now of silence for our prayers and reflections wherever we are in the world [Music] [Music] the peace of god past is all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and if 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 now and always are men i'm very quiet this morning it's a warmer day isn't it [Music] you