good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this monday the 16th of august we've come it's meadow monday and we've come to the garden congregation's wildflower meadow here and the wonderful thing that we're beginning to see is that one flower takes over from another our large sunflower and the other side of the garden there has now turning its head downwards so that the seeds can develop and that will prove plentiful feed for various birds uh later on but what we're looking at now on this side of the garden is a lovely pattern of yellow and lower down of blue and of course the canary grass that you're seeing tufted here which is mostly come from seeds scattered for the siskins and serenes that have come down to feed we've left some thistle seed too for the goldfinches because they love that i'm sitting next to the old apple tree which is fruiting really well having had its roots aerated by winston and clemmy when they and the others were cleaning this ground at the beginning of the year but most of the color on this side of the garden is given by the yellow flowering calendula and the blue flowering much lower flower are ekium and the the two together prove a wonderful crop they complement each other now the lee's quarter state in this part of kent is the largest non-food producing area of crops and what they produce are crops like the calendula and ekium and as we we um see that the blue and the yellow here is the seed which complement each other when milled together produce omega-3 which we mostly get from eating fish and the fish have ingested the omegas free from the algae that they eat but these crops milling them together means that if crops of that sort can be developed in a huge way then the pressure on the oceans to produce omega-3 will be reduced and i now have in my hand an ekyu a blue flower and the calendula the yellow flower i always think of calendula as garden marigolds but this is a different kind of calendula of the same family and we give thanks for the way in which crops like this can be developed and also for the beauty of this garden this morning let's turn to our prayers on this particular day we still of course are praying for those massively affected by fires which still rage in different parts of the world and people's lives are endangered and many lives have been lost we think of the eastern mediterranean the western part of the united states and canada other areas of fire but also last friday i think we had the urgent message from mulut in the kabila area of algeria asking for prayers he himself is one of our garden congregation asking for prayers for their area of algeria and that fire there has still not abated so mulud we're still praying for you and for your family there as a sign of all those endangered by fire the eyes of the world and the heart of the world and mind of the world are of course this morning on afghanistan and i think the the world is in total shock with the speed of all that's happened there we're praying for the citizens of kabul and we think of the tense fear that many of those are feeling this morning as they look towards the future the scenes in kabul airport are etched on our minds and it's hard to imagine quite how it feels to be there we've we've had yesterday interviews with people like ranjina hamidi the education minister in the government which collapsed yesterday with the flight of the president and she was looking into the future and having no idea what that would bring and at the same time obadoula bahir a young academic at the american university at in kabul and he was saying very bravely many of my friends have fled i am staying these are my people but i have no idea what the future will bring none of us do but i think an awful lot of heart searching amongst those who have given promises over the last 20 years and also the way in which we've used our soldiers and our diplomats and and given a sense of security and that i think is going to be a large question mark and heart searching across particularly the nations of nato and and others who have been involved in this in creating what was going to be a society in afghanistan of a different kind well here we are this morning in this position and um easy promises and things from the past need to be at examined at present of course it's difficult to give any judgments because one doesn't know what the future holds or what kind of government will be established in afghanistan but what we can do is hold all those who are in terror this morning in fear of what the future brings in our hearts and our prayers this morning and also turn the lens upon ourselves when we're talking about the the rights given to people there and the way in which easy promises are given and also the position one one thinks of ranjina hamidi of women and their education all those things which we think of this morning a huge canvas of prayer needed and something that will develop rather urgently in the next few days so let's say our prayers on this morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation and sustain us with your gracious spirit blessed are you and creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made and as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep 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 and as 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 on this 14th and 16th morning of the month is psalm 80. hear o shepherd of israel you that led joseph like a flock shine forth you that are enthroned upon the cherubim before ephraim benjamin and manasseh stir up your mighty strength and come to our salvation turn us again o god show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved oh lord god of hosts how long will you be angry with your people's prayer you feed them with the bread of tears you give them abundance of tears to drink you have made us the derision of our neighbors and our enemies laugh us to scorn turn us again o god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved you brought a vine out of egypt you drove out the nations and planted it you made room around it and when it had taken root it filled the land the hills were covered with its shadow and the cedars of god by its boughs it stretched out its branches to the sea and its tendrils to the river why then have you broken down its wall so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes the wild boar out of the wood tears it off and all the insects of the field devour it turn again oh god of hosts look down from heaven and behold cherish this vine which your right hand has planted and the branch that you made so strong for yourself let those who burnt it with fire who cut it down perish at the rebuke of your countenance and let your hand be upon the man at your right hand the son of man you made so strong for yourself and so will we not go back from you give us life and we shall call upon your name turn us again o lord god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved so we turn again to the book of genesis and today we are reading from the end of chapter 11 and going into chapter 12. and here the primeval history as we've said of the first 11 chapters changes into the ancestral history of jesus's own people so i'm starting at chapter 11 verse 27. now these are the generations of terror terra fathered abram nehor and haran and haron fathered lot harren died in the presence of his father terah in the land of his kindred in ur of the kaldis and abraham and nehor took wives the name of abram's wife was sarai and the name of nehor's wife milka the daughter of haran the father of milka and iska now sarai was barren she had no child terra took abram his son and lot the son of haran his grandson and sarai his daughter-in-law his son abraham's wife and they went forth together from ur of the kaldi's to go into the land of canaan but when they came to haran they settled there the days of terror were 205 years and terrar died in haran now the lord said to abram go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that i will show you and i will make of you a great nation and i will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing i will bless those who bless you and whoever dishonors you i will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed so abram went as the lord had told him and lot went with him abram was 75 years old when he departed from haran and abram took sarai his wife and lot his brother's son and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people that they had acquired in haran and they set out to go to the land of canaan when they came to the land of canaan abram passed through the land to the place at shechem to the oak moray at that time the canaanites were in the land then the lord appeared to abraham and said to your offspring i will give this land so abram built there an altar to the lord who had appeared to him from there he moved to the hill country on the east of bessel and pitched his tent with bethel on the west an ai on the east and there he built an altar to the lord and called upon the name of the lord and abram journeyed on still going towards the negeb the beginning of the story of the ancestors of jesus but also abraham is seen in spiritual terms as an ancestor of those who hold to the three abrahamic faiths judaism christianity and islam so these things we have in common and common inheritance in terms of the scriptural writings and the name of abram as he is there i remember a sermon class once uh with the person who was teaching us who said when you're reading please make sure that you don't just for the people's recognition call abraham abraham right from the beginning because when his name changes and you say you shall no longer be called abram but abraham you're going to be confused and you you're probably thinking why abraham and sarai well of course that's what they are called now but when the covenant is accepted with obedience there is a name change sometimes that's really significant in the gospels in the epistles with saul changing his name to paul but here we are with abram and abram is a wanderer in this but he is hearing the call of god and taking his own extended family and his nephew lot on the first steps of a journey a physical journey which will involve him in particular ways but a spiritual journey which still continues and that promise of course to abraham and his generations is given in the magnificats that we were thinking about yesterday the gospel for yesterday the song of the blessed virgin mary remembering his mercy his servant abraham and his seed forever that that generation after generation but the most important thing that we hear in this narrative this morning is the fact that through his seed all the families of the earth will be blessed a particular gift given to a particular people which their destiny is to share and that's the community in which jesus grew up in that place which we tend to call the holy land but in the area of galilee a rural area in the north not the sophisticated capital city area of the south although they went there of course but but jesus his time of growing up in the rural area of the north but abraham abraham i mustn't get it wrong myself at the moment at this time is someone who is uh wandering from place to place finding food for his flocks of of sheep and the other livestock that he has and everything that he's gathered now he comes from that most ancient name er of the caldis which is almost legendary as one of the the great cities and and the the where we we focus that where archaeologists have tried to find it and and and be successful in saying this is our of the caldis um i think probably the uh the the sense of being in southern iraq somewhere there is settling into the the place where we think this is and all sorts of people have been involved in archaeological digs and that city dating back from over 2000 years bc uh in in terms of the birth of abraham should we say but er of the khalid's back back back where we start and all those things are now becoming gradually more and more time conscious as we develop through to time that we can really establish in the people of jesus's own culture we think of all those things with abraham but what we really think of is a new beginning in obedience for abraham as he becomes hears the voice of the lord calling him calling him to a particular journey leave your father's house and come where i shall show you and as they go into the land of canaan this these places like bethel which will become a holy place from a story we shall read not quite yet because it's a story affecting jacob not abram but notice that wherever he goes abram in thanksgiving builds an altar and that means a sacrifice and that offering of thanksgiving sacrifice of thanksgiving which we mentioned so often in the psalms and which we offer every time we offer worship a sacrifice of thanksgiving this morning we give thanks for that all of that becomes part of the way in which this area which is abram's pilgrimage with sarai his wife becoming a fit beginning for this story of blessing for the whole world starting in the reading we made this morning i wanted to talk about two dates this morning they may seem strange dates but there are two dates which certainly have a beginning and uh the first of them i wanted to mention let's see the the the shorter one of our our reflections and this is the fact that on august the 16th 1977 elvis presley died now he is such an icon of the 20th century the king of rock i don't even need to say elvis presley it's enough simply to say elvis and i think of the way that almost with reverence my sister used to use the word he was for her the one whose music had transformed things and uh when she was just beginning to to to enjoy life in independence elvis was the one she had a huge affection for the beatles but nothing like the affection she had for elvis my father disapproved hugely of all of that but he was confounded when my mother began to love the way in which elvis sang gospel songs and when pauline my sister was listening to love me tender love me true uh mother was listening to songs like i came to the garden alone uh or um the the how great thou art or something like that sung by elvis and one thinks of him in that early capacity but also we think how the legend took him over and graceland of course is now a a huge sort of center people imitate him dress like all of that and come together in elvis festivals in that way but nevertheless his life ended unhappily because because the legends seem to take things over and it was too much to bear what people had placed onto him it's a great uh great burden when that happens to someone and their own welfare begins to suffer i want to go to the next one also is exactly the same in this sort of date a beginning of rock and roll from elvis but the next one is on the 16th of august 1888 t.e lawrence was born and he of course is well known to us as lawrence of arabia that wasn't him at the beginning he was an archaeologist and working for the british museum at carcamesh and he was working with archaeologists who were involved in trying to find places like ur of the kaldi's there are photographs of him in syria with uh the famous archaeologists of his day and then the first world war broke out and he signed up and because of his skills he was sent to the arab bureau in egypt in 1914 and then went on a diplomatic mission to the arab peoples and made friends of course with the emir faisal and from that moment onwards he became an absolute ardent enthusiast for the cause of the arab revolt against the ottoman empire well that suited political ends at the time and lawrence became almost uh an instrument in the hands of others but at the same time his loyalty was given to those peoples that she had suddenly come to know and to have a huge affection for and the legend of course became greater than the person and in the end greater than the person could cope with but he when he ended all this and he went to the foreign office at the end of the first world war and in if you read steve fried sassoon's diaries you'll find so soon also having come back from the devastation of the first world war but he had he was famous in a different way and he and lawrence would meet up from time to time in james's park at that time when lawrence was working for the foreign office but he really had enough and in 1922 he became a completely different person who wanted to to lead a more hidden life he wrote his great seven pillars of wisdom and uh that sentence actually struck me because this morning in matins in the cathedral early we're reading the book of proverbs as the old testament lesson and uh we're reading chapter eight this morning but i had the bible open on my lap and i saw that chapter nine began with the very sentence that lawrence used for his autobiography of those years only a small part of his life wisdom has builded her house she has hewn out her seven pillars the seven pillars of wisdom which lawrence sets out there but his desire for a a kind of seclusion and a hiddenness from what people were placing across him became much greater he changed his name and in the end as many of you will know was killed in a motorcycling accident as he was just going along the lanes of dorset and is buried in the wonderful church of saint nicholas at morton in dorset that's that church where sir lawrence whistler has engraved wonderful glass just clear glass with wonderful drawings and and and engravings on and i think when we were dealing with the judas tree i said one of the ones he did of the i think there were 12 panels in the 13th or the 14th or something like that he did by himself without the commissioning but the pcc of saint nicholas wouldn't have it at first and this was a window called forgiveness and it was about judas but if you go to morton church nicholas morton or even look it up google it then you will see those wonderful panels of lawrence whistler's glass but at the same time there quietly in the churchyard is the grave of t.e lawrence the massive canvas of david leans lawrence of arabia shows the legend but the lonely man on the motorbike trying to find seclusion who was killed in that tragic accident is there resting in the churchyard sometimes what we put on to people is too much even though they make a wonderful new beginning but this morning we put much onto abram because he becomes the sign of the new beginning of the ancestors of jesus own people going forward and the foundation stone of so much faith of different kinds opening out in his obedience right let's say our prayers for this morning get my book again and also a little list from the anglican communion and today we are praying for the diocese of eastern in the episcopal church of the united states of america and here we're praying for clergy with permission to officiate to help out in the parishes very many beautiful parishes of the ospring deanery which will go from place to place not only off brings but the sort of favisham area and borton under bleen and and all of these places and we shall go day by day by day through those parishes and uh the the uh um estate of these court is is is in that area so we've been thinking about that with the calendula and the accium so let's say our prayers this morning bring your own prayers and of course our hearts are burning for afghanistan and all that is going on there at the moment oh god you declare your almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace that we running the way of your commandments may receive your gracious promises and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure through jesus christ our lord our men in a moment we will have some silence but let's say first the prayer in our own language that 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 it's a moment of silence for your own prayers and concerns cheers 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 would pray for and those whom you love today and always amen so we're having a nice morning in the garden with the the dry weather this week windy bit cool and the flowers here not only the lovely flowers of the ekyum and the the various calendula but also a lovely silk tassel tree and various hibiscus and wisteria showing themselves over the wall so enjoy your day and we will all keep afghanistan particularly and those in danger of fires and flood in other parts of the world in our prayers throughout the day [Music] you