good morning and welcome to the dinery garden in canterbury cathedral on this morning of saturday the 18th of september as we gather for our morning prayers slightly cloudy sky this morning but a lovely september morning nevertheless and we've come to this place by the end of the stream where we were uh not too long ago as we released the frog into the middle of the aram lilies which are here blooming in their lovely green hues but we've no frog this morning we are actually going to be in the orchard a bit later on and we're going to start just here to give you a sense of the morning's freshness um was reading earlier of a news story that there is a a dish which is served which some of you may know it was a very popular family dish of of uh sausages and batter uh in all served together and it used to be called toad or it still is called toad in the hole but it's clearly fallen out of favor because in an a survey that was done they found that about half the people surveyed thought that toad in the hole contained real toads well i assure you it doesn't it's just just the sight of the sausages peeping out of the batter which gives that sort of flavor but it shows how when some things don't become current then they easily drop out of the memory and i'm sure at some stage it'll make a big revival so let's say our prayers on this day bring your own prayers and intentions from across the world you will have many scenes to have in your minds where we need to be praying for people in areas of distress and also areas of joy and anniversaries perhaps for your own folk that you know well members of your family and neighbors that you want to reach out to across the world in prayer let's begin our prayers together o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the true the only light banish all darkness from our hearts and minds blessed are you sovereign god creator of all to you be glory and praise forever you founded the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands in the fullness of time you made us in your image and in these last days you have spoken to us in your son jesus christ the word made flesh as we rejoice in the gift of your presence among us let the light of your love always shine in our hearts your spirit ever renew our lives and your praises ever be on our lips 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 you 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 18th morning of the month is psalm 90 the magnificent psalm which uh speaks of life and death and which isaac was created into a metrical hymn oh god our help in ages past our hope for years to come so here is psalm 90 lord you have been our refuge from one generation to another before the mountains were brought forth or the earth and the world were formed from everlasting to everlasting you are god you turn us back to dust and say turn back o children of us for a thousand years in your sight our butters yesterday which passes like a watch in the night you sweep them away like a dream they fade away suddenly like the grass in the morning it is green and flourishes in the evening it is dried up and withered for we consume away in your displeasure we are afraid at your rostful indignation you have set our misdeeds before you and our secret sins in the light of your countenance when you are angry all our days are gone our years come to an end like a sigh the days of our life are three score years and ten or if our strength endures even for score yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow for they soon pass away and we are gone who regards the power of your ross and your indignation like those who fear you so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom turn again o lord how long will you delay have compassion on your servants satisfy us with your loving kindness in the morning that we may rejoice and be glad all our days give us gladness for the days you have afflicted us and for the years in which we have seen adversity show your servants your works and let your glory be over their children may the gracious favor of the lord our god be upon us prosper our handiwork o prosper the work of our hands so we've moved farther up into the into the orchard and uh our feathered friends are enjoying the morning it's still very early and uh russell is is telling us it's morning though ducky is here uh more enjoying the water as always with her so we're going to continue the story of joseph and his brothers from where we left off though joseph himself of course isn't going to appear much today because the brothers we left them on their way home and you remember they stopped in their tracks one to feed his donkey and in opening the sack of grain he found that his purchase money was there in the top which he had given to joseph's overseer to buy the grain and now it's here again and there is a great fear falls over them and remember the last sentence from chapter 42 at verse 28 yesterday when we finished was they looked at one another trembling saying what is this that god has done to us so we're carrying on from verse 29 of chapter 42 of the book of genesis when they came to jacob their father in the land of canaan they told him all that had happened to them saying the man the lord of the land spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land but we said to him we are honest men we have never been spies we are twelve brothers sons of our father one is no more and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of canaan then the man the lord of the land said to us by this i shall know that you are honest men leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households and go your way bring your youngest brother to me then i shall know that you are not spies but honest men and i will deliver your brother to you and you shall trade in the land as the brothers emptied their sacks behold every man's bundle of money was in his sack and when they and their father saw their bundles of money they were all afraid and jacob their father said to them you have bereaved me of my children joseph is no more simeon is no more and now you would take benjamin all this has come against me then ruben said to his father kill my two sons if i do not bring him back to you put him in my hands i will bring benjamin back to you but jacob said my son shall not go down with you for his brother is dead and he is the only one left if harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make you would bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to shield now the famine was severe in the land and when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from egypt their father said to them go again buy us a little food but judah said to him the man solemnly warned us saying you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you if you will send our brother with us we will go down and buy you food but if you will not send him we will not go down for the man said to us you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you jacob said why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother they replied the man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred saying is your father still alive do you have another brother what we told him was in answer to these questions could we in any way know that he would say bring your brother down and judah said to israel his father send the boy with me and we will arise and go that we may live and not die both we and you and also our little ones i will be a pledge of his safety from my hand you shall require him if i do not bring benjamin back to you and set him before you then let me bear the blame forever if we had not delayed we would now have returned twice their father israel said if it must be so then do this take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry a present down to the man a little balm and a little honey gum myrrh pistachio nuts and almonds take double the money with you carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouthful of your sacks perhaps it was an oversight take also your brother benjamin and arise go again to the man may god almighty grant you mercy before the man and may he send back your other brother simeon and benjamin and as for me if i am bereaved of my children i am bereaved so we come farther up still into the orchard into a place of great fruitfulness amongst the trees here and clemmy and winnie are having their breakfast here the robin is singing and you'll hear outside it's a saturday morning but the city is waking up to life and the traffic is beginning to sound so you'll hear a little bit of that as well and around you've got very near to you as you look at me the you see the trunk of it on the right hand side a quince tree and i've got quinces here they're big fruits and they make wonderful quince jelly later on uh i'll put these two just here but um winnie and clemie are in enjoying some of the fallen apples there's a wonderful red apple and eating apple tree just here and all the trees apples and pears are covered in fruit which will soon be harvested and then the trees around me are beginning slowly to turn to their colors of the autumn as it comes on but we're enjoying a place that we like to sit in a homely way we like to bring people here and we'll talk a little bit about that a bit later on but for the moment let's remember that the reflection that sorry the reading that we've just had that we're about to reflect on began with them going home and they were glad to be going home but they had a terrible thing to tell their father joseph's brothers that they had left simeon in prison and that they could not go back to egypt unless they bring benjamin with them the youngest brother now over the whole of this story uh every time we meet jacob or israel as he is now called every time we meet him over the whole story is the grief at the loss of his beloved rachel now buried in bethlehem and the reason he keeps saying he is the only one left about benjamin is that joseph and benjamin are his two sons from rachel as you will remember joseph in his mind is dead through the deceit of the brothers he believes joseph to have been killed by a wild animal and at the same time benjamin is his precious son who reminds him of his constant love for rachel so when they go back with the alarm having found in one of the sacks the brothers money that they they gave and paid for the grain and now it looks as though they've stolen the grain because there's the money still there in the sack when they go home and undo the bags everyone has purchased money in the sack remember we said joseph was certainly not about to charge his family for sending them the necessary grain but all this is seen as a portent a sign of something really terrible if they stay at home and for the moment that seems to be the wisest course because jacob is absolutely adamant that benjamin his youngest son is not going back to egypt with them it's too dangerous and he himself cannot bear the thought of the loss of benjamin having lost joseph and in the detail given you the the the fear mounts but what happens is that they are paralyzed in decision making because of the fear decision that has to be made is cannot be made none of them can face it so day by day that decision comes nearer and nearer and in the end it's judah who has to say to his father if we stay here and do nothing we shall all die because our families our little ones this place of home is suffering from famine and the food day by day however we ration it is going to run out there's no sign of growing seasons and fruitfulness coming back you must let us go and in the end that paralysis disappears at the thought that all of them the whole community of jacob's household and all who depend on it will die of famine they must go back judah says we've delayed so long we could have been there and back twice by now so jacob takes the reasonable course though a fearful one and still he has the tragedy lurking in his mind as we saw from that last sentence if i am bereaved i am bereaved but he takes the reasonable course and says very well go back with all the money and give that back for the first lot of grain take enough money for more grain and take presents for the man it must have been some assemblage that went and the lovely list of fruitfulness that they still have that they're going to send precious gifts to the man who is the lord of the land they know idea that he's even understood what they're saying when they're talking in their own language leave alone that it is actually joseph the wonderful thing about this story is that the way it's told the details of the story which uh occasionally are picked up again to remind us so that as we tell the story we are given details from the story earlier on and at the same time there is wonderful description and the two locations canaan which is home and egypt which certainly isn't home and at the moment is a place of enormous danger but is the place of resources necessary resources for life and the way in which the storyteller we've no idea who the storyteller is that has given us this wonderful story with all its details but it gives it quite a modern feel because those are the details that we love to have when a story is being told and a good storyteller does repeat bits and pieces from catches up like someone when they're knitting picking up a stitch and sending it on so that we get the story don't forget the storyteller seems to be saying that this had happened or that hadn't happened this danger is lurking that danger is letting don't forget to go all the way back and you remember how when the brothers bowed before uh joseph uh joseph is is said to have remembered the dreams don't forget go all the way back to the story right at the beginning where the brothers bow before the sheeps the sheaves which represent the brothers in the dream of joseph and joseph's dreams are being really fully fully realized by all that is happening but the detail is the part of the story that makes it not only enjoyable to read and to listen to but also memorable and all these signs are given to us well yesterday we had uh around the garden uh a lovely group of friends some i knew some i didn't but all of them were joined together by being vergers in parish churches and in cathedral churches verges in kent so two cathedrals in kent rochester and canterbury and the guild of verges had an outing here and after they'd had their lunch they came here to walk around the garden and have a cup of tea here and many of them are members of the garden congregation i doubt his virgins they can often look at us early in the morning but as the glory of the the virtual world gives us the chance to do they can look at later in the day when they're less busy and many of them as they came round the little scenes in the garden it was the details that they remember some were gardeners themselves and much enjoyed looking at the plants asking about them seeing how the season was giving way from summer into into autumn or fall and at the same time they would speak as often happens when you're reminded speak about their own gardens and say um oh yes that happened to when when i showed them how our potatoes failed because of all the rain uh there was one of them who said well i'm thank goodness it was then it was not only me i thought i'd done something wrong with all the potato harvest but and then we went from taste to place and they would ask but as creatures came around the corner and there's quite a connection here in the orchard with us this morning as they came around the corner many of them knew the names of them they'd never met them before they'd never been here in the garden before many of them but they knew because of the details of the story that we're telling day by day and also the pictures that we're showing you'll notice that darcy is out this morning perhaps we should say that he's had a little infection in the side of his face and has had to be kept where his water contained an antibiotic and now that's uh to his great joy because you can't say you're being kept in because of an antibiotic this is the first time he's out and spreading his tail amongst the others and enjoying life together in the orchard here in the fruitfulness well the verges were led by their chair but also among them was one of our verges who now is is still in our mind of that company but has uh retired from verging for the moment i say for the moment i hope and her name is mo and uh she is imaginative herself she wrote the most lovely book about our guinea fowl and had it illustrated and published it and it was sold some years ago now but it was an imaginative story she's also someone who gives imaginative gifts and yesterday when she left she left a little present um a present for from all of them and then a present from herself and it's this hardback and it is the the golden legend a cantata by sir arthur sullivan which he wrote very serious cantati he wrote for the leeds festival at the time in the late 1880s when the mercado was at the height of its popularity here in london even in translation in berlin and the the golden legend is quite different it is a serious cantata and it achieved enormous popularity when he conducted it at the leeds festival i didn't have a copy before and this lovely copy it's a it's a piano score with the words this lovely copy is inscribed the 3rd of may 1890 which is a lovely gift now the golden legend used to be in medieval times the most popular reading it was transcribed and illustrated by hand and it had been written um by a man called jacobus de varadine an italian archbishop of genoa genoa in uh the 13th century and between about 1259 and 1266 it was one of the most popular books in the middle ages and it told the story the legends of so many saints and the moment printing was invented in the 1450s it was one of the first books to be printed it's written in simple and easily readable latin but it was also translated into about every european language that was printing and here in england uh caxton in 1483 published it with illustrations before there have been beautiful colorful illustrations many of the legends of the saints that we know like saint george and the dragon are from the golden legend and he he searched around the archbishop of uh genomics searched around to find legends of the saints and they became because they're in such colorful detail they became very popular and easily remembered and i found in them also the story that we've told before of mary magdalene's journey across the mediterranean and the boat fetching up in marseilles and from then on her spending a life of contemplation in a secluded cave in provence that we love to visit these legends come from the golden legend and the golden legend collected by the archbishop at that time searched back to find what was in the memory of the church what was in the memory of people and of course it was all the colorful things that were in the memory there and so the illustrations that artists have made of them since then have been amazing but henry was with one fellow the american poet wrote a wonderful poem a long poem based on the golden legend it was from there that arthur sullivan took his libretto for the golden legend after the massive success not only or in leeds but also in the royal albert hall queen victoria summoned sarasa and said to him sarasa i know you very popular with comic opera you should write a grand opera it was that moment after the golden legend which was so popular at that time as one of the great or uh cantatas a short oratorio shall we say it became the second most popular performed piece of music of that sort after messiah it even overtook elijah which was saying something in those days so um i give thanks that imaginative gift has been given to me to play on the piano and to enjoy but i see it is also recorded in in when i looked it up today there's a video of of a fine recording of it by a a choral society and all those legends but we give thanks for the way in which stories are told now this also is a date in uh 1709 of the birth of samuel johnson mostly known as dr johnson in other mornings uh in the in the past week we've looked at the life of dr johnson the compiler of the the dictionary and also the owner of the wonderfully characterful cat hodge it's not johnson i want to think about this morning it's the one of his friends who was considered by many to be a complete waster but he had a facility for conversation and also an eye for detail noticing what's going on and transcribing it into his own journals as he traveled around with johnson and at the end of dr johnson's life he wrote after johnson had died he wrote a biography of samuel johnson and that biography is largely thought to be not only the mother and father of all biographies which followed but also many would say the best biography of someone ever written it's why we know about samuel johnson and all the stories and the character not from the dictionary but from boswell's life and the detail given and you can imagine because of boswell's writing you can imagine all the scenes he involves conversation which is in his memory and prompted by his notebooks on the way through boswell had tried many times to write things which would give him fame he'd failed at most things and as i said was seen as a waste straw he drank too much and and died in the end of of a of syphilis and but at the same time he wrote this wonderful wonderful biography of johnson and what we've been saying about the way in which detail matters with the story of joseph we give thanks for in the writings of james boswell because it gives us in all its detail and splendor the life of samuel johnson maybe one could but just say one more thing about this morning it's the the day on which in 1905 18th of september 1905 greta garbo was born now to my mother and father generation she was the epitome of the beautiful film star and and a complete legend in her own right but two of her films which she made my mother actually just loved and when on television when we had it in the in the 1960s in black and white she could see those films again produced from time to time on television camille and anna karenina made by the wonderful producer david selznick who produced so many famous films but you only had to say the name garbo and everyone knew she was a legend how was she a legend because someone interpreted her her gifts and gave them in detail in stories on screen all of those things we give thanks for as we look all the way back to the book of genesis and this unknown hand has crafted all the feelings of the brothers and of jacob and the confused feelings of joseph himself looking at the line of his brothers and all the details that are given and the way in which were reminded as the story proceeds so this morning is a a a time for giving thanks for the way in which storytellers and interpreters of stories as they write things down or show them in acts of creation artists and musicians hand those things on and fill our minds in imaginations but let's go back to hildegard at bingham yesterday you don't live on other people's interpretations you then carry that to home base which is where we've come this morning and where the brothers are at at that time in the story you carry it back to your own humanity and interpret it in your own life and then use all your creative gifts to help other people interpret theirs so that the light of life is in your own life and begins to shine in that way and the humanity which the word made flesh shows us interprets our own humanity but the culture in which he grew up i'm sure that jesus as a boy and all those around him would have reveled in the telling of the story of joseph in the old testament right let's uh say our prayers on this particular day the day is brightening up and and beginning to look very good so we're praying on this day in the anglican communion the 18th of september for the diocese of faisalabad in the united church of pakistan remember all the people in that area of the world and also we are praying for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and in our diocese of canterbury today for the parish of goudhurst way in the the the the far west of the diocese and it's the parish of saint mary the virgin gouthurst with christchurch kilndown and we pray for rachel robertson in her ministry there and the life of gouthurst and kiln that kilndown church of england primary school and all the people of that community and that parish let's say then the prayer for this day bringing your own concerns and intentions across the world god who in generous mercy sent the holy spirit upon your church in the burning fire of your love grant that your people may be fervent in the fellowship of the gospel that always abiding in you they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service through jesus christ our lord our men it's a prayer that we can put into the uh first person plural or even the first person singular if you like grant that we your people may be fervent in the fellowship of the gospel always abiding you we may be or i may be found steadfast in faith and active in service let's say together the prayer our lord taught us in whichever language you would like to use 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 on this morning ah [Music] hmm ah the peace of god which passes 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 today and always amen rather too many of our feathered friends around for you i think aren't there you okay stay here all morning doing this can we but you'd like to hey ah where's your mummy [Music] oh