good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of saturday the 23rd of january it's a very crisp winter morning so welcome here wherever you are in the world we think of our friends in adelaide in australia with a temperature of 40 degrees today of extreme heat and also of course the danger of bushfires so we we pray for them but here it's midwinter in england and i see no breaths of of winds this morning so we brought clemmy and the girls up to have their breakfast it's a saturday morning and normally they're part of our prayers on a saturday morning as a a sign of god's good creation on this particular day so let's say our prayers together and bring your own intentions wherever you are on this day in the week of prayer for christian unity as we pray not only for the unity of the church but for the unity of the whole of humanity as together we face the pandemic which so many are struggling against and we pray for those who will be working today to combat that 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 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 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 are men our psalm on this 23rd morning of the month is psalm 111 alleluia i will give thanks to the lord with my whole heart in the company of the faithful and in the congregation the works of the lord are great sought out by all who delight in them his work is full of majesty and honor and his righteousness endures forever he appointed a memorial for his marvelous deeds the lord is gracious and full of compassion he gave food to those who feared him he is ever mindful of his covenant he showed his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations the works of his hands are truth and justice all his commandments are sure they stand fast forever and ever they are done in truth and equity he sent redemption to his people he commanded his covenant forever holy and awesome is his name the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have those who live by it his praise endures forever so on this morning we turn once again to st mark's gospel and as we do so we take up from where we left off yesterday in uh chapter three and what i'm going to do is to read this this morning's gospel is very short and monday's gospel attaches to it and monday is the feast of the conversion of saint paul and so we'll have different lessons then so i'm going to read both the gospels today as a continuing whole and we're on chapter 3 and i'm reading from verse 13 and no i'm sorry i'm reading from verse 20. we read 13 to 20 yesterday then jesus went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat and when his family heard it they went out to seize him for they were saying he is out of his mind and the scribes who came down from jerusalem were saying he is possessed by beelzebub and by the prince of demons he casts out the demons and he called them to him and said to them in parables how can satan cast out satan if a kingdom is divided against itself that kingdom cannot stand and if a house is divided against itself that house will not be able to stand and if satan has risen up against himself and is divided he cannot stand but he's coming to an end but no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman then indeed he may plunder his house truly i say to you all sins will be forgiven the children of man and whatever blasphemers they utter but whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin for they were saying he has an unclean spirit well several things to notice in that little passage the hostility of the authorities has been building up we are in rural galilee even though this is capernaum and jesus and his disciples have come back home to home base from their going around and spreading the good news and creating wholeness and healing for people and communities in the villages around the lakeside and they've come home and the minute they're home then the word goes round and the crowds begin to gather again so that they could not even eat and i think that they there is jesus and his disciples the twelve are now a fact after yesterday in sin mark's gospel mark always moves fast but he spares us nothing he spares us no emotion he spares us no hard detail in the gospel of saint luke the the whole thing is is done in more tranquility and laid out in a a completely different way one thinks of the tradition that luke was an artist he paints pictures as he goes along with mark it's a straightforward setting down and the ordering he gives is not always chronological because he probably had no knowledge of what the chronology was when he was writing but everything for the moment is set in rural galilee and the crowds have come but among them now comes a different dimension it's quite clear that the authorities the provincial authorities in rural galilee have sent for some help because they're nervous about what is going on they're nervous about people saying in synagogues he teaches with authority and not like our own scribes they're nervous of their own position so the the big guns are drawn from jerusalem and they now arrive and the the ore with which uh they are met has to be realized because here or are authoritative people scholars and authorities from if you like church and state because the high priest was the the the head of state in many people's minds even though there was a roman governor there and there was a king in in galilee of the hasmonean regime herod but really the high priest shall we say cut the mustard and here these people come with total authority and they are the ones who are going to first inspect and see what's going on and then make a judgment but at the same time in the rural areas also those in authority are beginning to question this nazareth is a day's journey away and the family of jesus which we'll come across again in chapter six of mark and they're their name the brothers of jesus are named possibly brothers from an earlier marriage of joseph from a wife who possibly had died and and who knows but but their names then and we'll come to that later on but those brothers become important much later on in the history of the early church but for the moment they the family are almost being now shamed by the people around them saying we hear that that your brother has gone slightly crazy and so they go out to secure him and we see that beginning to happen we'll come back again to that on tuesday morning when we take up the story again but for the moment let's stay with the crowds and with the scribes who have come and they are of the opinion because their own authority is challenged but their religious authority and their temporal authority over the the people of the rural province as well as judea they don't want this to spread as an insidious spreading of this this new disorder and disruption and teaching which the people are seeing as authoritative and are wowed at that finding it awesome as they say around the the the door there as they come back to greet jesus and jesus is well aware of this and uh we saw his human emotions with regards to what the the local scribes were were thinking uh a couple of days ago and how he felt angry at their hardness of heart that was all about rulings on the sabbath this becomes a much wider argument and the argument is about where this power is coming from is it from god is this the chosen one jesus is is quietening that all the time and wanting to give them the good news the the freedom he speaks of in the prophecy of isaiah speaking in the synagogue good news for the poor good news for the captive good news for those who sit in darkness all of that but he's very well aware of the cost but nevertheless he doesn't want anything getting in the way of that good news which the twelve are now also commissioned to take to the people as they go around and so when the scribes from jerusalem make their judgment the judgment is that he is filled not with the spirit of god but with the spirit of satan and for the first time we come across the word parable first time used in the gospel of sin mark and as you can see it's the earliest of the gospels here's the first time we see the word used now parable paraboli is is a word that can mean really anything figurative esop's stories earlier than this showing animals doing things to teach lessons are normally called fables but in a way they're parables and it's a word that's not foreign to the scriptures uh in two of the psalms i can think of just like that psalm 78 and in psalm 78 which we never read because it's an afternoon psalm we sing it in the cathedral or say it in the cathedral in the afternoons but we don't we don't use it in our morning prayers but right at the beginning of that monumental psalm the longest whole psalm because 119 is split into sections but this one as a whole psalm telling a story is the longest of all and we sing that right through on the 15th evening of the month and it's a wonderful historical story but at the beginning the writer of the psalm says i will open my mouth in a parable and will pour forth mysteries from of old and the the mysteries are told in parabolic form if you like and all kinds of images are used to express those mysteries because they're inexpressible in human terms that's how jesus is going to use parables he uses images sometimes it's images of creatures sometimes it's images of plants sometimes it's images of human situations and sometimes it's images of things like flower and leaven and making bread or sweeping rooms or whatever but here's the first instance of it and it's really only a sentence uh he talks to them about how ridiculous it is to say that if satan is bill beelzebue is which is the the name they use but jesus goes back to if satan is casting out satan that makes the whole thing utterly ridiculous because no one casts themselves out of something if evil is being cast out by evil then what on earth is happening and really it's a humorous parable but it's intensely ironic from jesus that these people who've come up from the capital and then pointed the finger of it of him as an agent of satan and he says if a a strong man's house is plundered you have to bind the strong man first and the binding of evil so that the the house if you think of a human life is then made clean it's something that jesus is about and if if satan is binding satan how can his kingdom stand says jesus and we're in the land of parables of the way in which mysteries were explained but were also in the land where jesus is uh anger with this kind of judgment on his ministry is so great that he says if you if you actually call the spirit of god which is the totality of the gift of the divine in our humanity if you call that an agent of satan that really is an unforgivable sin you're lost because the spirit can't work in you it's it's hopeless and so that that comes neat in st mark's gospel shall we say white hot with jesus's rage not only with the the messengers from the the capital but also with the fact that their hardness of heart is preventing the spirit of god of all that is good and divine and the the the sense of heaven's gifts being given here on earth even here and now in healing it is being pointed at by those who should know so much better not as a fulfillment of prophecy and the psalms but as an act of evil well everything is turned upside down and jesus turns it back upside down and we shall go on with that but we give thanks really for marx sparing us no punches and sharing a very human situation as the crowds who would have been in awe of the people coming from jerusalem in their rural setting but also in awe of what is going on and for the moment what is going on is is more powerful this is a day when we think actually of pictures a great deal because on january the 23rd in uh 1989 salvador dali died on january the 23rd 1832 edouard monet was born and on january the 23rd 1883 gustaf dore died all three are artists they're very different if we start with mane who was born in paris in 1832 exactly the same date as dory was born not the day of the month but the year 1832 in paris right at the beginning of the july monarchy of uh uh louis the the of the orleans monarchy which had taken over after the july revolution and what we see with both manet and dore is that they lived through in in paris a succession of different regimes and even revolutions if you think how it worked in france from 1830 to 1848 and then the revolution ended the july monarchy and took it over to the second republic and then soon after that became the second empire of napoleon iii which went on to 1870 with the franco-prussian war and all the devastation and a horrendous uh fact of the siege of paris that went on at that time and the the third republic beginning well now in all of that both dory and many were involved and yet their work went on and uh it it shows how ordinary human life can go on through political upheavals the and political upheavals at the back cloth of so much of the life of the early church the same time salvador dali much later born in 1904 and died in 1989 let's go back to mani first mane was seen as a realist he painted pictures of realism and the dejanescio derb which are the um is so famous in our school textbook not much of it uh the picnic there or the the the the barmaid at the folie bertier which again is a very famous painting indeed or the little uh drama boy and fight player which you find in the musee d'orsay um very famous indeed published in so many books in a little illustration of that kind of realism in in france at the time but then uh one goes on to to let me go to dali next because dali is not a realist but a surrealist and uh his he was of course spanish and uh he he had to live through again people uh uh great political upheavals in spain born in 1904 so the spanish civil war came in his lifetime and he spent time in france he spent time in the united states where he was fated and lorded but his paintings were surreal and if you look at something like the temptations of saint anthony in the desert then one has the most amazing picture of the saint we were talking about just a few days ago and the temptations he experienced but in this it is again like a parable where the temptations are coming towards him in all kinds of strange form animals with long legs coming across the desert and anthony kneeling there naked and with the cross held up to combat the temptations surreal imagined of dreams like parables but sometimes those parables are much more powerful than facts themselves probably the most famous painting of dali for us is the painting of christ of saint john of the cross where the fisherman's boats on the sea of galilee with the figures standing in them is surmounted in amazing colors by christ on the cross lying across the heavens almost as the entry into the heavens above but looking down with her arms outstretched onto the lake and rural galilee and the the folk beneath the figures of the twelve in their fishing boat who have been called to be fishers of people all of that we remember we could spend a long time on each of these artists but i want to go to dory because he's a favorite of mine and his illustrations doria was an illustrator and his illustrations at a time before photographs were in so many books through the 19th century he illustrated all kinds of poetry i have on my shelves the most wonderful old don quixote illustrated by doreen and there is the don sitting and in his fireside chair and his dreams are all around the room but if you remember his illustrations of dante then the scene of the paradise as they stand looking into paradise is just extraordinary or his illustrations of the scriptures themselves with jacob wrestling with the angel or with the shepherds just when the angel comes down that they they're really powerful and i've got a copy of idiots of the king the tennyson of the arthurian legend in that way and of milton's paradise lost and the drama which is put into that is if you like parabolic it they're all in parables but dore had a way of capturing the drama neat in pen strokes no color but illustrating those books and those stories and uh sometimes it's it's one story uh shakespeare's tempest other times it's whole books we give thanks for all of that but we give thanks for the concept of the parable which can take us into a completely different area not with logical understanding but with a a metaphor a figurative way of doing things which is much more powerful and around us lie all the uh elements of what happens with the parable the things that can be used to express things which are too deep for logical human words so we shall come back just in mark of course on tuesday morning but today let's give thanks for the way in which jesus takes up the concept of parables and begins to develop it for those pictures stay in our mind and help us as we go on right let's say our prayers on this particular day and we're praying today let me come first to the list of those that we pray for in the anglican communion we're praying for the diocese of akkot in the province of the episcopal church of south sudan and praying for the bishop there and his people and in our own diocese as we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth we are praying for the safeguarding team in our diocese led by our two diocesan safeguarding advisors who work for our cathedral here as well paul brightwell and fiona coombs we pray for them in their essential work and we want you to bring your own prayers and obviously we're praying for the unity of the church and we bring our own intentions on this particular day here's the here is the uh prayer for this week it's the last time we'll use it because it will change tomorrow 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 the prayer for the unity of the church heavenly father you have called us in the body of your son jesus christ to continue his work of reconciliation and reveal you to the world forgive us the sins which tear us apart give us the courage to overcome our fears and to seek that unity which is your gift and your will through jesus christ our lord our men so we say each in our own language the prayer 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 so a moment of silence this morning as we say our own prayers 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 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 you know what's been happening with our friends here but obviously they were having an exciting time racing around and uh so they're come back now to continue their breakfast but also we've had a little robin flying around and that reminds us that next weekend we shall be involved in the rspb's bird watch i've spoken about this this week and uh you're to find an hour if you would like to just be anywhere where you can see the birds around you in a balcony or a park in your own garden and note in that one hour what birds you see and the link is below but also if you want to do that from other parts of the world and send them into the other link then we shall have an idea of the birds that our garden congregation are watching wherever they are in the world but meanwhile these uh girls have become tranquil again and we will just go and greet the ones back here to see what's going on well spotty here you are what was all the racing about hey what was all the racing about some games we have no knowledge of i think but they're all enjoying being out in the frosty frosty leaves