good morning and welcome on this friday morning the 4th of december welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral where we've come to say our morning prayers and wherever you are in the world please feel welcome and bring your own concerns we woke this morning to find snow all over the green grass the earth of course was warm enough to melt that quite quickly but there are still patches amongst the leaves here at my feet so our first fall of the sign of winter as snow fell in the night and i'm sure we shall have more of that before all that long um we are saying our prayers in this advent week but it's also as you will remember if you've joined us day by day the national week of trees and we've taken an indigenous english tree every day and this morning i've got a young specimen of a very common and very popular tree just here behind me in the hedge it's a hawthorn and of course it's a great sign of the coming of spring in all its glory because at that time of year it's filled with white scented flowers in every hedgerow and they lie as white as snow in springtime and the scent of it as it's gathered is is very powerful indeed and very reminiscent of the coming of warmer times but at the moment it still has its leaves here and in the autumn of course it's it's covered in as we call them uh and the fruits are are immensely nutritious for the wildlife and the birds so when we planted the wild hedge there's plenty of hawthorne in it but they do grow into great trees and you can find lovely paintings of them by stanley spencer or you can find many pictures of them but you don't have to go far anywhere to in in may time to find the hedges covered in white hawthorne so we give thanks for that and that native english tree this morning our tree of the day the date december the fourth gives us as we go back in history in 530 bc cyrus the great king of persia died and he of course was used uh by the prophet isaiah as an uh an emblem of god's own purpose in bringing the people home from exile uh what else do we have today in 749 since john of damascus died who is known as the last of the fathers of the eastern orthodox church and he appears in our calendar with another whom i'll mention in a moment if we go a little um further on in 1093 on this day saint anselm was consecrated as archbishop to become archbishop of canterbury and of course anselm is buried here and his his altar is is uh something that we are very proud of because the people of his own land of aosta created it out of their own stone and gave it to us as a gift a few years ago and then at the same time we remember that in where do we go next 1791 the observer the sunday newspaper britain's oldest sunday newspaper was first published 1798 the prime minister william pitt pitt the younger introduced income tax for the first time as to help the nation's efforts in war against france in 1865 edith cavill was born we remembered her heroism she was of course executed shot in the first world war a nurse who had helped british soldiers escape across to the dutch border from belgium and we remember her forgiveness of all those who were intending to to kill her her statue is is there just off trafalgar square as you will remember in a more comic way the literally comic uh in 1937 the the comic the dandy was issued i remember that well as one in youth used to read either the bino or the dandy and get fun from it well the dandy was issued it ended in 2012 and the bino began in 1938 a year later than the dandy and it's still going so all those comic characters we give thanks for which cheer our day in 1976 the composer benjamin britton died age 63 he's too important and a composer and of church music too for us to think about today we will give him special place uh across the weekend but the one we will remember is the fact that in 1637 on this day nicolas ferrer the leader of the little gidding community died and that was a community dedicated to spiritual discipline and social service and we give thanks for uh nicholas ferrer but we will think of him in our reflection so let's begin our prayers o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise reveal among us the light of your presence that we may behold your power and glory blessed are you sovereign god of all to you be praised and glory forever in your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night as we look for your coming among us this day 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 as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on the fourth morning of the month is psalm 19 the heavens are telling the glory of god and the firmament proclaims his handiwork one day pours out its song to another and one night unfolds knowledge to another they have neither speech nor language and their voices are not heard yet their sound has gone out into all lands and their words to the ends of the world in them has he set a tabernacle for the sun that comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoices as a champion to run his course it goes forth from the end of the heavens and runs to the very end again and there is nothing hidden from its heat the law of the lord is perfect reviving the soul the testimony of the lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple the statutes of the lord are right and rejoice the heart the commandment of the lord is pure and gives light to the eyes the fear of the lord is clean and endures forever the judgments of the lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold more than much fine gold sweeter also than honey dripping from the honeycomb by them also is your servant taught and in keeping them there is great reward who can tell how often they offend oh cleanse me from my secret faults keep your servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get dominion over me so shall i be undefiled and innocent of great offence let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight o lord my strength and my redeemer so our lesson from scripture today is from the revelation to john the 21st chapter beginning at the 22nd verse and i saw no temple in the city for its temple is the lord god the almighty and the lamb and the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of god gives it light and its lamp is the lamb by its light will the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it and its gates will never be shunt by day and there will be no night there they will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations but nothing unclean will ever enter it nor anyone who does what is detestable or false but only those who are written in the lamb's book of life then the angel showed me the river of the water of life bright as crystal flowing from the throne of god and of the lamb through the middle of the street of the city and also on either side of the river the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations no longer will there be anything accursed but the throne of god and of the lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and night will be no more they will need no light of lamp or sun for the lord god will be their light and they will reign for ever and ever beautiful passage and the penultimate reading from the revelation to john tomorrow we then come to the last reading on saturday so at this time we think of that vision it's a heavenly vision and if you like we've arrived from the very beginnings of creation and the gift in the book genesis in that picture there of the tree of life and this journey through so many different kinds of books in the holy scriptures brings us to the site of the tree of life again and the water of the river of life spoken of so often in the prophets in the psalms in the law in the writings of wisdom and in the teaching of our lord himself who used these images lovely sentences the leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations and gates which are always open and at the same time an everlasting light provided by the creator himself the throne of god and of the lamb for thereto is the lamb the son of david the king of kings the lord of lords the good shepherd the so many titles we can give to the way in which the creator took human flesh and lived among us laying aside power and embracing everything human in order to give his life for us all those things are there in that picture and it's a picture i never get tired of reading and i'm always glad when i see that it's a lesson for the day as we we do this in course so that today we give thanks for it on this day which began with snow at the beginning of winter the day when we have a remembrance of spring with our tree the hawthorne tree the main tree so all those things as we remember also this day as being the day on which in 1637 nicholas farah died pharaoh died early in his mid-forties he was the best friend of george herbert the parrot and herbert had on his deathbed in 1633 sent all his poetry unpublished to pharah and said to him please if it's of quality to help people in their journey it otherwise burn it and pharah published it that year it's never been out of prince since but let's think of fera today for pharah had a scholarly brain and not very good health nevertheless he set about in family business with the virginia company he also tried parliament he was at that level of national life and then suddenly he decided to give everything up he received deacon's orders never asked for more and took his family his mother his sister and her husband and family his brother and his wife and family to the manor house at little giddy and there they set up a community which would live a rhythm of life of spiritual discipline and faithfulness based on the offices of the book of common prayer and the scriptures which of course in 1611 had been newly translated in the king james version and of social action so that the community around them would benefit from education and schooling and healing and resources but the family themselves lived a life of worship and rhythmic creativity within that social action they restored the little parish church near the manor house and they never had an occasion when a member of the family day or night was not kneeling before the altar and saying their portion of psalms for that little community said the whole sorta through every day sometimes there were offices during the day which people joined in and a little hymn was sung but everything was done simply without fuss and it was a very shall we say iconic anglican kind of worship resting as we do on the prayers given to us in our liturgy and also on reflection on them resting on the rhythmic reading of the scriptures and one of the things i'm most strong about is that we follow the lectionary day by day and read what it gives us for everywhere in scripture there is some kind of fruit that we can find and if we keep choosing our favorite bits then we go wrong and unbalance everything that was not pharah's way at the same time the household were engaged in creativity they learned book binding and all kinds of other crafts and of course they they kept a farm which which fed them and the surrounding area and at the same time pharah believed that that rhythm of anglican worship and life was a an encouragement to those around that community was not to the pleasing of the um parliamentary puritan forces once the civil war began they had endured much criticism and then pharaoh was was dead by the time the war broke out but king charles the first has come three times to little goody and on his first two occasions as king and uh uh was given all the respect he was due but but he also saw the work they were doing and what pharah liked them to do was to make a harmony of the gospels and they did that and cutting out the passages to make a harmony which tried to go in a sort of chronological way and fit the four gospels together and the king saw this and begged to have one made for him which they did and and presented to him so that he could read the gospels in a harmony we know intellectually that it's impossible to fit those four gospels into a harmony but actually in heart and mind and worship we do it all the time we shall do it at christmas time and oftentimes our telling of the story has elements of matthew and mark and luke and john like jewels mixed together in it so those harmonies became an icon of the reading of the passages which was set down day by day in the book of common prayer in great faithfulness farrah and his little giddy community remain a huge icon and encouragement to us even today as we go about our worship for that kind of rhythm in life is something an individual can do but it's much more encouraging when we do it in community which is what we try to do day by day in a worldwide community of those who join us as we go through pharaoh wrote to one of his nieces who was and and uh it was a special anniversary for her and um he wrote a little letter because she was there living the life of the little gideon community and he said to her i purpose and hope by god's grace to be to you not as a master but as a partner and fellow student well that's a lovely thought as that community went about its life in great order and discipline and enjoyed the life they've led t.s eliot was overcome with both i think admiration but touched when he visited little kidding which is in deepest hunting denture and when he went there it stayed with him and of course as most of you all know his last of the four quartets is simply called little kidding and there's a passage in it which talks of the the whitening of the hedges of the matrix it also talks of charles the first coming back to little getting when he had just lost the battle of nasby and knew that this was the end really of of any chance of victory he came as a broken king back to little kidding to take strength from it one last time and you'll hear that resonance as i read just a passage from little gidding by t.s eliot catch the pictures as they go through if you came this way taking the route you would be likely to take from the place you would be likely to come from if you came this way in may time you would find the hedges white again in may with voluptuary sweetness it would be the same at the end of the journey if you came at night like a broken king if you came by day not knowing what you came for it would be the same when you leave the rough road and turn behind the pigsty to the dull facade and the tombstone and what you thought you came for is only a shell a husk of meaning from which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled if at all either you had no purpose for the purpose is beyond the end you figured and is altered in fulfillment there are other places which also are the world's end some at the sea jaws or over a dark lake in a desert or a city but this is the nearest in place and time now and in england if you came this way taking any route starting from anywhere at any time or at any season it would always be the same you would have to put off sense and notion you are not here to verify instruct yourself or inform curiosity or carry a report you are here to kneel where prayer has been valid and prayer is more than an order of words the conscious occupation of the praying mind or the sound of the voice praying and what the dead had no speech for when living they can tell you being dead the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living here the intersection of the timeless moment is england and nowhere never and always beautiful reflection on what holy places mean the world over but the way in which we can be caught by spiritual moments when we give ourselves to the daily discipline of a measure of reflection and center ourselves on scripture within the context of creation let's say our prayers and we pray on this day within the anglican communion for the diocese of shinyanga in tanzania and johnson chinyong olei the bishop there and all his people and the diocese of eau claire in the episcopal church of the united states praying for william j lambert the bishop there and his people pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and we're continuing to pray for all in need of mental health and well-being pray for lorraine apps huggins the lead chaplain at the living well today as we take that intention on this day in advent so we say together first bringing your own intentions the advent collect almighty god give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life in which your son jesus christ came to visit us in great humility that in the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who lives and reigns with you and the holy spirit now and forever are men so we say the prayer our savior taught us in whatever language in whichever way you like to say it 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 and women of silence now as we say our own prayers [Music] christ the son of righteousness shine upon you scatter the darkness from before your path and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory 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 when you're very quiet this morning don't think you like the snow much really did you