[Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] ah ah good morning and welcome to the dinner garden at canterbury cathedral on this sunday the 13th of december the third sunday of the advent season and we've come to say our morning prayers so wherever you are in the world please bring your prayers and feel welcome here as this sunday begins with morning prayer this is if we look back on the december the 13th in years gone by a most musical day we seem to have all kinds of anniversaries of musical events which will make us sing and dance really in 1925 dick van dyke was born who of course played bert in mary poppins and also karachika's pots in chitty chitty bang bang and taught us to say the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious which is even longer than anti-disestablishmentarianism which is the word that we were always told in school was the longest word in the english dictionary so we give thanks for him and his dancing skills it's his birthday today he is 95 years old today so we wish him a happy birthday in 1928 gershwin's an american in paris was premiered in 1979 oklahoma rogers and hammerstein's great musical which begins with oh what a beautiful morning and had been first performed in 1943 in 1979 it opened again in the palace theatre in new york and ran for 301 performances which is quite amazing and then in 1929 christopher plummer was born so we wish him a happy birthday also the star of the sound of music and well remembered as captain von trapp singing edelweiss all those things of musical uh memory we keep in mind in order to cheer us as we can't actually sing together but those tunes go around in our heads and we always give thanks for the way in which tunes are able to remind us of words on this day in 1784 samuel johnson died in london we did a a long remembrance of him very recently but we give thanks for him today and also in 1983 the novelist mary renault died in south africa of course she's best remembered for her historical novels set in ancient greece and especially the trilogy about alexander the great and also her novel the charioteer set in the middle of the second world war this is national hot chocolate day so treat yourself to a hot chocolate at some page and that may may cheer you as well i'm sitting under our tree for today uh the judas tree here the cerseus and the judas tree has very many special characteristics we'll we'll look at that later but it's companions here with the little parrot tree which is is uh a a tree which still has its leaves in gold here there's no sunshine this morning but if the sun sean this tree would be absolutely aglow with gold uh the judiciary is sheltering under the canopy of the ash and on each side are huge cherry trees um and behind it a liquid amber from the united states as also um the uh celsius the the judas tree grows in the united states but it also from from time time time long past has grown in southwest asia and southern europe and we remember that today the parotia ii comes from from western asia and so those are the trees and we'll come back to them of course in our reflection let's begin our prayers on this third sunday of advent 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 praise 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever are men during the advent season of course we light the four candles and we are here this morning on the third so here's our advent wreath made of all greenery and we light these two candles first which we lit last week and the week before [Music] and then this one new a new wick so we'll give it a bit more flame to get the candle going there we are that's the candle for the third sunday of advent but this also is worldwide light a candle day for those who have suffered the grief of the death of a child and in lighting a candle and us lighting a candle around them there is a collegiality in that grief which is healing so two reasons for lighting this third candle today our sun on this morning of the month the 13th morning is psalm 68. it's a long one so i'll read some verses from that now let god arise and let his enemies be scattered let those that hate him flee before him as the smoke vanishes so may they vanish away as wax melts at the fire so let the wicked perish at the presence of god but let the righteous be glad and rejoice before god let them make merry with gladness sing to god sing praises to his name exalt him who rides upon the clouds the lord is his name rejoice before him father of the fatherless defender of widows god in his holy habitation god gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners to songs of welcome but the rebellious inhabit a burning desert oh god when you went forth before your people when you marched through the wilderness the earth shook and the heavens dropped down rain at the presence of god the lord of sinai at the presence of god the god of israel you sent down a gracious reign o god you refreshed your inheritance when it was weary your people came to dwell there in your goodness so god you provide for the poor blessed be the lord who bears our burdens day by day for god is our salvation god is for us the god of our salvation god is the lord who can deliver from death sing to god you kingdoms of the earth make music in praise of the lord he rides on the ancient heaven of heavens and sends forth his voice a mighty voice ascribe power to god whose splendor is over israel whose power is above the clouds blessed be god so we turn today to a lesson for sunday rather than the thessalonians which were reading day by day in the week and it is actually the continuation of the story we read last sunday the second sunday in advent and this tells of the birth of john the baptist following the visit of the angel gabriel to his father the priest zechariah in the temple here is uh chapter one of st luke's gospel beginning at verse 57 now the time came for elizabeth to give birth and she bought a son and her neighbors and relatives heard that the lord had shown great mercy to her and they rejoiced with her and on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they would have called him zechariah after his father but his mother answered no he shall be called john and they said to her but none of your relatives is called by this name and they made signs to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called and he asked for a writing tablet and wrote his name is john and they all wondered and immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and zechariah spoke blessing god and fear came on all their neighbors and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of judea and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts saying what then will this child be for the hand of the lord was with him zechariah has been struck mute you cannot speak and first there's something to notice which is a lesson to us all that when people have a particular disability very often it's only that disability that they have and yet we begin to imagine that there are others too it's like shouting loud when someone who is very aged is sitting there and maybe their carer or that member of their family is standing by and because they're old we imagine they're deaf and very often i've been chided by someone saying you don't need to speak so loudly i'm not deaf and here we are with zechariah who is mute and we hear that when all the neighbors are shocked because the name that the angel has given to zechariah whom john must be called the baby must be called john and the neighbors are shocked when elizabeth says no he's not going to be called zechariah he's going to be called john this is an act of obedience she doesn't say that but this is an act of obedience and all the neighbors think well we better appeal to his father so what do they do they start making signs as though zechariah is deaf and he isn't he can hear them perfectly well but he can't speak so he sends for a writing tablet and he writes in obedience to the angel's command his name is john and his tongue is unloosed by that act of obedience and he begins to speak and soon after filled with the holy spirit that's in these first two chapters of the gospel of saint luke all the work of grace is from the holy spirit whether it be the initial visitation to zechariah or whether it be to marry herself or whether it be elizabeth having the grace to recognize the mother of the lord when she came to visit her filled with the holy spirit is one of luke's great sentences and that ability creates song and prophecy and things that we ourselves can sing i may have said before i don't know what the church would do without the first two chapters for in it comes mary's magnificat and in them comes zechariah's benedictus and in it also hi russell he's singing too um uh let me just give him some corn huh um in it too comes the uh simeons longtimitis the angels glorias and all of the things that we sing now just as magnificat always accompanies the even song that we have so if we were saying matins in full and you can do that in the the the book either the book of common prayer or this book of daily prayer from common worship the benedictus is always there the song of zechariah and the most marvelous image in it is that the coming of the one whom john will herald will be like this full sun rising on people's darkness zechariah and elizabeth are faithful to their own way of worship and jesus will also be just that in his years of growing up but the dimensions that the sun will shine on are much much bigger than the people that zechariah and elizabeth have grown up among and that we shall see unfolding not first in the ministry of john the baptist because he has come to prepare a people not only to receive the anointed one but also to have their own vocation to be a light to lighten the nations as the anointed one of the house of david will be as well all those things come with the births of john at the eucharist this morning john will already be there preaching by the river jordan for this is a day when we remember this third sunday in advent we remember john the baptist the old sequence of the colleagues in the book of common prayer that grandma set us and became well known almost in our heads has been changed around a bit in in the modern uh liturgy but the old sequence was advent one there 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 and then the second was the treasuring of every word of holy scripture blessed lord who has caused all holy scripture to be written for our learning grant that we may in such wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them for there are the prophecies and john the baptist is if you like and that's what the angel says in the spirit and power of elijah a prophet preparing the people to receive the anointed one the candle we've lit this morning and we shall read that advent colic because it's in its right place even in the modern liturgy is is the the one of lord who at your first coming sent your messenger to repair your way before you and then a prayer for the ministers and stewards of christ mysteries who are preparing people now to receive their lord in glory and finally the candle we shall light which is the final fourth colic for advent raise up your power and come among us and with great might succurus so all those flames represent flames that are encouraging our darkness with light but zechariah's vision in the benedictus is much more than that filled with the holy spirit he talks about the anointed one as the full sun rising on people sitting in darkness anywhere well that's a wonderful thing to think about on this particular morning but also as we sit under this judas tree because we've chosen this tree as this morning's tree then we also think of another aspect of all of this and our lord's lightening of darkness my partner here on the camera found a wonderful poem by ruth echels ruth is of blessed memory to many of us she was a scholar a poet and also the principal for many years of st john's college durham which also encompassed cranmer hall and trained folk for the ministry of deacons and priests and other forms of ministry but she was a voice a very strong voice within the church of england and the anglican communion and the guardian when she died in 2012 said that she was the best woman bishop we never had well ruth never sought holy orders but she certainly ministered and this poem which he found yesterday is one that i didn't know but it is called the ballad of the judas tree and here it is from rutherford's in hell there grew a judas tree where judas hanged and died because he could not bear to see his master crucified our lord descended into hell and found his judas there forever hanging on the tree grown from his own despair so jesus cut his judas down and took him in his arms it was for this i came he said and not to do you harm my father gave me twelve good men and all of them i kept there one betrayed and one denied some fled and others slept in three days time i must return to make the others glad but first i had to come to hell and share the death you had my tree will grow in place of yours its roots lie here as well there is no final victory without this soul from hell so when we all condemn him as of every traitor worst remember that of all his men our lord forgave him first that is a wide interpretation of the full sunlight of jesus entering into the absolute depth of darkness i return again to that verse in psalm 139 if i go down into hell thou art there also we'll put that poem on in the right written out in the reflection on trees now if you're just watching on youtube you won't be able to access that you need to go into the canterbury cathedral website and there scroll down until you come to this morning prayer on this day and the link will be attached together with the reflection on the judas tree and all that that entails and all the other reflections that we've been doing at that time if you want to also you can press the little button at the bottom and become a subscriber which means no money at all it's a free thing but it actually gives you all the things that are here from the the services we've had in the past but also the reflections and things which go with them and particularly on the trees at this particular time so do that and you will find also on the website all our notices about worship in these times of great restriction at present we're going to say our prayers now together and uh i am remembering first and foremost because his death was a shock yesterday my friend james atwell who for many years was the dean of edmondsbury and then from 2006 to 2016 the dean of winchester and james and i were at constant together under robert runcie training us to be priests so he's been a friend for a very long time and his death was a shock i pray for the repose of the soul of james this morning and think especially with the enormous love of lorna his wife and also remember his great scholarship and his faithfulness over so many years at at sid edmondsbury completing the great tower of the cathedral which reminds me so much of belle harry tower here as well so may god give him rest and also lorna comfort at this time with the love of friends all around her you will have people also that you want to remember on this day so on this day we're praying for the falkland islands and that's an extra provincial diocese in the pa in in in the care of the archbishop of canterbury and it's under the care of the bishop at lambus who's also a bishop to the forces and bishop to the falkland islands tim thornton whom we pray for day by day so we pray for justin our archbishop and rose bishop of dover at this time also and on this day in the diocese we are asked to pray for the worship of every parish church and community right across the diocese this is a time of course when kent is in tier three severe um restrictions in ordinary life and so people need lots of encouragement at this time which we can give to one another a light in their their darkness of of friendship and and love and reaching out to them let's say the colic for today and this is for the third sunday of advent o lord jesus christ who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready your way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just that at your second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in your sight for you are alive and reign with the father in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men and then the collect which we say throughout advent almighty god give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on 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 both the living and the dead we may rise to the light immortal through him who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen [Music] time of silence for our own prayers on this third sunday of advent preparing ourselves to receive christ in glory but also here at christmas time 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 and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you from those whom you love and those whom you would pray for now and ever amen [Music]