welcome to canterbury cathedral on this morning of monday in holy week as we begin our devotions as a church throughout the world making the journey to the cross with jesus we obviously have our hearts and minds filled with the crisis that our human race is facing at the moment in our world with the decisions that people have to make throughout this day and the energy and courage that so many are going to have to show with the combating of coronavirus in hospitals and in homes and working situations and we say our prayers together of course outside the cathedral because our churches are at present locked morning prayer and also our other offices through the day will contain a different dimension at the end of the little service because we're going to go through the stations of the cross the traditional 14 stations the time when jesus was carrying his cross along the way of the cross these are separate from the timetable of holy week itself and so in our morning prayer we shall be thinking of all that happened on that second day of the week monday for jesus and his disciples and then at the end i will begin the first station of the cross and later in the day and the timetable is found a little uh further up on our website we will have the other stations for this day ending with eden song itself so we begin our morning prayers in the usual way for this monday of holy week oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon earth your saving power among the nations blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief your only son was lifted up on the cross that he might draw the whole world to himself may we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight declaring your love for all the world blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever i'm going to use some verses from psalm 30 it's one of the sons that is used in the morning on the sixth day of the week it begins i will exalt you o lord because you have raised me up and have not let my foes triumph over me o lord my god i cried out to you and you have healed me you brought me up o lord from the dead you restored me to life from among those that go down to the pit sing to the lord you servants of his give thanks to his holy name for his wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye is favor for a lifetime heaviness may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning our lesson this morning is taken from the gospel of saint mark it's the 11th chapter and it's continuing from where we left off yesterday jesus and his disciples after the entry into the city of jerusalem with cheering crowds go out to the home at bethany and each day for the first few days of holy week they travel in in the morning saint mark's gospel the earliest of the gospels gives us something of a sequence of journeying and teaching in the outer temple courtyard which goes on through those first days of holy week remember that the city is full of pilgrims who have come for the passover which is to happen in a few days time the great feast of the jewish nation people will have traveled from all over the world in a way that we can't at the moment but we focus our attention on the holy city at the time of jesus on that monday morning the second day of the week on the following day when jesus and his disciples came in from bethany jesus was hungry and seeing in the distance of fig tree in leif he went to see if he could find anything on it when he came to it he found nothing but leaves for it was not the season for figs and he said to it may no one ever eat fruit from you again and his disciples heard it and they came to jerusalem and jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple and he taught and said to them is it not written my house shall be a house of prayer for all the nations but you have made it a den of thieves and the chief priests and the scribes heard it and sought a way to destroy him for they feared him because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching standing in front of our fig tree here and it's certainly not time for the fig tree even to leaf leave alone fruit but jesus is using the fig tree as one of his signs as he so often does in our sacramental world where god's creation can remind us of both earthly truths but also heavenly truths he has come to the great holy place looking for the fruits of what it means to be god's messengers in a world which needs heaven's message and he phones finds the outer courtyard of the temple full of activity in trading and everything else that is going on the outer courtyard is the only place where the foreigners can come for they're not allowed to go further into the temple which is reserved for the jewish nation itself at that time it's in that outer courtyard that the greeks who want to see jesus hover on the outskirts of the crowd as they're listening and philip and andrew in the end tell jesus and he says the hour has come for the son of man to be lifted up and i when i am lifted up will draw all people all nations to myself and here this morning as he cleanses the temple and tries to make it a place of prayer he says it is written that my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations his ministry has widened in a huge way all nations so the fig tree behind me is reminding me of jesus saying that of coming to the outer temple courtyard and not finding the fruits that he wanted actually providing and producing the fruits that god's creative gifts have given us is a daily activity which we achieve by grace and on some days don't achieve but at this time we've so many examples around us of people who are giving their whole lives to producing the fruits of their gifts and skills for the help and encouragement of others that we have much encouragement and the signs are not only in nature all around us like the fig tree behind me which will leaf and will fruit when the sun has warmed it through the days of spring but also in the human lives that we shall watch through our media spending themselves for the sake of others often in dangerous circumstances as this time of spreading disease we ourselves can encourage in all sorts of ways and produce fruits from our own gifts and skills which can help each other in seclusion through telephones and cards and best wishes and all kinds of things but also even by saying our prayers for others as we do this morning on this monday of holy week on our canterbury diocesan prayer website we have prayers not only for this diocese but also because we're the mother church of the anglican communion the worldwide fellowship of churches we pray each day for two or three of the dioceses across the world too so today we're thinking of the diocese of meru in kenya pray for bishop charles the diocese of west malaysia in southeast asia and moon hing the bishop there and all his people and the diocese of idaho in the episcopal church of the united states pray for brian tom the bishop there and his people we pray always at this place for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth and pray for any whom we know in positions of leadership the world over at this time as we say our morning prayers first the prayer for those who are suffering at this time in any way from the coronavirus merciful god we entrust to your tender care those who are ill or in pain knowing that whenever danger threatens your everlasting arms are there to hold them safe comfort and heal them and restore them to health and strength through jesus christ our lord amen prayer for this week this holy week almighty and everlasting god who in your tender love towards the human race sent your son our savior jesus christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility and also be made partakers of his resurrection through jesus christ our lord amen so we pray each in our own language and in our own way the prayer our savior taught us saying 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 time of silence for a few moments as you make your own prayers for those whom you love and those whom you know to be in need so we begin the stations the pictures of jesus going towards the cross now our timetable takes us to good friday itself as jesus in the first station is condemned to death a judgment is given there's no more uncertainty the judgment is that jesus will die but it's a strange judgment folk from his own nation have been crying for it the leaders of his nation we saw how kaif has thought this was a complicated decision that one man should die for the sake of the whole people rather than there should be uproar in the holy city at the time of all this great festival going on and the roman occupying army would come and destroy all the things that they did and cause them to cease but at the same time the one who could give the sentence for jesus's death was the roman governor pontius pilate and that gov that judgment is given not in a definite way but in a see to it yourself kind of way pilot in the story takes water and a bowl he says in one of the gospels i find no fault in him but see to it yourselves that he asks for a bowl of water pours water into it and washes his hands in front of them all as if to say i have no responsibility for this judgments are difficult but that kind of judgment has been seen as a well i refuse to make it let someone else make it and he hands jesus over to be crucified many of us will have to make judgments throughout this week all kinds of little judgments and we therefore pray for grace to make them clearly and sometimes afterwards to say that was the wrong judgment but let's make a right one now [Music] today we pray for our own journey of the cross through this week which is a very strange one and done in a different way because of the restrictions we find ourselves in we adore you oh christ and we bless you because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world we give thanks that jesus himself poured water into a bowl at the last supper took a towel and washed his disciples feet a very different pouring of water but at this station of the cross we remember him condemned to death [Music] holy god holy and strong holy and immortal have mercy on us christ crucified draw you to himself to find in him a sure ground for faith a firm support for hope and the assurance of sins forgiven and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and upon all whom you love this holy week and always amen