good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this 23rd of december we've now come very close to christmas itself and the feast of the nativity the births of our lord jesus christ in bethlehem which we remember on friday today we have the last of the antiphons of advent leading step by step up to christmas and the last one o emmanuel our king and our law giver the hope of the nations and their savior come and save us o lord our god tomorrow a different kind of antiphon not one of the traditional advent anti-forms but we shall say an antiphon as a preparation for christmas for christmas eve itself and as we think about things at present of course there's enormous sorrow that people can't join together with their families but news bulletins give us enormous numbers of stories about people who've been left bereft of their families and with all their christmas plans gone to ruin and just to start with one callum williamson near to york who was going to be spending christmas with all his family and friends in birkenstedt and then suddenly his plans very recently came to grief with the new restrictions and instead he felt himself absolutely alone at christmas until his neighbor rebecca got in touch and said she was going to cook him an extra christmas dinner with the family and deliver that to him in safety but at the same time with warmth and with encouragement and with a sense of being enfolded while he virtually could get in touch with his own family that was only the beginning of many stories of encouragement imaginative encouragement and we'll think about imaginative encouragement later on but also there is the loveliest story from thailand this morning of uh a a health worker off duty uh coming along and finding on a road in thailand that a motorcyclist had hit a baby elephant as the herd was crossing the road and both were injured and the wonderful thing was that he began the life resuscitation on the baby elephant and saved the baby elephant and then turned to deal with the less injured motorcyclists all in his off-duty hours but the creature and the human being were dealt with in the same way which is a lovely story from thailand and and bosworth was saved by the action of mana srivaste the the health worker and paramedic who off duty did just that stories of encouragement and we think of them lots of them today this was the uh date december the 23rd when the first successful kidney transplant was performed in 1954 by j hartwell harrison and joseph murray in a hospital in boston massachusetts it's something now i won't say we take for granted but we are very used to but really in human history those kind of opportunities have only happened recently and it often it depends on someone the right person having to donate a kidney and many family members have done that in the history of this wonderful operation i'm sitting here this morning in front of a mahonia with its lovely yellow flowers and it flowers at this time of year and is very much scented and it's it's a a wonderful wonderful plant i'm sitting under the tree of heaven and that the tree of heaven is actually leafless at the moment but you're used to it in the the deanery garden at uh at the time of year when it's full of leaves but there are still leaves on the roses and still much greenery around me and so let's begin to say our prayers on this this morning quite a fine morning and not at all cold 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 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 in the antiphon o emmanuel our king and our law giver the hope of the nations and their savior come and save us o lord our god the night is past 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 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 we turn to the second chapter of the second letter of saint peter which we've been reading this week i have to warn you this this lesson is is rather dark and grisly as i said about the weather yesterday but not today and it talks about the human condition as seen by this person writing in the tradition of saint peter and giving jewels of saint peter's experience in the earlier chapters and we shall go on tomorrow into different territory in chapter three but this chapter 2 is angry and is angry because people having purported to have embraced the faith and the christian way with a capital w ha actually turned back to a different kind of life but are still there mixed in with the christian congregation our congregations because this letter is written in a very general way and there is rage on the part of the person writing well i think we're setting the back cloth for the need for emmanuel god with us to come as we read this but hold on to your seats and you'll notice in the middle that there is a whole section cribbed from the letter of jude which this writer must have known well uh here we go for if god did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment if he did not spare the ancient world but preserved noah a herald of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly if by turning the cities of sodom and gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly and if he rescued righteous lot greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked for as that righteous man lived among them day after day he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard then the lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority bold and willful they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones whereas angels though greater in might and power do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the lord but these like irrational animals creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant will also be destroyed in their destruction suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing they counted pleasure to revel in the daytime there are blots and blemishes reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you they have eyes full of adultery insatiable for sin they entice unsteady souls they have hearts trained in greed accursed children forsaking the right way they have gone astray they have followed the way of balaam the son of bao who loved gain from wrongdoing but was rebuked for his own transgression a speechless donkey spoke with human voice to restrain the prophet's madness these are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm for them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved for speaking loud boasts of folly they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error they promise them freedom but they themselves are slaves of corruption for whatever overcomes a person to that they are enslaved for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ they are again entangled in them and overcome the last state has become worse for them than the first for it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them how true the prophet which says has happened to them a dog returns to its own vomit and the sow after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire a strong a strong lesson i don't think clemmy would be very pleased with that she's very clean indeed despite the fact that she treads in the mud and and snorts through it but uh we have there also the lesson of the creature actually uh telling the prophet how crazy he is when balaam is there but you notice all that section in the middle with the metaphors culled from jude but the the writer is angry that people people can embrace the beginnings of the faith and then turn away simply to all the things that they did before and still think that they have a foot in the community in which they are sharing the communion if you like the feasts feasting with you but at the same time there are echoes of our lord's own parables of the sower sowing the seed in the ground this isn't mentioned but the various seeds have a a different way of perceiving it and the only ones really which come to to uh to any kind of fruitfulness and cease to be ineffective are those who having been planted by the sower then in good ground begin to take root well it's the church's opportunity to provide good ground but also to know that day after day the lord comes again with open hand and open heart of forgiveness for those who will turn to him all of that is part of that wonderful advent antiphon oh emmanuel calling god to be with us and of course it comes from the prophecy of isaiah and at the same time is part of the christmas lessons because the first chapter of saint matthew mentions that in joseph's dream when the angel comes to him she'll be called emmanuel god is with us that's what we want to hear god is with us and it's what the promise of christmas time gives not only to humanity but to all of creation jesus in another of his little parables talks about someone setting about things with good spirit sweeping out the room cleaning it all tidying it getting rid of the rubbish making it swept and garnished and ready and casting out the demons you'll remember it well and what happens the matter rests there the room which one imagines is that person's life in metaphor is left empty and beautiful and swept and clean but with no other occupant and the demon comes back with seven other demons much worse than himself and occupies the roman jesus says and the last state of this person was worse than the first it's what this person is saying with anger in writing this second letter of peter and we remember how in the tradition of peter and handing on those truths that peter actually gave in particularly in the gospel of saint mark the story of the transfiguration where peter sees the divine light shining through the one whom he has followed the christ whom he has named at caesarea philippi and there on the holy mountain with the symbols of law and prophecy moses and elijah on each side jesus shines with a divine light and then when they look around there's no one with them except jesus himself it's that gift that god gives us over and again the gift of this new day we always say at the beginning and uh the epistles tell us quite clearly simple is straightforward about set aside all anger and malice and evil speaking all of those things seize that gift and in shall we say again imaginative encouragement particularly at this time when we need it so much search out those that you can help as we all must in these days of what normally is a family festival a community festival a time of great rejoicing collectively and this year restrictions are forbidding now it's something we're sharing with the human race in one way or another and there will be months ahead when we have to keep up that encouragement look at ourselves morning by morning invite god to be with us oh emmanuel not just for this day but an antifun for every day if you like someone writing to me last week said doing the antibonds had shown her that the hymn oh come on come emmanuel although the antiphons are in a different order is actually a setting out of those antiphons well yes it is and she also said when she sings it now she feels she is praying the antithons it's very easy to sing alone for it rests itself on the old plain song but it's a tune we know well for advent but emmanuel is the oem manual is the doorstep to christmas come and be with us so there are other things which happened on this day december the 23rd in the past nice things like humperdink's opera hansel and gretel being performed very much at christmas opera but has to be watched online this year if you want to hear the beautiful music of the two uh children who set off and and uh find themselves lost in the wood and get to the the witch's house and all of that that that is something that was written for children by the composer humperdinck in 1893 1919 saw on this day the sex disqualification removal act becoming law which made the field absolutely straightforward to develop ahead for women to take professional positions which they had been denied before and at the same time on this day in 1812 samuel smiles was born he became really famous he was a journalist and a writer but he became famous in 1859 for writing the book self-help which became an instant bestseller and self-help is really a whole section in bookshops these days but as we reflect together and reflect with paul self-help is wonderful analysis of ourselves is wonderful reflection on ourselves is wonderful but we need just that bit more we need heaven's grace to overcome the temptations which draw us away from good intentions at all times we think of samuel smiles here because on the door of the french chapel where huguenots still worship in french every sunday afternoon at three o'clock there's a quotation from samuel smiles remembering how in the middle of the 16th century when huguenots were being persecuted and massacred in paris they came here and were given temporary permission to worship in the cathedral an unwritten temporary permission by my predecessor at the time and they still do sometimes in human relations things that are not written down seem to be more durable than the things which are written down sealed and given but on the door of the huguenot chapel in the crypt of the cathedral is written a sentence from 1867 written by samuel smiles and it goes 300 years have passed since the first body of exiled walloons met to worship here 300 years during which generations have come and gone and revolutions have swept over europe and still that eloquent memory of the religious history of the middle ages survives bearing testimony alike to the rancor of the persecutions the hysterics the heroic steadfastness of the huguenots the large and liberal spirit of the church here and the glorious asylum which england has in all times given to foreigners flying for refuge against oppression and tyranny well that was in 1867 may it always be so but it is always true that we hear the french hymns still coming from that temporary arrangement and the pastor of the huguenot congregation is my partner in ministry here in canterbury cathedral in the french church in the crypt and we're glad of it so i wanted also to say that on this day in 1977 matt baker was born and matt baker is of course the most wonderful uh image of english broadcasting bbc broadcasting from 1999 to 2006 he was a co-presenter of of blue peter the magazine which is so creative and eye-opening not only for children but for those who still watch it and he with his dog meg became a very well-known figure at that time but since 2009 of course he's been and still is one of the presenters of country file on sundays opening up the beauties of creation and the the stories of of the life of of creatures in a wonderful way also showing us things which demand energy and he's certainly never lacking in that and never lacking in the ability to communicate with people and at the same time from 2011 to 2020 march 2020 this year he co-hosted with alex jones the one show in the evening and would present the news and converse with people who would come and sit with them on the sofa there and talk to them so we give thanks for that immensely creative life which was and is a role model of of creativity in in what goes on remembers just as the last thing that he was in strictly come dancing and was second place in that it doesn't surprise one that he has the energy to do that in watching him all the time uh go who knows where and show us things and we learn from him all the time so thanks for his creativity and his optimism in very difficult situations very often let's say our prayers so we're praying on this day in the anglican communion for the diocese of evo in nigeria and the bishop innocent ordu and his people and the diocese of exeter in england and the bishop there robert atwell and his people there we are praying in the diocese for schools and young people for the life of the whole diocese at this time of preparation for christmas and for archbishop justin and his ministry for bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lambeth and we pray for each other as we join our prayers in the colic for today god our redeemer who prepared the blessed virgin mary to be the mother of your son granted as she looked for his coming as our savior so we may be ready to greet him when he comes again as our judge who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen the rain is coming so we're going to say the our father together in our each in our own language 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 as the rain falls for our own prayers on this day 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 upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always amen [Applause]