good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this lovely sunny morning of thursday the 29th of july as we come to say our morning prayers we've come out to share breakfast time with tiger today and he's here with us keeping company and enjoying his breakfast he savors his breakfast and goes for a while and then eats a little bit more but we're looking at the vegetable garden and the herb garden so you're seeing as you look down this pathway the growing beans and sweet corn and also artichokes uh and what else have we got asparagus which is now feathering because the asparagus season is is over so we allow it to to feather and grow up for its own strength and then down here as we come along the box hedges you'll see what we were talking about yesterday poppy seeds farther advanced and they are now self-seeding themselves around until we take them down and use them later on sprayed for christmas decorations as we said yesterday behind me there's a whole array of lovely hollyhock which is very much a cottage garden type of flower and at this time of year flowering very well and you're also seeing some sunflowers with all their yellow gold in the growing up amongst the sweet corn too so let's begin our prayers on this particular morning and then we will continue our reading of st matthew's gospel o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon us 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 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 the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind does 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 amen our psalm on this morning of the month this 29th morning of the month is psalm 139 and we will read some of that psalm now oh lord you have searched me out and known me you know my sitting down and my rising up you discern my thoughts from afar you mark out my journeys and my resting place and are acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word on my tongue but you o lord know it all together you encompass me behind and before and lay your hand upon me such knowledge is too wonderful for me so high that i cannot attain it where can i go then from your spirit or where can i flee from your presence if i climb up to heaven you are there if i go down into hell you are there also if i take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there shall your hand lead me your right hand pulled me fast if i say surely the darkness will cover me and the light around me turned to night even darkness is no darkness with you the night is as clear as the day darkness and light to you are both alike for you yourself created my inmost parts you knit me together in my mother's womb i thank you for i am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are your works my soul knows well my frame was not hidden from you when i was made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth your eyes beheld my form as yet unfinished already in your book were all my members written as day by day they were fashioned when as yet there was none of them how deep are your counsels to me oh god how great is the sum of them if i count them they are more in number than the sand and at the end i am still in your presence search me out o god and know my heart try me and examine my thoughts see if there is any way of wickedness in me and lead me in the way everlasting a wonderful sound and it leads us into the passage from saint matthew taking up from yesterday where we left pilate having uh washed his hands in innocence so to speak giving judgment to others abrogating the responsibility um that washing of the hands fletcher reminded me because the day before yesterday do you remember we were looking at the story of macbeth and how the guilt felt by macbeth and lady macbeth afterwards caused their first that their mental disintegration and then the their their physical end and um the sense of lady macbeth trying to wash her hands and and asking will these hands never be clean and the doctor and the the waiting woman thinking what on earth is going on and then that wonderful line all the perfumes of arabia cannot sweeten this little hand once the deed is done then it is done and that also is a line that shakespeare gives us so powerfully in that way so um thank you for the the the thinking back to the reference of our meditation and not yesterday but the day before so we are carrying on from the moment that pilate simply hands jesus over as a a man condemned to death to his own soldiers in matthew's gospel and we're going to read that passage now from verse 27 of chapter 27 in st matthew and down to verse 44. then the soldiers of the governor took jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole battalion before him and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and twisting together a crown of thorns they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand and kneeling before him they mocked him saying hail king of the jews and they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head and when they had mocked him they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him as they went out they found a man of cyrene simon by name they compelled this man to carry his cross and when they came to a place called golgaza which means place of a skull they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall but when he tasted it he would not drink it and when they had crucified him they divided his garments among them by casting lots then they sat down and kept watch over him there and over his head they put the charge against him which read this is jesus the king of the jews then two robbers were crucified with him one on the right and one on the left and those who passed by derided him wagging their heads and saying you would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days save yourself if you are the son of god come down from the cross so also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him saying he saved others he cannot save himself he is the king of israel let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him he trusts in god let god deliver him now if he desires him for he said i am the son of god and the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way an account as we keep saying particular to matthew containing all the basis of that instant mark the earlier gospel and also reminiscences of luke and john but very particular to matthew and it's those threads that we want to draw out in our reflection because they are important ones and they're a continuation of everything that we were thinking yesterday this is in matthew's teaching and insistence to his own people his jewish congregation of probably greek speaking christians but long after this and being told to them and what he wants to insist on is what jesus said from his teaching even in his resurrection teaching to the apostles all this was to fulfill what was spoken of by the law and the prophets and the psalms and jesus has quoted them over and over again with his interpretation of how that will be and his being raised up in a particular way of glory certainly not earthly glory as you see this morning and arms out spread to the whole world all those themes are there but the insistence on the fulfillment of prophecy is crucial and the quarrying back into what we would call the old testament scriptures the scriptures that jesus himself knew and quoted so often becomes vital in this but let's look at the human story that matthew is telling we shall find in matthew's story there is a huge accent on the loneliness of jesus no companionship there at all so as we go through and it will be the same tomorrow as we go through we shall find that this loneliness of jesus is one of the things that matthew is stressing the roman governor having washed his hands now here's a dead man in effect so he becomes the placing and toy of the governor's soldiers they wouldn't have been jews they probably wouldn't have been the the romans of the roman legions but they would have been recruited from other nations of the eastern mediterranean than the jewish nation and here they are doing what they probably did to people who were condemned just having some fun at their expense but even more so in this time because they obviously know what the charge is and the charge which is written against jesus is a political one this is jesus the king of the jews so a challenge to the imperial authority that is the charge that pilate has to rest on and the charge which the chief priests have brought against him which is being shouted from below by the chief priests and the fickle crowd for no one now seems to be on the side of jesus all those hosannas so recently heard have disappeared and the charge down there is a charge of blasphemy whereas pilate um is not interested in blasphemy this is not his culture he is interested though he's found no evidence for it but he is interested in a political charge and here's the political charge the king of the jews and below still no companionship no friendship no nothing in matthew's gospel simply shouts and insults the way in which the soldiers have treated jesus and beaten him about their head and buffeted him and spat at him and everything else has caused him to be unable to carry the cross shall we say at a fast pace and the insistence of everyone it's in everyone's interest politically both in the jewish nation and in the roman governor's mind to get this over as quickly as possible they don't want any slowness on the way through so they seize a man simon from cyrene after their games are finished it's quite um quite important in one way also that matthew gives us the fact that they don't dress jesus in a purple robe purple was the the royal color for eastern mediterranean kings and rulers at that time it would have been a a color that that headed would have loved red was the color of the servants of the emperor and the servants of the roman governor who was in in effect rather like a lord lieutenant in in our own country uh is that the representative of the person of the emperor so pilot servants would have worn red and a red robe could easily have been obtained i think purple robes would be rather more difficult to get but purple is the one is the color given in in mark and in john so what matthew is giving us is a red robe and then they strip him of that and they platted the crown of thorns and it's not so much a crown but the kind of wreath that the emperor would be shown wearing on one of the roman coins and that accentuates the political charge so that the crown of thorns the wreath of thorns is aping what is shown on the roman coins remember jesus is asking for one of those saying whose head and inscription is this and they say the emperors it's caesar's and hear that dressing him up as an emperor with a wreath of thorns not the wreath that would be given to the emperor on the coin and at the same time putting a reed in his hand as as a the way in which he's bearing a scepter of power and then they take the reed and beat him around the head with it so the weakness of jesus is accentuated mark gives us interesting detail about simon and cyrini the father of rufus and alexander he says and mark is traditionally thought to have been with saint peter in rome and in the epistle to the romans rufus is mentioned there but matthew isn't really interested in details of that sort simon is carrying the cross it reminds us how fast all this has been now this is a day in our church of england calendar when we 29th of july when we remember mary martha and lazarus at the bethany household as companions of jesus let's think because bethany was the place night by night that jesus is it and his disciples over the last few days would have gone back to what could be happening at the bethany home at this time do they even know about it because all this has happened between sunset sunrise and now at the third hour crucifixion it's so swift because they want this tidied out of the way they don't want disruption at the feast of the passover they want this difficulty eradicated from their political agenda and both sides are at one in this pilot and the chief priests and the authorities of the jewish nation so as we think about that we go on then to the scene of the crucifixion and they crucify him notice that they offer him the drink before they crucify him wine mixed with gall it's it's almost a kindly act to deaden some of the pain but jesus in one gesture refuses it as though he is embracing the real cup that he has to drink the cup of total sacrifice which he has spoken of and then offered his disciples to share all of that is is there in in symbolism for matthew in in all of these and everyone everyone is reviling him and the last throw shows even those who are sharing the same punishment just that sentence and the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him this picture of total desolation and loneliness without a sight of companionship will carry on tomorrow when we go to the story on a friday morning tomorrow so aptly so of the finality of the crucifixion itself i wanted to look at some of the dates for this morning it's uh an important morning for dates and i shall only mention some of them but let's remember that on this day in 1948 king george vi our president queen's father opened the olympic games in london they were the first olympic games held for 12 years and it was only three years since that huge worldwide conflict which stopped all international activity of that kind had ended and the world was still reeling from the shock and this nation was still reeling from the economic cost and lack of resources so to have an olympic games in 1948 was a brave act and we remember that coming together of the nations in 1948 in london as the king on this day opened the olympic games and we continue to give thanks for the olympic games happening with so many difficulties but also with with such joy as well in tokyo at the present time and continue to pray for the japanese people at this time i wanted to mention also that in 1981 on this day the nation had a complete bank holiday for the marriage of prince charles with lady diana spencer at st paul's cathedral 700 million viewers watched that day on their televisions throughout the world and i remember it well at that time in in 1981 i was the director of the uh little village uh almost a town of tisbury in wiltshire and there were garden parties galore and great festivity on that day a nation really making merry and being glad on that particular day and at the same time i wanted to remember that in 1970 sir john barbaro died on this day the 29th of july he was a legendary conductor of the halle orchestra and was known uh the phrase was coined by reform williams the composer as glorious john and rightly so but for me he was the great interpreter of elgar my my first uh piece of vinyl of of sir john barbaroli in our house kathleen ferrier was almost uh a legend to my mother my mother sang with a contralto voice and loved the voice of kathleen ferrier well now john barbarolli gave us the voice of janet baker not only in the dream of jurontius but especially on this particular record that i had on one side elgar's songs called sea pictures i'd never heard them before and the beauty of the voice and the way that barbaroli interpreted because he himself was known as the great interpreter of elgar and vaughn williams and marla and he interpreted these sea pictures which are orchestrally accompanying the voice of janet baker and janet baker then became the voice that i associated with all of that the great contralto voice i must have played the record over and over and over again until it nearly wore out but on the other side and played absolutely as much was barbaroli's wonderful recording of jacqueline duprey playing elgar's cello concerto and honestly it wasn't as famous a piece then as it is now and that recording by jacqueline duprey became the touchdown the hallmark of the playing of of uh elgar's cello concerto at that time later on i learned to love his violin concerto and all of that but i wanted to give thanks for sir john barbaroli and it reminded me that the minute i heard the sea pictures i had to um take a a bus into bristol and get the score of the sea pictures piano score of the sea pictures the piano reduction come home and test out all of those chords and the the texture of everything that was there on the piano my parents must have gone mad with the the sound of the piano at that time but it was a holiday time that i'd i bought it and uh i couldn't leave it alone and then would go back to the record and then play again and so on so the the enjoyment of creation at that time and the way in which barbaroli was able to interpret something in that way i give enormous thanks for just as we gave thanks yesterday for the music of j spark for his matthew passion which of course we're going through at the moment i could mention more but i just want to mention one more because he to me is a vastly important figure in 1905 on this day dog hammershot was born he was born into a noble family in sweden and his father a bit later on became prime minister of sweden for a while so he was used to the political life of sweden but he was not expecting in 1953 when the nations of the security council were not terribly friendly with each other and were finding difficulty in in appointing a new secretary general to the united nations after trigvili had retired um so when doug hammer showed was the one that they all agreed on uh doug hamilton himself who was a self-effacing person of deep inner faith was the most surprised person of all it was a name that nobody knew at that time and yet the united nations was in its infancy as an influential council in the world and there was the memory that its predecessor the league of nations between the great war and the second world war had actually failed in its task but on this occasion there was a a new determination to make this work and if anybody made this work it was dog hammershot he was the secretary general of the united nations between 1953 and 1961 and in 1961 his life ended suddenly in a plane crash on route to cease-fire negotiations in the then congo crisis that was going on nobody knows why the plane crashed and there have been all sorts of theories but nobody's really ever found out why the plane crashed but a gift to the world was lost with the death of doug hammershold and john f kennedy said at the time he was the greatest statesman of our century that's some words coming from president kennedy and he also said beside him i felt myself a small man now hammershowed was not a rambustuous pushing kind of person as i said he was the most surprised of all to be appointed to this role that he performed it faithfully uh and and his writings which have been left to us jottings in notebooks and phrases which he comforted himself a bit like our own notebooks some of the ones that you're keeping which have sort of taken bits of situation spiritually he gained much from the writings of meister eckhart and he would mention them from time to time but essentially he was absolutely sure that no one without an inner life could actually be useful in the world of action in the outer life and there was no inner life of truth in reality which would not result in sacrificial action outside that would be doug hammerschel's testament and in that of course he was supported by his family background and the culture he came from in sweden but at the same time a strength of character which grew from every experience he had and was the strength of the united nations when he died his position was taken by usant which is of course it the same way uh he was also greatly respected but let's stay with hamashold for the moment he was given a nobel peace prize posthumously afterwards but the one thing i remember always of dharan hamashold is the prayer it's the simplest prayer in the world for all that has been thanks to all that will be yes such a simple prayer to remember yet hamas showed in developing his thinking and in living his life lived out that act of thanksgiving for everything that continued to develop him body mind and spirit and that to all that has before all that has been thanks and then the activity of his life putting his own life in danger and giving his life in the end on a way to a peace negotiations in a very dangerous part of the world at that time and that to all that will be yes and that the the courage to do that was a courage of for him the spirit there was an enfolding of the total personality and the respect of others in their spirituality whichever culture they came from a respect for their gifts of creativity a respect for the way in which a human spirit and the human life could give so much all of that we give thanks for on this day as we remember darg hamashold and his prayer for all that has been thanks to all that will be yes so let's say our prayers this morning and give thanks for our coming together one with another and give thanks for the way in which matthew gives us his story of the lord's passion which we will continue tomorrow today on this day in the anglican communion we're praying for the diocese of derrian raphael in the church of ireland amar province and as we pray for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth today we pray for all street pastors across the communities of the diocese of canterbury here in east kent and ask god's blessing on their ministry so much with the homeless and those in need of companionship and help so we pray then the colleagues for this week of the year bring your own prayers your own concerns your own intentions almighty lord and everlasting god we beseech you to direct sanctify and govern both our hearts and bodies in the ways of your laws and the works of your commandments that through your most mighty protection both here and ever we may be preserved in body and soul through our lord and savior jesus christ amen say we pray 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 amen moment of silence now as we say our own prayers so [Music] so so the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and of his son jesus christ our lord 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 are men last night i found myself at goddington which is a beautiful country house and gardens near to ashford as i think it's probably our favorite nearby garden and it was an occasion for porch light the charity here in kent for those who are homeless which reminds me of the street pastors in their ministry and lots of people gather together it was in the open air and uh it was not the warmest of nights it was a fairly windy night but nevertheless we were able to set out the vision of porch light in helping people back into community life and going out and finding them and it was a an amazing occasion because we had porch light officers telling the story of certain of the folks who have been helped and also being quite brave about their failures to help some because this is a very very difficult path to bring people back to and at the same time we had a lady called pat who herself was encouraging all those uh to give she has given sacrificially to porchlight and uh is is is now suffering from illness herself that was was really encouraging others so by saying i believe in this so much i have done this and she had been coaxed to do all this she's herself quite a self-self-effacing lady but she's a member of our garden congregation as well and the amount she has given and willed to porchlight is hugely significant and so in all these things we give thanks that we are able to assist in action from the depths of our spirituality blossoming out and i give thanks for that in all sorts of ways foreign