good morning and welcome to the deanery in canterbury cathedral as we meet to say our morning prayers on this sunday morning the 20th of february welcome wherever you are in the world we've actually come into the morning room where on friday afternoon we had hastily to create a scene to give you some kind of choral even song when the cathedral was shut and we realized we wouldn't be able to have a call even song or even song of any kind in the cathedral and so we came in here and we were here with lily as you remember and you can um if you've not seen that that's friday afternoon score even song and she herself was enjoying the fire which uh coincidentally the the reading in saint john's gospel was the reading of peter warming himself by the brazia and so she proved herself a a deft actor on that afternoon remember we thought this morning the weather is continuing to be fairly dismal yesterday we thought was going to be a still day when we were filming i said that and then suddenly again an enormous storm i think the tail end of storm eunice broke onto us and the trees themselves were once again in danger but this time it was accompanied by lots and lots of heavy rain and so this morning we thought we would stay inside and not waste what we've done on friday afternoon creating this comfortably by the fire this morning as we say our morning prayers so lily is here with us as well uh and uh she may lilly lily we are coming in our reflection to a tune which is the tune in the film the mission which we always call lily's tune because uh whenever fletcher whistles that tune wherever lily is in the house then she will come and she recognizes it at once the moment that tune comes up but we're going to do that in the reflection because that film actually comes as part of our reflection this morning so let's continue to pray for the very dangerous military situation between russia and the ukraine we pray for all those who are in immediate danger there and at the same time we are thinking of the tragedy of the city of petropolis in brazil were all after the devastating landslide after torrential rains where already about 200 people have died and as many again if not more are still buried as the the fog and the rain and the the unstable land around make rescue work digging for those who are buried very difficult indeed a tragic situation and we undergird as i always say those prayers those places with our prayers across the world and and think of those people in such desperate need this morning so let's begin our prayers together bring your own concerns your own intentions and the the images of of friends and situations that you have in your hearts and minds oh lord open our lips and our mouths shall proclaim your praise your light springs up for the righteous and all the peoples have seen your glory blessed are you sovereign god king of the nations to you be praise and glory forever from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is proclaimed in all the world as the son of righteousness dawns in our hearts anoint our lips with the seal of your spirit that we may witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the earth 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 and 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 amen our psalm on this 20th morning of the month is psalm 103 bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with faithful love and compassion who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagles the lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed he made his ways known to moses and his works to the children of israel the lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness he will not always accuse us neither will he keep his anger forever he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our wickedness for as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his mercy upon those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so far has he set our sins from us as a father has compassion on his children so is the lord merciful towards those who fear him for he knows of what we are made he remembers that we are but dust our days are butter's grass we flourish as a flower of the field and as soon as the wind goes over it it is gone and its place shall know it no more but the merciful goodness of the lord is from of old and endures forever on those who fear him and his righteousness on children's children on those who keep his covenant and remember his commandments to do them the lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom has dominion over all bless the lord you angels of his you mighty ones who do his bidding and hearken to the voice of his word bless the lord all you his hosts you ministers of his who do his will bless the lord all you works of his in all places of his dominion bless the lord o my soul can we come to a special lesson this morning of course we're not in one samuel because it's a sunday morning and the lesson given to us in morning prayer is a lesson from the 14th chapter of the acts of the apostles we are with barnabas and paul in what is now turkey and asia minor shall we call it and at that time very much part of the roman empire with roads important roads going through it and they are on their first missionary journey and they've come to the town of lystra and we come to chapter 14 of the acts of the apostles we're starting at verse 8 and reading to verse 18. now at lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet he was crippled from birth and had never walked he listened to paul speaking and paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well said in a loud voice stand upright on your feet and the man sprang up and began walking now when the crowd saw what paul had done they lifted up their voices saying in their own like ionian language the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men barnabas they called zeus and paul hermes because he was the chief speaker and the priest of zeus whose temple was at the entrance to the city brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds but when the apostles barnabas and paul heard of this they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying out why are you doing these things we also are human beings of like nature with you and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living god who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them in past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you reigns from heaven and fruitful seasons satisfying your hearts with food and gladness but even with these words they scarcely restrain the people from offering sacrifice to them it's an interesting lesson in all sorts of ways first of all it shows paul and barnabas in a city lystra we don't know how big that was at the time in asia minor where there was no synagogue and they are talking to people without a jewish background so they are really talking to the gentiles for the first time without any uh attempt before that to go to the synagogue and proclaim their faith with its jewish roots and as they begin to speak first and foremost the crowd are attentive and this man whom they all know who has not walked from the day of his birth his feet as the gospel says had not worked since he was born since he was drawn from his mother's womb and yet he is sitting on the ground with the people who all know him and probably quite look after him and looking intently at paul and paul looking back as he speaks notices and here's an interesting sentence because in in many ways this this little story is very very like the story early in the acts of the apostles of peter and john going into the temple and seeing the man at the gate beautiful and saying to him you know we have no silver and gold but what we have we give you in the name of jesus christ of nazareth rise up and walk and the man leapt up and followed them into the temple leaping and praising god if you remember and at that point the instruction for the apostle was the apostle but look at us and then they said i have no silver and gold but on this occasion is slightly different for the man is already looking intently at paul and no doubt barnabas as well and paul gazing back into the man's eyes and this is the the important sentence which is different seeing that she had the faith to be made well it's as jesus says to so many as he heals them your faith has healed you go in peace and seeing that he had the faith to be made well paul said stand up a straightforward instruction but an impossible physical instruction until then for the the man to obey and he stands up and begins to walk and it's that which causes these people who are uh in a a greek way of worshiping the gods sometimes those two gods are translated in the roman way in the king james version as jupiter and mercury but here it's in the original greek of of uh zeus the chief of all gods and hermes who was the messenger of the gods and an apt speaker and so they look at these and they they've no other explanation for this amazing happening than that the gods have come down and appeared to them as men well they're getting there and uh and uh paul is aware of that but then when they identify and this actually probably tells us something about the stature of barnabas and also the stature and ability to speak of paul they see barnabas as zeus jupiter the chief of gods and paul as the messenger mercury hermes quick of speech and able to give an apt message from the gods it's the best they can do in their imagination at that time and it's a good best which then translates itself into the priest of jupiter of zeus whose temple is there at the gate of the city bringing oxen and wanting to sacrifice to these two gods and it that the apostles tear their clothes a sign of desperation and say you you don't do this we are human beings just like you and we have been sent to bring you good news of the living god up till now he's allowed nations to go in their own way but he's not left himself without witnesses and paul can't apply himself to speaking about the law and prophecy and fulfillment of prophecy because that's unknown to them he has to speak with what he's got this is the how many times have we said this this is the the basic material of all missionaries you have to start where the people are and speak of the things of creation which they know and go from there speak even of the rhythms of their own life which perhaps have exercised themselves in some spiritual way but from that you go on this was the message that gregory gave to augustine when he came here use what you find and help the people then step by step to go on not just physically and mentally but spiritually use what you find look around you and see what's there and what you can use and paul is good at that he does it in athens with the altar of the unknown god and at that time when he's speaking to the people uh at the areopagus he he mentions their own poets who've given something of their message to them but here he's really just appealing to them to see the good gifts of god in creation which give them reigns for fruitful seasons and how many times have we spoken about the way in which jesus has used that but also seasons and rhythms are very much of our human kind and seasons of i think of more autumn season of myths and melee fruitfulness in the poem but but seasons of the year seasons of spring which are just beginning to awaken outside and looking up to the sky and and the as the psalmist says all his works praise him this morning bless the lord all his works but here's sin paul saying to the people turn from this and and in your minds and hearts and spirits and and lives come a step further for this is good news now sorry although the people are told to stop the sacrifice it's quite clear that some good work was done and we have to be good detectives here as we always have to be and look to the second missionary journey when paul returns because then he finds he goes to the the christian group that are meeting now which must have come from this first journey and we don't get all that given to us in the acts of the apostles by luke but what we find sorry what we find is that um that uh paul is able to go back there and it's then that he finds the crucial figure in his ministry this is a second missionary journey not with barnabas now barnabas has gone off with john mark on another missionary journey but when paul goes back he goes to a christian group there which must have had its seed planted in the story where appearing this morning and there he finds in that christian group timothy who is the son of a greek father but his grandmother lois and his mother eunice name known well to us by the storm that's just past um eunice and that's mentioned of course in the second letter to timothy um your grandmother lois your mother eunice uh are of a jewish background but there's no great jewish community there in lystra and timothy is as i say of a greek father yet he is clearly completely taken by the good news and by the time paul goes back then he is able to take timothy and use him as his disciple to take on with him in the in the journey sorry i'm a frog in my throat i can actually prove that there is tea in the mug and have some there some people ask um is there tea there is there not does he drink it does he not there's a poem which will read you which someone sent us with great amusement is one of the puzzles of morning prayer so i've answered that puzzle you're no longer detectives i've given the clue um so as we we come to that and think of timothy at that point though in the second missionary journey paul is nervous enough about the jewish tradition to have the the greek timothy circumcised before he takes him on because he feels that it will be a complete weapon for the jews at that time if he did not but what i'm using is the clue to the fact that good work was done you never know when the seed is falling but you see that paul and barnabas simply look around them start with creation from heaven and earth and all in them everything of that and then god giving food and cheerfulness now he says to your hearts but the food really also helps their bodies to give them strength and one thinks of psalm 104 which is some dasam this afternoon that will will uh the the the thing of bread to strengthen and unwind to gladden his heart all of those things which come look around and see the gifts of god gladness cheerfulness given with those gifts it's a gospel straight to the gentiles which he's going to have to hone and also defend before people who are saying this gospel should not be for the gentiles and paul is absolutely certain that the gospel of jesus christ who opened his arms lifted up would draw all peoples to himself the gospel was for all nation a gift of the chosen people to give to be the glory of his people israel and the light to lighten the gentiles as that nun says which we sing every afternoon we are human beings like you and jesus could have said the same for in all ways he shared the limits of our humanity and also its pain even to death being lifted up and opening his arms wide for us on the cross giving his human life and dying as we shall but then opening the gate to eternal life all this is in that good news well let's think of where we are then this morning and the dates of um which we'd like to speak on these days i'm going to start with uh a composer and then we'll go on to what i was speaking about and maybe lily will return but she's certainly been here at the moment but fletcher could perhaps whistle her back at that point um the composer is percy granger who was born on the july the 8th 1882 but died on this day the 20th of february 1961 and he was born in australia and wanted so much to be the first really famous australian-born composer very proud of his heritage of being an australian and he began life there as a a a pro a prodigal pianist he was prodigious in everything you do an infant prodigy and his playing and sometimes when i'm playing his his uh arrangements of folk songs on the piano i wish that my stretch of hand uh my fingers were almost longer i didn't know what his hands were like but he gives you a astonishing chords to play but the glory of it of of granger was and let's let's say that he began in australia and had uh great concert appearances on the piano in melbourne but then his mother seeing all this talent sent him off first to frankfurt and there at the conservatory which was the highest form of training at that time for someone who wanted to be a pianist in that way in 1895 he went there and met there people like roger quilter whose songs are also on the piano upstairs balfour gardner who's evening him we often sing as a an ansem and began to meet composers born williams richard strauss debussy elgar and above all others delius and grieg but what took him and he then came to england and was here until 1914 what took him was the folk music of every place looking about for what was there and it was just that time when we've been through this when vaughn williams was searching the folk music to make him tunes and others were collecting them and people like cecil sharpe had book fulls of these and would even take um basic cylinders of early recordings of people singing in pubs and granger had done that in australia and certainly he was uh keen to do it in other lands and in scandinavia he did that later but for the moment he concentrated on english folk tunes and we remember some of those arrangements uh his mock morris dance his shepherd's hay his molly on the shore and handle in the strand now i don't really have to say this to you but on january the 26th morning proud january the 26th and if you haven't seen it tap back at the end of morning prayer when we were remembering on australia day on on that day um we played a recording a lovely recording of david newsham our director of music who has an organ in his own house playing here with earphones on and a great friend of his from earlier days who's now the principal horn player in the the orchestra in adelaide i think um and his name is adrian uran and he in adelaide played the horn and david played the organ for a spectacular really cheerful performance of handling the strand by percy granger stretching across the nations but using that focus and it's a wonderful thing tap back and find it if you if you haven't heard that it's january 26 morning prayer and and other things that he began to to gather and probably he's best known for having taken up a folk tune called country gardens from the notebooks of cecil sharpe who'd collected them from people singing it in the countryside arranging it as a piano piece it's a wonderful piano piece to play but you wish you had an extra little finger on both sides to get that great stretch and we're going back to look around and find what's there in 1914 he and his mother went to the united states he became a naturalized american citizen in 1918 he continued there to find tunes that he could play and arrange from the tunes that people were singing and one of his most beautiful is simply called colonial song it's one i love to play on the piano it's got a lovely melody to it so let's just think of granger with all his friendships and all the influences and all his quirkiness as a character not an easy man to have around but at the same time someone who used what was there and from that developed from that seed developed music which would flower from those tunes which were there the second person i want to mention is robert bolt who is most famous he wrote plays and he's most famous also for his screenplays for really massive films he died on the 20th of february this day in 1995. but um i'd mention his play which he wrote a man for all seasons which we've mentioned before which is the struggle between thomas moore and henry viii and the struggle also between moore's desire to serve the king but also to serve god and before his execution his last words i die the king's good servant but god's first back to render unto caesar the things that are caesar's but unto god the things that are god's the man for all seasons later he was to make that by a screenplay in a different script to the man for all seasons which was a film in 1966 which you may know he was also the person who wrote the screenplay for lawrence of arabia in 1962 dr zhivago massive films in 1965 but the one i wanted to come to and he wrote this script is the mission because [Music] that's pleasure whistling the tune from the mission which always calls her in lily's tune we call it [Music] and you remember how that tune first comes to us it's set in the 1750s and it's set amongst the guarani people of northern northeastern argentina and eastern paraguay and they are hunted by slave traders one of the worst of them is one called rodrigo mendoza a mercenary and a slaver played in the film by robert de niro but there's also the attempt to start a jesuit mission to protect the peoples and their environment from slavery and wonder why they're under spanish dominion that thrives but a treaty is made back in europe between spain and portugal and portugal was allowing um let's slay the slave trade and slavery and the capturing of people's forces in its territories as a treaty was made the treaty of of madrid which was going to turn the missions that were there protecting the people over to portuguese hands and the the result would be catastrophic for it would mean that the missions would be destroyed and the slave traders could do their work at will that's the theme of their whole exercise in the mission the story and you remember that jeremy irons playing father gabriel is shown first of all going to the the the gorani guarani people and sitting by the stream and simply playing his elbow to the sound of the water and the people quite shyly come as lily comes to that tune the people come and begin to surround him and he simply sits and plays and the music draws them he's using a tune that he knows for them to be interested in and later on the film is filled with much music but for the moment the people gather around slightly frightened not knowing what's going on and in the end one of them comes up and takes the oboe remember and snaps it in half and throws it in the water and goes away but the others stay and it's the beginning of a fruitful mission but meanwhile on one of his trips down into the and there's a massive waterfall if you remember in the film that has to be crossed and climbed and everything else together it's the only way that but in going back down um jeremy irons uh becomes acquainted with the the slaver rodrigo mendoza who by then has killed his stepbrother whom he found in bed with with his own wife and now feels intense remorse and wants penitence and jeremy irons says to him father gabriel says you better come back with me and the penance is that he is to to drag behind him some of the equipment the military equipment that he's used up till now i think that mendoza himself adds to that because uh he wants the penance to be a hard one for himself he's he's desperately wanting forgiveness you'll remember how he drags that and drags it and drags it like christian with his burden in pilgriman's progress right up to the top of the waterfall in the end he comes eye to eye with those who know that he's been a slaver and has seized their people and taken them off to slavery but they see in his eyes his desperate broken state and his desire for forgiveness and you remember how one of them reaches for the sword i think this is how it goes i've not seen the mission for some time and i think mendoza is ready to be killed by them and in fact what they do is cut away the burden so that it falls down the waterfall and goes back but then you'll see the beauty of all that's going on and the worship there and the encroaching armies of portugal with support from spain because the border has been changed and they don't want war in europe and so they've made an accommodation where the missions will be destroyed jeremy irons as father gabriel wants to trust in prayer and now um rodrigo mendoza who's become one of them wants to teach the people to bear arms and fight and the two things become a tension between them and you will know the tragic ending of all of this and you also know that at the end it ends with after the the totality of the wiping out of the missions and little children coming back and just taking pieces and going off into the jungle so not everything will be lost there will be memories of this and the things they carry will still be with them but you remember the portuguese and spanish representatives sitting down to a fine dinner and saying that was a pity that we had to do that and this spanish person says uh and the um portuguese um uh person agrees and the spanish person says but we must work in the world and the world is thus and oddly as the portuguese representative said no thus have we made the world and at that point the quotation is put up from john 1 5 the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it they had looked around for what they could find and they'd created something beautiful and it was destroyed but not lost so looking around to see what's there and seeing how uh sometimes tragic endings can give birth to new beginnings can be the seed of new beginnings and something handed on like a tune as it's played or sung can give memories and strengths to people in desperate situations so let's say our prayers on this day when we're thinking of how paul and barnabas probably felt their mission to lystra on that first occasion was unsuccessful and yet we know from the second missionary journey that those seeds bore fruit and paul went back to a christian community and found that another sprig should we say in young timothy who became one of his most important disciples so on this day we are praying together for the episcopal church in jerusalem and the middle east uh in the anglican communion no better place to be praying for at this time as we're thinking of all these things and with the diocese were given a very general intention without parishes attached called listening and discerning seeking the kingdom i hope we do that day by day with the gift of every day but let's pray for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover and the bishop at lambeth here's the prayer for today [Music] almighty god you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your likeness in all your children through jesus christ your son our lord who with you and the holy spirit reigns supreme over all things now and forever are men so together in whatever language you like to use 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 are men now during our reflection the oboe is the instrument which is being played it's a part of mozart's oboe concerto played by pupils of our king's school here who returned from their halftime holiday tonight [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] 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 well that sound of dunstan ringing is the sound to call me to matins in the cathedral early on this sunday morning so i hope you have well both of us hope that you have a blessed day and also i know that uh lily here would have been glad we're inside she's not a person for really early mornings out in the cold so to be here by the fire once again after she was here in the middle of the storm even song on friday afternoon um is a lovely thing for her i'm a scared [Music] bye [Music] [Applause] [Music] bye [Music] bye [Music] right [Music] so [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] you