good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this thursday the 17th of february as we meet to say our morning prayers uh welcome wherever you are in the world and and feel free to bring your own uh concerns and to our prayers in your own hearts and minds so that as a a worldwide garden congregation we're offering those prayers and undergirding as we've said on the past few days the situation between ukraine and russia and also this morning very much the situation in petropolis in brazil not too far from rio de janeiro but uh there there's been the most catastrophic landslide in which there have been over 100 deaths and so much loss of homes and properties and much danger people really needing to be rescued there it causes us to think of brazil and the moment we go to places all of us will have connections when i mention places you'll think oh that's where so-and-so lives so one of our regular garden congregation pedro in brazil who's who keeps in touch with us has got a new job so congratulations to pedro in the middle of all that this morning well uh we are here in the orchard of the garden and very very near to the ponds here and you'll hear the sound of running water from the top pond down into the main fish pond and the top pond already has frog spawn in it it's not right yet for it's not the season quite yet for toadspawn but there is frogspawn there showing that the year is advancing and all around me of course there are flowers springing up but we are at the moment unusually in the eye of a storm and it's it's very calm the sky is blue and there's not too much wind as you see around me but we're in the eye of storm dudley they give these storms names which make them seem friendly this one for the north of england and for ireland and scotland has not been at all friendly and there's more to come from this one but there's a much much worse one on its way to us and so severe weather warnings have been issued for storm eunice which again sounds friendly but is set to be according to the weather forecast the fiercest storm in this part of england for well over 20 years uh and uh we are battening down the hatches really to see whether that is is the right kind of forecast but we cannot be too careful this morning quite unusual in england to have such storms as these but this one will be very fierce indeed so we've taken advantage this morning to come out here and enjoy the garden and enjoy being by the running water and the lovely things which are beginning to flower around us and at the same time we're thinking of all the um nesting of birds which is beginning and already we've had three robins claiming their territories and and uh flying around about us so you may catch sight of those as we go on through the morning but we are going back eventually to the story or that we left off yesterday uh and when uh david was in the cave of a a dullam that will carry on with one samuel 22 but meanwhile let me say that today yesterday we kept a feast of modern martyrs and we mentioned janani lewm yesterday the archbishop of uganda who was murdered by really probably by the hand of president amin himself but uh i he certainly in 1977 was martyred the archbishop of uganda and he'd gone with the catholic archbishop gernani was the anglican archbishop there and was shot there in the president's palace there's no real doubt about that i had the the the pleasure really of working with his secretary at the time margaret forge who when i was working in southern sudan in juba she had become the secretary of the archbishop of the sudan at that time archbishop elena and her stories about that time and that day when someone rushed into her office and said he shot the archbishop you must get out now and she'd been smuggled then across the border and was was in safety there but this this shocking martyrdom shocked the world and you will well know that when pope john paul ii lit that candle for maximilian colbert the martyr of auschwitz robert runcie at that time lit the candle for janani lawoom and this is the day we remember him we'll come back to that in our reflection but for the moment let's begin our prayers on this really lovely day with the sun shining on me uh not a foretaste of the weather to come in the next 24 hours oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the true the only light banish all darkness from our hearts and minds blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day that you have made as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep 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 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 son this morning is psalm 82 one of these psalms for the 17th morning of the month uh i shall read it now um and can i say that that um as we read that sound i'm sorry 87 is what i'm going to read psalm 87 one of the three sons for the 17th morning of the month as we read that sound as you've known in the past on the 17th morning i always changed the first pronoun to a feminine pronoun as the book of common prayer did and it seems to me to be more apt so all these these genders for cities and for faces are of course metaphorical psalm 87 her foundation is on the holy mountains and the lord the lord loves the gates of zion more than all the dwellings of jacob glorious things are spoken of you zion city of our god i record egypt and babylon as those who know me behold philistia tyre and ethiopia in zion were they born and of zion it shall be said each one was born in her and the most high himself has established her the lord will record as he writes up the peoples this one also was born there and as they dance they shall sing all my fresh springs are in you it's one of the reasons why we come this morning to running water with the freshness of fresh springs a most beautiful knapsack verse verse 6 of psalm 87 as they dance they shall sing all my fresh springs are in you so we go back to the 22nd chapter of the first book of samuel and we find ourselves where we left off yesterday at verse 6 and i'm going to read to the end of the chapter this is a grim story and i make no apologies because it actually fits in with what we would want to say about janali luwum and also about so many situations in the world in history and now and you will remember that when david went into the holy place and he was by himself he should we say spanayan told a story about why he needed bread for at that time young men who probably didn't even exist around him he was absolutely by himself as we saw when he went and pretended to be insane in in the city of gath but uh he went to the priest a himalay and the priest gave david of the bread of the presence which was to be replaced by hot bread and david took the loaves and was nourished by them by the gift of the priest but do you remember how there's that sentence which said but there at the same time was doug the edomite and he saw david take the bread and also the sword of goliath and go off and he'd heard the conversation between ahemalek the priest and david himeleck of course had thought that david was being a faithful servant of saul and in heart and mind never david never ceases to be a servant a loyal servant of saul as we shall see in one or two stories which follow after this but for the moment we are not with david we're back with saul and saul uh hears the story so i'm in verse 6 of chapter 22. sorry i've got a frog in my throat which probably comes from the frog spawn so now verse 6 of chapter 22 now saul heard that david was discovered and the men who were with him saul was sitting at gibbia under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand and all his servants were standing about him and saul said to his servants who stood about him here now people of benjamin will the son of jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds that all of you have conspired against me no one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of jesse none of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait at this day then answered doe egg the edomite who stood by the servants of saul i saw the son of jesse coming to norm to ahimalek the son of a haitab and he inquired of the lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of goliath the philistine then king saul sent to summon ahimalek the priest the son of a hater and all his father's house the priests who were at norbert all of them came to the king and saul said to the priests hear now son of a hater and himalayan said here i am my lord and saul said to him why have you conspired against me you and the son of jesse in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of god for him so that he has risen against me to lie in wait as at this day then ahimalek answered the king and who among all your servants is so faithful as david who is the king's son-in-law and captain over your bodyguard and honoured in your house is today the first time that i have inquired of god for him no let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father for your servant has known nothing of all this much or little and the king said you shall surely die ahemalek you and all your father's house and the king said to the god who stood about him turn and kill the priests of the lord because their hand also is with david and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me but the servants of the king would not put their hand to strike the priests of the lord so the king said to doug utan and strike the priests and derek the edomite turned and struck down the priests and killed on that day 85 priests who wore the line in ephod and knob the city of priests he put to the sword both man and woman child and infant ox donkey and sheep he put to the sword but one of the sons of a himalek the son of hightower named abayathar escaped and fled after david and the biatha told david that saul had killed the priests of the lord and david said to abiatha i knew on that day when derag the edomite was there that he would surely tell saul i have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house stay with me do not be afraid for he who seeks my life seeks your life with me you shall be in safe keeping a terrible story and it shows the absolute bitter jealousy of saul for david and now the incapacity to think with anything but violence and and suspicion and jealousy about all those around him and when power gets like that it becomes very very dangerous indeed so we're thinking now of david who still will have loyalty to the anointed one as he sees him the king but for the moment he sees what fearful damage has been wrought by the fact that derek the emot edomite heard what he said to ahimalak and what he said had been a stretching of a story because by then he himself knew he was in danger of saul but couldn't see the danger for those all around him and here is a himalay coming to saul in total faithfulness with all his priests and the servants of saul shrinking back to touch with weapons even at the command of the king the priests of the lord the derek the edomite the chief shepherd has no such scruples and slaughters the priests and then saul sends out to their city and lays it waste a terrible story but one can replicate that in so many situations throughout history so many situations in modern times and so many situations which are happening even now where those who are full of jealousy at another's either relationships david and jonathan and fear treachery and don't understand what's going on and also full of jealousy at the success of others that rhyme which the women sang saul has killed his thousands but david has killed his ten thousands must play through his head during all this disturbance which is going on with the king who actually has all the power and having all the power is everything the military power at this time but the lord saves one a bayata and it's the name we know from mark chapter two by our lord's mistake or sid mark's mistake in saying that when david went into the house of the lord to ask for the ship the showbread the the bread of the presents uh it was a bayatha who gave it to him of course it was a himalaya bayata's father but that name abiather by that mistake appears in mark's gospel and it's a lovely connection on the way through and the connection between david and our lord himself is a very strong one at matins in the cathedral this morning we were reading the second epistle to timothy and i found myself reading uh the the beginning of chapter two and there in chapter two verse eight saint paul says remember jesus christ risen from the dead the offspring of david as preached in my gospel for which i am suffering bound with chains as a criminal but the word of god is not bound therefore i endure everything for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain salvation that is in christ jesus with eternal glory paul's gospel jesus christ risen from the dead the offspring of david and for that gospel that good news he is suffering well here is another who is suffering through the might and power with paul it's the mighty power of rome here it is the might and power of king saul himself so let's just go to our dates and go to the calendar first because this is the day on which we remember janani lum and give thanks first in his courage in going to the president's palace in order to plead for his people as their priest and uh he and the roman catholic archbishop making common cause but that awful sentence of terror being rushed to margaret ford his secretary they've shot the archbishop and then you must be taken quickly to safety that story i heard in the peaceful context of impoverished and war-torn juba in the southern sudan in 1979 as margaret and her friend her older friend philippa gilabo who was there translating the scriptures i've spoken about her many times and her morning meditation as the sun came up as the sun has come up today and the the the lifting of of all that and here we are this morning thinking about margaret her companion and we were sitting in philippa's bungalow and eating the simple food that was available at that time in juba because it really was a war-torn place beginning to recover but it would soon be pushed back into civil war all over again uh and and margaret told this story and i felt privileged to be hearing it from one who was there in that situation so like this tense story we're hearing at this time where saul turns on the priests of the lord with all the power that the the military power in his might and when his servants shrink back and someone else does does the deed or for saul but i think it's commonly thought that armen himself was the one who fired the shot which killed jananilum well you can say um certainly we know that he was shot in the president's palace that night and as we think of all that we think of the courage necessary to stay clear to the vision that vision of the rising sun is as i've said so many times before to look out of the guest house there by the archbishop's house in juba and see philippa even then in old age and and sometimes walking with a stick because she had a a painful back going out in the morning before the sunrise to have her morning meditation and watching the sun rise up and it always reminded her of the the way in which the bread is lifted over the altar as the sun rises so that creation itself is giving us the the sacramental sense of the presence of christ rising as we say that every morning the the dawn and the gift of the new day and her image is strong in maybe she because then she would go back to wrestle with the words of the scriptures and try to make them understood in that language of bari which he was translating the scriptures into father upper on in mundry old canon ezra who lost his life in the civil war which broke out again was translating the same into the language of the tribe there into the moral language but here was the language of bari that philippa was working with and working and sifting through the words of the scriptures and finding to find trying to find the same kind of of creative growth which might not be in the sudan which then could could help the people that understand what jesus was saying by that which was surrounding them well now i want to come to another person and really quite different but he was born on this day on the 17th of february 1888. i'm talking about one who became known as monsignor ronald knox and he is a really most interesting character uh he came from a a fairly high born aristocratic family uh an anglican family and his father became the bishop of manchester in the orders of the church of england and at 17 ronald knox was a really excellent classical scholar he won all kinds of prizes he was at eaton and then at balial and and and was learning all of that but it's 17 whether secretly or not but he he tells us this later he he made a lifelong vow of celibacy offering himself entirely to the gospel and to the service of of christ and all his scholarship and during that year he he'd become unlike his family he'd become an anglo-catholic because of the sacramental language and images that were being used and that to him at that time was where he felt uh really good because that meant that creation was speaking to him in the things of the creation of the bread and the wine but all things around him and so he felt comfortable there and at 17 he took up a year before going on to oxford and was hired to tutor harold mcmillan who later became the prime minister uh here and uh he as he was tutoring harold mcmillan early on macmillan's mother found out he was tutoring him in the classics and macmillan became an apt subject and and was a lifelong reader of the classics but at the same time mcmillan's mother discovered that knox was an anglo-catholic and she sacked him on the spot so in part puzzlingly he was cast out there macmillan never lost his friendship with ronald knox as we shall see but in 1912 he was ordained as an anglican and became an anglican priest until 1917 when his journey took him on and he converted to roman catholicism and began to find his home there and was ordained a roman catholic priest in 1919 and constantly all the time he was writing writing writing about his spiritual journey so others could read it and telling it now knox was always someone who saw the humor in anything and the titles of some of his books are full of satire and he must have been the most amusing character to be with uh but at the same time through the the middle of him was this absolute vocation not only in his own life but to share that gospel which we saw paul sharing when i read that little snippet from the um second letter to timothy and so in 1917 he wrote an apologia of his life and in 1918 what he called a spiritual enid using virgil's journey to show his own spiritual journey so that we can trace his track all the way along he was influenced by gk chesterton and then himself afterwards influenced gk chesterton so it goes backwards and forwards in in mutual conversation as we have each morning and and you come back with your comments and we all learn together in that way surrounded by the sacramental sense of of the creator giving himself to us not only in the the the flesh and blood of jesus christ in his human life but all things around us reminding us of that and of our lord's message and the gospel so let's just think a little bit more generally about about ronald knox what he went on to because he became the roman catholic chaplain at oxford between 1926 and 1939 and was a really popular figure but at the same time in those years he began not only to to write and write much theology and much teaching and publish his sermons and they had wonderful names the the books of his sermons uh that like the mystery of the kingdom uh or um the heaven and charing cross reminding us of course of that poem by francis thompson uh which which has that line in it so um you can look that one up that poem it's a beautiful poem to read but we've we've read it before heaven heaven and sharon if you look up heaven and chariot cross francis thompson then it i think the poem is called in no strange land and uh at the end there's that imagination of jacob's ladder set up in not only in heaven but right down on earth and and uh that kind of exercises there so we'll put that that link on sorry for the interruption but fletcher was signaling to me just read it to them on your phone i i can do that now called in no strange land a world invisible we view thee a world intangible we touch thee a world unknowable we know thee inapprehensible we clutch thee does the fish saw to find the ocean the eagle plunge to find the air that we ask of the stars in motion if they have rumor of thee there not where the wheeling systems darken and are benumbed conceiving sores the drift of pinions would we hearken beats at our own clay shutter doors the angels keep their ancient places turn but a stone and start a wing it is ye tis your estranged faces that miss the many splendored thing but when's so sad thou canst no sadder cry and upon thy so-so loss shall shine the traffic of jacob's ladder pitched betwixt heaven and charing cross yea in the night my soul my daughter cry clinging to heaven by the hems and lo christ walking on the water not of geneserate but thames in no strange land is a poem which is saying you find god here and now and find christ coming to you here and now in the things around you a fish doesn't need to fly into the sky he's already swimming in the waters an eagle doesn't need to plunge into the waters his natural landscape is the air and for us to look up in the stars and have inspiration from them is fine but know that the lord himself appears battering at our own clay shuttered doors and the angels appeared to us turn but a stone and start a wing thompson lived in london hence uh low christ walking on the water not of jenezeret but thames and jacob's ladder pitched between heaven and charing cross well obviously knox loved that poem and in his own teaching in life he was very very keen to set out that in ordinary things we could find christ it's a sacramental world and we do that day by day of course reminders of that within the context of a liturgical life where we meet as christians and break bread and share the common carp in that way but at the same time he was fascinated and this to me is really good news uh he was fascinated by detective mysteries and began to write them and he also set out and this too he was he was quizzing and questing everywhere but he set out the ten commandments of writing a detective story and their wonderful commandments uh because they say exactly what rules the writer should abide by so that the reader has every chance of discovering the solution before the detective does but you have to play fair if you're writing a detective story and allow that to happen because it's half the fun of reading them and some people have better intuition at that than i even in the the watching of of mystery programs or detective programs on television such as streets ahead of me always and saying it's it's that person you know or this is what's happening or that and i'm always rather slow with this but i still enjoy the quest i'll just read a few of these because there are ten commandments and the first one is the criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know secondly all supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course this must be a human discovery with the mind working and then not more than one secret room or passage is allowable and then no hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end this must be simplicity itself with all the things that are going on um it says no accident must ever help the detective nor must he or she ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves right has to be done logically by looking around and the detective themselves must not have committed the crime and is bound to declare any crews with any clues which they may discover so the readers up with them and then this amusing to me the sidekick of the detective the watson must not conceal from the reader any thoughts which pass through their mind their intelligence must be slightly but only very slightly below that of the average reader that's your dr watson and then lastly twin brothers or sisters generally must not appear unless we've been duly prepared for their presence you can't get out of it by saying well it was always his twin brother or her twin sister that did this they're fun actually with all of this and he wrote i think seven uh no five novels uh uh including his detective miles bredon and and miles breton is a fascinating character uh i think he's um he's almost an alter ego a a a a version of knox himself and knox gives bred many of the qualities that he has but also then in breden's life and he's using bredon i think from uh houseman's poem on breedon hill the woods in trouble and because he wants us out in the countryside there to have that sort of thing so miles bredon becomes his detective and here's my watson joining me this morning actually my real watson it works the other way around really i'm uh but this is this is miles uh bredon and he he gives him a wife called angela and the wife actually is uh in the the story reckoned to be a bit cleverer than miles breeden himself and gets there quite often before he does but she she sort of never lets that be known because she's she's there for him and this is what is said about angela and her relationship with her husband miles bredon she had no illusions about him but accepted that she would have to spend the rest of her life with a large untidy absent-minded man who would frequently forget that she was in the room and did not realize that his wife was a tiny bit cleverer than he was and was always conspiring for his happiness behind his back that's angela the companion given to miles and uh i think many will relate to that in in a way but now the judge was a bit unhappy about uh monsignor ronald knox writing these stories so they they ordered that they stopped so that stopped but what went on was his translation of the scriptures back with philippa gilberto he translated the with the church's authority the whole of the latin vulgate the church's liturgy was at that time sitting in the whole of the latin bible into english and he wrote about how he did it and he he called his book on englishing the bible and he wrote that in 1949 having translated these scriptures from 1936 to the publication date in 1945 of the new testament but was already working then on the old testament from the greek and the hebrew and that was published in 1949 so that ronald knox bible still very much still available and with all the the humor uh and and and sense of of likeness of touch that knox himself had he was a really apt teacher and his most popular book at one time was called the mass in slow motion which was from a series of lectures given at a girls school about the way the mass develops as a piece of drama of liturgy and the the sense of sharing of christ in sacramental terms the mass in slow motion that was followed up by the creed in slow motion and finally the gospel in slow motion and on and on he went writing but at that time too um he uh was being used in broadcasting and in all kinds of other things like writing a monthly column for the sunday times all these things have been published and are still available and you get something of the character of ronald knox in 1957 he was uh troubled with with with symptoms which he wanted to have investigated and he went to a london london specialist he went actually to stay at downing street with his lifelong friend harold mcmillan who was by then the prime minister here and it was from downing street that he went off to see the surgeon who would say i'm sorry you have an inoperable cancer and he was living there in a lovely village of mel's in somerset but when he died his body was brought to westminster cathedral and there was the most incredible uh requiem for him there at which the preacher was the the famous catholic scholar jesuit scholar martin darcy i remember him preaching with a face like an eagle from the uh pulpit of mary the virgin preaching a university sermon martin darcy in in old age but i never met monsignor ronald knox i wish i had because everything about him speaks of a humor a lightness of touch but at the same time and absolutely i was going to say iron but it's more like a gold thread going through his body of total vocation and the way in which he reached out with all his gifts to share that good news rather like the sun rising as this morning trying to give light to those that sit in darkness and start them on their own quest and i think that's why he's so much liked giving detective stories where people could follow with miles bredon and angela the the way through that particular story so really i could go on and on about him but let's uh start to say our prayers or we'll be here all morning and we are obviously giving thanks for all who have given their life for the gospel and in the service of of christ and particularly this morning janani lawoon and we pray for the church in uganda on this morning and here in uh on elsewhere in the anglican communion the the diocese we're praying for is the diocese of katanga in the anglican church of the congo and we're praying in this diocese for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and today for the parish of sint luke at ramsgate who uh have their as their priest paul worldage whom we were praying for in his other charge earlier um in the week well uh we pray also for claire coleman the the assistant curate that as we pray for that parish so let's say the prayer first for janani lawroom's day and then for this week bring your own prayers and intentions it's really nice sitting here now with the sun on these oh here's a robin hello he's very near me now here he is on the hazel catkin bush with the sun shining on his red breast so beautiful you are i hope you know it you're a good messenger aren't you he's looking at me as we say our prayers this morning thank you for that beauty is that your wife is flying around as well hello so um here's the prayer for janani the womb god of truth whose servant janani lawoon walked in the light and in his death defied the powers of darkness free us from fear of those who kill the body that we too may walk as children of light through him who overcame darkness by the power of the cross jesus christ your son our lord now you've come back because you know the robin was here and he was stealing your thunder as a star wasn't he so here you are here's the collect for here's the colic for today uh almighty god who alone can bring order to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity give your people grace so to love what you command and to desire what you promise that among the many changes of this world our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found through jesus christ our lord amen so together we pray the prayer our savior taught us in whatever language you like to use 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 now of reflection on this beautiful morning here as we wait for storm eunice [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] uh [Music] the title of francis thompson's poem in no strange land of course begs the question and suggest to us that he's saying but in your own context in your own land with all that's around you and during the meditation you've seen the birds of the air in their own context and the fish and the frog spawn in the water in their own context and as all that is there we think of where we are here in no strange land but with the things around us being offered the gifts of god knocking at our own doors as the poem says i think it's one of the most beautiful playing poems and for knox to use it as a title in that way heaven and sharing cross for a set of his sermons is i think a lovely tribute to thompson as we ourselves have enjoyed it this morning 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 so you're silly to be jealous of the robin honestly you're like king saul but hopefully not so violent [Laughter] your tail is messing up the mealworms but we're going to leave those for the robin i'll say that quietly because you can come in and have your breakfast inside silly boy so you