good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of thursday the 24th of march yesterday we had our day of national reflection on the anniversary of the lockdown and we not only had the silence at 12 noon but also lit our candle in the window a bright yellow flame at eight o'clock last night as we were asked to do in memory of those who had died in the pandemic but we were also remembering all those who had died violently in war at this time and of course our prayers continue today for the people of ukraine whether they have fled their homes and are attempting to find safety and hospitality in other nations or are still suffering the cruel bombardments as they happen to the cities of ukraine it is once again here the most lovely morning and as i said yesterday it could be early may or even later the warmth of the sun already and it's early yet is uh very strong and it's beginning to bring out the flowers the beauty of the stellata this huge white magnolia which we had feared as with the other magnolias had been touched by the frost on monday morning early but no it survived and you see it in all its beauty and glory magnolias tend to give you a a triple treat through the the architecture of their own uh branches and the trunk is itself when it's got no leaves or flowers very attractive but at the same time the flowers then come first in a blaze of glory and this one pure white and then after that come an ocean of beautiful green leaves some of the nicest foliage of the garden and happily this daenery garden has soil which is very very good for magnolias and there's a lovely collection of them all over the garden but here you're looking at magnolia stellata this morning in the glory of the morning sunlight and i'm sitting today in the front garden of the deanery and here are little bulbs popping up all over this patch which was cleared by the pigs when they were here they're wonderful gardeners and now the soil having been cleaned and the roots of the trees aerated everything is beginning to spring up and already we have little daffodils and narcissis what can i see around me i can see great piosons muscari i can see even an early fertility here at my feet and many crocuses coming up all delicately coming through but many green leaves of things like bluebells still to come and so this will be a real treat to the eye when all these flowers begin to bloom one after the other in this garden and also it greens itself over with new grass so let's begin to say our prayers and join us wherever you are in the world with your own intentions and concerns and prayers we see so many things on our screens things which cheer us and things which horrify us but that is all part of our human condition and our reflection this morning and you will see why is on the purity of truth and the pure whiteness of the stellata you were looking at speaks of that total purity of truth so we will come to that in our reflection but meanwhile let's begin our morning prayers on this lovely sunny morning here and we welcome you into it albeit virtually o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice o lord according to your faithful love according to your judgment give us life blessed are you god of compassion and mercy to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of our sin your light breaks forth like the dawn and your healing springs up for deliverance as we rejoice in the gift of your saving help sustain us with your bountiful spirit and open our lips to sing your 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 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 24th morning of the month is psalm 116 i love the lord for he has heard the voice of my supplication because he inclined his ear to me on the day i called to him the snares of death encompassed me the pains of hell took hold of me by grief and sorrow was i held then i called upon the name of the lord o lord i beg you deliver my soul gracious is the lord and righteous our god is full of compassion the lord watches over the simple i was brought very low and he saved me turn again to your rest o my soul for the lord has been gracious to you for you have delivered my soul from death my eyes from tears and my feet from falling i will walk before the lord in the land of the living i believe that i should perish for i was sorely troubled and i said in my alarm everyone is a liar how shall i repay the lord for all the benefits he has given to me i will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the lord i will fulfill my vows to the lord in the presence of all his people precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his faithful servants o lord i am your servant your servant the child of your handmaid you have freed me from my bonds i will offer to you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the lord i will fulfill my vows to the lord in the presence of all his people in the courts of the house of the lord in the midst of you o jerusalem it's the most beautiful psalm and every time one reads it there's a different emphasis on the sentences we've been thinking ever since uh uh lucy the the scout the uh potter said to us that her work was attractive because it was so simple then we've thought about that simplicity and i've often said with you the prayer that talks about simplicity but this morning it's the sentence in verse 5 the lord watches over the simple lord temper with tranquility our manifold activity that we may do our work for the with very great simplicity ivor smith cameron's prayer which i love and that sense of the truth itself being simple in its purity becomes very important to us in the lesson we're about to read but there is a sense of being surrounded in this psalm by lies complicated lies i said to myself everyone is a liar and then the simplicity and purity of the truth shines through so that the servant of the lord is ready to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and fulfill their vows to the lord all of that in that lovely psalm but as i say the psalms whenever we read them seem to give us a new message in every sentence relevant to today and i have no doubt that when we read the psalm on the 24th of april next month then it will have different messages so that is the case with every psalm let's say our uh i mean let's read our lesson though for this morning from the gospel of st john we're continuing through and we're reading today in chapter eight from verse 31 and i'm reading from 31 to 47. so jesus said to the jews who had believed in him remember the the section we read yesterday ended with as jesus was saying these things many believed in him and that was a sentence when you have lifted up the son of man then you will know that i am he and i have not been left alone and then the sentiment that while he was saying these things many believed in him so on we go so jesus said to the jews who had believed in him if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free they answered him we are offspring of abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone how is it that you say you will become free jesus answered them truly truly i say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin the slave does not remain in the house forever but the sun remains forever so if the sun sets you free you will be free indeed i know that you are offspring of abraham yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you i speak of what i have seen with my father and you do what you have heard from your father they answered him abraham is our father jesus said to them if you were abraham's children you would be doing the works abraham did but now you seek to kill me a man who has told you the truth that i heard from god this is not what abraham did you are doing the works your father did they said to him we were not born of sexual immorality we have one father even god jesus said to them if god were your father you would love me for i came from god and i am here i came not of my own accord but he sent me why do you not understand what i say it is because you cannot bear to hear my word you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him when he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies but because i tell you the truth you do not believe me which one of you convicts me of sin if i tell the truth why do you not believe me whoever is of god hears the words of god the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of god it's an important passage in many many different ways but in it stands that great sentence which has become the really the the motto of the anglican communion in the great compass rose the the emblem of the uh anglican communion which which stands in the middle of the nave here in canterbury cathedral the compass rose pointing out to all the areas of the world and breaking out its points breaking out through the the circles that that tend to to enfold most compass roses these break right through but in the middle is that statement in the greek letters written in a circle so you can read it round and round and round hey alessia eliot the truth will set you free it's our motto in the original greek so that it doesn't belong to any of the modern languages which come and stand there they can say it in their own language we say it together very often when we're saying prayers on a night pilgrimage with everyone around holding candles all of that going on and in the middle those words the truth will set you free and jesus says that in this particular passage and then he shows by what he's saying in his conversation the things that bind us verily verily i say to you truly truly i say to you don't forget that that is one of the great lines saying listen hard hear what i'm saying verily verily i say to you what does he say this time everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin well that's you and me at any time when we know what we're doing or realize what we're doing does not have the purity of truth about it we're really accomplish liars to ourselves always it's part of our human condition and let's think of that uh phrase in sin paul's letters the romans chapter 7 verse 19 if you want to look it up and read on after that romans 7 19 the good that i would i do not and the evil that i would not that i do well there we are there's the condition of slavery and it's slavery to sin jesus is not saying anything really very profound he's analyzing the human condition that that which we want to do knowing that we should do very often we don't do and the things we know we shouldn't do we find ourselves doing and then we make complicated lies to ourselves and sometimes to others and truth looks you straight in the eye and here we are with jesus saying that we're surrounded by the sense of being slaves to sin and the psalmist who's shouting out everyone is liars or of course from time to time every one of us is and when we know it then one has to confess that as a sin at that moment i was a slave to sin but then at the same time the truth shall set you free is the most wonderful liberating sentence in the whole of the gospels the truth will set you free and there it stands written on the floor in this mother church of the anglican communion for everyone every pilgrim to come and stand around and sometimes at night we're holding lighted candles as a sign of wanting the purity of truth in our own lives and the liberation of truth from lies which we are so naturally inclined to tell and cloak them in terms like well it's only a white lie or it's when it was a prevarication i said it in that way for their own good you you can hear yourself say it and at the end of the day when one makes one's confession before bedtime uh and and your thinking over the day then one needs gifts of the spirit and the chief of those uh is the gift of truth which is in jesus later on in john's gospel he will say i am the way and the truth and the life so if we hold ourselves up to the one who yesterday said to us i am the light of the world that light shines in all the dark places of our own self-being and hunts out those things which cause us to be slaves to sin though we fall over and over again and have to repeat that sense of repentance and feel the freedom of forgiveness and the liberation that the truth will set us free then the discussion follows and it becomes quite violent for jesus knows that in their hearts they want to kill him easiest solution and the strange thing is that there's an amalgamation a complicity of completely different political parties and authorities who normally wouldn't get on together but all of them are feeling that jesus is saying uncomfortable things to them it would be better really to just get rid of him liquidate him it's the final solution and those in great power have used it too often in history if someone in some way is saying things which are uncomfortable and in the heart of hearts the leader knows that they are true but is sending out fake news and lies and then the easiest solution is to eradicate the mouth that is speaking that truth and in that they become not the children of god but the children of the devil who is the father of lies jesus is quite forthright here you don't believe me because i tell you the truth and you shrink from it and yet to those who believe me and that's how our lesson started off then the truth will set you free and i am telling you the truth this is a profound passage in all its simplicity and the lord watches over the simple says the psalmist in psalm 116 this morning well let's look at some dates because we have a fine catalogue today of people who stood up for the truth and often suffered for it the first and probably the most important today is that on this day march the 24th in 1980 the archbishop of san salvador oscar romero was shot dead shot through the heart as he stood at the altar celebrating mass in a small chapel and he was shot dead by a gunman who had been sent to shoot him by the authorities and powers of the land they thought him better out of the way and he died instantly at the altar there with the grieving people around him in fact his martyrdom unleashed uh a whole uh uh flood of support for him from across the world which probably hadn't been there before in that kind of volume and strength for the blood of a martyr is often the seed of the church and he had become in his priesthood people talk about him as the great supporter of liberation theology he wasn't he wasn't that that wasn't his way of studying and if you look you can look him up on on any of these search engines and see that everything that he did was really a conservative kind of spirituality he was a faithful utterly faithful servant to the teachings of the church and the teaching of the church said that you look after the poor and the simple and you stand beside them and protect them but you always speak truth and that's where his radical thinking came from from the deepest conservative roots in spirituality i mean conservative with a small sea so he went through his priestly life and eventually became the archbishop of san salvador but he he never gave up the depth of spirituality which was in him and it was that he was determined to speak constantly people would send him books on on uh liberation theology and of course he found himself in many ways allying to that but he didn't want to ally himself to any partial political party and so those books largely were left unread but what he was saying and doing equated with the similar care for the poor which was going on in liberation theology but oscar romero was a strange champion from that and it came from the depth and simplicity of his vocation to offer his life as a sacrifice for thanksgiving he'd been warned by the government and and and stopped from from so many activities because he was seen to be the greatest danger to them but at the same time he kept going with broadcasting on the radio weekly sermons which a huge amount of the population of san salvador especially those amongst the poorest would listen to and this was spiritual teaching but the message of jesus about truth is actually a radical one and it threatened the government of san salvador which was at that time a total dictatorship and the truth frightened it and oscar romero said the most profound so social revolution is the serious supernatural interior reform of a christian an individual christian letting the truth reform them and amongst the points of his his uh self-examination every evening when they were written down were two that became really crucial fidelity to the will of god well jesus has underlined that so many times in john's gospel i i'm conforming to the will of my father my words are not mine they're the words of the one who sent me fidelity to the will of god and self-offering to jesus christ that the words must mirror the words of christ well on the 24th of march 1980 the archbishop of san salvador oscar romero preached a sermon calling on salvadorian soldiers as christians to obey god's higher order and stop carrying out the government's repression and violations of basic human rights that was a dangerous thing to say he then went to an evening mass at a small chapel at the hospital of the divine providence a church-run hospital quite small specializing in oncology and care for the terminally ill and there in that little chapel with a small congregation he preached a sermon and then from the lectern walked to the altar to begin the mass the door of the church was open and a red car pulled up outside and from it a paid hired gunman stepped and shot the archbishop at the altar through the heart and then drove away and at that point of course the grief was inexpressible and when the funeral mass took place on the 30th of march at the metropolitan cathedral of san salvador 250 000 people attended but even then government agents with smoke bombs and also with with guns dressed as members of the congregation infiltrated and there was violence planned but nothing could stop the devotion to the now martyred archbishop let's go back to the 24th of march that mass happened in the evening in san salvador the next day the 25th of march 1980 here in canterbury cathedral was the enthronement of archbishop robert runcie and the archbishop hearing the news of oscar romero broke into the formality of an enthronement of an archbishop so that from the so say chair of saint augustine he could absolutely enunciate his support for everything that oscar romero stood for both infidelity to the will of god and self-offering to jesus christ even to martyrdom because that self-offering that interior reform of a christian to be in the likeness of christ meant care for the poor and the simple and basic human rights all those things which in the world of today we need so much and the stand against violence even when one's own life is threatened so thank god for oscar romero on this particular day as we say our prayers it was a day the 24th of march which the united united nations general assembly in 2010 declared an international day for the right to the truth concerning gross human rights violations and also a day for the dignity of victims well oscar romero whose name is in the chapel of our modern martyrs here in canterbury and whose statue is on the west end of of westminster abbey is very much one of those who was a victim but was a self-offering in the mirror of christ for the truth there are other things which happen today one of them uh is the um oscar uh nothing to do with oscar romero this is an academy award type of oscar for denzel washington in 2002 and denzel washington won his oscar he was only the second african-american to to win an oscar but he he won his oscar for playing a totally corrupt detective and showing that that capacity for evil of alonzo harris the corrupt detective who was using every trick and lie in the book to affect what he thought should be happening at the same time he had played um steve uh biko before in cry freedom the truth about south africa [Music] this is the biggest illegal gathering i've ever seen [Applause] i'm here to with the last big i had to say and i agree we are going to change south africa all we've got to decide is the best way to do that and as angry as we have the right to be let us remember that we are in the struggle to kill the idea that one kind of man is superior to another kind of man and killing that idea is not dependent on the white man we must stop looking to him to give us something we have to fill the black community with our own pride we have to teach our children black history them about our black heroes our black culture so they don't face the white man believing they are inferior we'll stand up to him any way he chooses conflict if he likes but with an open hand too to say that we can all build a south africa worth living in south africa for equals yes black or white in south africa as beautiful as this land is as beautiful as we are [Applause] so we give thanks for denzel washington's ability to put over the truth by imaging those who fought for the truth or by their lies went against the truth and became an image of corruption which has to be faced then again today in 1603 queen elizabeth the first died she was a visitor here at one stage in her reign but we remember certain of the things she said and let's think first of her commitment rather like our own queen's commitment early in her reign as it began and she was talking to the lords of parliament and she says i shall desire you all my lords chiefly you of the nobility everyone in his degree and power to be assistant to me that i with my ruling and you with your service may make a good account to almighty god and leave some comfort to our posterity on earth well nothing clearer than that and that rain then began and she was a woman of great intention but also of great faith and she found of course that she was taking over a land which was riven by the divisions between catholics and protestants at that time and she herself wanted to find that middle road that via uh media as it's said in that in the middle middle road uh of of uh of steering between this and adhering to the truth so of the eucharist the mass the lord's supper which was at the heart of contention and what the bread when it was broken meant the words attributed to her certainly she um spoke them in the little little phrase christ was the word that spake it he took the bread and break it and what his words did make it that i believe and take it it's a very elizabeth the first sort of sentence but it's full of honesty to the sacrament which christ at the last supper when taking the bread and breaking it said take eat this is my body given for you and we remember also in self-offering this is the cup of the my blood of the new covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins how important that is when we ourselves are in that condition when we so easily deceive ourselves and can lapse into being slaves of sin again and then once more one lovely sentence from her in terms of what divisions mean there is only one christ jesus one faith all else is a dispute over trifles well it kind of seemed like that to so many but that was the statement of elizabeth the first and we remember her with thanksgiving for the elizabethan rain at that time as she died on this day in 1603 and then uh finally just uh an amusing thing um there was a a wonderful magazine published here for 151 years which was called punch it was a satirical magazine and so many of the cartoons many of them uh drawn by sir john tenniel who who was also known for his illustrations to lewis carroll's alice in wonderland and through the looking glass but his cartoons in punch became massively famous but punch itself was a magazine which was full of interesting articles but they all sought to find the truth and poor scorn on lies which were obvious lies from politicians prevaricating or church people prevaricating and not actually giving the simplicity of truth punch tried to do that it went out of of publication for financial difficulties in 1992 on this day after 151 years but many have taken up the cuddles of truth since then are in the free press of the world so let's give thanks on this day for jesus saying to us the truth shall set you free and that being the motto the emblem uh and icon of our anglican communion it holds us together so let's see who we're praying for today we've got prayers to say on this 24th of march for the diocese of ketui in the anglican church of kenya and for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambus and the parish of saint martins in maidstone the priestess joyce addison the curette andrew edwards and the anna chaplin looking after the old folk there's and the ignate enabler melanie bannister and so we pray for that ministry there in maidstone as we say our own prayers and bring your intentions and concerns i'm going to start with the prayer remembering oscar romero as a christian martyr then the lovely collect for this week and then the colic for lent bring your own prayers and intentions as we say our prayers together almighty god by whose grace and power your holy martyr oscar romero triumphed over suffering and was faithful unto death strengthen us with your grace that we may end your reproach and persecution and faithfully bear witness to the name of jesus christ your son our lord amen so we use the collect for this week almighty god whose most dear son jesus christ went not up to joy but first he suffered pain and entered not into glory before he was crucified mercifully grant that we walking in the way of the cross may find it to be none other than the way of life and peace through jesus christ our lord amen and the lenten connect almighty and everlasting god you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may receive from you the god of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through jesus christ our lord amen so together now 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 moment now for your own reflections so foreign so so [Music] down the dirty city streets blacktop sneakers on my feet i raced the world of teenage years and dealt with all those nameless fears waiting as the school bell rang drop my books and join the gang and i'll live fights and stickball games the passing girls wore dirty names over my shoulder and [Music] jesus died upon the cross but always one and nothing lost and how the truth will set you free [Music] when there dimes made my pockets ring i was a wealthy new york king being cool by the candy store i knew my world yet wanted more my high school colors of black and blue they would disturb my point of view [Music] say why jesus died upon the cross [Music] how the truth will set you will set free free [Music] [Music] you know candace stars turn shopping mall two times won't buy you much at all [Music] who tells his son as years go by how god's the truth hates it's alive it's not what's in your pocket son of what's in your heart that makes [Music] us you will see your father's eyes in your mouth telling you jesus died upon the cross all how the truth will set you [Music] will free you free [Music] [Music] that's the truth [Music] [Music] you foreign says [Music] as we were looking at the pure white flowers of the stellata earlier on and thinking of today's theme fletcher was reminded of his favorite film it's a french film called les piti which means really little white lies in french mushroi is the the name for a a sort of um what would you call it a tissue and the little white lies seem oh so simple but in this film as the white lies are told the situation between the people get more and more and more complicated and there's a sense of of great sadness and tragedy about what lies can do in that les puti mushua christ give you grace to grow in holiness to deny yourself take up your cross daily and follow him 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 when are they being robbins hopping about but they're not used to us in this part of the garden and they're nothing like our best friend the robin in the orchard part of the garden who's with us come rain or shine and i think has got for himself a wife now because he seems to be racing around collecting food so [Music] you