good morning and welcome to the deanery garden in canterbury cathedral at uh this time of the year the last day of june wednesday the 30th of june the weather is anything like june it's it's cool and it's pouring with rain again but we thought we'd come outside and we're thinking of really weather conditions across the world but particularly praying for our friends in canada who are suffering an enormous heat wave at dangerous levels of temperatures and and people are attempting to help one another in that heat so we're thinking of them and at the same time we're thinking of all kinds of situations across our world on this last day of june it's a disappointing morning for us in uh can't read for me because i was going to celebrate communion for a group of our our people in uh a sheltered accommodation um one of our as we call them arms houses a very ancient one jesus hospital is called and because of the the restrictions of gathering together inside we were going to gather in the garden there where they have a wonderful stone altar and the flower beds and the grass surrounds them and we've been looking forward to this it has been postponed once already from john the baptist day up to today but i've had no option but to postpone it again and we hope that when the month of july gets going we shall have some favorable weather for people to sit outside and enjoy each other's company so let's begin our morning prayers this morning on this last day of the month of june bring your prayers and intentions from wherever you are in the world and hear the rain patterning on my umbrella 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 you have made and 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 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 morning psalm on this last morning of the month the 30th morning of the month is psalm 144 [Applause] blessed be the lord my rock who teaches my hands for war and my fingers for battle my steadfast help and my fortress my stronghold and my deliverer my shield in whom i trust who subdues the peoples under me oh lord what are mortals that you should consider them mere human beings that you should take thought for them they are like a breath of wind their days pass away like a shadow bow your heavens o lord and come down touch the mountains and they shall smoke cast down your lightnings and scatter them shoot out your arrows and let thunder roar reach down your hand from on high deliver me and take me out of the great waters from the hand of foreign enemies whose mouth speaks wickedness and their right hand is the hand of falsehood oh god i will sing to you a new song i will play to you on a ten-stringed harp you that gives salvation to kings and have delivered david your servant save me from the peril of the sword and deliver me from the hand of foreign enemies whose mouths speak wickedness and whose right hand is the hand of falsehood so that our sons in their youth may be like well-nurtured plants and our daughters like pillars carved for the corners of the temple our barns be filled with all manner of store our flocks bearing thousands and ten thousands in our fields our cattle be heavy with young may there be no miscarriage or untimely birth no cry of distress in our streets happy are the people whose blessing this is happy are the people who have the lord for their god so we turn back this morning after the time in the acts of the apostles for the feast of saint peter yesterday uh we turn back to the gospel of saint matthew and we'll take up from exactly where we left it off the day before yesterday at the very end of chapter 20 short reading this morning but in a way a very important one for our understanding in the way matthew is presenting the stories in his gospel i'm starting at verse 29 and as they went out of jericho a great crowd followed jesus and behold there were two blind men sitting by the roadside and when they heard that jesus was passing by they cried out lord have mercy on us son of david [Applause] the crowd rebuked them telling them to be silent but they cried out all the more lord have mercy on us son of david and stopping jesus called them and said what do you want me to do for you they said to him lord let our eyes be opened and jesus in pity touched their eyes and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him well that story is the story as it's told by matthew and we've seen before with the story of the scene on the side of the lake of genesis of the sea of galilee with the the story of the the gathering man who was so utterly disturbed in distress who was called legion in the other gospel matthew when he told that story made it into two men disturbed two and here also the one blind man of sin mark's story in jericho is made into two as though it's a double underlining of the healing power of jesus in fact you may feel as i do that it weakens the story of detail and if we look at the way matthew is is presenting this it's not only a double underlining of jesus's ability to heal and save it's also shall we say shaped to be slightly liturgical for the use of his own christians in the church there there are two greek words left in our liturgy and that is kyrie eleison often sung often said sometimes said or sang in translation lord have mercy curie eliason it's a cry for healing i cry for forgiveness it comes at that point in the eucharist and here are those words those words no doubt already being said or sung by matthew's christian congregation now put into the two blind men who have the request of jesus whom they call son of david an important title we've looked at titles on the way through and how they're used but all the way through this story they're calling jesus lord kyrie kyrie kyrie eleason have mercy on us son of david and jesus says what you want me to do for you and then they ask that their eyes may be opened it's a wonderful prayer which will be a daily prayer for us for all these things as in the images of the psalms are good metaphors for situations in which we find ourselves metaphors of struggle and battle and conflict metaphors of fruitfulness that sound full of fruitfulness of cattle and sheep producing uh with health in the fields of the people singing the psalm and the the prayer for for plants and and images of of of children like plants and polished corners of the temple all those things and matthew writing some years after mark is using those images for us and they go and at the end follow jesus well let's think of how mark does it for mark does exactly the same thing mark is in chapter 10 and verses 46 to 52. it's worth reading the stories side by side in mark we have the detail we have the man's name bartimaeus blind bartimaeus sitting at the gate of jericho and as we have uh that detail we begin to see the picture of the little community here we've been joined by some some wet friends still proclaiming the morning they're not very keen on wetting their feathers but for the moment they're here with us and say we're glad i think there's one person who's absolutely thrilled to bits to be here and that's our friend ducky who exults in any kind of water and is really looking cheerful this morning beside darcy the turkey there who's not so keen on the rain the detail of that little community which um bartimaeus the named person sitting at the gate is part of they all know him he sits there constantly and in mark of course we've we've had a geographical procession so that coming to jericho we know this is the last stop before jerusalem we know where jesus is going we've had the three warnings which the disciples have mistaken in some way or another about what will happen when they get to jerusalem all of that and here's bartimaeus and bartimaeus cries out in in the same way son of david have mercy on me the word eleazon is there but the word kyrie is not there call him says jesus call him and we're given another detail they said that the people who've been trying to shut him up now say get up he's calling you and bartimaeus we know his name in mark leaps up this is another detail throwing off his cloak a further detail so the picture is building up for us in a particular way it's mark's gift this particular particularity and when he comes to jesus he doesn't say kyrie eleason he's asking for mercy from the son of david yes and eleazar is there but what he says to the lord is when jesus says what do you want me to do for you bartemaeus says lord let me receive my sight or i've translated that lord really the translation will be what we do on yesterday because the word is the same rabunai the words of mary magdalene in recognition of jesus bartimaeus uses that word rabunai that i may receive my sight and jesus heals him gives him his sight and says now go on your way and jesus and bartimaeus what his way would have been before probably would have been back home but now his way is different he follows jesus on the way that too could be coded language because as we know early on before they were called christians christians were called followers on the way it's wonderful to deal with these particularities and the special nature of the four gospels and to compare story by story matthew gets his emphasis by doubling up and leaving out what he sees to be a relevant detail mark gets his emphasis by singularity by names and details like the cushion in the boat and the green grass and on this occasion throwing off his cloak he comes to jesus and says rabunai in the same way that mary magdalene in recognition and jesus says your face has sealed you and the word for abunai probably has helped that as well well let's think of this particular day because there's an an interesting correlation here but i wanted to do something first in 1837 on this june the 30th the pillory as a punishment was abolished in this land pillaries are if you think about them appalling things um i myself was put in one once with the uh our friend tyler montgomery who is the canterbury chaplain at the college of william and mary in in williamsburg and we were visiting colonial williamsburg and there were the pillaries set up and we were put in those pillaries and opposite us was only actually fletcher with the camera but they could have been in olden times all those people who bore a grudge or just wanted to make fun of us or just be plain nasty throwing rotten cabbages and vegetables and tomatoes and goodness knows what and that punishment was abolished so that the degradation of your neighbor even in punishment could not happen by that method anymore well we have to give thanks for that and it's an interesting date to think of that that pillary going from village communities at that time then also on this date in 1937 the world's first emergency telephone number was introduced in london it was nine nine nine and it was chosen so that in the old dialing system if you had no sight or you were blinded by smoke in an emergency and your hand was doing the work your finger could rest on the dial stop the the little thing which stopped the dial going further and put your your finger into the hole there which was nine and go right to the end where the dial stopped again let the dial go back and rest your hand in that that's why 999 was chosen but for the first time help would be offered and help is something that constantly were asked to give to one another and this was an imaginative way by a new technique of giving help now it's second nature to have the numbers that we call easy numbers for help and emergency and people on the other end will will ask the right questions people trained in that way we take it take it for granted completely but this was the first time that happened in london itself and from then on it spread and we give thanks for it well the real date i wanted to mention this morning 30th of june was it on in on that day on this day in 1891 the artist stanley spencer was born he lived in cookham which is a village about three miles from maidenhead it's just in berkshire and it's on the river thames and the river was very much part and is very much part of the life of cookham it's still a beautiful village and a heritage village but uh stanley spencer was brought up by his parents in the house that his grandfather had built there and he suffered from very delicate health all his life but he was educated at home by his sister sisters and his parents they couldn't afford to send him to a school and they didn't actually think that the village school was the best atmosphere for him so he was educated there but he soon showed a talent for drawing things around him and uh happily his mother having contacted the local landowner uh the the wife of the local landowner was uh someone who herself painted and she actually said well he can come and draw with me for a bit if you like as part of his learning but later on he went on to the slade school of art what i wanted to say about him was that he was fervent in his christian belief but fairly unconventional [Applause] but what he did was to take cookhome as his pattern for all the scriptural stories and those people around him as being those who he would place in those scriptural stories in reality nothing was over romanticized some things are so stark that you're quite shocked with the way the people are he painted what he saw and gave thanks for that but placed it in scenes zechariah and elizabeth or the marriage at cana in galilee but then sometimes later on and kukkum was very much his life he called cookham a village in heaven and let's think of how first of all his paintings of flowers and trees and ordinary life are just just breathtaking in their beauty sometimes but also so absolutely ordinary and little things are added there's a a wonderful painting of builders at their work but in it there's a a detail of a blackbird's nest and looking at it this morning it reminded us both of not only the blackbird's nest that that we've had here but also the fact that last saturday morning when beryl came in with the hedgehogs she brought little nestlings that had fallen out of their nests house martins and the sparrow and and uh was feeding them after she fed the hedgehogs i've i've been uh asked by fletcher to say he'll put those clips on at the end of this to show that the absolute detail of the care of life when a creature is in need of help i wanted also to say that that we have a friend marilyn heyms who is an artist in canada and one of our garden congregation and she also looks to the figures of those around her and in her project she for lent that became very evident look to the figures around her and the scenes around her for the inspiration for reflection on biblical scenes and things that she is reminded of from psalms and gospels stanley spencer went away to war and first of all in the ambulance corps because of his health but then was sent to macedonia and then found himself in service in the front line two and a half years in macedonia and when he came back the paintings had pictures of of of soldiers and and scenes there but many of them were from his ambulance core days of people caring for one another and doing ordinary chores for the holiness of human life and the holiness of his village of kokum and the holiness of his friends and also the holiness of himself self-portrait after self-portrait spares nothing and when we look in the mirror then it causes us to think this is the humanity that christ came to save and causes us with the the blind bartimaeus all the two blind men in matthew's gospel to say lord that we may receive our sight shake up shall we say spiritual blindness away and make our eyes clear to see the depths of your love for us in the humanity of jesus spencer had in his mind the fact that one day he would build a house which he called the church house and in it there would be reminiscences of cookum a long drawing room would be almost like the nave of the church and it would be reminiscent of the high street in cookham and there'd be little areas where he would remember friends that he'd loved it was never built but it was always there in his mind and he painted pictures for it and one of them was a picture of saint francis with the birds he presented that he was an academician of the royal academy he presented that to the royal academy's summer exhibition and uh when he presented that in the late 1930s it was rejected it was it was too much and he instantly resigned his uh membership of the academy i think partly because the rejection was a rejection not of saint francis although it was that and of the very unconventional way he's done it but because saint francis was spencer's own dad his own father in his dressing gown feeding the ducks and birds that have been around us here this morning in a very ordinary way and somehow that rejection cut him to the quick yet afterwards uh and and these pictures of his so many of them hang in the tape but resurrection is one of them where friends and neighbors are rising to the life eternal but in ordinary ways everything is imagined from our humanity and the scenes around us and the beauties of creation in the flowers and the flowering hawthorne trees and the burgeoning wisteria all these things are there you see we could go on thinking about that but the lesson which mari marilyn haynes paints from canada has has already helped me to understand as well is look at the things around you and see the world that god wants to save and when our eyes are opened may we find ourselves turned to follow christ more nearly along the way when we say or hear those words kyrie elias and sung may we hear that but and and pray that but also when the word rabunai is said by blind bartimaeus at the gate as he receives his sight as a an earnest of his own faith then let that word either said by him or mary magdalene be earnest of our own faith to have our eyes opened and to be followers along the way knowing that that might lead to situations which spencer panes of paints of human distress and warfare and hardship and weapons all of those things a massive context for this morning and lovely to be out in the open air with the rain which is sort of going off on a day of greenness and the cockrell still rejoicing in the morning so let's say our prayers on this particular day and we'll use the collect for this week the quality for the fourth sunday after trinity and i ask you to bring your own prayers and intentions as we ask for our eyes to be open to the wonders of god's creation and particularly to the wonder of our own humanity which christ came to save and to heal oh god the protector of all who trust in you without whom nothing is strong nothing is holy increase and multiply upon us your mercy that with you as our ruler and guide we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not our hold on things eternal grant this heavenly father for our lord jesus christ's sake amen let's say the prayer our savior taught us together in whatever language we 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 are men a moment for your own intentions and reflections on this day wherever you are uh [Music] oh [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 amen you