good morning and welcome to the dinner garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of wednesday the 19th of january wherever you are in the world feel welcome as we say our morning prayers together we have better news in terms of contact with tonga but the situation there and in so many of the islands is absolutely desperate and help is still finding a long time to get there because of the significant buildup of ash and the ash clouds still surrounding that area following the cataclysmic eruption of the volcano so our prayers are very much in that part of the world and at the same time you will have concerns that you want to bring this morning bring those to our prayers when we come to that time this is the second day in the week of prayer for christian unity something we all engage in in different denominations here in this country today and other parts of the world it's at different times but very much this is the week that we focus on and so this second day we shall use the prayer for unity in the same way with our collect for the day so meanwhile we've come to help us in our sinking particularly in our biblical reflection to this point in the past here which actually is a long path which goes right up through the daenery garden it goes all the way all the way down almost in a straight line to the greenhouses and the um seedlings that are getting ready to come out right at the beginning of their life and then the path leads up here and then it kinks and then goes on in a straight line more or less until one goes into the dean's walk which we filmed in many times and right round to the quinning gate and that leads you out of the precinct into the wide world and we see in our reflection today in the scriptures the beginning of a particular journey and so we are thinking of that as i sit here with our friend tiger who's enjoying the morning and behind you can see sadly in their locked down state because of the avian flu where they have to be locked in and protected and covered uh a little group of the birds who you'll recognize that ducky is is uh swimming on her improvised pond there which has been topped up you see the hose on the gardener and then the a few of the guinea fowl and and uh russell himself who probably at some stage will start to welcome the morning but not with the same joada vivre that he shows when he's out on the lawn and we hope that that imprisonment can end quite quickly the guinea fowl also generally on the lawn walk in a straight line following a leader and you never know quite when they're going to turn or who the leader will be and there's a sort of instinct to the way they're going and then a sharp turn quite often but we don't see that at the moment of course because they are pending so you catch a sight of them and you've just heard russell exulting in the fact that it's morning and part of our reading will be that as well i brought actually some mealworms out for the robin i might put that over here maybe and it may be that he wants some breakfast but she's quite safe with our friend here um who is the gentlest of all cats let's begin our prayers oh lord open our lips and our mouth 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 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 sum on this 19th morning of the month is psalm 95 now psalm 95 is often known as the vanity and it was traditionally the way that worship every day always began certainly so with morning prayer in the book of common prayer and it's certainly so with the old breviaries that it was that started worship off and you'll see why as we read it here is psalm 95 oh come let us sing to the lord let us heartily rejoice in the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving and be glad in him with psalms for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods in his hand are the depths of the earth and the heights of the mountains are his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands have molded the dry land come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand oh that today you would listen to his voice harden not your hearts as at meribah on that day at masa in the wilderness when your forebears tested me and put me to the proof though they had seen my works forty years long i detested that generation and said this people are wayward in their hearts they do not know my ways so i swore in my wrath they shall never enter into my rest psalm 95 looking back to the people's journey in the wilderness and the number of times they went astray with their own kinks in the past and not the lord's direction but at the same time the today is destined for us and always was in worship oh that today you would listen to his voice the beginning of worship but also before that prefacing it that verse which is very like the chorus of oh come all ye faithful on christmas day come let us worship and bow down venite adoramas come let us adore him and this is very much the morning psalm saying it's today the gift of this day that we're talking about so when you hear the lord's voice don't harden your hearts wonderful opening sound to worship on the 19th morning of the month one of the regular psalms so i will now turn to our reading which we are going through parts of the first book of samuel and until now we've been telling hannah's story and now she has left her boy samuel in the tabernacle as we might call it at shiloh with eli the old priest there and the chapter which i'm missing out because we're hopping through the long books of samuel so that we keep the story going but the chapter i'm missing out has spoken about uh the ways of the two sons of eli hofney and finihas actually being unfaithful to the way of their their priesthood and uh eli um not being able to control them and then we go on to chapter three and this is where we're starting today so i'm reading chapter 3 of one samuel and going up to verse 20 19. now the boy samuel was ministering to the lord in the presence of eli and the word of the lord was rare in those days there was no frequent vision at that time eli whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see was lying down in his own place the lamp of god had not yet gone out and samuel was lying down in the temple of the lord where the ark of god was then the lord called samuel and he said here i am and ran to eli and said here i am for you called me but eli said i did not call you lie down again so samuel went and lay down and the lord called again samuel and samuel arose and went to eli and said here i am for you called me but eli said i did not call my son lie down again now samuel did not yet know the lord and the word of the lord had not yet been revealed to him and the lord called samuel again the third time and samuel arose and went to eli and said here i am for you did call me then eli perceived that the lord was calling the boy therefore eli said to samuel go lie down and if he calls you you shall say speak lord for your servant hears so samuel went and lay down in his place and the lord came and stood calling as at other times samuel samuel and samuel said speak for your servant hears then the lord said to samuel behold i'm about to do a thing in israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle on that day i will fulfill against eli all that i have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end and i declare to him that i am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew because his sons were blaspheming god and he did not restrain them therefore i swear to the house of eli that the iniquity of eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever samuel lay until morning then he opened the doors of the house of the lord and samuel was afraid to tell the vision to eli but eli called samuel and said samuel my son and samuel said here i am and eli said what was it that he told you do not hide it from me may god do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you so samuel told eli everything and hid nothing from him and eli said it is the lord let him do what seems good to him and samuel grew and the lord was with him and let none of his words fail fall to the ground and all israel from dan to beersheba knew that samuel was established as a prophet of the lord and the lord appeared again at shiloh for the lord revealed himself to samuel at shiloh by the word of the lord well it's a startling story and it's in one way a lovely story it reminds one of how often the calling by name in the gospels becomes important our lord simply saying mary on the day of resurrection or when he is uh giving simon his forgiveness and commission three times simon son of jonah do you love me and the name instantly goes right to the center of the person the name they're known by so that there is this sense of um of of someone calling and it's exactly the same with the creatures if you called their name and uh it becomes very important to know that this is tiger and he knows his name but with us it's command and uh russell say probably knows his name and ducky as well if you call she'll waddle up to you when she's outside but the name calling by name becomes a really important aspect of the way in which we are seen as individual people and if one gets someone's name wrong that you're meant to know there's always a sense of disappointment which you can pick up at once and and correct with many apologies because the names uh sometimes get muddled in one's head but but uh all those things here samuel samuel spoken over i'm talking actually to you now there are resonances once again here with the way in which sin luke tells his story in chapters one and two of his gospel we saw that with the resonances between hannah's story and mary's story between hannah's song and mary's song between mary and joseph traveling to the temple with their boy and elkanah and hannah travelling to the shrine at shiloh with their child now the book of samuel um has gone on in chapter two and it says that that hannah has more children and and the the three sons i think three sons and two daughters and and yet the the one that she has left is the firstborn the lord's promise samuel and she visits annually her child as he grows up and twice there in those chapters of samuel uh chapter one samuel chapter two you get the verse now the boy samuel grew in the presence of the lord or now the boy samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the lord and also with man and in luke chapter two those verses sound familiar because in luke chapter two talking about jesus now and the child grew and became strong filled with wisdom and the favor of god was upon him and then in verse 52 and jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with god and man there are resonances of prophecy from the beginning of the past to the end or the next part of the journey shining through and samuel is now beginning his past as a prophet and what they call a judge of israel who would make judgments between people but we're here with the daily worship of the tabernacle and we're here also once the lord has spoken to samuel with his nervousness about what he does with the message which is a terrible one to have to tell eli and he gets up and opens the doors of the shrine lovely moment always when the doors of the cathedral open when i first went to be a curator at the parish church of sinchad in shrewsbury there were great stores at the front of the church but it was my task it's a round church and it was my task as the junior curate to go early to open up the church and light the candles first for matins at uh always at 7 30 and uh the the communion at eight o'clock and so i would have to get there at about seven to do that and and run along from my house away along the road and uh then go around and go and buy a back door and go through and in winter times into the darkened church and eventually having let the candles open the door and look out onto the darkened uh town at that time and i remember buying the most of one one because it was hard to get up at that time at that age early early and i remember buying a wonderful alarm clock with two great bells on the top that would really weaken me and uh wound it up uh in in and used it day by day and then one day i wound it up in wintertime this was uh and um suddenly in in in uh i heard it it began to ring and i stopped it and in the darkness uh got around and got myself ready and walked through the town street in the darkness up to the church of sinchad and opened it uh it was normally free of traffic at that time in the morning anyway and so nothing was surprising to me i came into the church i opened up all the doors opened the door eventually the great doors and stood on the steps looking out into the darkness and only then um looked at my watch and it was ten past three and and the clock itself had burst a spring and there was no use from that moment onwards but i never looked to see what the time was i just went by rote through everything i did in the morning well it reminds me of samuel opening the doors of the shrine and ready for the people to come but his mind at that time was full of doubt about how we would use that message but is eli who releases him to tell the truth and the prophecy is a terrible one for the lord is going to do a new thing and the new thing is all connected with samuel and the ministry of prophecy that he will fulfill eli's time is over and his sons are not fit to continue and so samuel has been chosen as the one who will carry the story forward and i said at the beginning of all that we're doing this is a story which actually goes towards the story of the house of david but it begins with samuel begins with him with his mother hannah giving him to that vocation samuel embracing that vocation and in this lesson for the very first time hearing the words of the lord spoken to him and eli recognizing that god is speaking to him and saying what did he say and then the full message being given to samuel to eli from samuel well that story will continue as we go on through the first book of samuel let's look at one or two dates this morning that uh might be of interest just just quickly this was the the day on which uh james watt was born in 19 on the 19th of january 1736 and what it was who realized the immense power of steam and began to harness it so that that power which the creator created of what steam could do suddenly became something that what saw could be channeled for a particular work of and and it lay at the the base of the industrial revolution he was born in 1736 and all of that would then go right through but the person i want to deal with is someone we've spoken about and looked at the work of fairly recently but on this day in 1839 the french artist paul cezanne was born and poor cezanne was an artist and post-impressionist painter whose work lay the foundations of the transition from 19th century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different worlds of art in the 20th century and one follows the journey that cezanne makes and you can do it with his paintings because right at the beginning there is a great likeness to the impressionists around him he was born in exxon provence in that beautiful part of france and died in exxon provence but by then he had gone through a great journey of discovery in what his creative art could do in not only portraying but causing people to be invited into almost in a tactile way the palette of colors that the natural landscape would give and the experimenting with brush work and the fascination of various areas and the looking at areas magnificent and massive and also in great detail develops through so that at the end of his life people like matisse and picasso said of cezanne he is the father of us all that's quite a claim to make but his influence on others into the 20th century has been massive and he forms that bridge between 19th century impressionism and early 20th century cubism but his interest in the study of the subject the plains of color and building up with small brush strokes into complex fields which the more we enter into gives us this mighty perspective of what he's trying to do with his art and allow us to be privy to in the creator's designs and colors and complex fields of creativity calling from himself all those gifts that he has discovered within himself and finds to be new so often and it's situations of frustration and sometimes of hostility to his art in paris he moved there uh and and uh came back eventually to provence for that was where his art flourished most of all but we've looked at his paintings like the card players or the bathers or even a portrait of his own father reading the paper in earlier works but then when he goes into the landscape and this you will remember probably from quite recently he paints monsanto victoire the great mountain that oversees the whole of life in that area that beautiful area of france he paints it over 60 times and each time he's feeling this is fresh and new and i'm discovering something different and he goes around it and looks at different landscapes he climbs up into it and the mountain which was so significant in the prayer life of jesus becomes immensely significant in cezanne's life in 1891 now this is quite late on in his life and he's now very much becoming someone who wants to be more or less alone in discovering all this he embraces catholicism and and his prayers then add to all that's going on and the mountainscapes to him really are like steps of a journey a journey which can suddenly change and very often in writing histories of cezanne's life there are sections of his life when people are saying this is that kind of art now this is this kind of art and everything in the end un ends up in provence within the compass of the beautiful monsan victoire and he's trying to express everything he's feeling in different forms now this is a a life study so i don't want to go on too much about this but it is actually true to say that as uh picasso and uh matisse said he is the father of us all you could say the same really with the royal line of david and the kink that was the royal line of saul and before that the plain path the way in which the lord does new things suddenly unexpectedly you could say samuel was the father of them all in that way and we'll see how that works out as the book progresses and we go on through but let's go back for a moment to that uh sense of having one's name called and sensing that this message is for me today if you hear his voice harden not your hearts and i wanted to go to john bell's wonderful hymn which is generally known as the summons here it is and um i'm used to it in in two different rhythms um one is in a a sort of six eight type rhythm don't know what you're used to it in it's the words i'm interested in and then we can play you with him as well will you come and follow me if i but call your name will you go where you don't know and never be the same will you let my love be shown will you let my name be known will you let my life be grown in you and you in me the question is from the lord as it is with all four first verses four of the opening verses the fifth is from us to him here's verse two will you leave yourself behind if i but call your name will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me will you let the blinded see if i but call your name will you set the prisoners free and never be the same will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen and admit to what i mean in you and you in me will you love the you you hide if i but call your name will you quell the fear inside and never be the same will you use the faith you found to reshape the world around through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me and the answer lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name let me turn and follow you and never be the same in your company i'll go where your love and footsteps show thus i'll move and live and grow in you and you in me it's a beautiful hymn and i have a memory of singing it in new zealand in a new zealand winter of 1992 which was full oddly of snow in christchurch and we as a group of anglicans episcopalians from right across the world had come together to help in the planning of the next 10 years for the church of their tier new zealand and it was our last night and after supper we all went into the cathedral as a group i suppose there were probably about 15 of us and also the leaders of the church there who joined us and in the darkness we were given candles and asked simply to wander around the beautiful cathedral of christchurch and sing that hymn without accompaniment but listening to one another as we walked from all over the building and by the light of the candle we could see the words of the hymn and also we could go wherever we wanted and the building enclosed us but our journey could hear the others singing and that him continued right to the end when our act of worship began and none of us knew then that that cathedral church of christ in new zealand was going to suffer that catastrophic earthquake which would more or less destroy it at that time everything was absolutely regular but since then there's been a different beginning yet i still remember that night of singing that beautiful song called the summons the call and the last verse our response to god let some then say our prayers together and first of all the prayer for the unity of the church and the unity of humankind heavenly father you have called us in the body of your son jesus christ to continue his work of reconciliation and reveal you to the world forgive us the sins which tear us apart give us the courage to overcome our fears and to seek that unity which is your gift and your will through jesus christ our lord amen so our regular prayers today in the anglican communion on this 19th of january are for the diocese of juba is a place that i know well in all saints cathedral juba in the southern sudan in the province of the episcopal church of south sudan say we pray with enormous love and for me many memories of that cathedral of all saints there in juba and we pray also within this diocese we've come to the recover deanery again but we're praying today for missional learning communities there and then tomorrow we'll start going through the parishes of that area of our diocese we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and for the whole of the life of the diocese and other christian denominations uh worshiping here so bring your own prayers as we say the collect for this week almighty god in christ you make all things new transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory through jesus christ our lord amen now in whatever language you like to say 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 so a time now for your reflection uh and uh then we will have the blessing at the end [Music] will you go away [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] uh you've been watching uh the guinea fowl at a time when they were allowed out on the lawn following one another in lines as we are saying earlier on and not quite knowing when they will take a completely different turn in their journey now during also that tiger has run off because he's been watching a squirrel play on the wisteria tree and they like to tease the cats in a great way so he's gone squirrel chasing for the moment christ the son of god perfecting you the image of his glory and gladden your hearts with the good news of his kingdom 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