good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of sunday the 3rd of april it's passion sunday and our eyes now turn towards the cross as we make our way through this week towards palm sunday and holy week welcome wherever you are in the world and bring your own concerns and intentions as we say our prayers together we are of course continuing to pray for the people of ukraine and for peace in that area of europe and pray for the intentions and activity of world leaders in attempting to bring some kind of just peace to ukraine but we think also those who in their millions now have left their homes and sought shelter in safe shelter in different countries in hospitality there i'll remind you as i said yesterday that if you live near here then in the collier ferguson hall tonight ben priests is uh performing a concert of spring tide music but all the proceeds of that go towards the ukrainian people and and their help and welfare well we'll put the poster on there again so that you can see exactly how to go to that if you would like to but this morning we ourselves have come into a spot we weren't going to choose this spot but when we stepped outside we saw that this great magnolia despite all the storms and cold weather of the last few days and the winds actually is still looking absolutely perfect as a white canopy over this part of the garden so we thought this morning it was a a a really wonderful place to come as we say our prayers together on this passion sunday morning so let's begin our prayers now and as i said at the beginning bring your own intentions your own prayers to this passion sunday o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon earth your saving power among all nations blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief your only son was lifted up that he might draw the whole world to himself may we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight declaring your love for all the world 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 third morning of the month is psalm 16 preserve me o god for in you have i taken refuge i have said to the lord you are my lord all my good depends on you all my delight is upon the godly that are in the land upon those who are noble in heart though the idols are legion that many run after their drink offerings are blood i will not offer neither make mention of their names upon my lips the lord himself is my portion and my cup in your hands alone is my fortune my share has fallen in a fair land indeed i have a goodly heritage i will bless the lord who has given me counsel and in the night watches he instructs my heart i have set the lord always before me he is at my right hand i shall not fall wherefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices my flesh also shall rest secure for you will not abandon my soul to death nor suffer your faithful one to see the pit you will show me the path of life in your presence is the fullness of joy and at your right hand our pleasures forevermore we go this morning to a different part of the scriptures it's a sunday morning so the lessons are special and tomorrow we shall return to our reading from the 11th chapter of the gospel of saint john but today takes us to the prophet isaiah and one remembers how often the prophet isaiah is quoted by those writing in the books of the new covenant the new testament and those scrolls of the prophet isaiah taken by jesus himself in sin luke's gospel when he reads to the people in his own synagogue at nazareth but today we're reading isaiah chapter 35 the whole of it and it's something like a vision a poem a song and it's generally known as the wilderness so here is isaiah chapter 35 the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing the glory of lebanon shall be given to it the majesty of carmel and sharon they shall see the glory of the lord the majesty of our god strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees say to those who have an anxious heart be strong fear not behold your god will come with vengeance with the recompense of god he will come and save you then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the death unstopped then shall the lame leap like deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy for waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert the burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water in the haunt of jackals where they lie down the grass shall become reeds and rushes and the highway shall be there and it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it it shall belong to those who walk on the way even if they are fools they shall not go astray no lion shall be there nor shall any ravenous beast come on it they shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there and the ransomed of the lord shall return and come to zion with singing everlasting joy shall be upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away it is the most beautiful passage but it's a prophetic passage and it rings bells shall we say with so many of the signs and sayings of jesus in that fourth gospel where we have been journeying on shall we say metaphorically a way of holiness and the more we go step by step along that way the more we have revealed to us the vision that jesus wanted so much to give us the good news so that that gift of himself given by the creator would be ours and that sense of being in a wilderness and lent until now has been a vision of jesus himself in the wilderness but often it's a metaphorical wilderness surrounded by people who don't understand his vision don't understand the gift don't understand or get the words he's saying and they are once again metaphorically blind in the human sense they see but their eyes are not open to god's wonderful gift which opens out spiritually into all eternity and this song of the wilderness is saying all of that there's a pathway through it which step by step those who are redeemed and have received the gift tread and we saw yesterday on the road to bethany how martha received that gift lord i believe that you are the christ the one who is to come the son of god said on the way to bethany with jesus asking her the question do you believe this and she answers for the first time in the affirmative well all of that is there in this wilderness and it oughtn to surprise us that it's been set so many times versus from it and even the whole passage it's been set to music and sung by so many for the images in it of the desert flowering of that which we thought was impossible of being fruitful suddenly bursting into verdant flower and green grass and reeds and rushes and little springs and pools and all dangers and the dangers are expressed in the form of dangerous beasts the lion oftentimes the lion is used in a very different way but here the lion is used as something that might threaten life the pathway is safe even for those who are fools as it said and one remembers that uh sin paul in his writings say we are all fools for christ we can all get it wrong we can all go out of the way but here in this vision of the wilderness even fools will not err on this pathway if they keep their eyes on the path and sense the streams of water springing up around them to new green growth but springing up within them to new green growth and fruitfulness all these things likened to beautiful areas many of them have been made so much less beautiful by war and destruction and by the hand of humanity the lebanon as one thinks of it but in the prophet's eyes it's the beauty of the lebanon and of the rows of sharon and the crocuses blossoming everywhere the wilderness will blossom in fact in the king james version it's blossom like the rose here it's the crocus which is a good thing to say because we have crocuses popping up all over at this time of year here in england and the highway and where does it go the highway the path step by step leads not to a far country but home the eternal home as signified by the eternal and blessed mount zion which is the image of all human community at its best translated into eternal dimensions the ransomed of the lord shall return and come to zion it's a returning to that which inside every human being created in the image of god is an image of returning to that dimension so this lovely song which isaiah gives us is such a good song to have read to us on this passion sunday morning it's full of signs the eyes of the blind shall be opened the ears of the deaf unstopped then shall the lame leap like a heart the old translation like dear in this translation and the tongue of the one who was dumb shall sing it was that gift that jesus was giving to people and we've seen how in giving it there is much criticism there is oh dear he's just going against the law he's blaspheming and they pick up stones to throw at him they don't understand the vision but as jesus said i didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets i came to fulfill them and here he is in the fourth gospel day by day for us step by step along that path fulfilling this prophecy of isaiah 35 where sorrow and sighing shall flee away i could never read it enough because it strikes music in so many things that i've sung in choirs from early days sometimes just sentences as i say but also in the music of samuel sebastian wesley the whole passage all the way through the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom like a rose and all that passage made into music now it wasn't that anthem we used to sing in the church choir it was the anthem in the same way that whole passage with only sentences missing here and there for the shortness and the music's sake but it was the version by sir john goss and my mother who was a wonderful contralto loved that piece probably better than any other anthem and the words i think were part of that that sorrow and sighing shall flee away and the ransomed of the lord shall return but also because people around her in the choir were being given solos to sing a base solo began it and my uncle raymond would always sing the tenor role uh then shall the lame then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the death unstopped then shall the lame man leap like a heart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing in the whole choir for in the wilderness shall waters break forth and streams in the desert and the final glorious chorus and the ransom to the lord shall return and come to zion with songs of everlasting joy and sorrow and sighing shallfully away it was that passage that my father calls me to read on the day of mother's internment in the chat yard at home on a lovely morning in july and as we we read that passage then all around us flowering and green grass was growing in the churchyard and mother's voice was in my head as we sang and and at that time said those words over her special place i'm coming back to that in a bit because in our reflection there is something of that sort but i'm going to do our reflection now on three particular people and they all of them spent the whole of their life step by step by step perfecting the vision they had been given the first of them born on this day the 3rd of april 1693 was john harrison a self-educated carpenter and a clock maker and also a church choir master and john harrison had a desire to make the perfect clock there were no signs from satellites coming in those days the perfect clock or watch was a timepiece and it was said that he first became interested when as a child he was recovering in bed from smallpox and was given a watch and became fascinated by the watch and its working mechanisms and the sound it made and the measuring of time and that vision and vocation stayed with him and when the quest went out after many sea disasters especially a catastrophic disaster for the royal navy on the isles of silly because longitude couldn't be measured because no accurate clock could keep time at sea with storms and and all the vicissitudes of the journey then john harrison set himself to make that marine chronometer he succeeded in the beginning he succeeded fairly well and then as the years passed on he was dissatisfied and his chronometers are called by his his name his the first letter of his name h he was dissatisfied with h1 when it was tested and went on and was a lonely figure his son his son william helped him but on the whole he worked alone it was his vision and many around didn't understand but he was searching for perfection in this for the welfare and safety of all who traveled by sea and then he created h2 it was it was good but not good enough for him step by step as his life went on he created h3 one thinks of him keeping time with the church choir in the same way and uh being a carpenter who was never satisfied until his work was perfect good to think of him as a carpenter on a day when we're thinking of christ himself entering his passion to carry the cross and then up to age four and really then the goal had been properly reached all his timepieces are now in famous museums and scientific museums and places of honor right around the world but none of that mattered so much as the following of his own vision step by step along a path that had been given to him when the first watch was placed into his hands on his sick bed as a child recovering from smallpox so person number two is jane goodall and she was born on april the 3rd 1934 and she's 88 years old today so i say happy birthday to jane goodall for she an english primatologist and anthropologist dame jane morris goodall was given she thinks the vision for what she did by being given instead of a teddy bear a toy chimpanzee called jubilee which still sits on a shelf in her study and jubilee and i imagine i'm only guessing now she was born in 1934 and the silver jubilee of uh king george v was happening at that time um and so maybe that was the jubilee or another kind of jubilee but this chimpanzee was called jubilee and she loved this chimpanzee even though aunts were saying to her father one earth don't you give her a proper teddy bear instead of this uh but um she knew that this creature then inspired her to become what she now is after a 60-year study of the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees mostly in the gombe stream national park in tanzania that 60-year study has made her the absolute world expert on chimpanzees and she was in april 2002 made a united nations messenger of peace and has become an honorary member of the world future council her books talk not just about chimpanzees so it's chimpanzees she knows well and she rejoiced to find so many attributes of society which were akin to our human family the way in which they behaved socially the way in which they used tools to do their work even the way in which their dark side would come out as in humankind when they became hostile to other creatures as well but supported one another in that all of those things how some of them fought for dominance and others simply as she watched them and interacted with them were sharing aspects of family and social life which she recognized absolutely and her her books 2009 hope for animals and their world and in 1994 reason for hope a spiritual journey she became very much a member of she'd been baptized as a christian and and found that faith um enlarged and given new vision not only by people in her life early on but by in 1977 what she calls a mystical experience in notre dame cathedral in paris and she said it was utterly inexplicable but it is one of the solid facts of my own life and that sense of reason for hope a spiritual journey written in 1994 well we give huge thanks for jane goodall and for that gift of the toy chimpanzee like the watch given to her in childhood which gave her a vocation and now in 2020 she has promised to plant a million trees as part of all that we're doing in this particular year for our planet she travels and travels and travels uh throughout the world with her message even at the age of 88 she's still traveling and sitting under this beautiful canopy who can doubt that the glory of god is not being expressed in this and also who can doubt that trees are an essential part of our planet's life this is a year when we shall be celebrating the platinum jubilee of our queen so there's another jubilee like the name of the toy chimpanzee but at the same time our queen has asked us to plant a green canopy and we will do our best to fulfill that here in these precincts but also across the world many will join in that wonderful vision of her majesty the queen today and i know that uh it is a vision that jane goodall supports hugely so that's person number two today both of those born on april the third the first john harrison and the second jane goodall the third is someone who died on april the third in 1897 having been born in 1833 and this is a musician it's brahms johannes brahms and he again was a very internal person he could be sociable but all his vision seemed to be locked inside himself and he was someone who being musical from a very early age was dissatisfied again and again with his own work when people began to praise him it that was nothing it was it was his own satisfaction with his own work and his own vision and of course he'd learned from beethoven he'd learned from mozart he'd taken uh the inspiration and particularly of his very very great friend robert schumann but in all that it was brahms's own vision that he was trying to satisfy like john harrison's vision and jane goodall's vision step by step along the path we could name so many things which brahms had written the four great symphonies the violin concerto we had it home i said my mother had a lovely control to her voice she did and she loved the the brahms alto rhapsody we had a record of kathleen ferrier singing that and it was almost worn out because mother would would sing along or hum along with her as the record was put on but brahms himself was dissatisfied with everything unless it absolutely tuned with his vision at that time but the path always led on step by step sometimes to unhappy time sometimes to joyful times and when robert schumann suddenly was committed into an asylum as they were called in those days and and and his life was in ruins and then he died brahms was utterly devastated he was a great friend of shuan's wife clara utterly devastated and began to write something which expressed his grief but he couldn't satisfy himself with that and the notes and the music was put aside and then uh later on about 10 years or so later on brahms's mother died and this was another significant moment of intense grief and brahms who himself would get up very early to write and was such a perfectionist that he wouldn't even let any of his staff make coffee for him he had to make it absolutely himself so that it was completely right it's like me boiling an egg nobody else can boil an egg for me because i know exactly what time i want it and what i mean how many minutes and all the rest of it and and that becomes something in our own way forward but but uh brahms would get up early and it was in those early the watches of the night the psalm says when our hearts are instructed well those early morning hours which i find so absolutely fruitful brahms would just be by himself and pace by pace would would uh realize his vision and the vision that both schumann's death and his mother's death called out from him was that monumental work the brahms german requiem it is a requiem because it's given out of grief but also with hope but at the same time it's not a requiem in terms of the latin words of the requiem all the words of the german requiem are taken from brahms bible and brahms himself wrote the words and it was put together piecemeal he'd planned a work of six movements and it was slow in his giving birth to this and the movements didn't come sequentially uh he took part of the music from which he'd been working at from schumann's time and new things came but the words as he put them together beginning with the beatitude blessed are those who mourn those words blessed sailing that word blessed both tops and tales the whole requiem but this is a blessed work and at first uh he suffered as the first three movements which finally were ready for a premiere were premiered in 1867 and the conductor and orchestra as it often happens with premier so we saw it with frank manonov's premiere of his first uh a piano concerto at uh the the uh the the time of his desperate depression and the way in which elgar's dream of jarontius had a disastrous first performance simply because no one could grasp the vision it was so deep inside the composer they've given so much of themselves and what resulted was desolation but brahms actually was better than that he he took the thing by storm and then the next year on good friday 1868 he himself conducted another premiere and this time of much more of six movements so that all of it was there and the intention was that the sense of mourning and grief would pass into hope where sorrow and sighing would flee away as the prophet isaiah says to us well that became a great success and everyone just lauded brahms for it it was a tremendous success but when brahms left the performance he knew that those six movements were incomplete he wrote another movement not to complete he wrote movement five so that six and seven would then follow movement four is the very well-known chorus in english in english how lovely are thy dwellings for that vision of heaven movement five is one of my favorite pieces in all music it's a soprano solo not singing an aria but woven like the alto rhapsody woven into the chorus and that movement five you have none drawing kite now i have sorrow but i shall see you again and your heart shall rejoice from our lord's word you now have sorrow but i shall see you again and your heart shall rejoice we shall come to that in our reflections on saint john's gospel as we go forward in the days ahead but the fact that brahms knew himself not to be satisfied even with all the public acclaim of good friday 1868 for the six movements he knew there was something missing and he created for me one of the most beautiful pieces of music in all music it's up there with uh strauss's four last songs and there with uh strauss's song richard strauss's song morgan but with so many other pieces which give hope in the midst of grief and sorrow and one thinks of brahms whose vision was not recognized suffering so much but triumphing step by step by step not being satisfied because only you yourself can know what your vision really is and the loneliness of jesus on the way of the cross is is that only he himself could know what his vision is apart from three friends and we shall come across as we go through this week in st john's gospel we give thanks for those three travelers along the path john john harrison with his early chronometer jane goodall with her early toy chimpanzee and brahms who knew he was a musician from more or less his first breath and all going along until they weren't totally satisfied for the true vision in all of them was beyond grasping and was a total gift of the creator and in all that we give thanks for isaiah the prophet's wonderful vision of the wilderness bursting into streams of water and flowering but only a sign of the eyes of the blind being opened the ears of the deaf unstopped and the those who couldn't speak singing for joy and those who were unable to move leaping like dear all of those things signs of the gifts of god on this passion sunday morning as we say our prayers together well let me reach for the book because we have a new colleague today we're praying in the anglican communion for the church of nigeria and we are praying generally in our diocese as the diocese enters with every parish enters passion tide we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and also for emma bishop at lambeth [Applause] here is the collect for the fifth sunday in lent passion sunday and then we'll say the collect for lent itself and then the our father in whatever language we like to use most merciful god who by the death and resurrection of your son jesus christ delivered and save the world grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross we may triumph in the power of his victory through jesus christ our lord amen 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 and so we say the prayer our savior taught us remembering perhaps john harrison whose keenness to get the time right absolutely right is reflected by jesus himself say my time is not yet and then in john's gospel the hour has come so let's say the prayer our savior taught us knowing our own vocation takes us only step by step by step along the way to eternity and god's good gifts 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 moment of reflection of your own path and the sense of the support of others who may understand that with you coming from the uh very different kinds of of places than where you would expect them so here's also the piece of music that we've been talking about and this is sung by the choir and played by the orchestra of our king school canterbury but the soloist is marie arne a swedish soprano who sings with welsh national opera and made her debut um at uh covent garden at the royal opera house with welsh national opera as wendy and peter pan a nice vision for children that reaches out into lands of mystery but giving them imagination [Music] hey [Music] uh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] my [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] god [Music] [Music] is [Music] god [Applause] uh [Music] hey [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] ah [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh my god oh [Music] [Applause] hey [Music] uh christ crucified draw you to himself to find in him a sure ground for faith a firm support for hope and the assurance of sins forgiven 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 the words of that beautiful music our lord's words from his time with the disciples around the supper table you now have sorrow but i shall see you again and your heart shall rejoice well yesterday we were looking at on children international children's book reading day looking at a riddle and i i asked too uh so it would be cruel of me not to give the answers um a hundred feet in the air but back on the ground what am i and of course it's a centipede lying on its back and then i have eight to spare and i'm covered in hair what am i well i'm leo the cat with nine lives eight to spare and covered in hair on this lovely sunny morning he's been a very very very good cat um maybe two more just for fun i have no fingers but i can still point i have no arms but i can still strike i have no feet but i can still run what am i and then i can be used to build castles that i crumble in your hands i can help you to see and i am found all around the lands what am i so there we are i'll leave those with you uh yesterday too you were some of you had asked about this wonderful book which is called lost the lost words by robert mcfarlane and jackie morris and the letters uh we did yesterday the acorn here you remember oops seeing this particular picture and the words about the acorn actually run as an acrostic all the way down the first line of each thing's being said here's leo back have i pinched your place here if you want to come back on here you may do let me put that on the ground there we are um and uh here's the acorn in the oak tree lovely lovely pictures well on we go and with the lovely ferns here we come to the next one which is an adder an interesting thing here the snake and we think of how beautiful the adder is it's one of our two english snakes and here's the words associated a hank of rope in the late hot sun a curl of bark a six an eight for adder is as adder basks deep in heather coiled in gorse sunk among the winter stones for ada is as ada hides darts diamond slides sign wave swerves live wire curves of force for adder is as adder glides echo of snake self escape a left behind ghost for adder is as adder sheds rustle of grass sudden cesaurus what the eye misses for ada is as ada hisses and the big picture is here it's a beautiful book but it's combining words and sounds and pictures of creation and it's a lovely thing to think that both our colleagues save the whole world in the passenger collect and hate nothing that you have made embraces not just our human kind in god's gifts and bounty and love but the whole of our planet much to think about upon as we go along our way on this passion sunday so god bless you all and give you many friends on this day now you've been really brilliant today i think you knew that the answer to riddle number two was you leo yes i'll leave you here i'm going to say matins in the cathedral now and then maybe you'll have a better breakfast than that when i return put on my chronometer and there's the bell