good morning and welcome from a surprising position which i'll explain in a moment we were thinking saturday morning we would take clemmy and the uh girls up to the daffodils of the orchard and came out on this morning when at 9 30 7 a.m we're told the vernal equinox the beginning of spring happens and so that's just about uh an hour or so time and we came out to get clemmy and um we've never any idea when certain things are going to happen but the first day of spring brings nine new little visitors and residents of the deanery this morning and so it's very much a day of new birth and we have a very proud mother and uh as you will see three little spotty children like their father winston and uh six little um piglets like the mother and so this idea of new birth and spring couldn't be better illustrated by all of this i think paul clemmy is worn out but she's nicely protected in here and the piglets are having a wonderful time as they romp around and find their right feeding places and as we are together we are going to say our prayers and give thanks for um for birth and uh so let's um let's think of this as you you um get used to the fact that piglets there's a little spotty one back here and another little little one like mummy here you coming around come on that's sweet come on good good that's right she's a very proud mother aren't you kami so let's say our prayers on this spring morning well not quite an hour till spring and then we will give thanks for all the new birth which spring in this part of the world in the northern hemisphere brings oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice so 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 and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen well our psalm on this particular day of the month i perhaps i should have said the gift of this new season actually and on this day as well as the gift of this new day but our psalm 103 is a glorious psalm to say is the sun for the 20th morning of the month bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with faithful love and compassion who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagles the lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed he made his ways known to moses and his works to the children of israel the lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness he will not always accuse us neither will he keep his anger forever he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our wickedness for as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his mercy upon those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so far has he set our sins from us as a father has compassion on his children so is the lord merciful towards those who fear him for he knows of what we are made he remembers that we are but dust our days our butters grass we flourish at the flower of the field for as soon as the wind goes over it it is gone and its place shall know it no more but the merciful goodness of the lord is from of old and endures forever on those who fear him and his righteousness on children's children on those who keep his covenant and remember his commandments to do them the lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom has dominion over all bless the lord you angels of his you mighty ones who do his bidding and hearken to the voice of his word bless the lord all you his hosts you ministers of his who do his will bless the lord all you works of his and all places of his dominion bless the lord oh my soul lovely psalm for this first day of spring according to the astronomical equinox the equal hours of day and night we are going to the gospel of saint john which we stopped yesterday because of sin joseph's day but i'm reading the 11th chapter and i think that probably best here in the big star if i put a torch on it because it's a little bit difficult to see so i'm going to use my telephone to give me some light to read to you i'm reading two sections because yesterday we missed a section here we are there we go this will help me um we missed a section yesterday and so i'm reading chapter 11 of st john's gospel and uh up to verse 27. now a certain man was ill lazarus of bethany the village of mary and her sister martha it was mary who anointed the lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother lazarus was ill so the sisters sent to him saying lord he whom you love is ill but when jesus heard it he said this illness does not lead to death it is for the glory of god so that the son of god may be glorified through it now jesus loved martha and her sister and lazarus so when he heard that lazarus was ill he stayed two days longer in the place where he was then after this he said to the disciples let us go to judea again the disciples said to him rabbi the jews were just now seeking to stone you and are you going there again jesus answered are there not 12 hours in the day if anyone walks in the day they do not stumble because they see the light of this world but if anyone walks in the night they stumble because the light is not in them after saying this he said to them our friend lazarus has fallen asleep but i go to awaken him the disciples said to him lord if he has fallen asleep he will recover now jesus had spoken of his death but the disciples thought that he meant taking rest in sleep then jesus told them plainly lazarus is dead and for your sake i am glad that i was not there so that you may believe but let us go to him so thomas called the queen the twin said to his fellow disciples let us also go that we may die with him now when jesus came he found that lazarus had already been in the tomb four days bethany was near jerusalem about two miles off and many of the jews had come to masa and mary to console them concerning their brother so when martha heard that jesus was coming she went and met him but mary remained seated in the house master said to jesus lord if you had been here my brother would not have died but even now i know that whatever you ask from god god will give you jesus said to her your brother will rise again martha said to him i know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day jesus said to her i am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die do you believe this master said to him yes lord i believe that you are the christ the son of god who is coming into the world it's an amazing lesson as a prelude and preface to all that we shall be thinking about both in holy week and on good friday and at easter and beyond and on this first day of spring those words spoken by jesus to his friend whom he loved martha on the road outside the village of bethany martha has kindly come out to meet jesus simply to give him the situation as she sees it and we have this conversation which we're used to there are one or two things about this lesson which give us wonderful clues we shall come back again and again to bethany throughout the next few chapters of sin john and if anywhere other than the nazareth home of jesus is a home for jesus it's that home with the two sisters and the brother mary martha and lazarus whom we are told jesus loved and here he is coming and martha kindly martha always the one we know from st luke's gospel who is ready to serve people's needs physically runs from the house to meet jesus on his way to give him the news of what the situation is the disciples are nervous you see how in the beginning they think of judea as the place where people are trying to kill jesus and thomas's sentence thomas who later becomes the one who doubts in the resurrection and jesus gives him all the assurance he needs but this morning we read this line of thomas's let's go with him that we may die also they fear the violence of those who recently have been trying to stone jesus to death so it's not life they're going towards it's in their minds death and the fear of death to the place that they've come before uh because jesus was a beloved friend and so they also would have known the bethany household and at the same time we see an aspect of this fourth gospel notice how the evangelist says it was this mary who anointed the feet of jesus that in this gospel is still to happen and so there's an assumption really that um the evangelist writing uh and the gospel of saint john so the john who is writing and many believe still that that's the beloved disciple and others have different theories but what we do know about this is that the writer assumes you will know this fact already which must be from other gospels and of course the bethany's story that we know best about mary and martha appears in the gospel of saint luke but for the moment this event of mary anointing the master's feat is is still to happen in this gospel at bethany nevertheless we have been taken into the evangelist confidence and off we go with the disciples to bethany and martha meets jesus on the road now we know that sentence all too well i am the resurrection and the life says the lord and that sentence begins the burial service in the book of common prayer an amazing statement another i am echo amy i am and this time the resurrection and the life the most wonderful thing completing martha's faith that her brother will rise again at the resurrection on the last day and jesus says i am present tense i am the resurrection do you believe this and then that exacts from martha his beloved friend her confession of faith yes lord i believe that you are the christ who is coming into the world everything present tense wonderful that outside that little village on a country road that conversation takes place which has given us assurance to proclaim at times of death i am the resurrection and the life says the lord well we'll have much to think about with that and to reflect on in the next uh few days as we look at the rest of chapter 11 and john but certainly through holy week when we're not only reflecting on the passion of jesus but throughout the three hours i'll have good time to reflect on these scenes in st john's gospel and you will have time also to reflect with me as we come to a conclusion of our lenten notebooks during those days so let's not think ahead too much but let's give thanks for new best and you couldn't have a better image of new birth in in front of you nor to our surprise in front of us we hadn't thought that clemmy was quite ready yet but she's always given easy birth to her piglets and here they all are enjoying sustenance and nourishment from their mother on this morning so um the things which happened on this day are also fairly interesting and uh i i'll just mention some of them because there are so many for march the 20th on this day in 1413 king henry iv died there had been a prophecy that he would die in jerusalem it was half fulfilled he died in the jerusalem chamber at westminster abbey but then he had asked that when he died his body be brought here to canterbury so he lies against the shrine of uh saint thomas and when the shrine was removed the king's tomb is still there so we remember how a monarch came to honor the saint and that honor continues by the candle which burns constantly at the shrine of saint thomas beckett and on this day also in 1727 isaac newton died at the age of 84. and he is again buried in westminster abbey two connections with the abbey this morning but he is known best for discovering the laws of gravity in the most simple way and you know one of these picture stories again of the falling of the apple when he's sitting in his orchard and realizing the force of gravity and then getting that is one of the simple and best-known laws of science on this day also we've got some births of people creative well-known to us in films and in legend 1908 the birth of sir michael redgrave in bristol here in england and he's very well known through many films but the one perhaps we know best in terms of serious uh films is the browning version and in amusing films the importance of being earnest where he plays jack in the for me the only version i'll ever think of with uh jamie the evans as lady bracknell so we give thanks for him and also his family uh who became a great acting family vanessa redgrave and corian redgrave and lynn redgrave great acting family there we give thanks for all of that today in 1917 dame vera lin was born the forces sweetheart and when we were remembering anniversaries we remembered her singing songs like we'll meet again don't know where don't know when and there'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of dover tomorrow just to wait and see and the films of her singing to hundreds of troops and raising morale at that desperate time in the second world war that those films still retain their power we kept her hundredth birthday as you remember in 2017 with great joy and she was there very much active and and uh ready to enjoy it with us uh in let's go go back right into the past on in the year 43 bc the poet ovid was born and his metamorphoses which were published uh in the reign of caesar augustus in 8 a.d probably is the most influential work in western culture it's influenced so many influenced dante it influenced shakespeare and he lived to finish it enormous epic and narrative poem going through both greek legends and roman myths and legends and associating them with life so he goes from creation all the way through to julius caesar and some of you will know those metamorphoses but other artists and modern poets have taken them and revisited them and they've been the inspiration for so much other work in the same way in 1828 henrik ibsen uh was born on on this day and we remember him for his plays pier gint heather gabler the wild duck many others the doll's house um we remember him inspiring greg's incidental music for pierre gint which has become very popular indeed especially the the the one of evocation of the morning and the sunrise or anitra's dance or the hall of the mountain king which is much more sinister greg's music illustrating ibsen's words and i remember doing um some ibsen uh at school um the wild duck we did and i remember in that there's a character called gregers who sees it as his absolute vocation to destroy anyone's saving lie about themselves and the ruin he reeks with the characters in the family that she has taken to thinking you may think that but it's not true and uh you know learn your your true self the ruin he wreaks is a warning to us all in that way and on this day also in 1873 magnificently uh sergey rachmaninoff the composer was born and he was responsible for so many things that we we know and enjoy and in church music as well but we also remember and uh fletcher and i remember seeing a wonderful play in the autumn it's a musical play the autumn of 2019 we saw it at the southwark playhouse and it dealt with the years of total depression four of them 1897 to 1901 when after the first the massive popularity of his prelude and then the total disaster of his first symphony rachmaninoff went into a complete depression and the way in which a psychiatrist helps him out of that and the way in which characters appear and music is used in that play by dave malloy causes it to be a musical score which we often play in the car going along and tend to know all the words of but it is an imaginative creation where characters like tolstoy appear and help along and you don't know in the play where they're really there or their characters in rachmaninoff's mind but it did mean that in 1901 his music burst upon the world again and things like his second symphony which will be become so very popular indeed and the piano concerto which we know so much from from a brief encounter and all of these things um come to us his his life ended as an exile creating a little bit of russia in the united states he'd be left with his family in in 1918 after the russian revolution and made a new home the other side of the atlantic just one last thing 2000 saw the the pilgrimage of of a beginning to be frail pope john paul ii to the holy land and on this day he knelt on mount nebo in the kingdom of jordan and prayed and that's the mountain in the old testament where moses catches sight of the promised land but is told that he will never go there his vocation is over at that point and so the feeling of john paul ii after so many years as the pontiff kneeling on mount nebo is a wonderful one before he did go into the holy land for his pilgrimage 2020 one year ago all the schools of england closed and lockdown began and we couldn't have known then what we had in store for us so let's give thanks for one another and the way that we can encourage each other in these days of pandemic and also the way in which all kinds of new wonderful things are happening and the piglets are discovering the world and we ourselves with spring are having the rebirth of a year and pray that this year will be much better in terms of being able to come together a little now so paul clemmy here is uh just trying to make room for the nourishment of all her piglets we'll leave her in peace in a moment and them as well but i'm glad we've been able to share this on this particular morning um in the uh in our prayers this morning we are looking at the anglican diocese of badagri in the church of nigeria in the lagos province and also we're looking in our own diocese at the life of the parish of saint leonard's it highs and that is vacant at the moment so we pray that a new parish priest we found hello you coming over here to say prayers with me there we are go there off we go hey watch it here's a little a little spotty piglet and then in in the in our prayers we remember archbishop justin and also we remember bishop rose and we remember also bishop tim at lambeth and so let's say the prayer for the last time saturday morning of this week of lent and tomorrow we enter passion time so uh worship will change a little bring your own intentions to this prayer merciful lord absolve your people from their offenses that through your bountiful goodness we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins which by our frailty we have committed grant this heavenly father for jesus christ's sake our blessed lord and savior amen this is also cuthbert of lindisfarne's day and so we pray for our friends in durham cathedral where custard shrine is and use his prayer to almighty god who called your servant cuspart from following the flock to follow your son and to be a shepherd of your people in your mercy grant that we following his example may bring those who are lost home to your fold through jesus christ our lord amen it's a wonderful image of the prodigal son those who are lost home to the fold and of course he found himself as i do this morning in the pigsty i hope he had a little feeling of company as i do with uh clemmy and wonderful new brood of piglets let's say they are father together in whichever language you need to say and normally 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 [Music] so a moment of silence now as we say our own prayers on this day 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 amen [Music] [Music] um [Music] huh [Music] um huh [Laughter] huh [Music] hmm [Music] [Music] um [Laughter] [Music] oh oh uh [Music] [Laughter] [Music] uh [Music] oh uh [Music] uh