so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so good morning and welcome from the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this july the 1st it's canada day and many of our garden congregation are in canada so we send out our prayers and our love and our sense of celebration for the diversity of that great and hospitable nation we prayed for you recently very much in situations of sorrow and of thinking of the past and of healing for the future we've prayed for you in the terrible heat wave that parts of the nation are undergoing this morning we pray for you with love and thanksgiving and celebration on this particular day and we've set a canadian breakfast of uh of the blueberries and forest fruits and also um to go with it some maple syrup may i assure our canadian friends that this is the real article it's canadian maple syrup and and not from um south of the border and uh so we shall enjoy that later though we suspect that leo will be looking for canadian bacon rather than canadian forest fruits i'm standing here under a lovely maple tree and no better place to be on this morning surrounded by other trees of course horse chestnuts and rounds and and uh and and liquid ambers and and the sycamores behind but it's the maple that takes our attention because of course the maple leaf is the sign of canada i want to also say that um tim welby who is archbishop welby's elder son and uh rachel his wife have sent us the most wonderful little video film taken from the banks of the river otter in devon of beavers inhabiting that place and having been reintroduced that and we put the clip on the bottom that you can you can click into the beaver is a national animal of canada and uh has been not really in english rivers for some long time but when they come the good that they do for all around them uh and also not only the the landscape and and the the wildlife there but um creatures like like otters who and watervilles who make i find life much easier when beavers are at work there so have a look at that too because everything connects with canada day as we embrace the whole earth in a garden congregation of prayer but this morning our focus on canada let me sit down and then we'll begin our prayers let me say also that this july the 1st for us is a time when our our minds and hearts and prayers are set on the ordination of those who are with us at the moment in ordination retreat and we've already said matins with all of those in retreat in the cathedral the ordination will happen on saturday afternoon so we think of that too as we say our prayers on this morning um i found uh a little it's almost a a poetic digest using words from the canadian ansem and let me just read this because it it it sets that to let us stand this first of july and sing o canada in salutation and salute the maple leaf waving in the sky above your nation let us conciliate accord peacefully where diversity is enlightenment for the citizenry of your country in proud affirmation to be canadian as we celebrate your anniversary and reflect your heritage and legacy we honor both the fallen and the living for their sacrifices to keep you free victorious proudly displayed that cloth in the wind a nation encompassed by three oceans and two borders stays canada your home and native land and an inspiration of freedom to all of us and we stand beside you in prayer and thanksgiving today let's begin our prayers 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 as we wake refresh 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 is past 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 first of the month and it's the first psalm psalm 1 blessed are they who have not walked in the council of the wicked nor lingered in the way of sinners nor sat in the assembly of the scornful their delight is in the law of the lord and they meditate on his law day and night like a tree planted by streams of water bearing fruit in due season with leaves that do not wither whatever they do it shall prosper as for the wicked it is not so with them they are like chaff which the wind blows away therefore the wicked shall not be able to stand in the judgment nor the sinner in the congregation of the righteous for the lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked shall perish so we turn to our regular reading from st matthew's gospel and today we're beginning chapter 21. this really is a new beginning a new section in matthew's gospel it's a section of narrative but there is still one discourse left in the days ahead but for the moment this is the end of the physical journey for they have arrived in jerusalem chapter 21 verse 1 now when they drew near to jerusalem and came to bethej to the mount of olives then jesus sent two disciples saying to them go into the village in front of you and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a coat with her untie them and bring them to me and if anyone says anything to you you shall say the lord needs them and he will send them at once this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying say to the daughter of zion behold your king is coming to you humble and mounted on a donkey on a coat the fell of a beast of burden the disciples went and did as jesus had directed them they brought the donkey and the cult and put on them their cloaks and jesus sat on them most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road and the crowds that went before and that followed were shouting hosanna to the son of david blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord hosanna in the highest and when he entered jerusalem the whole city was stirred with excitement saying who is this and the crowd said this is the prophet jesus from nazareth of galilee and jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons and he said to them it is written my house shall be called a house of prayer but you make it a den of robbers and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them but when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and all the children crying out in the temple hosanna to the son of david they were indignant and they said to him do you hear what these are saying and jesus said to them yes have you never read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise and leaving them he went out of the city to bethany and lodged there this is the way matthew tells that story and as always we can compare with the way others have told the story and the differences and what they mean matthew is most concerned to show that all this is fulfilling what the prophets and the psalmists have prophesied and as jesus enters jerusalem matthew keeps saying this took place to fulfill what was spoken or jesus himself says have you never read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise perfected praise some of the translations say and all these things are in matthew's mind a total fulfillment of the anointed one of the house of david coming into the holy city it's not perhaps the kind of procession which those who were expecting the deliverer of the house of david to arrive bringing it's if you might call it a a sort of celebration and it's an ad hoc celebration with the decorations being taken from the branches of whatever was growing around and the people spreading cloaks and their disciples on on the donkey matthew because of the prophecy gives us two donkeys the donkey and the coat the full of a beast of burden and that sometimes we replicate in the cathedral because very often the donkeys we use on palm sunday are more comfortable when they're side by side so we've had in the past uh donkey's called william and mary more recently and nothing moves me more than standing at the altar in the nave watching the two donkeys gently coming forward surrounded by all our children waving their aspects of celebration their palms and branches as they come it's something that matthew has already hinted at and mark certainly has as has has given us and luke and john this sense of the receiving the kingdom of heaven as a child in all that simplicity and wonder and every time the disciples have have asked about greatness jesus has responded with images of humility we've seen that on the way through it's the children of uh the the uh community who are the emblems of the right way in wonder and simplicity and also in vulnerability how blessed are those who know their need of god the first beatitude as the new english bible used to translate it and that sense of knowing our need of the creator's goodness is a childlike quality which jesus says unless you turn around and become like children you can't even enter the kingdom of heaven but here he goes further that this wonderful crying out of celebration at his coming to the temple is in the mouths of children perfect praise prophecy being fulfilled in this particular way it's a happy procession but it's also a procession where jesus is knowing that all those other prophecies about what he must suffer and give of his human life is going to be fulfilled in jerusalem itself and what is absolutely clear is that his passage is going to take him on the donkey to the temple itself not a war horse no weapons only palm branches and shouts of hosanna and the donkey a beast of peace and of service carrying the lord carrying the lord to the temple where his parents had first brought him as a baby and then again at the age of 12 as an inquisitive little 12 year old not even a teenager yet but full of questions about the things he had learned from the creators words in scripture and the way in which they'd been written down and the prophecies like the one he is to read in the synagogue in nazareth later on when he has grown up as luke tells us to the age of about 30 and that prophecy is about the suffering servant the one who is anointed to bring good news and healing and light to those who sit in darkness and freedom for those who are about all those things that jesus himself was questing at at the age of 12 amongst the doctors of the law when um mary says to him my son your your father and i have sought your sorrowing and he turns to them and said did you not know that i must be about my father's business you could translate that i must be in my father's house and that that sense of mary pondering this in her heart but him going back then for the years we call them the hidden years of preparation but now after the years of ministry and the years of a growing sense of what must be which he's tried to share with his disciples here he is coming into the holy city and as he comes into the holy city and the crowds cry out hosanna to the son of david then the first task is the cleansing of the temple now in sin mark's gospel the quotation is given in full it is written my house shall be a house of prayer for all nations but the other nations were only allowed in the outer courtyard as were the the blind and the lame it's why they sat at gates to go further one needed a different kind of authority in terms of being a whole person of the people of israel themselves but jesus is teaching in the outer courtyard the children are around him in the outer courtyard and he finds there all the paraphernalia of changing money in order to buy the um sacrificial animals that are needed and that we saw at the feast of visitation when mary and and joseph present their two pigeons um and that the changing of money is getting in the way of being a house of prayer for all nations because this is the only place that all the nations can pray that just in mark is hugely important certainly important to us as well as those outer nations but at the time jesus comes and cleanses the temple from that it's that which offends it is written my house shall be a house of prayer for all nations matthew simply says it is written my house will be called a house of prayer but you have made it a den of robbers and then to the pharisees and the authorities of the temple who are really sort of saying how can you allow these children this rabble to make this noise in here jesus says can't you hear perfect praise when it's given to you in the mouths of infants and nursing babies preparations have been made and preparations also at the homestead in bethany to which they would go backwards and forwards through this last week leading now up from what we would consider palm sunday right through to to the passion and to the evening of the thursday when jesus will be betrayed and arrested all of those things are in the future for the moment let's celebrate in a day of celebration of the crowds welcoming the savior on a humble beast of burden and cheering and shouting with the children in what jesus calls perfect praise this is a day of of of so many uh anniversaries and memories i can't even begin to to do them all but i do want to concentrate on the sense of vocation because around us here in the environs of the precincts and in the cathedral itself are those who have come to the end of their journey in vocation and on saturday and on sunday there will be ordinations to the diaconate where people will be made deacons the office of service of one another and others who are already deacons will be ordained as priests with all of those and all of those throughout the world in that particular vocation at this particular time we pray um i remember in 1977 and uh july the 1st 1977 was a friday and in those days the women's finals of the wimbledon lawn tennis championships were played on friday and then the men's finals on saturday and the the doubles and mixed doubles were distributed through the day and in 1977 it was the year of the queen's silver jubilee i was taking i was the retreat conductor of the ordination which was to take place in salisbury cathedral and it was a nerve as the first time i'd ever taken an ordination retreat i myself had only been ordained in 1972 as a deacon 73 as a priest and this was 1977. but the bishop of salisbury george reindorp at the time thought that one so i was the the minor cannon at the cathedral one who was so early in years after ordination myself who listened to retreats and been on the two retreats in a different diocese could be a good person to be the retreat conductor and i say it was nerve-wracking for me but on friday afternoon uh we were just coming to the end of uh an an afternoon uh um retreat address and they were about to go in to the garden and other areas of the the bishop's house in salisbury to continue their reflections and he came into the room and said come now come and see the anglican communion and the church of england win wimbledon and so we went into the bishop's drawing room and the ladies final was being played with virginia wade the the english tennis player whose father actually was archdeacon of durban in south africa um but she was playing for at the united kingdom for for england and competing for england and we our retreat was broken i remember it well and uh it was a moment of relaxation for me but a very tense match but virginia wade won and uh she just that the whole place erupted because it was uh the the first time that it happened for an english player uh and at the same time it was to be a very long time before an english player man or woman would win at wimbledon again it would come to andy murray in the end but for virginia wade uh very much that day the rector's daughter is george reindon caught her but by then she was an archdeacon's daughter as well and so we had all of those things going on and then we tried to um go back from our excitement uh and prepare the ordinance for their ordination the next day the saturday for deacons and and then the priests on the following day uh i remember it well and remember the excitement and the cheering and we've got both these things today we have the celebration of canada day we have the celebration of the children perfecting praise in the holy city of jerusalem welcoming the savior as he comes in healing and in bringing light but himself offering his life and going straight to the holy place did you not know i must be about my father's business that sentence which was given to mary fulfilled in this day but at the same time the sense of vocation very powerfully put through in that particular way we could remember so many other things today terrible things like this being the first day of the battle of the somme and on that first day 20 000 british soldiers were killed and 57 500 wounded just in that one day more were killed and then the whole sum of of soldiers killed in the crimean war british soldiers killed in the primate crimean war in the in the um korean war in the burr war add all those together and uh then you add the canadian soldiers the commonwealth soldiers and those who are fighting with the french soldiers all of those at that time and the slaughter of the psalm which would continue is something that we have in our hearts now all these years later that was in 1916 but at the same time i wanted to mention a man called sir nicholas winton who died on this day age 106 he died in 2015 but he in 1938 was responsible very bravely for bringing 669 jewish children out of czechoslovakia in the uh teeth of the nazis coming in to take over prague and that transporting across and there was trouble with the dutch border and all of that but those trains which began to run which he just supervised and had had made provision for the children in england when they arrived and was absolutely fervent in finding not only homes for them but also giving uh the the amount which would guarantee that they could go back to their homeland when that time came well for many of them their parents were taken away to concentration camps and they never saw them again but 669 children came in what was called the czech kinders transport and we give thanks for the courage and vision of nicholas winton who lived to be 106 and for a very long time no one knew what he had done it was discovered in a documentary and so he was able to be thanked and and also uh lauded for for his perception of how to act for the children in a particular way as i say many things today but we will say our prayers and we will first of all pray for our anglican communion on this 1st of july the diocese of colombo and that is in the church of ceylon which is sri lanka of course the extra provincial um church of uh which is under the authority of the archbishop of canterbury and at the same time we pray for all the people there but we pray in this diocese not only for the ordinance but for the parish of saint andrew redding street and for philip musindi in his ministry there and the reader michael hawthorne and the people there pray for archbishop justin for bishop rose who will be ordaining this weekend and bishop tim at lambus for all those who are on our hearts today i'm going to use the prayer for this day almighty and everlasting god by whose spirit the whole body of the church is governed and sanctified hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people that in their vocation and ministry each may serve you in holiness and truth to the glory of your name through our lord and savior jesus christ amen so we say each in our own language 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 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 now amongst the the green grass here to remind us of the grass of the prairies and also the trees around us the woods and forests of of canada and all the many nations who make up that land we say our own prayers and stand in heart and mind beside the canadian people at this time in their history [Music] so so using some words taken from the idea of the canadian national anthem as a preface to our blessing oh canada we stand in prayer for thee god keep your land both glorious and free o canada we stand in prayer for thee 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 well we're set now to have our canadian breakfast and that will refresh us for the day but god give you all a very good day of celebration or whatever it brings for you [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] you