good morning and welcome to the deanery garden on this thursday the 20th of may for morning prayer feel welcome wherever you are in the world what you're looking at at the moment is the most magnificent tree peony which is flowering just beside me it's covered in raindrops and has a slightly pleasant but peppery smell very distinctive not strong at all and you'd have to get very near it to smell it but it's a flower of immense beauty with its primrose yellow here next to me and it's here flowering in part of the garden which i think fletcher would consider a failure because uh he intended it when he planned it all to be an oriental blue and white garden and then gradually and so often happens and he'd be the first to admit this complications set in because of the enthusiasm of wanting other things to come and so here we have an opulent garden of different colors and kinds of leaves and flowers which now form a pathway along to the the french windows of the deanery behind me this was a very simple path with no plantings on either side when we came at all and now all this has been formed and happily also this rather formal path i like this bit has been extended with old flagstones which have been put in place here but around with no particular edges the plants have it their way here we've got lovely colored leaves from the maples we've got interesting flowers from the wisteria and all different kinds of peonies and the tree peony is just one of them which is flowering beautifully at the moment and and then also flowers which are behind me and around but leaves also which are adding to the color you see the colors of the maple but here beside me is euronymous elatus which is normally called a burning bush but not at this time of year because it will turn the most magnificent burning red color as the autumn comes on but the maple above it has a very different color and the light maples on the other side of me down here on my left and your right give a f a feathery color um as the the the past goes through there are also bamboos and and above me but we'll do those on another day because they're high up the banksy eye roses beginning to bloom in profusion and there's many other things we could name this morning but here they all are just giving a sense of spring on this morning after rain in the night which has again given a lovely fresh smell to everything that is here as we say our morning prayers together on this day so let's begin our prayers have in mind your own concerns as we have in mind together the peace of the holy land and a desire and an urgent prayer for reconciliation and also um for those areas of the world where there is a raging pandemic and where medical resources are stretched thin so let's say our prayers together on this thursday morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise send your holy spirit upon us and clothe us with power from on high alleluia blessed are you creator god to you be praise and glory forever as your spirit moved over the face of the waters bringing light and life to your creation pour out your spirit on us today that we may walk as children of light and by your grace reveal your presence 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this 20th morning of the month is psalm 103 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 eagle's the lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed he made ways his known his 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 are but as grass we flourish as a 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 your works of his in all places of his dominions bless the lord o my soul so we turn to the gospel of saint matthew and we are continuing in chapter 10 we read the first little bit yesterday ending on the instruction to the little band of disciples who are being sent out on their first swift journey with uh practically no equipment because jesus feels they don't need it this is going to be such a fast mission and this little piece remember we normally know as the little commission as opposed to the great commission in chapter 28 which sends the apostles out into the whole world for the moment it's just the lost sheep of the house of israel as jesus calls them and it's their own folk their own locality that they're going to and he's told them to take nothing with them practically and to stay where they're given a welcome and to if the welcomes given let your peace come upon that house but if it's not worthy let your peace return to you so i'm going on from verse 14 of chapter 10 and uh we will then read up to verse 23. jesus said to the disciples if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town truly i say to you it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of sodom and gomorrah than for that town behold i am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves beware of men for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them and the gentiles when they deliver you over do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour for it is not you who speak but the spirit of your father speaking through you brother will deliver brother over to death and the father his child and children will rise against parents and have them put to death and you will be hated by all for my name's sake but the one who endures to the end will be saved and when they persecute you in one town flee to the next for truly i say to you you will not have gone through all the towns of israel before the son of man comes well let's end this section just there and first of all i'm going to say i think that jesus would have created something of a smile on the disciples faces by some of the images that he is using and intentionally so we've seen how this all began when he saw that the people seemed like sheep without a shepherd or he used the other image of a harvest waiting for the reaper band to go out and gather the harvest and now this little reaper band of the twelve disciples whom he now calls apostles are going out to glean the lord's harvest in fruitfulness but at the same time he said to them you don't need equipment for this you actually simply need what you have what you've learned what you can say what your own life can witness to and give the good news as you've seen me doing it and the same kind of powers of healing and the same kind of powers of giving god's gifts so that people become noticing of what the creator's creation is telling them all of those things are there and maybe one of the disciples said to him that what if we're not received then then this next bit now remember that matthew is putting all these things together the evangelist is writing for his own christian community years later and much of the color of these awful persecutions are very much known to the early church at that time nothing like that has started yet here in this particular time when jesus is sending them out and his prophecy is looking far far forward and matthew i think adds color to that which his own people would be nodding about when they they heard the way in which he expresses jesus's little commission because it will then be being given to them but let's go back because i think that if if one of the disciples had said what if they don't listen to us then these words i've always read um when he says well shake the dust off your feet for that bit and because it'll be it'll be uh and go to the next place it would be more tolerable for sodom and gomorrah and and that's a a mythical image which goes right back in their minds and hearts to the beginning of the book of genesis where at that time the cities of the plain the cities of sodom and gomorrah are actually seen as symbols of real wickedness evil in physical ways evil in mental ways even in evil in spiritual ways and at that point uh the the um fire and and brimstone comes down and the the thing passes on to a sense and one remembers all the stories of lot's wife dream but remember the visitation of the angels the three who come to take lot to safety and jesus is really likening the disciples to those angels which would have raised a smile but certainly um for jesus to be comparing cities like capernaum and nazareth to sodom and gomorrah would also have raised a wry smile from the disciples so i think it's an answer to the question what if they don't receive us this mission is too urgent too short to waste time just move on just you know scuff your feet move on and go give the the gift to the next one if someone doesn't accept what you're doing maybe the time will come when they do but for the moment uh if it remains like that then it's more more bearable than what happened to sodom and gomorrah and and were just there in terms of judgment but at the same time he's back with natural images always pointing to natural images this morning in uh the we read psalm 103 we could easily have read psalm 102 which is the other morning psalm we read both of them at matins in the cathedral and in that the psalmist in psalm 102 the the psalmist uh compares the desolation that he is feeling to that of a sparrow sitting solitary upon the house top i keep watch and then become like a sparrow solitary upon the house stop well you won't know and you can hear the noise of them behind because fletcher's sitting under the chief nesting place for sparrows sparrows aren't very often solitary and if a sparrow is left solitary that really is desolation normally they're chatterly and and and really in groups as they go around and fly in and out with massive excitement but the psalmist is right in thinking a solitary sparrow on a house talk is a lonely figure and jesus also remember in in one of the discourses in in his gospel likens us to the sparrows and jesus says not one sparrow falls without your heavenly father knowing that the creator's particularity for every section of his creation and growth is absolute in jesus mind and how much more for us and let's go to that word again a year of little faith which which matthew is so fond of and at the same time jesus is always pointing to things which will cause nodding or shaking of heads you wouldn't do this would you in the countryside and or you would know this wouldn't you if that and the noddings and it's real ministry for these angels these disciples these messengers who are going out to the cities and giving the good news so if that good news is resisted there's not time to stay there that kind of settled ministry will come much later on but it will come also with terrible persecutions and matthew's already on to that but see how jesus uses the image in verse 16 behold i am sending you out like sheep they're going out really as shepherds to tend those who of the lost sheep of the house of israel but then jesus changes the image and says i'm sending you out like sheep among wolves so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves wonderful metaphors that jesus constantly is using which like the bread and the wine the moment we see them remind us of the good news that he is giving and then when when these terrible things begin to happen matthew now speaking to his own people but jesus giving that kind of prophecy to his disciples don't lose heart but it's the one who endures to the end that will be saved and there will be several ends and certainly this mission will end before the son of man is declared and lifted up and that becomes apparent in saint john's gospel i when i am lifted up will draw all peoples to myself says the fourth gospel the son of man lifted up and we the minute i say that our eyes fix on the cross as the son of man is lifted up this is before that this is a short mission to the locality and the good news being given by this little band of reapers or or should we call them apprentice shepherds as they go and uh off they set and i think jesus must have heartfelt sympathy with this little group he's set out as he put them on on their own for the first time not solitary upon the housetop because they've got they're sent out in pairs and we'll come back to that tomorrow in the middle of the the little commission but for the moment let's let's just go on as we give thanks for all the symbols of life and and the way in which the spirit infuses creation on a morning like this and also the sound of the companionable sparrows with one another chattering away knowing that god cares for each of them i'm looking now at the the dates which are uh relevant for today may the 20th well let's start in 1609 let me do this chronologically because they're all quite wonderful dates today in 1609 shakespeare's sonnets were first published in london i'm not going to read any of them but i can send you back to them but they are like a flower garden and they express so many things but one of the things that they do express is if we could just capture beauty or capture a feeling of the freshness of love and capture something and keep it but time doesn't do that god gives us fresh gifts day by day and we are set to look around for them not up to to to yearn constantly for those things that have been but to use those as images of those things that are and might be this is a present tense gospel and we read the sonnets of shakespeare in the sense that we're living in the present tense and we'll find beauty and the gifts of the spirit that our humanity is able to reach for of mind and heart and physical creativity of companionship and hospitality all those things and as we do so we give thanks for shakespeare's imagination in those sonnets one after another as they speak to us and i'm sure that that couplets from the sonnets are already in your mind but i'm going to resist the temptation to read one of those and go on for the moment you'll see why we've come then if i go next to dates to 1867 when queen victoria laid the foundation stone of the royal albert hall that's sometimes been called the village hall of this nation where mighty events happen and people gather together and of course that's been forbidden in the pandemic but those sorts of occasions are opening up again now you like me many of you will remember events that you've either seen on television like the last night of the proms or something of that sort in the albert hall or the festival of remembrance when the poppies fall over all those waiting in silence below or um concerts that you've watched or been to or other nights of the proms which have been televised and you've enjoyed beautiful music and i can remember many occasions that i would go back to in heart and mind with grateful memory i remember on one ash wednesday when i'd finished my duties in the morning at the parish church and in the evening i i left things to the other staff there and because my sister had invited me to a performance of elgar's dream of jarontius in the albert hall and she and i sat together and we listened to that it was it was done right through um and we then at the end were just so covered with the the all both of us with the beauty of the angels farewell and then as we got up to go she said to me do you know you didn't move at all during the whole of that performance i didn't know that but i can imagine it because uh my pawnee's eye was always on me she was a she wasn't the secretary to the uh the editor of the guardian for years and then his pa for years without uh for nothing she always was noticing everything and i was always aware of being under her eagle eye but nevertheless i could imagine that i didn't because the way in which that reflection goes through in the middle of that all there's one other incident that i want to mention and that is that in 2007 one of our choristers joel whitewood who was the son of two salvationists not not anglicans at all salvation army and and uh his father an officer and very much of that but joel knew he wanted to sing and so he came to us as a chorister and then he went right through and became the bbc young chorister of the year massive massive triumph for him and a very let me say a humble lad at the time he was only uh 12 at the time in 2007 and uh later in the great salvation army festival in the albert hall pact i was invited by joel and his parents to go and be there and by the salvation army and and little joe came to meet me and i was taken as his guest and all the senior officers of the salvation army were there to greet me as well and it was lovely to be there but i will remember in that great sub that great hall when everything was ready then the lights went out and in the middle of thousands of people and choirs and bands and everything else a spotlight went wash onto a pinpoint in the hall and there was little joel standing ready to sing all by himself and afterwards when he was interviewed by the bbc and he won't mind me saying this he'll remember he was asked what he wanted to do with this having got this far with his music outside and he said i want to be a salvation army officer which was really heart-rending uh and this during the pandemic the minute we were able to open up a little bit back in the uh summer part of last year joe was married i married him and his wife to in the cathedral here with very few people present but all those who loved him and were representing so many others and he and his wife are in full christian ministry now in a different part of england but all of that i remember that pinpoint of light being whoosh in the royal albert hall whose foundation stone was left today happy memories but memories which give hope now for things which will be and we give thanks for the gifts that joel had then and now so then let's go on uh that was 1867 1908 i'll go a bit faster james stewart was born the actor and james stewart who was known for a very high morality both on set and offset i was in 80 films his career lasted such a very long time i just want to mention one one film and it's it's a wonderful life where he plays george bailey and that film never ceases to be shown at christmas time for it really tugs the heartstrings and so we give thanks for james stewart and his ability to create roles in that way today in 1913 the first chelsea flower show was held and we give thanks for that because in fact the chelsea flower show should be happening now and we will be having a multitude of flowers and beautiful creativity and gardens of all sides around it it's been postponed this year to september so it will be autumn flowers this year if that can happen then but for the moment we we think back to wonderful occasions again either on screen or in magazines or actually there on three occasions i've been privileged to be part of a launch at chelsea flower show once when i was dean of hereford when a perpetual rose was launched for the perpetual trust which looked after hereford cathedral and then secondly when um and i uh was the at that time the sub dean of the order of st john of jerusalem which looks after the saint john ambulance here uh and i'm proud still to be a knight of the order of sin john here and we launched an ardstrom area uh which was called st john that too was a lovely occasion but perhaps most of all was when the thomas becket rose which david austin senior and fletcher here had worked at together was launched at the chelsea flower show and we went up as those launching a rose and you walk around in a completely different way because it's the very first day everything is fresh everything has just been judged and at the same time that evening the royal family will come and be guests as well and that thomas beckett rose which now grows in so many of our gardens and maybe your gardens too and is a lovely scented rose and gets stronger and stronger as the years go on we remember on this day you give thanks for the chelsea flower show and what else have we got well just uh two more things in 1946 the actress cher was born and the american actress yeah i want i want once again to give enormous thanks enormous thanks for one film and that is tea with mussolini which is again utterly heart rending because there she is acting a particular part besides three english games led by dame maggie smith who is the great heart of the scorpioni in italy and always trusts in the fact that she's had tea with mussolini he said nothing could happen to them and those ladies the leader of english ladies there at the time who um think that someone is looking after them all the time don't know that really it's cher who is imprisoned with them and she's in the most danger um if you know the film it's wonderful if you don't know the film it is really well worth watching because it deals with terrible events terrible events in a way that is both humorous but gives color and tugs the right kind of emotional heart strings so that one can go on in the midst of all that there is humility and there is care for those who haven't shown much care back and share represents that in that film and then finally in 1990 the hubble telescope sent its first photographs back from space and i mentioned that because so many of those amazing pictures are like a garden like this with all the beauty of this stellar world which can also remind you of the beauty of the depths of the ocean when light is put down there as well and the infinite depths of the creation which surrounds us and inspires us at all times and jesus is sending out his little band to give the good news of god's love as creator for us body mind and spirit and inviting us into that position where we share that good news in good times and in bad by our own creative endeavors body mind and spirit often in creative companionship with others let's give thanks for all those things today as we say our prayers together and uh we're praying today for the diocese of bayoumba in the anglican church of rwanda pray for archbishop justin and for bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lambeth and continuing to pray julius nine days of prayer for the gifts of the spirit for every faith community and parish in this diocese of canterbury as the day of pentecost approaches getting nearer and nearer now so let's say the prayer for today and bring your own prayers and intentions wherever you are in the world your own concerns to this collect for this week oh god the king of glory you have exalted your only son jesus christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven we beseech you leave us not comfortless but send your holy spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to the place where our savior christ has gone before who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so we say each in our own language the prayer that jesus 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 not a sonnet but i did want to read something this morning because it expresses what we've been trying to say i think all morning it's uh a poem it's a hymn and it's by folly of peer and we know it to a multitude of different tunes and choral settings but i'm reading it this morning as words and the last couplet is quite often said or sung to different words either this our sacrifice of praise or this our grateful hymn of praise or this our hymn of grateful praise so whatever is used to you don't be surprised i'm using uh the this pale blue school hymn book of mine and i'll read it to you your mind will be full of music of different sorts for the beauty of the earth for the beauty of the skies for the love which from our birth over and around us lies father unto thee we raise this our sacrifice of praise for the beauty of each hour of the day and of the night hill and veil and tree and flower sun and moon and stars of light father unto thee we raise this our sacrifice of praise for the joy of ear and eye for the heart and brain's delight for the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight father unto thee we raise this our sacrifice of praise for the joy of human love brother sister parent child friends on earth and friends above for all gentle thoughts and miles father unto thee we raise this our sacrifice of praise for each perfect gift of nine to our race so freely given graces human and divine flowers of earth and buds of heaven father unto thee we raise this our sacrifice of praise let's hold silence for a moment as we say our own prayers on this morning this the spirit of truth lead you into all truth give you grace to confess that jesus christ is lord and to proclaim the mighty works and word of god 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 so [Music] um [Music] i [Music] is [Music] is 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