good morning and welcome to the dinery garden on this thursday the 18th of february we've had rain in the night but the rain clouds have gone away for a while and the wind has moved due south it's a stiff wind but it's lovely to be out here out in the fresh air again and wherever you are in the world we bid you welcome to come and say your morning prayers with us bring your own concerns and also your intentions for this first ordinary day of lent as we begin our journey and i set out yesterday a little project for our shall we call it the garden congregation and i'll just recap on that when we come to the reflection but if you want it in detail you can always go back to the youtube of yesterday when i've set that out in full for you but we will think about it again when we come to our reflection and so let's begin our prayers on this day 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 judgments 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 does 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 18th morning of the month is psalm 91 it has resonances of the temptations in the wilderness and you'll hear the verse when it comes it's one of those verses that satan quotes to jesus says what might be his vocation as messiah to the wonder of the world we're used to this psalm as a compliment psalm but here it is as one of our psalms for the 18th morning whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high and abides under the shadow of the almighty shall say to the lord my refuge and my stronghold my god in whom i put my trust for he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence he shall cover you with his wings and you shall be safe under his feathers his faithfulness shall be your shield and buckler you shall not be afraid of any terror by night nor of the arrow that flies by day of the pestilence that stalks in darkness nor of the sickness that destroys at noonday there are a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand yet it shall not come near you your eyes have only to behold to see the reward of the wicked because you have made the lord your refuge and the most high your stronghold there shall no evil happen to you neither shall any plague come near your tent for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways they shall bear you in their hands lest you dash your foot against a stone you shall tread upon the lion and adder the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot because they have set their love upon me therefore will i deliver them i will lift them up because they know my name they will call upon me and i will answer them i am with them in trouble i will deliver them and bring them to honor with long life will i satisfy them and show them my salvation he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways resonance with the wilderness which we shall come to on sunday when we think of christ in the desert facing temptations so we go to our lesson we've gone back now to the gospel of saint john taking up exactly where we left off at the end of chapter three on shave tuesday and we're beginning on the first verse of chapter four now when jesus learned that the pharisees had heard that jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than john the baptist although jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples he left judea and departed again for galilee and he had to pass through samaria so he came to a town of samaria called saika near the field that jacob had given to his son joseph jacob's well was there so jesus wearied as he was from his journey was sitting beside the well it was about the sixth hour a woman from samaria came to draw water jesus said to her give me a drink for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food the samaritan woman said to him how is it that you a jew ask for a drink from me a woman of samaria for jews have no dealings with samaritans jesus answered her if you knew the gift of god and who it is it is saying to you give me a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water the woman said to him sir you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep where do you get that living water are you greater than our father jacob he gave us his well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock jesus said to her everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again but whoever drinks of the water that i will give them will never be thirsty again the water that i will give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life the woman said to him sir give me this water so that i will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water jesus said to her go call your husband and come here the woman answered him i have no husband jesus said to her you're writing saying i have no husband for you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband what you have said is true the woman said to him sir i perceive that you are a prophet our fathers worshiped on this mountain but you say that in jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship jesus said to her woman believe me the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in jerusalem will you worship the father you worship what you do not know we worship what we know for salvation is from the jews but the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth for the father is seeking such to worship him god is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth the woman said to him i know that messiah is coming he who is called christ when he comes he will tell us all things jesus said to her i who speak to you am he an amazing lesson and one that absolutely is part of the conversations that jesus has in st john's gospel it's an important part of that gospel we had conversations with nicodemus when we began john at chapter 3 at the beginning on monday morning now yesterday as i said i set a little project for those of you who joined us yesterday morning a project that would take us through every day of lent and i said to you find a notebook or a piece of paper and write down numbering just numbering down the days from uh ash wednesday through to easter day and every day as though picking up a little bit of a a shoot from a garden carl a an idea from somewhere this morning in what we're doing for this 18th of february it might be something you see it might be something you hear it might be a word a phrase just something that comes into your mind as we're worshiping together and just take that like a young shoot and use it through the day to be created be inspired by it creative in body in making something drawing something writing something playing something doing whatever you like or out in the garden uh clipping shoots or whatever is creative with your body or with your mind in thinking and reflecting or in your spirit in some kind of prayer and at the end of the day feel that that little idea and that activity and it might be that it's encouraged you to do something for another with what we're calling imaginative encouragement in a conversation someone perhaps you even meet on a walk as you go along and can just give a good morning to something of that sort or your concept of how beautiful it is to be outside in the the under the blue sky again this morning all these things the end of the day just write that idea down and those dates will form a sort of garden of how lent develops each idea and each activity will complement the other so that together and i'll do it too together we will have formed for our individual purpose how our mind and bodies and spirits have developed through lent what we have done during lent in order to accomplish these days of journeying with jesus well let's go back to this image we've been given of jesus he's alone it's the sixth hour that's 12 noon and the disciples have gone to buy food they're in hostile territory for as is correctly said by the evangelist jews have no dealings with samaritans each felt the other were in in some way unclean and it came from a a stage in history well back which we won't go into today but there we were and jesus below mount jerison there near jacob's well the mountain mount derives him was to the samaritans the holy place not jerusalem but mount juris him for them it was the place where abraham had intended to sacrifice isaac and the angel of the lord stopped him it was the place where worship had to happen and to the jews mount moriah was that in jerusalem and jesus reflects that later in the conversation with the woman of samaria but first of all let's reflect on the fact that he's breaking down all barriers he sitting alone a jewish man is having a conversation unusually with a samaritan woman and she is the first to notice it how is it that you you have this conversation with me and then he says to her it's one of these what are your resources questions that we found with the feeding on the 5000 in mark give me a drink and uh she says how is it you ask me you know you a jewish man ask me a samaritan woman for this and then he says to her if you knew the gift of god you would have asked me and i would have given you living water we won't go through the conversation again this is one of the signs this water streaming like the well here with its fountain on top it's water it's not an i am instead it's a gift a spiritual and real gift that jesus longs to give everyone put yourself in the position of the samaritan woman if you knew the gift of god and who it is it is asking you for a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water and the woman is in the realm of reality human reality but you have no bucket you how can you get water and so it goes on in the conversation but we get to that amazing point where jesus says when i tell you neither in jerusalem nor on this motorize him in the future will the gift be up to enable to worship the preserve of these places for god is spirit and we worship him in spirit and in truth an amazing sentence breaking down all barriers and this is what jesus is saying and then when she says well i i know that the christ is coming who will tell us all things we do get and i am it's a different kind of i am i the one who is speaking to you um he present tense always with jesus when he speaks to us present tense what are your resources then ask of me and i will give you those resources a wonderful sign it reminds one of the verse in the psalms of with you is the well of life and in your light do we see light psalm 36 i think in verse 9 with you is the well of life and that will be a verse that jesus knew very well because if we keep reminding ourselves those sound verses were verses that he constantly used himself let's look and see what kinds of creative activity have gone on on this day in the past and as we do so we give thanks for creativity because this is a day when people have been creative this february the 18th in years gone by and now there's creativity in discovering things in the stars and the planets it was on this day in 1930 that a really young and unprepared astronomer looking through his telescope discovered the dwarf planet pluto not one of the planets known to the ancients and needing a fairly powerful telescope to discover but discoveries up in the sky and giving us our place within the universe itself um and as we look up today up in the sky we've got all sorts of things around us with a peregrine falcon circling us above his eyesight is one of the clearest eyesights altogether in the universe he can see in a way which is just magnificent there he is going round and round and looking for something on the ground he will roost again on belharry tower but it's lovely to see him circling in the sky this morning and then 1997 evidence was discovered of the asteroid which hit the earth 65 million years ago and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs well that's not looking up into the sky that's looking way way way way back into the life of this planet and its development but i wanted to look at four figures who were totally creative in what they did as we ourselves think how can we be creative with any idea that we got this morning and planted as a shoot in our notebook let me say about this also keep it simple the more complicated a an idea or a thing gets the less likely we are to continue and speaking for myself if you do things simply then it's much easier to continue but simple is best in all these things let's do it by date in 1564 michelangelo died aged 88 he'd been born in 1475 what a figure in terms of renaissance art he was a painter and you have in your mind i'm sure the ceiling and the walls of the sistine chapel that great wall painting of the last judgment and that moment on the ceiling of the creation of adam as the finger of god touches with life like a spark touching the finger of humanity at the same time we think of him as a sculptor sculptor of the great figure of david in florence the copy now standing in the square because of fear of damage and the um the the real piece of sculpture in the academia but in florence and also in rome because in rome one has that fantastic paeter of mary holding the body of christ in saint peter's basilica there and at the same time he was a poet who wrote beautiful sonnets love poems and and sonnets which expressed the joy of being human long before shakespeare so this this what you might call remain a renaissance figure of all kinds of creativity we give thanks for on this day and in our minds we'll have different images of what michelangelo has created he was a man of extreme devotion and also a rather solitary person who who works and would leave things and then come back to them and and enjoy what he was doing so let's take him first as a little icon for this day of creativity the next one i come to is in 1678 john bunyan published the pilgrims progress well what imagery that book has given us in terms of christian with his pack of things which burden him from the past of evangelist evangelists we've been using this morning isn't john but evangelists saying to christian do you see under the under wicked gate and and that's your route and christian's saying no i can't see that his eyes are too dim for the moment to realize do you see you under shining light in your light shall we see light with you is the well of life and uh he christian said i think so then evangelist says well keep that light in your eye and go towards it and that lovely sentence then i saw the man began to run so many images of the delectable mountains with the shepherds of christian's burden falling from his back as he looks at the cross and all those things and even images of the valley of the shadow as he goes through and faces apollyon and all the things that go right up and he crosses the river of death into glory we give thanks for john bunyan who began that work as a project in prison these rhythmic things that we choose to do keep us on our journey that's why i've suggested a project for us so that we never forget that it's lent and we're going with our lord step by step towards the glory of easter and then uh in 1848 louis comfort tiffany was born one of the greatest proponents of art nouveau and you can think of the beautiful tiffany glass especially think of it in lampshades with all the colors of our nouveau but with the light shining through it for tiffany glass needs the light to shine through it whether it be the electric light of a lampshade or the wonderful church windows that we've experienced and some of you will know there's beautiful glass in the church of calvary at summit new jersey which we know well and also in the english lecture hall at yale the university all of those things that he was able to create and make the light shine through and of course the glory of stained glass is that the light changes as it has with us this morning with the sun and the clouds and then lastly and this is a bit of fun 1885 the adventures of huckleberry finn were published by mark twain and i would say that apart from huck himself the great star of that the character of that book is the river the mississippi river and that river running through it shall we say becomes something uh which um remember the song moon river which is i think uh in breakfast in tiffany's the film and moon river talks about the mississippi my huckleberry friend and uh it that a river is a sign of journeying on and growing bigger and bigger and it's until it then meets the sea all those things this morning as we ourselves take another step in our lenten journey we're going to uh pray this morning before let me see the right date the 18th of february we're praying for the diocese of ancient again at madagascar on the province of the indian ocean as i said yesterday this diocese has a nice link with madagascar and then also for justin our archbishop and rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth and today we're praying for the star downs benefits that's the villages of braeborn mursham monks horton selinge smees and stouting beautiful beautiful places and we pray for chris denier in his ministry there of course we pray for the good health of the duke of edinburgh his royal highness prince philip the duke of edinburgh as he remains in hospital for the moment as a precaution and we pray for her majesty the queen and the royal family as they they long for his his recovery to health again as we all do this morning so let's say our prayers and we are of course using the prayer for lent which we shall use day by day 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 obtain from you the god of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through jesus christ our lord amen so in our own language we say the prayer our lord has 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 moment of silence now for your own prayers 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 are men well tiger you're getting braver and braver each day and more and more active who would know that you'd lost a leg you're a real lesson to us all in perseverance you could sit here in the sunshine all day i think couldn't you