good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of thursday the 13th of january welcome wherever you are in the world it's a winter morning here with a very heavy frost but no wind and a clear blue sky and the sun which is just rising over the wall but as with yesterday touching bellevue harry with its color the tower of the cathedral and at very top of the deanery but not where i'm sitting at all it's not risen yet above the trees or above the wall and the 13th of january is sint hillary's day hillary of poitiers bishop of the 4th century but his name is best remembered now because academic institutions sometimes call this term which is beginning at this part of the year the second term of their three hillary term and uh so we remember stint hillary and i shall say his collect as part of things a special prayer for his day at with the other colic for today because he's a beautiful colleague it talks about his gentleness and courtesy but also his strong use of his power as a bishop in order to set out very clearly at that time the middle of the fourth century the uh his belief in jesus as both human and divine very influential on the protection of our statements in creeds at that particular time and uh ever since so we give thanks for st hillary on this day but we ourselves are going to begin our prayers and uh as we're with the book of ruth still we're taking a harvesting theme but we are in epiphany and it's winter time here in england it other seasons of the year for you across the world oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your light springs up for the righteous and all the peoples have seen your glory blessed are you sovereign god king of the nations to you be praised and glory forever from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is proclaimed in all the world as the son of righteousness dawns in our hearts anoint our lips with the seal of your spirit that we may witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the earth 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen the psalm for this morning of the month is the long psalm 68. we'll read some of it now but i want also afterwards to refer to another psalm from yesterday evening here is this morning psalm 68 let god arise and let his enemies be scattered let those that hate him flee before him as the smoke vanishes so may they vanish away as wax melts at the fire so let the wicked perish at the presence of god but let the righteous be glad and rejoice before god let them make merry with gladness sing to god sing praises to his name exalt him who rise on the clouds the lord is his name rejoice before him father of the fatherless defender of widows god in his holy habitation god gives the solitary a home and brings forth prisoners to songs of welcome but the rebellious inhabit a burning desert blessed be the lord who bears our burdens day by day for god is our salvation god is for us the god of our salvation god is the lord who can deliver from death sing to god you kingdoms of the earth make music in praise of the lord he rides on the ancient heaven of heavens and sends forth his voice a mighty voice ascribe power to god whose splendor is over israel whose power is above the clouds how terrible is god in his holy sanctuary the god of israel who gives power and strength to his people blessed be god the psalm i wanted to refer back to was one which was one of the evening psalms the first evening psalm last night and when i was listening to our girls choir singing it i realized it was very much a harvest psalm and uh we have from verse 8 of 65 you visit the earth and water it you make it very plenteous the river of god is full of water you prepare grain for your people for so you provide for the earth you drench the furrows and smooth out the ridges you soften the ground with showers and bless its increase you crown the year with your goodness and your paths overflow with plenty may the pastures of the wilderness flow with goodness and the hills be girded with joy may the meadows be clothed with flocks of sheep and the valleys stand so sick with corn that they shall laugh and sing a beautiful image and a harvest psalm which was a sun to be sung at that harvest season but there is a verse also in 68 that i wanted you to hold on to and that is verse 6 it follows the verse father of the fatherless defender of widows god in his holy habitation and then god gives the solitary a home and with that sentence we're going back to the book of ruth exactly where we left off you'll hear some noise of the scaffolders working on the cathedral they're up in the sunshine at the moment as they're putting new scaffolding up it's an ongoing business also in this always in this place so i'm starting where i left off yesterday at verse 17 of chapter two and you remember that ruth in gleaning in the fields and we spoke about gleaning yesterday of picking up either these stalks of barley or the stalks of wheat and they were to be left for strangers normally the the ruling was that things accidental when the stooks we've provided some stooks from last year their heads have long gone and there's chaff on the ground which blows away in the wind but these are wheat stooks but at the same time these stooks would be what the reapers were making as they went and anything that fell the gleaners could have and i said that in the book deuteronomy they were asked not to reap right up to the edge of the field so that people had more to take from those who were particularly in need well boaz the owner of the field you remember has come to ruth and spoken to her and she has so say found favor with him uh and uh we find uh soon that there's a a special relationship anyway between the families but at the moment he's asked his young men to be kind to her as she gleans and so we ended yesterday with verse 16 and the first little bit of 17 but i'll pick up again with the whole of verse 17 of chapter two so ruth gleaned in the field until evening then she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ifa of barley and she took it up and went into the city her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned she also brought out ruth brought out and gave to her mother-in-law what food she had left over after being satisfied and her mother-in-law said to her where did you glean today and where have you worked blessed be the man who took notice of you so ruth told naomi her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said the man's name with whom i worked today is boaz and naomi said to her daughter-in-law may he be blessed by the lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead naomi also said to her the man is a close relative of ours one of our redeemers and ruth the moabite said besides he said to me you shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest and naomi said to ruth her daughter-in-law it is good my daughter that you're going with his young women lest in another field you'll be assaulted so ruth kept close to the young women of boaz gleaning until the end of the barley and the wheat harvests and she lived with her mother-in-law then naomi her mother-in-law said to her my daughter should i not seek rest for you that it may be well with you is not boaz our relative with whose young women you were see he is winnowing barley tonight in at the threshing floor wash therefore and anoint yourself and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking but when he lies down observe the place where he lies then go and uncover his feet and lie down and he will tell you what to do and she replied all that you say i will do well we have a story there of ruth who has come from her own home in moab now if you want to um see how moab is felt about by those who sing the psalms then you only have to look at that phrase in the psalm moab is my wash pot and that was a term of of real contempt moab wasn't a place they thought about but ruth had come from moab as a stranger and a foreigner out of loyalty to her mother-in-law following the death of both of their husbands but in doing so she had left her own home and come to a foreign land and was doing her duty for her mother-in-law out of love and loyalty and we saw that in that wonderful pledge she gave to naomi of faithfulness and yet at the same time ruth was standing in foreign fields in cornfields of an alien nation if i say those two words perhaps um you're reminded as i'm reminded of one of the verses in john keats lovely poem ode to a nightingale which releases in his breast all the songs of that beautiful bird the nightingale sung right into the night hours and keats exults in the song of the nightingale which moves him to tears so we exult in the song of the thrushes i've got a thrush mug this morning with the thrush on it and the thrush sings at this winter time of year but at the same time keats is talking about the nightingale and why am i going to that because in the penultimate verse he talks about ruth and ruth as a solitary figure in alien fields of corn here's the verse and you'll probably know it he's speaking to the nightingale thou was not born for death immortal bird no hungry generations tread thee down the voice i hear this passing night was heard in ancient days by emperor and clown perhaps the self-same song that found a path through the sad heart of ruth when sick for home she stood in tears amid the alien corn with that thought we'll go back to the story of ruth and carry on for a bit so ruth went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her and when boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down at midnight the man was startled and turned over and behold a woman lay at his feet he said who are you and she answered i am ruth your servant spread your wings over your servant for you are a redeemer and baraz said may you be blessed by the lord my daughter you have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men whether poor or rich and now my daughter do not fear i will do for you all that you ask for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman and now it is true that i am a redeemer yet there is a redeemer nearer than you then than i remain tonight and in the morning if he will redeem you good let him do it but if he is not willing to redeem you then as the lord lives i will redeem you lie down until the morning so ruth lay at his feet until the morning but arose before one could recognize another in the darkness and he said let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor and he said bring the garments you are wearing and hold it out so she held it out and he measured six measures of barley and put it on her then she went into the city and when she came to her mother-in-law she said how did you fare my daughter then she told her all that the man had done for her saying these six measures of barley he gave to me for he said to me you must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law she replied wait my daughter until you learn how the matter turns out for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today now we've entered an area of jewish custom and and law and we come across it from time to time even in the new testament when the sadducees come to jesus in the temple courtyard about a a woman whose first husband dies and then the second husband dies in the third and these folk who come to be her husband afterwards are in kinship there and it is their duty to raise up children for their brother the next of kin this is what this word redeemer means when naomi is talking in that word in the lesson as we read it and boaz is a close relative of naomi's family but at the same time as burst says but i am not the closest and really it's the duty of the closest to do that and we must conform to all things according to the law so in that conversation at the night in the night at the threshing floor where at harvest time boaz the owner of the field is actually sleeping uh worn out by the work of the day and then by supper and some wine and finds then ruth lying there at his feet and they have that conversation and he talks about the being in the position of a redeemer but there is someone else who has more right to take that position than i he says so let's let that play out and naomi recognizes that as well when ruth goes back and forget the word city which is being used here it's bethlehem which was a small community in those days and she's gone back to naomi and taking the measure of baraz's favor with her the measures of barley which baraz has given to her to take back and he of course recognizes that ruth is well spoken of and is worthy and worthy to be redeemed shall we say and uh yet he knows that according to custom he himself has to give place to the one nearer to him and that story will play itself out as we go ahead tomorrow but tonight i mean in the night of the boaz and and ruth um the the the covenant of of recognizing his duty towards her to shall we say settle this matter for her so that she will not be solitary and we're thinking of her as a solitary person in a foreign land and thinking of how moabites are not looked at with a great deal of favor this as i say is a harvest story going on again at times when fruit or crops are gathered and the whole workforce of the countryside put into gathering them when harvey's songs are sung and we've put some of those on yesterday and uh maybe that today as well we shall think of the way in which people sing as they work making up the songs sometimes as they go along and then carrying them on down and many of our hymn books are full of the kind of folk songs that were sung first in the fields or at work of some kind or another and then taken on to be hymn tunes so that we ourselves can then remember them one thing's also of solitary figures like this in the gospels as jesus finds them and one thinks of the the woman at the well there with the conversation that's being had there are samaritan how is it that you a jew talk to me a woman and a samaritan and those conversations contain a seed which is going to blossom for the future either in the words of our lord in prophecy at that time about his own uh anointed vocation which since hillary was going to champion in a huge way as a bishop in the 4th century seeing both humanity and divinity in jesus but at the same time there is a compassion about all of this which boaz is certainly showing to ruth and a respect and all this takes place in the context of the threshing floor and there's quite a symbol in that for of course threshing means that you're going to the very golden center of the crop that is being threshed to find not only the wheat or the corn of any kind or the barley for food but also for sowing again for a new beginning and this book is really all about new beginnings as we shall see more tomorrow i wanted to take one or two dates this morning on this 13th of january and the first date is that on the 13th of january 1926 the author michael bond was born and michael bond is probably best known to you as the writer of paddington bear stories and uh we remember him from a particularly uh important festival of harvesting which we traveled up to in cumbria at dale main house the home of two great friends of ours robert and jane hazel mccosh but jane has the imagination to create at this time of year in those days a marmalade festival for this is the time of year when the several oranges come into shops and stores and people make marmalade and the whole house is filled with the fragrance of the sense of making marmalade well when michael bond first thought of his character paddington bear he was a bbc cameraman and had no thought of the storm that he would create by um inventing this little character we're told that on christmas eve two years before he'd been in a london store just before it closed and there was one lonely bear sitting on a shelf and moved by the solitary nature of this he bought the bear for his wife and then later a story came to him and he wrote it down uh and uh a telephone call came from a publisher that he'd given the the little story to when he was filming with his bbc camera and his answer was i'm sorry i can't talk now i'm not allowed to take calls when i'm working but it was to be the call that opened up a a set of stories uh which he wrote over 20 20 books of of stories of paddington bear through the years and he imagined the bear as one of those and he said i remembered films of children being evacuated with labels around their necks out into the countryside to strangers to be in foreign fields and also jewish children being brought by certain charities and seeing them on stations at that time during the war and he thought about that he'd been in war service himself and in the 1950s there were many memories like that and so his bear had all the accoutrements of what those children were thought to have in his mind there was the little suitcase with some precious possessions in there was the old duffle coat and the old hat he had come in the story from darkest peru paddington bear but there also was the label please be kind to this bear or no please look after despair thank you and the label had come from his aunt lucy who was in now in lima in a home for retired bears and she'd sent him to be looked after and they found him the brown family found him on paddington station so you all know all these things very well because he's become a very famous character both in books and films and television series in all sorts of ways but right at the beginning that was the image that had caught the imagination of michael bond michael died in 2017 aged 91 but he was the patron of the marmalade festival and paddington bear with the marmalade was a really important figure people make marmalade and send it there to see how it is judged and over the pandemic that festival hasn't been able to happen but i see that it will happen this year but not at this time of year but in may which is a better time for gathering in cumbria remember also that michael bond wrote a reflection when he reached 90 called reflection on the passing of the years and that reflection was read by sir david attenborough at the national service of thanksgiving to commemorate queen elizabeth ii's 90th birthday at st paul's cathedral in uh the in june in um i think it's 2016 um and at that time uh michael bond and david attenborough and queen elizabeth were all 90 years old and so david attenborough reading michael bond as a celebration of the queen's 90th birthday was very apt but michael died the year after and in his on his uh grave in paddington old churchyard the stone reads please look after this bear thank you and so michael's gone on to a different a foreign land let's go back though to his little almost uh refugee coming to a different country and being looked after by the brown family and getting a different rhythm to the day in 32 windsor gardens going out to have elevenses with mr gruber at the antique shop and being looked after by the housekeeper mrs bird and the browns and especially the two children jonathan and judy all of those we remember together with the hostility and deviousness of mr curry all of that is great fun but we remember that paddington is always courteous and always kindly always in desperate models and creating havoc and mayhem for those around him but at the same time he had been taught by his aunt lucy to give a hard stare to anyone who was not behaving in that way that was the severest that it got with paddington bear same time today we remember that on this day in 1964 records grudgingly released the first beatles record to the united states with the words well we'll see how it goes it was the song i want to hold your hand and it became the fastest selling single uh ever that they had got that they had released a million copies sold in three weeks but i wanted to think of the sentence i want to hold your hand and there's something solitary about that of the bear looking out and saying who's going to hold my hand who's going to look after me or ruse there in the field solitary but absolutely doing her duty at our harvest time harvest whether it be oranges or fruits or the fruit of work that we shall be doing any kind of creative activity coming to fruition and there's always an awful lot of wastage in in what everyone is is doing and you're thinking well that took me ages that was a wrong path we did this but in the end if it's good creative work there is a kernel a seed of enormous value which will nourish now but also be planted again in a different way to grow for the future and it's that looking forward and new beginnings in the town of bethlehem which we shall look at tomorrow but which is the absolute nub of the story of ruth and the glory of all of that which remember on this morning when the sun has now reached me which is lovely so let's say our prayers on this particular morning [Applause] we are praying in our diocese no so let's do the communion first we're praying in the anglican communion for the diocese of jebe in the church of nigeria the kwara province and we're praying here in this diocese for the area deanery that's the area of lots of parishes at reculva the name of the whole deanery and we shall as we do go through the villages and and communities around that day by day but let's pray today for the overarching work of the area dean carol smith and pray for her and the officers the lay officers of that deanery and in their work at this time pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and also for emma bishop at lambeth and we are going to use first the collect for sint hillary's day because it's a lovely collect about a person who loyally proclaimed the face of christ divine and human in his work gently and courteously here's the collect and bring your own prayers wherever you are in the world everlasting god whose servant hillary steadfastly confessed your son jesus christ to be both human and divine grant us his gentle courtesy to bring to all the message of redemption in the incarnate christ who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so we pray 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 and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen moment now of reflection for your own prayers on this day [Music] do do me [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] do [Music] [Applause] so christ the son of god perfecting you the image of his glory and gladden your hearts with the good news of his kingdom 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 now someone else is very much a master of the hard stare you won't know this but uh leo is staring out tiger who's sitting quite innocently in a line in that direction and like paddington bear they stare at each other so um tiger's not noticing a great deal it's leo who's staring he's very jealous of his position here so you've got to be a bit kinder and nicer there's no need for hard stairs it's all very well to have a machine to thresh your wheat and barley clean to thrash it and whim it all fit for sale and take it to market brisken well singing flare up mary make her a table shine the man who made her he made her so loud he made each cog and wheel to tell while the big wheel runs the little and arms and the feeder sits above the drum singing rumble dumb dary flare up mary make her own table shine there's all father howard the sheaves to put wallow mother out she does make up and mary she sits and feeds all day and johnny carries the straw away singing rubbledom dairy flare at seven o'clock we do begin and we usually stop about nine or ten to have our beer and to oil her up then off we go till one o'clock singing rumble dumb dairy flare up merry megro table shine then after a bite and a drink around the driver climbs to his box again and with his long whip and a share of all right he drives him round till five at night singing flare up mary make a table shine as i walked on the road on this fine not tomorrow i could see the great combine collecting the corn and my mind wandered back in a moment of joy to the day of the treasure when i was a boy all over the valley you'd hear the strange sound of that mighty machine on its annual round all the men in the town land would follow at will and that all in the hand [Music] and the cabbage that's green have plenty of spots lays with butter between for eight empty bellies will soon need a bill or it makes a man hungry the old-fashioned mill there were two on the treasure and two on the stack and the man with the park kept the straw flying back there were bottles of water and plenty of bags and how larry and he looked after the bags then a few of the boys built a straw in a reek while the young ones had fun playing hide and go seek and myself and my brother with the dog and the cat at the time of our lives as we murdered the rats can boil up the bacon and the cabbage that scream have plenty of spots lace with butter between for eighteen tea bellies will soon need a fill where it [Music] but the times keep on changing and nothing stands still larry andy is gone like his old-fashioned mill and most of the workers i knew as a child have reaped the great harvest for which they have tiled no more in the valley we'll hear that machine for just like the corn creek they're gone from the scene but it makes me feel sad as i dream of it still i love the deer sound of the old-fashioned mill then boil up the bacon and the cabbage that's green have plenty of spots lace with water between for eight empty beddies but it makes a man hungry [Music] who stands at home at his ease he takes the work and he's light of hand and he leaves off when he please he takes them with he unwinds it and lays it on the ground then he takes the and binds it drink round brave boys drink round drink round brave boys drink round until it does come to me for the longer we sit here and drink the merrier we shall be his health unto the shepherd who tends his flocks by day and with his dogs to aid him he leads a life so gay at night into the ale house to drink his fill he goes and with thoughts of sheep behind him the buried freely flows drink round brave boys drink round until it do come to me for the longer we sit here and drink the merrier we shall be his health unto the ploughman who toils beneath the sun he takes his plowshare on his back and he sings for everyone he treads the meadows daily whatever the weather may be and he drinks his quad pod gaily a hearty drinker he drink round brave boys drink ground until it do come to me for the longer we sit here and drink the merrier we shall be his health unto the blacksmith who swings his hammer fine he has such strength to hand brave boys i wish as much were mine his anvil brings their country round a pleasant sound to him until the monster calls him with a brimming copper beard drink round break boys drink ground until it do come to me for the longer we sit here and drink the merry away [Music] we wish him well in all he does that in heaven his soul may rest that all his works may prosper what dare he takes in hand for we are all his servants and and now we've drunk our master's health why should our mistress go free why shouldn't she go up to heaven and rest as well as he you'll never find her equal where are you so fill up your cups and drink brave boys this [Music] the [Music] merrier we shall be [Music] [Applause] [Music] you