good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of monday the 2nd of august wherever you are in the world feel welcome i think there's no doubt whatever about the flower that you're looking at this morning it's a sunflower in french tuna soul turning its face to the sun and representative itself of the sun this morning i'm going to begin something new with all of you we're sitting in the garden congregation's flower garden but usually we've looked at books of the new testament except i remember on several sundays with the prophet jonah but mostly new testament and in august we're going to be looking together at the book of genesis the first book of the bible constantly the characters in that are referenced by jesus but it starts of course with the great story of creation which we shall begin today and i'm watching the sun come up over the mulberry tree and the great ash tree and shining onto me and this wisteria which is hanging next to me as well but it's shining on the sunflower and the sunflower is reflecting that just as all the plants reflect the warmth and life of the sun and around me too are apple trees with fruit which is swelling yesterday afternoon we had an enormous storm of rain suddenly out of nowhere but even the rain in that force soaks into the earth and gives life to everything here so our reflection will be very much on the gifts given to us by the creator and also the way in which that has been recounted in very ancient scriptures indeed we'll come to that in our reflection we are of course continuing to remember areas of the world suffering from devastating flood or fire and probably the most uh horrifying image at the moment is of the fires in southwest turkey and the way in which tourists and people on holiday and relaxing are having to be taken off in terror by boats from the fire in the background you will have seen those pictures on your news bulletins you will also have areas of the world and perhaps even your own area threatened by flood or fire or pandemic and keep those in your hearts and minds and imagination but i shall explain much more about our new way of going forward just for this month of august in our reflection meanwhile you'll have people that you want to pray for and and having been speaking of them this morning with bishop richard and i want to pray for clive and helen barlow helen very seriously ill but a regular member of our garden congregation so our prayers offer her this morning and for clive so let's uh say our own prayers and begin our morning prayer for this lovely sunny day and feel welcome wherever you are oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation and sustain us with your gracious spirit 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 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever are men you may hear throughout this morning's prayers the noise of a worried seagull mother or even the mother and father because one of their offspring who's grown up to be quite independent but isn't quite able to take care of himself and fly too well but he can certainly give a good account of himself as we know is uh wandering along the garden path and the parents are very anxious about him so if you hear seagull noise that's parental noise this morning and we give thanks for the life all around us as we hear russell crowing in the morning in the distance our morning style is psalm number nine i will give thanks to you lord with my whole heart i will tell of all your marvelous works i will be glad and rejoice in you i will make music to your name almost high when my enemies are driven back they stumble and perish at your presence for you have maintained my right and my cause you sat on your throne giving righteous judgment you have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked you have blotted out their name forever and ever the enemy was utterly laid waste you uprooted their cities their very memory has perished but the lord shall endure forever he has made fast his throne for judgment for he shall rule the world with righteousness and govern the peoples with equity then will the lord be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in the time of trouble and those who know your name will put their trust in you for you lord have never failed those who seek you sing praises to the lord who dwells in zion declare among the peoples the things he has done the avenger of blood has remembered them he did not forget the cry of the oppressed have mercy upon me o lord consider the trouble i suffer from those who hate me you that lift me up from the gates of death that i may tell all your praises in the gates of the city of zion and rejoice in your salvation the nation shall sink into the pit of their making and in the snare which they set will their own foot be taken the lord makes himself known by his acts of justice the wicked are snared in the works of their own hands they shall return to the land of darkness all the nations that forget god for the needy shall not always be forgotten and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever arise o lord and let not mortals have the upper hand let the nations be judged before your face put them in fear o lord that the nations may know themselves to be but mortal it's a powerful psalm and one tends to sympathize with the psalmist who is in some kind of trouble and distress from those around him but constantly giving thanks to the lord and giving hope for the world's salvation particularly those most in need of it so we turn to the book of genesis and the story of creation as told in chapter one and we'll think about that in our reflection as we um begin to introduce how we go forward with genesis in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of god brooded over the face of the waters and god said let there be light and there was light and god saw that the light was good and god separated the light from the darkness god called the light day and the darkness he called night and there was evening and there was morning the first day and god said let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters and god made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse and it was so and the expanse he called heaven and there was evening and there was morning the second day and god said let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear and it was so god called the dry land earth and the waters that were gathered together he called seas and god saw that it was good and god said let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed each according to its kind on the earth and it was so the earth brought vegetation plants yielding seed according to their own kinds and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed each according to its kind and god saw that it was good and there was evening and there was morning the third day and god said let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years and let them be lights let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth and it was so and god made the two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars and god set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth to rule over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness and god saw that it was good and there was evening and there was morning the fourth day we're going to end just there and continue tomorrow yesterday we were thinking of how sint ignatius loyola set out his instructions and guidance for what we now call the ignatian form of spirituality the reflection using our imagination and our senses whenever we ponder quietly and memories are called up to help our imaginings it's that which such passages is this one in the book of genesis actually do the 50 chapters of the book of genesis are a compendium of many many different writers collecting material much of it translated by oral story over hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years and when we read those stories we need to give ourselves time to digest what it's saying rather like a kaleidoscope and of course for every christian and this is what we do day by day we look at that reflection through the lens of christ and that is happening so often in the epistles but it happens also from the eye of jesus himself looking back on those scriptures which he knew so well because they were the scriptures of his childhood and they were read to him learned by him talked to him explained to him by the understanding of his own people in galilee at that time discussed by him and there's that lovely passage in in sin luke's gospel about the young boy of 12 discussing with the doctors of the law and giving wise answers as well as asking wise questions but we are asked to use all the gifts of our humanity to let our imagination and our memories and our experiences find a free range as we attempt to conform ourselves to the pattern of jesus and this is what we'll do with the book of genesis as we go through the book of genesis begins with two stories of creation at the beginning of chapter two or just after the beginning of chapter two it begins again with probably an older narrative culled from different sources the one that we are reading is much later but still probably somewhere in the 6th century bc and written by a very priestly and educated hand revising it but no doubt taking the story from the traditions of the chosen people as god called them for a particular vocation for this planet and the story is a very wide one it's not one that in terms of human evidence can be witnessed all the evidence is around us but the imaginings are manifold so you might ask well is it story is it legend is it history is it myth is it theology is it law is it poetry is it a description of certain experiences that people have and one has to say that the book of genesis is very much divided at the end of chapter 11 we end the should we call it a primeval narrative which is embracing the whole of humanity and begin what might be called an ancestral narrative jesus is always referencing abraham isaac and jacob and one might ask also is it a kind of typology as i've described in watching the passion play at obamacare where every new testament scene is prefigured by an old testament tableau christ carrying the cross being prefigured by isaac carrying the wood for his own sacrifice as abraham leads him in obedience to the mountain all of these things are in our minds and hearts but as we read them the lens of our own imagination memory and physicality our mental and our physical experiences and our spiritual experiences which are much harder to capture because they come and take us unawares and we remember back and they're recalled by something in our senses from time to time like the flowers of the garden every morning at matins in the cathedral and it certainly happened this morning we sit in the jesus chapel that's the farthest east in the cathedral crypt and it's below the corona chapel now the chapel of modern saints and martyrs and both those chapels have marvelous east windows but let me concentrate on the one that each morning i tried to get there early to have that time of silence for 20 minutes or so after i've done the morning reflection about what we're going to talk about and sit before the most marvelous ancient glass this building as you well know is full of beautiful colored glass and the pattern that is given me in that east window of the jesus chapel is first and foremost surrounded by a wide border rather like this flower garden of multicolored flowers as if expressing the creator's gifts to this planet and to our world then at the same time there are four pictures given and from top to bottom in the top picture we find the blessed virgin mary sitting with the christ child on her lap he is holding the gospels in his hand but at the same time in his left hand at the same time his mother's arm is helping the infant arm to rise in blessing over us and then on the next panel down there are four figures two of them are patriarchs isaac and jacob two of them are prophets isaiah and jeremiah the next picture down which is a sort of unidentified picture but i always see it as an image of the mission of the 12 or of the 70 going out to give the gift of good news and two people welcoming them at their door and the lovely thing is that one of them carrying up a bag has a hand out like this as though a sower sowing seed and down at the bottom at almost eye level with me as i sit looking is the image of our lord on the cross arms outstretched and those below grieving saint john and mary his mother and the the women there mary magdalene and salumi and those pictures form a picture which takes you back to christ in glory for on each side of the seated virgin in the top window are swinging sensors and sensors to the early church and in our worship now is a sign of prayer lifting beyond this physical realm into that which is divine and also overarching all and coming down through the flowers is a white dove symbol of so many things but symbol of the spirit and the power of god both creating and also engendering the humanity of christ based on the patriarchs and matriarchs and the prophets and all the writings of the ancient scriptures but then also the gift of the good news the lens through which we see things being given out to people and what it cost in the bottom picture of our lord on the cross and beyond the most wonderful blue background of the firmament and of the expanse which is called the heavens in this chapter the dome in many translations all of that there and this morning we have exactly the same around us multicolored and each morning i have different thoughts and different things awakening and the scriptures helped that too but this morning the sun shone right through that window in brilliant light as it's shining now but also the moon is in the heavens this morning before it goes down with that silvery whiteness which is sort of job done not keeping watch over the night with all the silvery brightness but giving place to the great light of heaven the sun and the warmth it is giving to god's earth all of that is in creation but notice too that the first word is let there be light and light brings the capacity for order it also brings the capacity for time and the hand of priestly hands that was um ordering all these things gives us almost a rhythm like a litany so that as the the uh the the sun and the moon and the stars are set in place and as order is given to the earth and remember that if one goes back to haydn's oratorio the creation that great chord of c major which suddenly means let there be light and there was light c major and after all the disorder of the haydn's representation of chaos which to us doesn't see use much more to louder and more modern music doesn't seem very chaotic but i think to the late 18th century it seemed very chaotic indeed in never coming to a resolution until that moment well this morning we ourselves and uh we are thinking of the way in which we presented yesterday that the bread the gift of god's creation on lama's day at the altar but always how jesus saying this is my body the the the wafer is lifted over the altar to give a sign of that creativity rather like the sunflower in reflected light but here jesus himself fulfilling his promise which we left at the end of the gospel of saint matthew on saturday i am with you always even to the end of the age but notice how those beautiful sentences always have in them and god saw that it was good it comes again and again at the end of every day and god saw that it was good but i think probably why not to look at the third day it's the only day which is twice blessed like the quality of mercy for when the land appears on the third day god saw that it was good and then when all the vegetation appears also god saw that it was good the only day to be twice blessed so look out for tuesdays because they have a double blessing but all these things i think it's for us to have spiritual imaginings because the stones in our kaleidoscope which the light of christ will shine through onto these passages of scripture which we will go into in some detail as we go through the stories not only of our own humanity as set out in these stories at the beginning of the book of genesis up to chapter 11 but also the stories of jesus his own people and we remember that these were the scriptures that he knew imagined and afterwards was able to say drink this all of you this is my blood of a new covenant given for many for the forgiveness of sins widening the picture it may be that you will need just a little extra time to reflect and then grasp at the imaginings that come to you in an ignatian way for ignatius tortoise to examine oneself and then at the same time to cause oneself to set the scene in one's mind and heart and what we're reading and see where it led us and the human mind and memory and senses will lead us in many ways but at the end we give thanks to god in a sacrifice of thanksgiving and rejoice in the words and what god saw that it was good that is his intention for us all one or two things about this morning um first of all i wanted to say just just three things really in 1788 on this day the artist thomas gainesborough died now thomas gainsborough is best known for portraits of people but the one thing the one always sees in gainsborough is the fact that his landscapes which he's so much loved painting catch the eye rather like for me in the stained glass window i was uh describing earlier for i have trouble with certain shades of red and and green and those sort of areas which i i always think makes my appreciation of blue and yellow and gold and white so much more so because i can rejoice in those colors when others are being distracted by the reds so i'm i'm sorry not to see the poppies in the the same kind of of glory and flesh is always getting at me and saying but surely you can see that but there are certain things as with musical notes for people who are so say tone deaf which just evade us but nevertheless the other colors shine with great great beauty and with gainsborough i suppose his most famous painting is the blue boy which is in the huntington museum at san marino which we know very well and a friend of ours is the curator that of those those portraits but the blue boy which is there is never allowed to leave the huntington just as the stained glass of methuselah who is this sort of touchstone of all the artistry and stained glass that we had was not allowed to leave the cathedral to come with the other ancestors across the atlantic and over to the coast of the pacific when the six panels were taken when the window was being restored the huntington library actually also has the ellesmere chaucer there but there is the blue boy but mostly uh the portraits are a very fashionable people and yet so joshua reynolds always said that gainsborough's portrait of a little girl with the pigs feeding the pigs was the best portrait she ever painted before because gainsborough made his money by the official portraits but when he let his imagination rove over landscape then truly the creativity was in his painting there's another one of the cottage girl in ireland holding her puppy which again he just painted i think for the sheer love of painting it and then in 1865 on this day alice's adventures in wonderland was first published and what i want to say about that is that what lewis carroll an expert in logic and mathematics was doing was showing that in certain areas if you are too logical you turn truth on its head and make a nonsense of it all and so his wonderland helps us to imagine and use and develop our spiritual imaginations simply by making us laugh at the way in which human mental logic and order can turn god's designs and spiritual yearnings on its head so at the same time um i wanted to mention that today on the 2nd of august 1924 the american author james baldwin was born now he was born in the the the what he he referred to as the black ghetto in harlem in 1924 and grew up in that atmosphere in the strengths of a baptist congregation and i think he he learned to speak confidently following his father in that way in talking to congregations even as a boy of 14 but what he said about himself was at that time and of course he was very very disadvantaged he said i knew i was black but i also knew i was smart and i decided i would develop my mind and imagination to the best of my ability for that was the best use i could make of it and of course he did he began to write about his own life his autobiography go tell it on the mountain taken from that great spiritual song and uh that is a really powerful description of all that he had to face he became a champion of racial sexual class distinctions and discriminations and his books are very powerful but at in 1948 he'd sort of had enough and came over instead to paris and during those eight years in paris he wrote his next book giovanni's room which tells the story of him in paris and what he found there too discrimination of a different kind and these books you may know but uh certainly i find them very very powerful indeed i think we both find them very powerful indeed in reading them and uh the other book that i i discovered probably when i was about 24 was a book called another country and that too gives insights from james baldwin so we give thanks for his courage for he suffered much but she also opened many doors both of imagination and reality and was brave in doing so so let's uh say our prayers on this particular morning as we think of in our anglican communion the diocese of uh where are we uh these sorry i'm on the i'm back to front here we are the dances of dogura in the anglican church of papua new guinea so we're in pacific countries and the most recently to be prayed for there of course was fiji because of the enormous troubles of the pandemic that they are facing at present but we felt we we pray for all the islands of the pacific in the the diocese of tagura and the anglican church of papua new guinea in this diocese we pray for archbishop justin for bishop rose of dover bishop tim at lambeth and the parish of maidstone st paul is vacant at the moment but the assistant carat anthea mitchell we pray for and those choosing someone to fulfill the role of the incumbent there so let's say together this prayer for this week following the ninth sunday after trinity almighty god who sent your holy spirit to be the life and light of your church open our hearts to the riches of your grace that we may bring forth the fruit of the spirit in love and joy and peace through jesus christ our lord amen so together we say the prayer our savior taught us in whichever language you like to use our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever are men moment of silence now as the sun shines down on all these flowers giving them life and engendering fruitfulness and seed for the future oh [Music] oh [Music] oh oh [Music] [Music] the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and of his son jesus christ our lord 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