good morning and welcome to the dinery garden here at canterbury cathedral on this morning of monday the 14th of september holy cross day and we remember all of that i'm sitting here in the january garden under the big elantra's tree which is commonly called the tree of heaven and as we say our prayers please wherever you are in the world bring your own concerns and feel very welcome here as we look at this date september the 14th chosen as holy cross day in memory of first of all the empress helena mother of constantine's a pilgrimage to the holy land and her discovery of what she believed to be the true cross in the year 326 and that caused her son and and the empress herself to build the church of the holy sepulchre in jerusalem and that was consecrated at this time in 335 so we remember holy cross day because of that but essentially it's a day when we simply give thanks for the sign of the holy cross as a unifying sign rather like the our father the unifying sign of all sections of the christian church throughout the world it's the day on in 629 when the emperor heraclius entered constantinople having defeated the persian forces and he was received with triumph he had restored the section of the true cross to jerusalem which had been taken away by the persian armies this is the day in 1321 when dante was born and we'll think about that a bit later on in 1741 handel finished his messiah would think about that too and in 1752 all the lands of the then british empire went over to the gregorian calendar so this was september the 14th but yesterday was september the second they had lost 11 days and changed over to the new calendar and in 1759 just out of interest the very first board game which is known to have been sold in england was sold it was called a journey through europe and board games have changed little in their intention to help people with journeys and puzzles ever since 1852 the duke of wellington died whose victory at waterloo ended the napoleonic wars but she went on to become the prime minister here in england he was 83 when he died and finally in 1909 the ornithologist and artist peter scott was born he was the son of robert falcon scott who died in the antarctic but i remember peter scott as having the sanctuary at slim bridge on the river seven near to where i grew up and we would go there to see birdlife but also in black and white television on those days his regular program which was called look helped us to understand the wonders of birds and the way they behaved and migrated and also their beauty and that was shown in his artwork as well but let's on this morning when we give thanks for so many things particularly the gift of the holy cross as a sign for the christian church as well as the instrument of cruel death of our savior jesus christ on this day we say our prayers together o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon earth your saving power among the nations blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief your only son was lifted up that he might draw the whole world to himself may we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight declaring your love for all the world 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 our morning psalm on this 14th day of the month is psalm 71 in you o lord do i seek refuge let me never be put to shame in your righteousness deliver me and set me free incline your ear to me and save me be for me a stronghold to which i may ever resort send out to save me for you are my rock and my fortress deliver me my god from the hand of the wicked from the grasp of the evil doer and the oppressor [Music] for you are my hope o lord god my confidence even from my youth upon you have i leaned from my birth when you drew me from my mother's womb my praise shall be always of you i have become important to many but you are my refuge and my strength let my mouth be full of your praise and your glory all the day long do not cast me away in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength fails as for me i will hope continually and will praise you more and more my mouth shall tell of your righteousness and salvation all the day long for i know no end of the telling i will begin with the mighty works of the lord god i will recall your righteousness yours alone o god you have taught me since i was young and to this day i tell of your wonderful works forsake me not o god when i am old and grey-headed till i make known your deeds to the next generation and your power to all that are to come your righteousness oh god reaches to the heavens in the great things you have done who is like you o god what troubles and adversities you have shown me and yet you will turn and refresh me and bring me from the deep of the earth again increase my honor turn again and comfort me therefore will i praise you upon the harp for your faithfulness so my god i will sing to you with a liar o holy one of israel my lips will sing out as i play to you and so will my soul which you have redeemed my tongue also will tell of your righteousness all the day long for they shall be shamed and disgraced who sought to do me evil so we turn to the acts of the apostles and to chapter 13 and find saint paul and barnabas now arriving at another antioch they left from antioch in syria and now they come to antioch in paisidia in the middle of what is now turkey their journey is a really long one they've come through cyprus they've crossed the mediterranean sea which was a big water crossing in those days and now here they come to antioch in paicidia an important roman town at that time now paul and his companions set sail from paphos and came to perga in pamphylia and john left them and returned to jerusalem but they went on from perga and came to antioch in paisidia and on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down after the reading from the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying brothers if you have any word of encouragement for the people say it so paul stood up and motioning with his hand he said brothers sons of the family of abraham and those among you who fear god to us has been sent the message of salvation for those who live in jerusalem and their rulers because they did not recognize jesus nor understand the utterances of the prophets which are read every sabbath fulfilled them by condemning him and though they found in him no guilt worthy of death they asked pilate to have him executed and when they had carried out all that was written of him they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb but god raised him from the dead and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from galilee to jerusalem who are now his witnesses to the people and we bring you the good news that what god promised to our forebears this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising jesus as also it is written in the second psalm you are my son today i have begotten and as for the fact that he raised him from the dead no more to return to corruption he has spoken in this way i will give you the holy and sure blessings of david therefore he says also in another psalm you will not let your holy one see corruption as they went out of the synagogue the people begged that these things might be told them the next sabbath and after the meeting of the synagogue broke up many jews and devout converts to judaism followed paul and barnabas who as they spoke with them urged them to continue in the grace of god those who were following that lesson in acts 13 will realize that i have conflated paul's sermon a little bit for our time this morning you can read the whole sketch of the history of his people that he sets out because that was part of the preaching but essentially he is preaching the story of jesus as god's anointed one his death on the cross and his resurrection and see how he looks to the verses of the psalms and relies on the prophets in his message see two how he's asked to come again but obviously the explanations of what he's got there with barnabas are going to be given to people asking questions in antioch of pycidia throughout the days of the coming week this is an energetic journey and not without its dangers i could this morning have read the proper lesson for holy cross day that would have taken us to some verses in john chapter 12 where jesus standing in the temple courtyard says i when i am lifted up will draw all peoples to myself that was for me uh a well-known sentence begin because in our parish church at home those words were written over the arch as you entered the sanctuary of the church so i would sit in church reading them and wondering at their meaning and that lifting up is very much part of the message of holy cross day a journey with great dangers poor john mark the young man who had accompanied them had made it across to cyprus had gone through that journey right across the island that got as far as paphos and then again they were on the sea they are arriving in perga in pamphylia and his courage fails him and he goes back home never mind our faith is full of failures and new beginnings but barnabas and saul paul now are intrepid and on they go to antioch in paisidia preaching the cross preaching to all nations in the new way in which the church is beginning to spread and develop and the central message is the message of the cross i when i am lifted up will draw all peoples to myself let's think first of that suffering and the way in which those phrases stay in our head and sometimes we're helped by all kinds of creative works none more so than the work i said was completed today in the year 1741 george frederick handel's most famous oratorio messiah and messiah caused the words of those prophecies and psalms to be known by english-speaking people and others right across the world as i've said so many times tunes help things stay in your head and at the end of psalm 71 this morning we're talk we're we're told by the psalmist to sing and to make music because as we do so those words will stay in our head none more so than words like he was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief the handle melody to that is one which is one of the loveliest melodies in messiah but it's lovely also because it brings those words into our heads as with so many of the words of messiah taken from the prophet isaiah and the psalms at the same time this is a day when we remember the birth of dante i think his divine comedy is a poem which has a claim to be the best and most famous poem written in europe it is an extraordinary work as dante accompanied first of all by the poet virgil but later with different guides travels through hell and purgatory and then into paradise and it is an extraordinarily poetic and dramatic work with so many scenes here in the precincts in canterbury there are certain what we call memorials to artists cut in stone and one of them is of the first lines of dante's journey it's on a long pole standing vertically and in english it would read when halfway through the journey of our life i found that i was in a gloomy wood because the path which led a right was lost and ah how hard it is to say just what this wild and rough and stubborn woodland was the very sort of which renews my fear a journey like the pilgrim's progress where guides are provided and scenes are shown for the edification of both dante and also of all those reading in the divine comedy my favorite translation of of that is by dorothy l says and there's a lovely penguin threefold publication of that with amazing maps of the journey up mount purgatory in getting more and more into the fresh air and then stepping into paradise and oh so many diagrams and and ways of going forward a bit like the diagrams of the missionary journeys of saint paul but these things help us and the wonderful thing about the pole here just in the water tower garden near to the front garden of the deanery is the fact that you have to read it vertically so you're actually there with your head on a side like this reading the beginning of dante's divine comedy it points up to heaven and its roots go down into what the psalmist in its translation now is called the pitch in the old days would have been called hell and the translation of the psalm 139 says that is not without god either if i take the wings of the morning they are there also if i go down into hell they are there also and dante's journey helps us know that our own journey the way of the cross leads all the way from those suffering places of darkness guided by our savior with the good news right up to heaven itself and we have a vision of that even in this life on holy cross day as we give thanks for all of that and for humanity's capacity to be creative let's say our prayers on this particular day and on the 14th of september in our anglican communion we're praying for the diocese of otpo in nigeria for david bellow the bishop there and his people the diocese of central busaga in uganda and patrick wakulu the bishop there and his people and the diocese of kissangani in congo and lambert bottello me the bishop there and all his people here in this diocese we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and today in the diocese of canterbury for the parish of sturry saint nicholas with ford which st mary the virgin and west bear all saints with hersden we remember the parish priest priestess peter cornish and also the story church of england primary school and also that section of our own cathedral school king school canterbury the junior king school is located in sturry just down the road here and ford which itself a most beautiful and historic place where when the waters of the sea came nearer to canterbury the stone for canterbury cathedral was unloaded from barges and then brought by oxcart up to build the cathedral itself coming coming all the way from kong but let's remember the the message of holy cross day in the prayer that we say and bring your own intentions to that prayer now as we say it together here in the morning sunshine almighty god who in the passion of your blessed son made an instrument of painful death to be for us the means of life and peace grant us so to glory in the cross of christ that we may gladly suffer for his sake who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so we say the prayer our lord taught us in whichever language in whichever way you like to say it giving thanks that like the sign of the cross it unites us in our different cultures and communities right across the world 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 a moment of silence now for our own prayers christ crucified draw you to himself to find in him a sure ground for faith a firm support for hope and the assurance of sins forgiven 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