[Music] good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this tuesday the 9th of march as we come to say our morning prayers it is the most beautiful morning and i'm sitting here in the garden being serenaded by our friend the robin the birds are getting more and more excited as the days go on there's been a slight pause in the plants so the daffodils are enjoying this weather but the the frost of the last couple of days have just paused the magnolias but for the moment we are rejoicing in all the beautiful yellows of the daffodils and uh under a completely blue sky this morning and the robin is obviously feeling that there's warmer weather though probably wet weather too and blustery weather we always say march comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb well let's uh prepare ourselves for it to be a bit lionish with the wind and and rain which is coming but the temperatures will get a little bit warmer and gradually things will begin to spring so wherever you are in the world then please feel welcome and enjoy this opening of springtime in the northern hemisphere here and gradually by the end of march no doubt we shall have many many more flowers to share but for the moment let's say our morning prayers as we go step by step through lent and each of us are just charting our progress in terms of thought and also of creative activity and also of spiritual growth as well but unique to our own personality which god has created to be utterly unique in all creation so we start our prayers oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice o 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm this morning on this ninth morning of the month is psalm 46 god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear though the earth be moved and though the mountains tremble in the heart of the sea though the waters rage and swell and though the mountains quake at the towering seas there is a river whose streams make glad the city of god the holy place of the dwelling of the most high god is in the midst of her therefore shall she not be removed god shall help her at the break of day the nations are in uproar and the kingdoms are shaken but god utters his voice and the earth shall melt away the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold come and behold the works of the lord what destruction he has wrought upon the earth he makes wars to cease in all the world he shatters the bow and snaps the spear and burns the chariots in the fire be still and know that i am god i will be exalted among the nations i will be exalted in the earth the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold [Music] we return to the gospel of saint john and yesterday we almost completed apart from the last sentence almost completed chapter seven with all that it brought us and now we begin chapter 8 but we begin with just the last phrase of chapter 7 in verse 53 they went each to their own home but jesus went to the mount of olives early in the morning he came again to the temple all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them the scribes and the pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him teacher this woman has been caught in the act of adultery now in the law moses commanded us to stone such women so what do you say this they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground and as they continued to ask him he stood up and said to them let the one who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her and once more he bent down and wrote on the ground when they heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones and jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him [Music] jesus stood up and said to her woman where are they has no one condemned you she said no one lord and jesus said neither do i condemn you go and from now on sin no more in one way it's a sensitive and lovely story in terms of jesus himself and the woman unnamed in another it's an horrific tale of awful cruelty that these men in authority in jerusalem are bringing in the temple courtyard where jesus is teaching the people the woman in an act of shame they know that an act of total embarrassment and cruelty and also using her simply as an illustration so that they can test jesus thinking not at all of her humanity certainly not dreaming to think of the fact that two people are involved in an act of adultery but they only bring the woman and the woman is standing there but jesus does not look at her he is sensitive to what she is feeling and we don't know what he is writing on the ground but he bends down and writes on the ground merely using his finger to give him another sense of contemplation on something else so that his gaze doesn't yet meet the gaze of the woman when he hears what they say about stoning someone to death he straightens up and looks at them not at the woman what his expression must have been like you can only imagine in the midst of this act of cruelty and then he simply says to them whichever of you is without sin throw the first stone [Music] and then once again his eyes go to the floor and he returns to his finger writing and one by one i remember my grandfather first pointing out the next bit to me beginning with the eldest those who are meant to be wisest but those who have sensed their own shame hopefully they creep away and there is a sense in this passage of jesus now standing with the woman alone there must have been so many other people around but the way in which the evangelist has written it we have jesus facing the woman and she he says to them where are your accusers there's no one accused you no one lord a woman speaks for the first time and then jesus himself i don't accuse you either and the sense as he looks into her eyes looks into our eyes and causes us to accuse ourselves in this way and go and sin no more is a word that jesus could speak to any human being after an act of creative absolution it is the loveliest story it's as we used to say it's in mark's gospel a pericope all by itself and in the earliest texts of saint john's gospel it's not there in some texts instead it's found elsewhere in the evangelist think to yourself who does it sound like most of all this story who does it sound like and i think most of us would say it sounds like luke and in some ancient texts that's exactly where it's found it's found at the end of luke chapter 21 and in some way this floating periphery has been replaced and found its home here at the beginning of john chapter 8 the new english bible lifted it out completely and placed it as an extra piece at the end of saint john's gospel because there's so much doubt about where this piece should be i'm 99 persuaded that this is a piece of luke and it's written in his particular way because of course if you look through luke's gospel there are many scenes where the one who is most vulnerable is the one about whom the story is and shows us something more about our own relationship with jesus try it this morning and read just the end of luke chapter 21 and see what's going on you have then to conflate the verses at the end of chapter 21 in luke and the the bit of verse 53 and the beginning of chapter 8 of john and then this story fits in it it's ill-fitting in this bit of john's gospel i'm not sorry though that it's there otherwise we wouldn't have it at all because in some way it's been detached from wherever it was and one cannot be certain i'm sounding too certain really it's just that i like to think of it as part of luke's gospel and it takes us back to last summer when we were doing st luke and seeing the kind of themes that that evangelist brought in doesn't matter really it's an early text and we're glad of it as we say our prayers and think of those who are most vulnerable and in the hands of others in our world today this day in history in march the 9th is an interesting day as i look down the few dates that i have in front of me not too many in 1566 david rizzio who was the private secretary to mary queen of scots was brutally murdered in front of the queen herself in holyrood palace by the in the orders it seems of mary's jealous husband lord darnley who himself meets a very nasty end uh not long afterwards but rizzio in all probability was mary's only companion and her ladies of course and it's such a dramatic scene this murder of david rizzio italian court chair and musician and the faithful secretary to mary queen of scots that artists have painted it and i well remember a school textbook with the murder of ritzio being shown he's kneeling behind mary clutching on to her flared tudor skirt and there is the posse of bullies one of them even wearing armor about to murder and they do it brutally stabbed with so many wounds that the body lies lifeless and they go away leaving mary and the ladies of court completely distraught in the private apartments of the queen well it's a sign again of those with huge power exerting that power on someone who cannot defend themselves and was ill expecting this in the context that he was in that night and then again um one goes on and the next thing i'd want to point out was that in 1842 on this day that is opera nabucco nebuchadnezzar if you say it in english but uh nabucco was premiered in milan the the libretto had been produced and was rejected by the composer otto nikolai um and then was brought to daddy and there's a story which might be apocryphal but it's a nice story that verdi not much wanting to write an opera he wasn't a well-known opera composer in those days this was only to be his i think third opera through the libretto onto the table and it's opened and he looked down before going to bed and saw the phrase va ponciero sul ali and that phrase stayed in his sleepless head and became of course the very very famous chorus of the hebrew slaves by the river euphrates longing for home in the second scene of act 3 always gets an encore because it is so dramatic but dramatic too is nebuchadnezzar's burning of the temple in act one and uh we remember seeing that in that on that vast stage of the metropolitan opera house in new york where it seemed at the end the whole stage was on fire and the jews were being led into exile through the smoke and the mistress the stage revolved well they can do that there in that vast space but the the tune has become something that is very iconic in terms of verdi opera and of course nabucco established him as a foremost opera composer everything else had to follow it's a story once again of a great empire of nebuchadnezzar coming to the relatively tiny state burning the temple carrying them off to exile and like the psalmist in psalm 137 by the waters of babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered zion this song is a chorus sung on the banks of the river euphrates and then what else can we say um in 1910 samuel baba the very famous american composer was born and he knew even from childhood that he wanted to be a composer and told his parents so when they were trying to edge him towards other things but he went to study and there when he was studying he met the man who was to be his life partner giancarlo menotti he himself a very famous writer of short operas mostly but also he wrote the le brescii for samuel barber for three of his operas and menache probably is best known for certainly by me for a amal and the night visitors that lovely christmas opera which is sung and full of amusement of the three kings arriving and uh uh amal with with his crotch uh being interested in where they're going and the opera ending up with amal presenting his crotch because he needs it no more because of the miracle of healing that takes place in that opera and he goes with the magi to the manger that's monoty and the house of baba and and menotti became a house of great composition and work for so many years until 1970 then the house which uh i think was was called uh capricorn in uh just north of manhattan and we give thanks for that creative workshop they they separated at the end but staged good friends and menotti lived to be 95. sadly baba became a bit reclusive and was prone to to alcoholism at the at the end but nevertheless we give enormous thanks for his music and if we think of of him we thought about nabuco and the chorus of hebrew slaves with verdi with baba i think we think of the adagio for strings which has become really should we call it again iconic of baba's music it was used so much at 9 11 as part of our memory of those who died in that act of violence in uh manhattan and um so also we remember that in 1936 he created of that adagio a chorus of the anestheti with that music so thanks be to god for the gifts of samuel baba and giancarlo menotti on this particular day and then we remember also on this day that vita sackville west was born in 1892 great writer about gardens but we'll come to that she was born at the sackville ancient english family sackville family home at nell the great castle and she absolutely loved no absolutely loved that place if you read her book the edwardians the real hero oblique heroine of the story is the house and her extreme lamentation about having to leave that house she was a daughter of the sackvilles but the title went to the male heir who was uh a cousin for her and she had to leave nevertheless we remember her writing of course her poetry and her her novels um uh all passions spent which on saw is it even a bbc uh series at one stage but um it's her gardening writing that actually really comes and sets on fire because she married in 1913 the diplomats harold nicholson who lived a very eventful life but their marriage lasted from 1913 to 1968 and uh nicholson was the young diplomat who had to take across in james's part the declaration of war to the german embassy to the german ambassador late at night in 1914 but when the clock struck 11. um but he was a great diarist as well his father had been a diplomat so he was born in tehran and they traveled the world but vita was a homing person and together they found in 1930 setting hurst castle not too far from here about an hour's drive away or something like that and sissinghurst became known not for the house but for the garden which harold and vita put mostly vita in terms of inspiration created together vita is uh credited with having the sense of a garden being in different rooms she wasn't the first person to think of that in history there'd be many gardens like that but nevertheless she gave it a common language in that so that when you go to the white room at sittinghurst then vita's memory is conjured up and for years she gardened there as she wrote and went in and out of various relationships which were fruitful to her and harold in the same way their marriage held firm in the middle and the gardening correspondence that she sent or articles that she sent constantly to the observer as a regular writer become the stuff of description just as the camera is showing you bits and pieces of this garden so one gets the sense of sissinghurst then in 1968 vita died as we said in 1962 and harold in 68 but in 67 he had done what vita had never wanted to happen but he felt it had to happen and signed over sissinghurst to the national trust and i didn't know about you but we always find that if you go to an art gallery um like the giacomo andre gallery in in paris or the frick in new york where one person's imagination has actually created that and their spirit is still there then you get a flavor of that place uh we find it here still with godington the gardens nearby uh and um as we go around great dixter is another with uh um the spirit of christopher lloyd's still there but on this occasion and sittinghurst is one of the national trust's most visited places you still see the vistas with the little statues at the end which vita had placed there and harold and you still have the sense of rooms but in the gardens itself i i feel we don't find that sense of of vita being there so you have to read her correspondence a bit and then conjure that up in your mind for very formal public places according to all sorts of rules don't give the same i don't know uh carefree attitude that that vita had in her garden and that you feel the absolute love of all of that in everything that she writes and you feel that also in the particular ways i was talking about who does this feel like when we read the story and i said it feels like luke because luke has a particular way of writing and mark has a particular way of writing and matthew had a particular way of writing and john had particular ways of writing and paul telling the story in the same sort of way completely different and you think ah that sounds like and you do it with the letters too but creativity is very personal and creativity also is something in which we are in partnership with our creators is what we're doing our creator it's what we're doing throughout then with the spirit uh and with the mind and with the body just working our way through our own vocation day by day and we very much give thanks for that as we remember all these creative people on this particular day well probably that's enough and uh we ought to say our prayers um but we've got this morning the intention from the diocese of athoch in the province of the episcopal church of south sudan the the yongli province and we pray for the people there and also we're in the elam area deanery quite near here we'll go through the various villages as the days unfold but today we're praying for those exercising a chaplaincy ministry that's uh within schools uniformed organizations residential care communities community clubs businesses health care groups prisons police armed service all of that we're asking god's blessing upon malcolm sawyer tricia hill and david slater for the elam dinery this morning pray for archbishop justin for bishop rose of dover for bishop tim at lambeth as we say our morning prayers together bring your own concerns and bring the people that you know need your prayers this morning almighty god whose most dear son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain and entered not into glory before he was crucified mercifully grant that we walking in the way of the cross may find it none other than the way of life and peace through jesus christ our lord amen so we say 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 a little bit of silence now for your own prayers [Music] [Music] 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 are men you have a creative day and don't forget to read that passage and put it at the end of luke 21 and see how it feels to you some may come back and say no it's john and some may say well it really feels like luke whatever we give thanks for it [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you