good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this 12th of november a thursday morning and a beautiful thursday morning we're beginning to run out of options for color in flowers in the garden but we not intended to come to this place again until we came out and saw the sun shining on the leaves beyond the deanery in the green court all the lime trees have lost their leaves completely and are there but here the cherry trees which are signs of peace in so many cultures and also this judas tree above me are retaining their leaves and so we'll enjoy the sun on the leaves this morning as we say our prayers together wherever you are in the world please feel welcome to bring your own intentions as we say our prayers and think of those combating the effects of this pandemic in every culture and the sharing of information medical information and resources across the world for which we give thanks various things have happened on this 12th of november in the past one thinks of rhoda being born the great french sculptor best known for his sculpture the thinker and the kiss and the burgers of calais and also on this day in 1833 boriden was born known for his russian composer known for his uh opera prince igor but perhaps best of all for his string quartet the melody of which was used in the musical the the american musical kismet but that tune people know well there were no words in the time of boring when he wrote the quartet but words were added for that and the tunes become familiar 1911 chad vara was born who founded the samaritans and so we give thanks for their work in our prayers and also in 1990 tim berners-lee proposed a world wide web and that has become taken for granted as part of our life now it was only last year that he lamented the fact that what he thought was going to be a real organ and and and method of of education and people coming together for good has been used in other ways well i think in this lockdown we can say that it has become a wonderful agent of people coming together encouraging one another and being able to keep in touch so on this day we give thanks for that we shall remember two other things which happened on november the 12th in our reflection which will help us with the book of revelation but for the moment let's begin our prayers on this lovely morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night 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 refreshed 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 give 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 twelfth morning of the month is psalm 62 on god alone my soul in stillness waits from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my strongholds say that i shall never be shaken how long will all of you assail me to destroy me as you would a tottering wall or a leaning fence they plot only to thrust me down from my place of honour lies are their chief delight they bless with their mouth but in their heart they curse wait on god alone in stillness o my soul for in him is my hope he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall not be shaken in god is my strength and my glory god is my strong rock in him is my refuge put your trust in him always my people pour out your hearts before him for god is our refuge the peoples are but a breath the whole human race a deceit on the scales they are altogether lighter than air put no trust in oppression in robbery take no empty pride though wealth increase set not your heart upon it god spoke once and twice have i heard the same that power belongs to god steadfast love belongs to you o lord for you repay everyone according to their deeds so we turn to the book of revelation it's a book of images and pictures many separate images and many images of great glory and beauty and many images of enormous terror and quite often we we leave those out but we're going to be brave knowing that the whole of the book has as its emblem uncertainty that god's power is over all things whatever things seem like here in situations on earth or whatever fears one has or desires and this is a psalmist's exercise too or desires for vengeance we have to see all that in the context of the almighty power of god and his plan for salvation as we read this morning chapter eight when the lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour then i saw the seven angels who stand before god and seven trumpets were given to them and another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all god's people on the golden altar before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of god's people rose before god from the hand of the angel then the angel took the sensor and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth and there were peels of thunder rumblings flashings of lightning and an earthquake now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them the first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood and these were thrown upon the earth and a third of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees were burned up and all green grass was burned up the second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood a third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships were destroyed the third angel blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven blazing like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water the name of the star is wormwood a third of the waters became wormwood and many people died from the water because it had been made bitter the fourth angel blew his trumpet and a third of the sun was struck and a third of the moon and a third of the stars so that a third of their light might be darkened and a third of the day might be kept from shining and likewise a third of the night and then i looked and i heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead woe woe woe to those who dwell on the earth at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow lovely images and terrifying images we have to think of the book of revelation almost like an art gallery which maybe we don't know too well and wander into one room after another without any particular order or we can try to put an order in things and maybe go by the numbering of rooms which the director of the museum has set out or the gallery but we will come to pictures which utterly delight us by their beauty and others which utterly fill us with all by the splendor of their glory and others which puzzle us and challenge us and cause us to stand in silence in front of them and others which terrify us with the vision of the fear and terror and horror of the person painting it in a particular situation we can all think of all of those and in the end almost the human spirit becomes tired with the journey in a gallery and you feel i have to go back to that i need to go back to that well think of this book a bit like that and today it starts with an extraordinary scene when the seventh seal is opened and silence falls in heaven the myriads of angels the creatures the elders stop singing and in the silence one hears the prayers of god's people on earth it reminds one of that scene in the dream of jurontius where jarontius about to be before the throne of god says to the angel what is the sound that i hear and the singing i recognize and the angel said those are the prayers of friends around your bed which we reach even here to the throne of heaven this lovely moment when one of the seven angels of the presence takes the bowl of incense and the smoke rising represents the prayers of god's people on earth and then the angels the seven of them and seven the holy number the number of the days of the week with the sabbath ending that with its silence and rest but john actually in the spirit on the lord's day the first day of the week so there's seven days in time have often been used in an attempt to find a total key to the book of revelation it's my belief there is no total key the images come as in a dream inexplicably in their order of beauty joy glory fear puzzlement and terror we know all those experiences trumpets in the old testament mostly ram's horns sounding for the new moon or the festival of the full moon or the harvest or a season of penitence again the human emotions the trumpet sounding but also sounding for the presence of the king and sounding to and think of the seven priests with their seven trumpets around the ark of the covenant and circumnavigating the walls of jericho and when the trumpets blow the walls collapse they symbolize the presence of the holiness of god in the ark of the covenant and here the seven angels given seven trumpets i like to think of them like the silver trumpets created in the book of numbers by moses signaling by their sound a call to worship and the sense of god's power and purpose here on earth and as they sound terrible things happen but the cry and message of the book of revelation is whenever those things are happening even as the wind up of history and god in john's mind is taking place in these images the voice of our lord is there saying at this time stand up lift up your heads for god's power is over all of this and over all these images i said that there were two other things which happened today on a november the 12th well one of them was the imprisonment of john bunyan for 12 years in 1660 on november 12 he was imprisoned because he'd been preaching without a license later after the 12 years he was released but in those 12 years in his mind in his dreams in his prayers in his vision he created the pilgrims progress which is full of images which we love and images which frighten and terrify us and which we don't read much but those are there also and bunnion sensed that god's hand was over all and there were lessons in every situation in which god's people could give glory to god with confidence all of that is in the pilgrims progress and at the same time in 1940 on this day walt disney's film fantasia was released it didn't come here until 1941 and people seeing it in cinemas were conscious that this land was being bombed and fire was falling from heaven and terrible things were happening to civilian populations in cities that was replicated right across the world during the second world war but as those bombs fell that film which is extraordinary in its images not of an art gallery but of music that film sets before us a whole sequence of images and there are lessons everywhere in it disney uses the music of bach of tchaikovsky of dukkha of stravinsky of muzorski of beethoven pontielli of schubert and he sets before people and before children watching it and look at it again terrifying images at times when it seems the devil himself appears in fire with horrendous face and spirits walk and at the end there's the sound of the lovely bell as shubert's ave maria is sung and the sun rises there couldn't be really a better image of the revelation that john is giving us for the journey leads to the eternal city as does bunyan's journey in the same way but every human an emotion we will be wrung out of us in our journey in this life the power and glory of god and the mercy of the lamb who gave himself for us is never absent there are lovely scenes in fantasia where you remember with the sorcerer's apprentice and the sorcerer's apprentice is played by mickey mouse begins to play with the things which he doesn't understand and suddenly the temptation to do this overcomes him and one sees that the water rising and rising as the chopped up broom which he can't control fills the room and suddenly the terrifying image of the power of the sorcerer returns and the apprentice in all humbleness stands penitent for having misused the creative gifts and all that power well look at it again stakovsky conducts it all the way through and compares it a bit but for me i can never hear the sorcerer's apprentice now without thinking of all those scenes but neither too can i hear the the other scenes the stravinsky the right of spring and the tchaikovsky and the beauty of beethoven's pastoral symphony all there as we watch we've been joined here by leo now so let's read this without fear but as we go through as with the psalms we shall choose favorite images and others we shall come back to but it will be a pity to fear any page of the new testament and so we read it but with confidence in our god and in his salvation let's uh say our prayers on this morning together and bring your own concerns whatever your fears whatever your situation whatever your grief on this particular day and we will say our prayers together we're praying in the anglican communion on this 12th of november for the diocese of rutana in burundi and bishop pontian ribocari and his people the diocese of doko in nigeria and the bishop uriah colo and his people and the dominican republic of the episcopal church of the united states of america and bishop moshe kazada motta and his people there and in this diocese as we pray for archbishop justin and for bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lumbers we pray for the maidstone area deanery the parishes around the county town of kent maidstone and pray for chris lavender and his ministry there as the area dean but also today for all clergy with permission to officiate some in retired ministry who help in all those parishes and we give thanks for them so we come to our prayers the prayer for this week almighty father whose will is to restore all things in your beloved son the king of all govern the hearts and minds of those in authority and bring the families of the nations divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin to be subject to his just and gentle rule who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men so each in our own language and together we pray the prayer our savior taught us saying 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 our men moment of silence for our own prayers this morning [Music] i said at the beginning that very often the scenes of terror have caused artists to try to paint that in creative work to express what they are feeling and rhoda who was born on this day in 1840 spent 10 years of his life working at his sculpture the gates of hell it's like the other side of the coin to the lovely gates on the baptistry of the gates of heaven in florence but this morning as we consider rhoda and all the things he shows from dante's inferno we remember that dante's inferno led through to paradise itself as does the book of revelation and also we remember the sentence from the psalmist if i go down into hell thou art there also the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and if 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 upon those whom you would pray for today and always amen so you've arrived from somewhere and you've been playing in the leaves i'm sure all right foreign