good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of passion tide friday morning and the 26th of march no two days could be more different than yesterday and today today is blowing with uh gray clouds above us but you are actually seeing the lovely line of hyacinths and i can even smell them from where i'm sitting here in the herb garden where the box hedges have been clipped for the coming spring and although the rain is on the way i think we can still say our morning prayers outside and enjoy the sense of freshness in the garden in as spring arrives in the northern hemisphere so wherever you are in the world please feel welcome here in canterbury cathedral on this morning this friday of passion week as we continue our morning prayers together oh 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 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 are men our psalm on this 26th morning of the month is psalm 119 and i'm reading the section beginning at verse 105. your word is a lantern to my feet and a light upon my path i have sworn and will fulfill it to keep your righteous judgments i am troubled above measure give me life o lord according to your word accept the free will offering of my mouth oh lord and teach me your judgments my soul is ever in my hand yet i do not forget your law the wicked have laid a snare for me but i have not strayed from your commandments your testimonies have i claimed as my heritage forever for they are the very joy of my heart i have applied my heart to fulfill your statutes always even to the end well yesterday the feast of the annunciation gave us a special lesson so today i'm going to read the section of st john that we missed and also attach it to this morning's lesson so the lesson not too long but a little longer than normal is taking up from the points that we left off uh after the supper at bethany the meal at bethany which we read two days ago where lazarus and martha and mary were there giving hospitality to jesus and i'm starting therefore at chapter 12 and verse 12 this and tomorrow the last time we shall read the passages of st john in sequence because of course holy week gives us a completely different set of lessons but we shall continue with this during the six sections half an hour each of the good friday three hours service which will be put on on good friday itself and and so don't think that we shall stop reading just as the passion is starting here there is chapter 12 and verse 12. the next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that jesus was coming to jerusalem so they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him crying out hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord even the king of israel and jesus found a young donkey and sat on it just as it is written fear not daughter of zion behold your king is coming sitting on a donkey's cult jesus's disciples did not understand these things at first but when jesus was glorified then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him the crowd that had been with him when he called lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness the reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign so the pharisees said to one another you see that you are gaining nothing look the whole world has gone after him now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some greeks so these came to philip who was from bethsaida in galilee and asked him sir we wish to see jesus philip went and told andrew andrew and philip went and told jesus and jesus answered them the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified truly truly i say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it bears much fruit whoever loves their life loses it and whoever hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life if anyone serves me they must follow me and where i am there will my servant be also if anyone serves me the father will honor them now is my soul troubled and what shall i say father save me from this hour but for this purpose i have come to this hour father glorify your name then a voice came from heaven i have glorified it and i will glorify it again the crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered others said an angel has spoken to him jesus answered this voice has come for your sake not mine now is the judgment of this world now will ruler of this world be cast out and i when i am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself jesus said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die so the crowd answered him we have heard from the lord that the christ remains forever how can you say that the son of man must be lifted up who is this son of man so jesus said to them the light is among you for a little while longer walk while you have the light lest darkness overtake you the one who walks in the darkness does not know where they are going while you have the light believe in the light that you may become children of light a significant part of jesus's vocation and those of you who may have been present online or have seen later the sunday eucharist for passion sunday will recognize part of that gospel that i've just read as the gospel for last sunday also it was a gospel i was able to preach on afterwards so some of the things i'll say this morning will echo the thoughts i was having then but let's go first to the prophecy of zechariah the old testament prophet being fulfilled that the entry of the one who had resisted any earthly idea of kingship the entry of that anointed one into the holy city to fulfill his destiny and vocation as our christ our messiah our anointed one is taking place sitting on the back of the humble donkey not the war horse and behind him come those who have witnessed and believed not only the disciples but the larger outer group of those who support jesus and also an outer and and more uh numerous groups still who are cheering and and shouting hosanna the word of greeting which we shall say on palm sunday morning in uh two days time and as we do that we'll be remembering that in entering the holy city jesus is coming to fulfill that vocation which he has been wrestling with and resting against temptations of earthly ideas of power and embracing the will of the father for himself but he said again and again throughout this gospel my hour has not yet come from the wedding at cana of galilee to this moment my hour has not yet come and now when philip and andrew are asked by some greeks in the we guess in the outer court charge of the temple where jesus is teaching when they're asked we would like to see jesus then they both go to see jesus to tell him and jesus says my hour has come this is the moment there is still a sense as we go through as we'll see during holy week a sense of can i do this is this the is this the vocation the father is calling me to deep inside he already knows that this is the case and that those who receive that same vocation and receive the spirit the gift of the spirit within them fulfill that same vocation yesterday we had a whole day of vocation with the vocation of the blessed virgin mary and that image was set in front of us and her obedience set in front of us even though she was pondering the meaning of it all and now here is jesus in the same way the hour has come for the son of man this title he uses of himself as the emblem of our humanity to be glorified by being lifted up we already know and the evangelist knows that those reading the gospel that he is writing already know what has happened to jesus in the lifting up the emblem of the cross is already before their eyes but jesus has to walk that way of the cross which we shall do together and as i said on sunday morning there's an interesting variation of translations the ancient manuscripts with the eye when i am lifted up will draw and the word there which comes in the greek panthes is all and in king james all men to myself it's a a a masculine uh um greek word at that with the earth but other uh old old testament manuscripts of ancient derivation miss of that s and we have the word panther which means all things everything embracing uh i i went into that in in detail the arms of jesus embracing the whole world on sunday morning but at the same time our colleagues as you'll see from reading it this morning when we pray that colic together draw the whole world and all things all of creation his vocation from the father is for that whole world and our vocation becomes also a vocation to care for our whole world and within that of course our relationships with one another and as we do that we are giving them the gift that christ himself wants to give us all those things as i say we shall explore on good friday during our three hours meditation which you'll be able to do section by section at whatever time you like but we'll be there on friday afternoon of next week from 12 till 3 and meanwhile let's just have a little look as we always do at what has happened on this particular day march the 26th india has gone by well let's start with 1484 for on this day william caxton printed his first book he was going to become the first english person to work as a printer to introduce the printing press to england and to be a retailer of printed books and what was his first book it was esop's fables which were known no doubt as they're known to us in a form of short stories esop was a slave we learned from herodotus who lived between 620 and 564 thereabouts bc but most of his stories were at first carried out by just telling the stories in one way or another until collections were made but it's it's clear that uh um plato um uh knew them and and uh he says that socrates in imprisonment used to write verses based on the esop's fables esop a slave but obviously a very literate slave and a storyteller and we give thanks for those stories which we we know so well the town mouse and the country mouse and well all sorts of of stories but there's one actually on the fireplace of the drawing room in the deanery it's the the dinner which the crane and the fox are sharing and at first the crane is invited to the um fox's house for a meal and the meal is served on flat plates which the crane finds difficult that part of the story is just done in little cameo on the stone in the drawing room and then the main story is told in relief in stone of the return story where the crane gives a meal to the fox as well but it's served in a tall glass which the crane's beak goes down into and the fox can't get near because his nose isn't and his tongue isn't long enough and uh i i remember an uh a mother abbas of of beck saying to me in the drawing room once what is the message here for for uh mr ladoyan uh the uh the dean and uh i said you tell me mother and she said to give apt hospitality well that's there's always a message on each of the esops fables and we give thanks for the imagination of esop but also for the beginning of printed books where learning was allowed to spread then we see that in 1839 the henley regatta began on this day a sporting event which still in ordinary years takes place on the first weekend of july for five days on the river at henley in 1885 this is interesting the very first person to be cremated was cremated and in those days it was uh not i think people were in the least bit used to and at the times in reporting it was uh gave an anonymous uh uh ascription to that first cremation but now of course it's it's something that we're very used to indeed 1827 this is too big a thing to even explore today the composer ludwig van beethoven died in vienna and his music of course is a great gift his his music bridges the classical period to the romantic period and also we're very aware of his deafness and on his deathbed he's said to have said i shall hear again in heaven but we give thanks for beethoven's music on this day remember that on this day in 1923 the bbc began regular weather forecasts again strange not to have them because we rely on them in a huge way and in 1945 david lloyd george died who'd been the prime minister at the end of the first world war from 1916 in a coalition government up to 1922 and he was responsible for key reforms in laying the foundations of the modern welfare state a fiery welshman david lloyd george as we remember him remember on this day that in 1973 nell coward the playwright and entertainer died and we give thanks for both his music and his acting and writing abilities and in 2007 the writer the sorry the politicians ian paisley and jerry adams northern irish politicians made history in a face-to-face meeting and agreed on the restoration of the storm and stormont assembly and a way of power sharing that at the time seemed an amazing meeting to happen between those two adversaries and representatives of very different parties and thought and then in 2015 now this interests us because in 2015 on this day richard iii the monarch whose body had been found underneath a car park when an excavation was being made was re-entered in leicester cathedral but also on this day in 2015 we in canterbury were preparing ourselves to receive at lunchtime the queen and prince philip who came to lunch at the deanery on march the 26th 2015 and then her majesty unveiled the two statues of herself and prince philip on the west end of the cathedral church and we remember the sense of of warm hospitality at that time which of course is no longer possible during our restrictions of of both hospitality and distancing um but i remember her majesty is suddenly noticing that uh the monkey the my black cat who was always always around and used to sit beside me at the table at uh at any dinner party or lunch in his own chair but we thought on that day not to put in there came in and began to scratch the carpet and her majesty said who who's such a lovely black cat that that and uh the um i said that's that that's that's uh monkey like my cat he generally sits here and the chow was brought and so he sat there and uh so that was a great day for him as well he's somebody we remember and but we massively remember the joy of the canterbury community on that particular day when her majesty and prince philip came amongst us precincts were shut for security reasons but all the people who lived here actually were cheering and glad that her majesty and prince philip were able to be with us and it gave heart to the community well then lastly i want to say that on this day in 1874 the poet robert frost was born the american poet and again i'll come back to him in the three hours on good friday we remember him four poems like the road not taken mending wall and uh whose woods these are i think i know his house is in the village though he will not see me waiting here to watch his woods fill up with snow the way in which the the rhymes stay in one's head but we'll come back to robert frost but there's another poet who also was born on this day but in 1859 and that's a e houseman who again did wonderful things in terms of poetic verses and this little book which is the shropshire lad as i've carried with me all around the world really and here we are this morning and houseman one of the poets that songwriters loved to set to music this is number two of the shopshellad and you'll know it well it's lovely for this time of year well maybe a few weeks on loveliest of trees the cherry now is hung with bloom along the bow and stands about the woodland ride wearing white for easter tide now of my three score years and 10 20 will not come again and take from 70 springs a score it only leaves me 50 more and since to look at things in bloom 50 springs are little room about the woodlands i will go to see the cherry hung with snow wonderful poem and uh houseman had a way with words so that the image of the cherry tree in that poem becomes an important one let's uh then turn to our prayers on this particular morning and give thanks for all creative gifts whether it be creative gifts of beethoven you want to come up um creative gifts of beethoven or creative gifts of robert frost and and a.e houseman i think tiger may want to come up he finds it a bit difficult to jump that much um let's pray then this morning on the 26th of march for the diocese of banks and torres in the anglican church of melanesia for in this diocese archbishop dustin and for bishop rose and bishop tim at lambeth and this morning we're praying for the kent workplace mission and the prayer request is from david slater who's the joint lead for kent emergency chaplains at this time of pandemic so we're going to use then the prayer that i mentioned earlier the colict for passion week so bring your own prayers and intentions to this merciful god who by the death and resurrection of your son jesus christ delivered and saved the world grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross we may triumph in the power of his victory through jesus christ our lord amen so in whatever language you like to use we say 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 of silence now as we say our own prayers on this friday of passion week christ crucified draw you to himself to find in him a sure ground for hope a firm support for faith 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 well you don't like the wind but i'm keeping you warm and you're keeping me warm which is a good partnership this morning