good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this saturday the 20th of june saturday mornings have a more relaxed atmosphere about them but actually today on at 10 o'clock the the knave of the cathedral for the first time on a saturday morning for since early march is open for people to come in and at a safe distance from each other say their prayers light candles and feel that it belongs to them again this holy place and that will be all day long until four o'clock so we pray for this holy place again this morning but i've come to a special corner of the garden this morning and uh i'm reminded of it by a little poem just two verses by edward thomas whom we read a bit back with the poem adelstrop but this is his poem called tall nettles tall nettles cover up as they have done these many springs the rusty harrow the plow long worn out and the roller made of stone only the elm butt tops the nettles now this corner of the farm yard i like most as well as any bloom upon a flower i like the dust on the nettles never lost except to prove the sweetness of a shower well not just nettles and thistles but teasels also very tall teasels overshadowing bits and pieces from the past but looking out in that direction which you can't see upon the great tower of the cathedral where today doors will be open for people to say their prayers wherever you are in the world we give thanks for you and pray for you please feel welcome oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation and sustain us with your gracious spirit oh come let us sing to the lord let us heartily rejoice in the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving and be glad in him with psalms for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn renews the faiths 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 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 psalm on this 20th morning of the month is psalm 100 102 o lord hear my prayer and let my crying come before you hide not your face from me in the day of my distress incline your ear to me when i call make haste to answer me for my days are consumed in smoke and my bones burn away as in a furnace my heart is smitten down and withered like grass so that i forget to eat my bread from the sound of my groaning my bones cleave fast to my skin i am become like a vulture in the wilderness like an owl that haunts the ruins i keep watch and then become like a sparrow solitary upon the house top but you o lord shall endure forever your name through all generations you will arise and have pity on zion it is time to have mercy on her surely the time has come for your servants love her very stones and feel compassion for her dust then shall the nations fear your name o lord and all the kings of the earth your glory when the lord has built up zion and shown himself in glory when he has turned to the prayer of the destitute and has not despised their plea this shall be written for those that come after and the people yet unborn shall praise the lord for he has looked down from his holy height from the heavens he beheld the earth that he might hear the sighings of the prisoner and set free those condemned to die so we turn to our reading from the gospel of saint luke and it's a troubled reading today and brings us once again to jesus his own struggle with his vocation as our messiah his humanity doing all the things that our humanity would intention about what is ahead but also he has around him those who he has brought with him and whom he must care for and that too is attention verse 49 of chapter 12 i came to cast fire on the earth and wood that it were already kindled i have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is my distress until it is accomplished do you think that i have come to give peace on earth no i tell you but rather division for from now on in one house there will be five divided three against two and two against three they will be divided further against son and son against father mother against daughter and daughter against mother mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law he also said to the crowds when you see a cloud rising in the west you say at once a shower is coming so it happens when you see the south wind blowing you say there will be scorching heat and it happens you hypocrites you know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky but why do you not know how to interpret the present time and why do you not judge for yourselves what is right as you go with your accuser before the magistrate make an effort to settle with him on the way lest he drag you to the judge and the judge you hand you over to the officer and the officer put you in prison i tell you you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny troubling words but it shows jesus his anxiety for those for whom he has care the 12 and others who are following whom he has brought from galilee on this journey where they have found nothing but anger and division so he has a care for them and still are wrestling with his own vocation i've come to this place surrounded by debris from the past but also the growth of of the nettles and thistles which will be wonderful for butterflies and the goldfinches on the thistledown but also it's breakfast time for two of our friends and they are part of my care their expectations really have nothing to do with my vocation other than my vocation to look after them and i just give them their breakfast well we then carry on with things i'll spread it around a bit and then they can come and enjoy it because i've rather held them up this morning [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the first part of what we heard this morning was very much for the disciples it was a continuation of all that went on before and as that went on so jesus begins to look at the crowds as well and he says to them all you all know about country law i mean l-o-r-e learning from intuition about the countryside and that means that as the crowds are there they're nodding when he is talking about the way in which he finds that a cloud coming up means there's rain coming but even before that uh here come kemi and winston who will have their breakfast now they're full of country law i remember my old housekeeper for 10 years in tisbury and wiltshire a country community nora birch her name was she lived to be over a hundred i remember also my old sacristan there who served me every day at the daily communion wilf barlow who had been the village milkman for a long time neither of them used to listen to weather forecasts they knew deep inside them and wilf in the morning by his rheumatic would say ah there's rain on the way or there's snow on the way or whatever he was always dead right i remember dear friends like robin kingston who even when he became governor of the bank of england had beehives on the top of the bank of england because the bees told him much more than anything he could learn from the account books and dear friends like jim banner who outside never listened to a weather forecast things were intuitive both with what was going on with those that he had to look after and with people around him in situations jesus says to them all you know these things why can you not then interpret the signs of the time for they're going to be violent the courses of action of this people and he's approaching jerusalem are violent and then at the same time it's almost wistful not angry this story of division and the anger that he's stirring up and the sense of looking after these disciples who once or twice in the journey not only misunderstand him but they also say couldn't we go back home when jesus says this is what i'm going to suffer it's peter who says lord this mustn't be so and i always have the feeling he's saying couldn't we go back to those we know at home have known the rhythmic life of galilee the carpenter's shop the fishing boat but no the vocation takes them onwards so i see these passages as wistful but also prophetic about persecutions that are going to come for the twelve our calendar is filled with saints who lost their lives in terrible situations and yet were determined to give the good news the first sentence of the gospel i read this morning is in latin the motto for the venerable english college in rome where so many of our friends are who have given us hospitality and we pray for monsignor philip whitmore and all the people there this morning but their walls are filled with catalogues of those who gave their life in terrible circumstances for the spread of the good news as they saw it our little chapel here it's into augustine's is covered with the names of young missionaries who gave their lives lost them in disease in violence in shipwreck and storm all those things jesus has intuition about but meantime day by day the present tense meant care for those he had to look after making sure that they were looked after but nevertheless knowing that he could expect more from them and when it comes to the time for leaving them then there is a wistfulness and a sadness about things say we've come to this corner of the garden as a time of reflection early in the morning where there's nothing more satisfying than seeing clemmy and winston eat their food and be totally unconcerned about anything else and nothing more satisfying for me than looking up at belharry tower and knowing that at ten o'clock the doors will open for the first time on a saturday morning since march the goodness knows when early in march and people will go in and have their time of reflection lighting candles for others across the world and yet intuitively we know that certain situations which we have to be brave in will lead to division will temporarily maybe cause dissent and anger and temporarily in our own lives is a short time temporarily in the life of the church is a much much longer time temporarily in the life of all humanity is something that is very long today is world refugee day reminding us to care care for those for whom we can care contribute to charities that are caring for them the world over it's also a time for us to remember on a saturday that the lockdown is beginning to ease and the coming out of that lockdown will cause as many problems and divisions and and difficulties as they're going into it so our prayers are ever more necessary as we look after those in our charge and at the same time are faithful to our own vocation despite the tension it may cause within us let's say our prayers then on this particular day we pray this morning for the diocese of nikkei in nigeria for christian anya the bishop there and all the people of that diocese the diocese of arizona in the episcopal church and for bishop jennifer reddle and her people there and the diocese of jeba in nigeria and timothy adewole and his people pray for justin archbishop of canterbury rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth in their episcopal ministry and care for us all right diocese today we pray for milton regis with merston bapchild and tong and for george rogers and simon young in their ministry for their reader angie daniel and the folk they look after in that community so we say the collect for this day oh god the strength of all those who put their trust in you mercifully accept our prayers and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you grant us the help of your grace that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed through jesus christ our lord amen and the son collect creator god send your holy spirit to renew this living world that the whole creation in its groaning and striving may know your loving purpose and come to reflect your glory in jesus christ our lord amen so in our own language and in whatever way we like to say it the world over we say this 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 for your own prayers on this morning [Music] the peace of god