good morning and welcome on this lovely march sunday morning of march the 14th as we meet in the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral welcome wherever you are across the world it is the loveliest morning of a totally blue sky and only the lightest of breezes which is very different from some of the weather we have been enjoying recently and can you believe it we are at midland sunday halfway through our journey together in lent this sunday has a variety of names mid-length sunday lent four the fourth sunday of lent but also it's often been called refreshment sunday because here's a little stop on the way for some refreshment to take a breather before we go on through to the passion of our lord and then on to easter itself which is three weeks away and we've come here in the morning because of course it's usually known here in england as mothering sunday or mother's day to so many and i've brought out a little posey of daffodils and box leaves which normally would be given out to every member of the congregation in the cathedral at the sun eucharist every member because it's a gift from their mother the church and that's especially so in canterbury cathedral the mother church of the whole anglican communion but we're joined by uh lily no more fishing person this morning she was a wonderful mother to leo her son whom you know very well and uh taught him all he needed to know at that stage in his life and now they have the sort of relationship which mother and son have and i think she still cares for him but she gives him a little distance to get on with his own life too sadly we can't give these lovely poses out this morning it's a year full of daffodils but all the restrictions are in place so although we'll have a full choir for some eucharist we're not allowed to have any kind of congregation so everything is happening shall we say virtually and we've grown used to that through our lenten journey but take a rest today as you think of this as midland refreshment sunday across the world and here in england mothering sunday i'll put these little flowers here as a reminder through our service of that day so let's begin our prayers oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice so 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 [Music] 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen well it's very much a day for thinking of our own mothers and giving thanks for them um we i know are both thinking of our mothers fletcher's mother jackie very much a greeting to her this morning and lots of love sent her in in southern spain with her daughter danny and and granddaughter arabella but also i think of my own mother who died and went into glory 36 years ago but the older i get the more i contemplate the enormous amount that she gave of herself to me and that i know will be the case with so many of us who remember mothers in the the wide beyond after this life and also those who are around the world maybe that we have to contact virtually today with all the love we want to give them on this day our son is the regular psalm for this 14th morning of the month which 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 evildoer and the oppressor 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 but 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 oh my god i will sing to you with the 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 a lovely psalm for this particular day i'm not skilled to play to god on the liar nor allowed to sing today as a member of the congregation shall we say but we shall have plentiful music at the sun eucharist and the coral even song and i can manage to tune on the piano in the deanery to give praise on this day so music and gratitude is the sign of this mid-length sunday a journey to which we have been brought to a resting place i'm going to read from luke's gospel this morning the passage for morning prayer set in the lectionary sundays are different from weekdays but there's a an awkward um coming together of two different lectionaries and yesterday we read the first part of john chapter nine tomorrow we shall go on with that and today the matins lesson for sunday is the whole of the first part of chapter nine in saint john's they will be reading the same thing twice but i'm glad of that because i can go to a mothering sunday lesson and none better than luke chapter 2 beginning at verse 41. now the parents of jesus went to jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover and when he was 12 years old they went up according to custom and when the feast was ended as they were returning the boy jesus stayed behind in jerusalem his parents did not know it but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances and when they did not find him they returned to jerusalem searching for him after three days they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers listening to them and asking them questions and all who had him were amazed at his understanding and his answers and when his parents saw him they were astonished and his mother said to him my son why have you treated us so behold your father and i have been searching for you in great distress and he said to them why were you looking for me did you not know that i must be in my father's house and they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them and he went down with them and came to nazareth and was submissive to them but his mother treasured up all these things in her heart while jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with god and with humanity it's a lovely cameo picture from st luke's gospel and we're grateful for it the only picture we're given of jesus in the gospels between the babyhood and his coming at the beginning of his mission as the anointed one and so that little picture is precious to us it's also a wonderful picture of the shall we call it puzzlement of mary and joseph as to how this is unfolding in saint mark's gospel we read of people saying it isn't this the carpenter when he's teaching and so we assume this life with joseph and all the workshop in galilee and we assume on this day particularly that a whole party of galileans are on an annual pilgrimage to jerusalem for the feast of the passover mary and joseph clearly lived a regular rhythmic devout life according to custom and we read in st luke that jesus went into the synagogue as was his custom see we've got it again today as was their custom to go up to the feast the temple feast in jerusalem of the passover it must have been quite a party going along the road relatives and what one might call extended family neighbors and galileans all who those who were making that pilgrimage together and therefore it needn't seem odd to us that for a while there was an assumption that the 12-year-old boy who'd enjoyed himself hugely i'm sure at the festival with mary and joseph and all the neighbors and friends was with them somewhere and the puzzlement that they they find is expressed in mary's sentence talking about herself and joseph my son why have you treated us thus your father and i have sought you in great distress the old translation used to say your father and i have sought you sorrowing and jesus gives an answer as if he's wondering how they how they couldn't understand and it it would be impossible to think that that uh oh here's tiger come to join us as well um impossible to think that he uh that they couldn't understand because this was beginning to take up his whole life and contemplation mary had been told by simeon when simeon had the baby in his arms in the temple the old man who gives us the nunctim it is now let your servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen your salvation meaning he's held and seen the infant christ the one who was to come and he prophesies that a sword shall pierce mary's heart also a sword of sorrow of suffering of watching what happens to her son as that ministry develops and we're told by luke on two occasions she kept all these things and pondered them in her heart of course this is a day when we think of the vocation of all parents but it's a day particularly when we contemplate what motherhood means in terms of joy and sorrow and pain and gladness and pride but constant love and worrying it's those kind of things i think of now so often with my own mother when i found her atlas with places in the atlas marks uh when in those days as i was traveling somewhere in the middle of africa or somewhere else she had no idea there weren't mobile phones there was no virtual communication and their letter took a long time and yet i took it for granted that you know all was being well at home and she never expressed worry or concern her letters now when i read them have all that in them and i give thanks also that of her own being she carried me in a terrible year of enormous uh cold and privation in 1947 when i was born one of the worst winters that england has known and everyone on stark rations and mother dealing with all of that but her character was one of gladness and of music and of faith now you'll be thinking of different qualities that your mother gives or gave to you and i like the psalm because it takes me from youth to old age and one develops completely different feelings as they grow and memories come back to you this is a day for all of that but it's a day also to focus on that particular vocation of mary because from her own being she not only carried but gave birth to the infant christ and then beyond that she was ever present right through that ministry puzzling wondering sorrowing and being joyful on occasions we think of her there at the wedding at cana of galilee when her intuition knows that her son will step forward and although he says my hour is not yet come it's a johannine sentence from the gospel of sin john but the water of the simplicity of humanity is enriched into wine at that time when two human lives are joined together at that marriage ceremony and mary as the mother senses all of that and there also she is standing beside the beloved disciple at the cross at the end when jesus looks down and says mother take him as your son and then to the beloved disciple take her as your mother and even on the cross with his arms outstretched his hands powerless to help nailed to the wood and looking down at his mother and the beloved disciple all of those things we remember today as we pause and take stock now this is a really interesting day in terms of those who are set in front of us and there are three people that i want to quote fairly forcibly from this morning on this lovely sunny morning when the skies are wide open and blue above us and the dimensions between earth and heaven which we've spoken about again and again in st john's gospel jesus working with both of them the dimensions so very much part of what we're feeling and seeing on this particular day all these three people are theoretical physicists which is a complicated thing to be but it happens that they come together on this 14th of march one of them i knew well and two of them i only know by repute but the names are absolutely famous to us and if i deal with them in chronological order just to list them to start with albert einstein was born on march the 14th 1879 and then the next one i want to list this isn't chronological by birth because i wanted to name the one i knew best last stephen hawking was born in 1942 but died on the 14th of march this day in 2018 and lastly john pokinghorn who was what we call a sixth preacher of this cathedral church but was well known in this diocese because he had been for a while the vicar of bleen and before that accurate in bristol and before that the professor of mathematics theoretical mathematics at um cambridge and he gave that up while continuing to be a theoretical physicist to train for anglican orders and become first accurate in a parish and then a parish priest in a small parish here before going back to cambridge still as a priest very much as a priest and i remember only too well john pokinghorn being tremendously um simple in terms of the way he spoke so that you could understand everything he was saying first of all his vocation to think that for a moment he'd done all he could with theoretical physics and he wanted to be ordained as a priest who would serve a parish and still give teaching to his people all of that to start with is a wonderful vocation to all of us a dual vocation but at the same time the way he spoke was a lesson to us all in simplicity with complicated things i'll quote him in a bit but john died at the age of 90 on march the 9th this year i'm keeping him today on this glad day when in 2002 he was awarded the highly prestigious templeton prize when a million dollars was awarded to him to a cause that might develop research and that actually was an honor bestowed on this english theoretical physicist who was also uh at heart a pastoral priest with a way of saying things simply let's turn to some of the things that these people said because on this sunny morning they gladden the heart and here we are come on tiger um einstein first this is albert einstein the great physicist with the theory of relativity but he's speaking about humanity imagination is more important than knowledge knowledge is limited imagination encircles the world the most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious a hundred times every day i remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other people's living and dead and that i must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as i have received and i'm still receiving and then much more simply life is like riding a bicycle to keep your balance you have to keep moving and finally although i am a typical loner in my daily life my consciousness belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth beauty and justice preserved me from feeling isolated the years of anxious searching in the dark with their intense longing their alternations of confidence and exhaustion and final emergence into light only those who have experienced it can understand that well mary the mother of jesus could well have said that the years of anxious searching in the dark with their intense longing their alternations of confidence and exhaustion and final emergence into light only those who have experienced it can understand that it's a lovely quote and then let's go to stephen hawking my goal is simple he wrote it is a complete understanding of the universe why it is as it is and why it exists at all if human life were long enough to find the ultimate theory everything would have been sold by previous generations nothing will be left to be discovered and then my favorite quote of stephen hawking remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet never give up work work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it and if you're lucky enough to find love remember it is there and don't throw it away all that from stephen hawking who at the age of 22 was diagnosed with what was thought to be an incurable and was incurable motor neurone disease of a rare sort and that he had very little time to live in fact he lived to be 76 and i don't have to tell you the kind of impression that he made whenever he spoke to us from his wheelchair and with the means of speaking that was developed for him able to do it his mind took control at that time and gave us so much and then lastly john pokinghorn himself let's see where he is here we are i'm a very passionate believer in the unity of knowledge there is one world of reality one world of our experience that we're seeking to describe i need the binocular approach of science and religion if i am to do any sort of justice to the deep and rich reality of the world in which we live well there speaks poking horn in a way which helps us with the gospel of saint john which we'll go on with tomorrow binocular in terms of the view we have of earth and also the way in which jesus is trying to open the dimensions of heaven for us before we go to our prayers we ought to mention that this was the day that johan strauss the elder was born and although he's not as well known as his son the second johann strauss because of strauss's waltzes he is absolutely known to us because of his radepsky march which on new year's day has all the viennese and the world because it's televised clapping and stamping their feet and on this day also we remember that karl marx died in london in 1883 and gilbert and sullivan's most popular opera the mercado was premiered in the savoy and has been at the top of the list for favorites of their operas ever since and in 1933 the actor michael kane was born who has entertained us in so many different ways so we give thanks for that on this day in 1961 the new testament of the new english bible was published and that was a revolutionary development i remember being given my first green copy of the neb it's been revised several times the whole bible came out and then it was revised again but it was quite a a step forward in those days in biblical clarification because until then my parents would only ever read the king james version and that was what was stayed in their head and was taught me of course until they themselves died it was in their own imagination but as we know uh curiosity in terms of scholarly development becomes important so let's say our prayers on this lovely mothering sunday morning we're praying today for the anglican church in chile and all the folk there and their bishop and we pray for archbishop justin and for bishop rose of dover and for bishop tim at lambeth and pray today for the parish of saint john the baptist at folkestone and for adam denley in his ministry there and joe pearl in her ministry and the life of that particular parish so as we give thanks for our own mothers alive and departed we use a special collect for mothering sunday tiger you're enjoying the morning do you want to come down or do you want to stay out there this is the colic for mothering sunday god of compassion whose son jesus christ the child of mary shared the life of a home in nazareth and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself strengthen us in our daily living that in joy and in sorrow we may know the power of your presence to bind together and to heal through jesus christ our lord amen and the colleague for this particular sunday in lent merciful lord absolve your people from their offenses that through your bountiful goodness we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins which by our frailty we have committed grant this heavenly father for jesus christ's sake our blessed lord and savior are men so we say each in our own language the prayer that jesus 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 are men in a moment of silence let's say our own prayers on this morning christ give you grace to grow in holiness to deny yourself take up your cross daily and follow him 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 as i said no physical giving out of poses and the sign of the freshness of spring and the love which we have for one another but may i offer you this virtually on behalf of the mother church here in canterbury and also a sign to all mothers of the realization of what that row means in human life