good morning and welcome to the deanery garden on this morning of tuesday the 15th of june as we gather for our morning prayers welcome wherever you are in the world and you're looking this morning at a meadow orchid which is a wildflower and blooming for the first time on the lawn orchids have a capacity of waiting for a long time to find the right conditions to bloom and while we've had these lovely little flowers in the wilder parts of the garden this is the first time we've ever had one on the lawn and it's because we're not mowing and so the conditions are right and everything in order to be flowering and fruitful has to have the right condition even though it takes years for those conditions to appear so we give thanks for the beauty of this little meadow orchid and pray for many more in this year when we decided not to mow the lawn because uh we're in a lockdown still which means that it's not being trampled by thousands of feet which it normally would be in the hospitality we give and we can enjoy its beauty together across the world this morning i'm sitting here in the back garden of the deanery uh facing the the lawn but behind me is the herbaceous border and that too is beginning to come into flower but the proudest flower at the moment belonged to the great cordylline tree behind me and its flowers are scented but they look like clouds and this is a cloudy morning we're expecting rain and thunderstorms and goodness knows what by the end of the week but at the moment just a cloudy morning with a slight breeze and the cordy line just glorying in the flower behind that it's showing high up behind me here on the herbaceous border we've got several of these cordylines and the banana leaves are coming out now so they give a sense of worldwide planting and the right conditions for those plants here this morning so let's say our prayers on this morning together and bring your own concerns from across the world o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise reveal among us the light of your presence that we may behold your power and glory blessed are you sovereign god of all to be praise and glory forever in your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night as we look for you coming among us this day 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 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 15th morning of the month is psalm 77 now we're joining the psalmist in a very different mood from yesterday's mood but as i keep saying the psalmist covers all human moods even moods when god feels absent and not there to help us and psalm 77 is a good psalm on those occasions i cry aloud to god i cry aloud to god and he will hear me in the day of my trouble i have sought the lord by night my hand is stretched out and does not tire my soul refuses comfort i think upon god and i groan i ponder and my spirit faints you will not let my eyelids close i am so troubled that i cannot speak i consider the days of old i remember the years long past i commune with my heart in the night my spirit searches for understanding will the lord cast us off forever will he no more show us his favor has his loving mercy clean gone forever has his promise come to an end forevermore has god forgotten to be gracious has he shut up his compassion and displeasure and i said my grief is this that the right hand of the most high has lost its strengths i will remember the works of the lord and call to mind your wonders of old time i will meditate on all your works and ponder your mighty deeds your way o god is holy who is so great a god as our god you are the god who worked wonders and declared your power among the peoples with a mighty arm you redeemed your people the children of jacob and joseph the waters saw you o god the waters saw you and were afraid the depths also were troubled the clouds poured out water the skies thunder your arrows flashed on every side the voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind your lightnings lit up the ground the earth trembled and shook your way was in the sea and your paths in the great waters but your footsteps were not known you led your people like sheep by the hand of moses and aaron so we come to our lesson this morning from st matthew's gospel and we've reached shall we call it the crux it's a good word because it means cross in latin the crux of this gospel in chapter 16 we're reading this morning from where we left off yesterday at verse 13 of chapter 16. now when jesus came into the district of caesarea philippi he asked his disciples who do people say that the son of man is and they said some say john the baptist others say elijah and others jeremiah or one of the prophets jesus said to them but you who do you say that i am simon peter replied you are the christ the son of the living god and jesus answered him blessed are you simon barjona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven and i tell you you are peter and on this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it i will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the christ and from that time jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised and peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying far be it from you lord this shall never happen to you but jesus turned and said to peter get behind me satan you are a hindrance to me for you are not setting your mind on the things of god but on human things then jesus told his disciples if anyone would come after me let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me for whoever would save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for my sake will find it for what will it profit someone if they gain the whole world and forfeit their own soul or what shall a person give in return for their soul for the son of man is going to come with the angels in the glory of his father and then he will repay each person according to what they have done truly i say to you there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom [Music] as i say this is the heart of the gospel but it's showing two sides of a coin for humanity in the concept and glory of the kingdom peter is the one who for the disciples answers and says you are the christ the son of the living god and jesus at that point said blessed are you simon barjona for human knowledge flesh and blood has not shown that to you my father in heaven has revealed that truth to you and i say that you are peter the rock and on you i will build my church and i will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven it's for that church to unlock the good news and give the gift of the kingdom there's the first side of the coin and it's a glorious one and the next side of the coin if you turn it over is the temptation that goes with it the temptation that one might avoid suffering and avoid the uh chance that we have the bellies ringing but i don't need to take any notice of it don't worry it's for a service in the cathedral that that jesus is explaining exactly what being the christ means and he knows they haven't got it that's why he says don't tell anyone about this yet he doesn't say because you really haven't understood it yet but they show that they haven't understood it in the voice of peter immediately afterwards jesus said it is the vocation of the anointed one and he could have said to do whatever the prophet isaiah in this case but many other resonances in prophets and psalms prophesy to be the vocation of the anointed one the suffering servant jesus begins to set that out and peter in an act of friendship and of love says no that's not going to be so lord let's sort of get that out of our minds we can go somewhere safe is the is the uh intention we need to go to jerusalem we're going to um keep you safe and that is only one of the temptations that goes with what jesus has said for the temptation is also to see the kingdom in terms of earthly power and we've seen how jesus has rejected that so often in the gospels and has sometimes because the insistence that he's going to be a great leader in a human way so often he goes away and hides because of it this is a different kind of kingdom it's biding its time like the media orchid until the conditions are right and as the son of man is perceived by the revelation of that to him by as jesus says the creator to simon peter and peter says you are the christ the son of the living god and in that statement he's blessed are you simon you are peter the rock and i'm giving you the keys of the kingdom to open this good news open this possibility of eternal life but also of the kingdom here and now in the gifts that are being given and the life that can be led it's the presence of that kingdom that those standing there will live to see indeed they will be the instruments of its opening up on earth to give the widest and eternal perspective and there go the temptations as well and the temptations are always to look at things which the kingdom might give on earth to the advantage of those who think that there is human gain in them of course there is great gain but it comes with the revelation of our capacity for the divine our capacity if you like for godliness and that comes in one of the epistles the great gain which comes with godliness but other concepts of the kingdom can be the root of all evil and it's a prayer we say daily thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven not thy kingdom come on earth as kingdoms are on earth giving great glory and power in human times temporally to earthly kings full of temptations no thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven don't tell anyone tell anyone i'm the christ yet you've much to go through in terms of suffering and loss and for some of them an early martyrdom as well before you will begin even to understand this kingdom which spans life and death and to which all the created order and the beauty of creation points as gifts of the creator all those things are encapsulated in that and jesus ends by saying those who would embrace that in their life must take up that cross and follow him for that's how this kingdom will be known and here it's shall we say a metaphorical cross but the metaphors certainly aren't metaphors when the suffering begins because he is opening up that gift to the whole world and pointing to peter as the one who will be the foundation of it giving meaning to our prayer thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven well today we've got wonderful things to think about and they all have a kind of new beginning aspect but we can also continue to think about the way the gifts of the kingdom are given yesterday we had a 95th anniversary of the ceremony called turning the page in the cathedral every day at 11 o'clock in times when the cathedral is not in lockdown old soldiers come and in a very moving ceremony turn pages in the book of remembrance after the bell is struck at eleven o'clock and prayers for the peace of the world and those who are putting their lives in danger guarding that peace are said and citizens normally call it the ceremony of turning the page i like that title because it's like turning a new leaf every day in our prayers for peace back to thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven yesterday was special because this ceremony hasn't been able to happen because of our separation since last year in march and it was very special indeed and the old soldiers who gathered are now in very old age and they won't mind me saying that because they're handing over that ceremony to younger people now in the opening of the books and the turning of the page back in the um second world war uh uh a a young man uh was given the task because the soldiers were all away to turn the page and a stray bomb fell outside shattering the glass and the the bomb was up in in the precinct but a way off but the glass above him shattered and he didn't miss a step and turn the page and sid his name was and and when the king came after the war with princess elizabeth then that young man was the one chosen on that day to turn the page and be presented to the king the faithful service of those soldiers went on day by day and the buffs um who who are the royal east kent regiment were the ones that began this service and the young man went on into old age so when i came here he was still living and right at the the end he was in a wheelchair when the buffs had their their anniversary parade and just as they marched past the cathedral he chose to get out of his wheelchair and walk along with them and that was the last time that he appeared at this particular summer he died a month or two later and we give thanks for him as a symbol of those who gave service and gave service at the end to the citizens prayers for peace thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven i felt so proud of all who came yesterday and hopefully this was a one-off yesterday but hopefully the the the time can come when that ceremony will begin again so let's go on to another event because we've got many things to to think about and talk about uh this morning um this is the day in 1215 that the magna carta was sealed at runnymede by a king who wasn't really very keen on the idea king john he'd not been a very good king but he was made mostly by the leadership of archbishop stephen langton who's who's buried here in the cathedral and uh he was made by his barons to seal that magna kasha and the magna carta has become the symbol of the liberties of people and it's been taken as a symbol and also an encouragement to other nations so that in 2015 when we had the ceremonies of the anniversaries i found myself at runnymede on the island at that time but there were lawyers from across the world who say this is a great symbol for all of us our own copy of the magna carta was was stolen we think by the constable of dover castle simply taken in 1633 um when visiting the the library and it was thought that he felt he had the right to do that but uh it went and is now in the british library and it's in a poor condition through a a a failed restoration procedure uh after it arrived at the library i think in the middle of the 19th century sometime but it's difficult to see but it has now been absolutely positively proved to be the canterbury magna carta so we still think of that that magna carta one of the earliest of the the magna cartas coming here to canterbury at that time and a symbol of uh of um the the liberties of this nation as it goes on so all those things we uh think of on this per day this particular day and there are three more things that i just want to mention this morning one of them is the birth of edvard grieg the norwegian composer who was died on this day in 1843 to anyone who plays the piano grieg is a great gift his piano music he was a pianist himself but his piano music is a wonderful gift and to sit at the piano and play some of his pieces brings alive the spirit of norwegian folk songs that too um is a gift that was going on in the romantic era if you think that sibelius did that for finland and smetana did that for bohemia and there were composers here taking english folk songs it even lay at the base of the forming of the english hymnal with born williams as its editor at the time and one thinks of greg's wonderful piano concerto but i also think of his incidental music to ibsen's play pier gint and that lovely morning mood which is such a popular piece orchestrally but lovely also to play on the piano and gives a sense of the freshness of this particular morning and the holberg suite which school orchestras delight to play i remember with my cello playing that it's called griggs holberg's week so we give thanks for the fact that using the style and culture of their own country composers gave us the flavor of that at the right time and then we remember that this day is the day on which evelyn underhill the uh spiritual writer and retreat giver and novelist as well she died and she is remembered here she died in in 1941 but she's remembered here as having given a series of lectures in a retreat for the clergy you might think that was just an ordinary thing to do there in two ways it was extraordinary she was the foremost writer and thinker on mysticism and her great book which was published in 1911 was simply called mysticism and is at the heartland of how she teaches us to pray and receive the gifts of the kingdom even here and now and in 1936 her book worship does much the same but the other thing was that it seemed unthinkable it doesn't know but it seemed unthinkable in those days that a woman should be lecturing the clergy of canterbury in their own cathedral we give thanks for her and she left her uh us her cross which hangs over the all saints altar and last year we brought it over here to show on a particular day when we were remembering her in our morning prayers so we give thanks for evelyn underhill and all her writings and thinking particularly on mysticism and finally this is the day on in 1963 when the dean of york eric milner white died i mention him because in his long ministry and having been a chaplain in the first world war and a very distinguished one he came back to cambridge to be the dean and the fellow of king's cottage cambridge and really crafted and formed the festival of nine lessons and carols his hand wrote that wonderful bidding prayer where we're encouraged to go in heart and mind even to bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass and we're encouraged also to think of those who join in our worship but in another dimension on a a another shore and a greater night he had a way with words and he was at the time when uh liturgical uh shall we say um development was only in its infancy so he created prayers and wrote them to go at the end of the third colleague one of his books is called after the third collect and its prayers that can be said uh after the end of the third collect in the book of common prayer morning or or evening um and uh the other thing that he did was to create books of prayers which evelyn underhill would have been proud of that probably the most famous my god my glory when he went to york as dean one of his gifts was in looking after the stained glass of that place he loved the worship of the minster but at the same time he became an expert in the care and restoration of of glass and stained glass so we give thanks for that imagination and the way in which his prayers as he crafts them we we i think have milner white to thank for getting that little bit of john dunn's sermon and making it into a prayer bring us our lord god at our last awakening into the very house and gate of heaven and that's the prayer that has in it the the no noise nor silence but one equal music the center of the prayer is john donne but it's just a few sentences in a sermon i think milner white was the one who crafted into prayers and he did that with so many prayers in that way to make prayers that could be said in church let's give thanks for him he was dean of york from 1941 to 1963 and he died there in the deanery in 1963 somebody who was well known for the beauty of worship and and his eye for things like stained glass and there was a joke at the time that when he entered heaven and saint peter met him and peter said you know what what what do you think as they looked around and milner white said yes yes very beautiful but i see room for improvement and that has always been a a thing that caused people to smile that little joke that went around at the time but we do give thanks for his long ministry and the influence it had in so many ways so let's this morning say our prayers and they are prayers very much of the kingdom thy kingdom come remembering both the glory and the temptation and that day by day we learn in sorrow and suffering in grief and loss in joy in glory in gifts of the kingdom shown to us and shown by us unexpectedly together and as we say the prayer uh in a in a moment the our father thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven has great meaning in the diocese today we are praying for the harvest new anglican church in sanet but in the anglican communion for the diocese of chelmsford in the church of england and that's in the province of canterbury so we pray for justin archbishop of canterbury and for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and the people both in sanet and in chelmsford this morning bring your own prayers and intentions as we pray for the coming of god's kingdom hear first the collect and then we'll say the prayer our savior taught us in whatever language you like to use lord you have taught us that all our doings without love are nothing worse send your holy spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love the true bond of peace and of all virtues without which whoever lives is counted dead before you grant this for your only son jesus christ's sake 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 as we have a moment of silence for our own prayers let's remember how the meadow orchid teaches us that sometimes the flowering and fruitfulness has to wait for the right conditions and patience becomes really an important virtue but also the fruits of the kingdom are for here and now for those who understand and receive them but that too needs patient waiting and sometimes experiences which are painful so so [Music] 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 those whom you would pray for today and always are men [Music] so [Music] two [Music] so yes [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so 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