good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this sunday the 27th of march it's the midland sunday which has been called by a variety of titles refreshment sunday laitare sunday which is the old latin title for that and at the same time it's been called here in england for a very long time mothering sunday because of the epistle at the eucharist and the in even in the old latin mass even before the reformation the epistle was from galatians and jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all and the color for today is not lenten color at all but rose pink and our vestments in the cathedral at the sun eucharist will be rose pink and so we're looking at a pink magnolia it's a very famous pink magnolia called picture which was found in a japanese temple in the early 50s and brought over here and became the founding mother of the whole famous piccard collection of magnolias and so really uh this pink magnolia is the mother of thousands and thousands of magnolias and we glory whenever picture as she is called comes into bloom and full bloom this morning it's a gray morning with misty rain very very different from the weather we've been having for the last two or three days yesterday with all the gold of the marsh marigolds and the sun and the blue sky and then on friday when we were keeping the feast of the annunciation also the white magnolia but here the pink magnolia giving us that sense of mothering sunday when we remember our own mothers whether living or departed with thanksgiving most of us and at the same time also we remember our mother the church for that also was a great theme and is a great theme well of course uh canterbury cathedral is the mother church of the whole anglican communion so this concept of mothering sunday is a wonderful one and it gives us just a little break in lent before we go on tomorrow on the steps towards passion tide and holy week bring your own concerns and bring your intentions today and of course we don't forget in our prayers the people of the ukraine wherever they are and so many mothers who've had to care for their children leaving fathers behind in the ukraine to defend that country all those things are in our thoughts and minds as we give thanks for this little respite in the middle of lent oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice o lord according to your faithful love according to your judgment 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 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 our psalm on this morning of the month this 27th morning of the month is psalm 122. it's one of the pilgrim psalms and it couldn't be more appropriate because it's talking about the concept of jerusalem the heavenly jerusalem and the earthly place of pilgrimage being a concept of human community mothering those who form that community but also the vision of the new jerusalem coming down from heaven which revelation gives us right at the end of our scriptures but this is a pilgrim psalm 122 and one that we love to say and it's the psalm for this morning i was glad when they said to me let us go to the house of the lord and now our feet are standing within your gates o jerusalem jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity in itself there that the tribes go the tribes of the lord as is decreed for israel to give thanks to the name of the lord for there are set the thrones of judgment the thrones of the house of david o pray for the peace of jerusalem may they prosper who love you peace be within your walls and tranquility within your palaces for my kindred and companions sake i will pray that peace be with you for the sake of the house of the lord our god i will seek to do you good a lovely pilgrim psalm giving the vision of pilgrims standing in historic times within the compass of the temple in jerusalem but at the same time the concept which saint paul gives us of the jerusalem which is above he says in galatians and that's been the epistle um throughout the history of the church on this day this fourth sunday in lent jerusalem which is above which is the mother of us all and is free so let's read this morning from the gospel of saint john but not in course because we'll return to that tomorrow i'm going back to chapter two when we began our readings from st john's gospel several weeks ago now we began with nicodemus in chapter three well this morning i'm taking it one step back so that we can have a lesson which is absolutely apt and right for this mothering sunday as we call it and i'm reading for a reason which will become apparent when we begin to note our reflections and the dates of today i'm reading from the king james version of the bible an historic version which was for the english-speaking world the way in which the bible was read in english for centuries before modern revisions began to accompany it and nowadays it's normally called the king james version and if one thinks of king james himself this is the way he's most remembered the king james version of the bible chapter 2 verses 1 up to 12. and the third day there was a marriage in cana of galilee and the mother of jesus was there and both jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage and when they wanted wine the mother of jesus saith unto him they have no wine jesus says unto her woman what i've have i to do with thee my hour is not yet come his mother saith unto the servants whatsoever he saith unto you do it and they were set there six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the jews containing two or three ferkins apiece jesus saith unto them fill the water pots with water and they filled them up to the brim and he says unto them draw out now and bear unto the governor of the feast and they bear it when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and knew not once it was but the servants which drew the water knew the governor of the feasts called the bridegroom and says unto him every man at the beginning does set forth good wine and when men have well drunk then that which is worse but thou hast kept the good wine until now this beginning of miracles did jesus in cana of galilee and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him after this he went down to capernaum he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples and they continued their not many days well the reading of the marriage at cana of galilee from the king james version of the bible which we'll think about a little later on but for the moment let's think of the importance of that first sign of jesus at cana of galilee the first sign recorded in st john's gospel it's a family occasion it's the kind of occasion which we actually found ourselves having two nights ago when i had given thanks with a couple for the years of their marriage in the cathedral and then we came back with all their families young and old to the deanery here and had a festive party so that everyone could give thanks fletcher had prepared up a wonderful party with all kinds of of festive decorations as well so that that could be a feast of celebration a commemoration of vows made all those years ago and then of vows reiterated with the couple standing again before the altar in the cathedral itself but here is another family occasion a wedding at cana of galilee and we read and this is why we're reading it today that the mother of jesus was there jesus was invited to the wedding his disciples were invited and the mother of jesus was there john never names the mother of jesus never names himself as the evangelist but certainly never names she is always the mother of jesus and that establishes the high motherhood to which her vocation called her and that vocation is one that gives her a certain degree of authority as any mother might still feel over their son however old he's grown so that when mary where the mother's eye is looking around at the feast she suddenly realizes they've run out of wine and that there's nothing to replace that so she says to her son who could well have been talking to somebody on his other side they have no wine and jesus could have replied oh mother and he doesn't i mean he replies in in that way which probably has the same kind of tone woman what i have to do with thee what are you calling me for now my hour has not yet come but mary knows better she is the authoritative one here she doesn't even say anymore to him she knows that he will do something and so she says to the servants and i think we've said before that those servants in the greek are diaconoy in their deacons which gives the church its name for deacons servants of the feast they're to give out wonderful things but their hands are empty at the moment so jesus asks them to fill up the water pots after mary has said to the servants the deacons do whatever he tells you is one of the great sentences of saint john's gospel the mother of jesus saying to us do whatever he tells you and the corollary and it will be effective and so the servants fill up these vast pots with water and then jesus says draw some out now and take it to the steward of the feast and when they do so then we find that the steward of the feast is so delighted with the taste of this wine that she calls the bridegroom and then says to the bridegroom everyone else would serve the good wine first and when people's palates have become dulled by drinking it then the worst kind of wine and you have served you have kept the best wine till now well that could be another sentence of saint john's gospel the best wine which is jesus himself and that will go on until we get to the point of the blood of jesus the new covenant being lifted on the cross and his arms outstretched for the moment no let's just stay with this family picture what happens next after they've been at the feast they go to capernaum where clearly jesus has begun begun to make a new home and down come mother and also the brothers of jesus now we've seen them being active later on in sin john's gospel in the last two or three weeks and the advice they gave to jesus his brothers go and make yourself known in jerusalem if you want your message to be heard you don't do so in private go to jerusalem and in the end jesus does take their advice and go there and puts himself in enormously physical danger enormous physical danger but for the moment the brothers are there and they go down with the mother of jesus and also the disciples the six who have been called and they're at capernaum for a short time before the gospel continues this is a definition really of not only mary's vocation but also as i've said before her authority with her son it's an authority of motherly love and it's an authority which he accepts even though there's this my hour hasn't come yet she could have said my hour hasn't really come but for you mother and then the servants are cho by mary do whatever he tells you and that phrase should always be in our mind do whatever he tells you for the voice of the mother of jesus still says it to us and especially on this day mothering sunday if we go on in st john's gospel we find that the mother of jesus is taken for granted but appears again at the cross and there she stands with the beloved disciple having no doubt followed her son all the way through from that first pondering which we find in the first two chapters of sin luke's gospel again and again mary kept all these things pondered them in her heart and the finding in the temple mary kept these things and pondered them and that pondering becomes a really important aspect of what is happening so that it is a spiritual pondering and reflection and also it's a mental thinking of what must happen next for mary is an active mother and it's not enough to realize and believe in her son she wants jesus on this marriage occasion to take an effective act for the welfare and happiness and celebration of the people at the cross she is standing there in not lonely support for she has the beloved disciple beside her and also some of the other women standing there watching this desperate scene mary magdalene is there and uh some of the others the salome and mary the the other mary um and as we uh as we think of that we then think of jesus looking down from the cross his own hands pinned to the cross nails through hands and feet and wearing a crown of thorns and looks down and this mother-son relationship continues in john 19 perhaps might be a nice thing to to read that passage and again i've got the king james bible here so here is chapter 19 and in chapter 19 we are in verse 25. now there stood by the cross of jesus his mother and his mother's sister mary the wife of cleophas and mary magdalene when jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved he saith unto his mother woman behold thy son then sethi to the disciple behold thy mother and from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home the connection between mother and son continues but this isn't a case of my hour has not yet come it's a case of my hour has now absolutely come and is being lived out on the cross with arms outstretched for all peoples and the grief of mary at that time has been always reflected in the poetry of the ages and particularly in the long-lasting poems starbuck martyr at the cross station keeping stood the mournful mother weeping but jesus's thought is for his mother and the beloved disciple before he then says i thirst and then as the sour wine of the soldier's ration is given to him to work his lips on a sponge and a reed of hyssop he is able then to say it is accomplished it is fulfilled it is complete test a lester however you want to to uh to interpret the greek words all these things on mothering sunday because the sorrow of mary will be turned into great joy and the prayers of the church have always reflected her companionship with us as she walks along pointing always to her son do whatever he tells you in high motherhood so we give thanks for this mothering sunday and the image and concept of the church throughout the world in all its denominations and all its communities being a nourishing mother and a drawing together of people in community and the dispense of christ in word and in sacrament the sacraments of the new covenant the bread and the wine and the wine taking us back to that first act of really obedience to his mother's wish at cana of galilee the mother of jesus and the mother the church remembered also on this day used to be the custom and i remember it it's in chad's rosary that a similar cake not an easter seminal cake with its 11 balls of marzipan on the top but a mothering sunday seminal cake with 12 balls of of marzipan on the top would be brought by daughter churches to the mother church and people would arrive at sinchans with a cake as a sign of of of a daughter church giving thanks to the mother which formed them from her because so often a big church when communities grew would found another and another and another and they became daughter churches but there was also a tremendous sense on this day of families going home to one another and of course on this day people send one another mothering sunday cards or mother's day cards it's on different dates throughout the world but today is our mothering sunday here and the concept of the heavenly jerusalem as our mother which galatians 4 gives us in the epistle of saint paul earlier on i celebrated one of the old prayer book communion services with its epistle and gospel taken translation into english of course but taken from the old missiles because they were the same ones and that was galatians 4 and in verse 26 sin paul is comparing the earthly communities with the heavenly that double plane which we've been talking about so much recently and then that double plane he says but jerusalem which is above is free and she is the mother of us all and that brings us to the new jerusalem in the last book of the new testament revelation let's turn again to this king james bible and go right to the end and in that right at the not the last chapter but the last but one chapter pages are sticky in this weather let me separate the page here we are and chapter 21 begins and i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea and i john saw the holy city new jerusalem coming down from god out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and i heard a great voice out of heaven saying behold the tabernacle of god is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and god himself shall be with them and be their god and god shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away and he that sat upon the throne said behold i make all things new think of jesus lifting the cup of the new covenant of his blood shed for the disciples and for many for all for the forgiveness of sins and here's the new jerusalem on this mothering sunday with all of that in terms of its care for those who are at the moment in pain and know what it is to weep for one another i want you to think also on this day because it really is the day we think about them of the worldwide mothers union which is right across the anglican church and it's a movement not just today of mothers but of anyone who would want to join that it's a sign of wonderful parenting and not just of blood relations but anyone who is needing the sense of home and safety and comfort and welfare it's in 84 countries and thousands and thousands of members and it's talking about the qualities of family and extended family life and of parenting looking after one another and taking a cue from one another when someone's needing welfare and you know the person with the gifts to give it all of that in 84 countries and mostly the anglican communion because of that it's an anglican communion organization but i've seen the work of the mothers union working for the welfare of all in countries like south sudan recovering from civil war and mothers union teams going into hospitals and prisons where there was no food and nothing for the people in terms of medical welfare and being the hands of a mother on the folk who needed it most of all and the care and enjoyment of company and companionship and in tanzania where we weren't in the time of civil war and there were mothers union gardens being planted and the fruits of them being taken out not only for the nourishment and welfare of families who belonged but also are once again in areas of extreme poverty and prisons and places where people didn't feel safe where children didn't feel safe or women didn't feel safe and the mothers union looking after them all of that so we give thanks on this day too this mothering sunday for the life of the worldwide mothering mothers union and now why am i using the king james bible well because king james the first died on this day 27th of march 1625. historically he's remembered for many things but the one thing his name is inextricably bound to and linked with is the translation of the bible into english it had been translated several times into english by others but the king decided and he was someone who wrote much himself and even composed poetry himself that he decided his one great gift to the church would be to collect the best scholars together in teams to sift the translations and to create one great english bible which became the authorized king james version of the bible and his name bears it and it was it was done at the time of at golden age of english literature the age of william shakespeare of john dunn of ben johnson of sir francis bacon of george herbert of all of all of those those things going on that writing going on but at the same time the translators gathered in teams and the wonderful thing about it was that they were all shades of ecclesial tradition puritans were there and those who were called armenians who were a higher form of churchmanship who valued the sacraments in different ways it didn't matter they all the scholars gathered together there was a westminster team there was a cambridge team there was an oxford team and they set about it in various panels and the old testament was largely translated from the hebrew and aramaic them and the hebrew masoretic text with with some of the translations taken from the greek against which was the old testament of the early church when they were reading the old testament and the latin vulgate but mostly from the hebrew texts and then the apocrypha taken entirely from the greek septuagint and the vulgate and finally the new testament taken from the best greek texts with occasional references to the vulgate and those panels three panels for the old testament two panels for the new testament and one panel for the apocrypha the old testament 39 books were translated 14 books of the apocrypha 27 books of the new testament and one recent commentator when in 2011 we were having that sort of centenary year for the publishing of the king james version the authorized version wrote it was noted for its majesty of style and the king james version has been described as one of the most important books in english culture and a driving force in the shaping of the english-speaking world certainly it was still the book that we used at school when i was there really up up till the end of of my education there and it was the version we knew by heart just as when it was translated first into english it took a long time for scholars who knew the latin version by heart to stop quoting in latin and you find that people like lancelot andrews preaching to king james tended to repeat the scriptures in latin if he's quoting in his sermon and the book of common prayer says that you can use any language you like so long as the people there can understand it so if scholars wanted to say the prayer book office in latin perfectly legal and right after the reformation so long as everyone there was understanding it but this new translation of the scriptures became very very soon the bible of the english-speaking world and it still stands as a great foundation stone for many of the translations remember i went back to it a day or two ago uh when i was saying we've lost the sense of the second person singular and the second person plural in english and the only way you can find out if jesus is talking to someone in the singular saying you singly you or a group is by going back to king james version and seeing whether jesus says thou meaning singular or you meaning plural so sometimes we have recourse to it and sometimes we read it just for the pleasure of reading english of that period and we've used it this morning as a thank you to king james for that gathering together of the scriptures with the best possible translations at that time so let's say our prayers on this mothering sunday morning and first and foremost imagine your own mother and then say a prayer of thanksgiving for her whether in this life or the next and we are going to pray this morning for the church of the province of myanmar in our anglican community and there's no better myanmar burma there's no better church to be praying for because they are in enormous and a land of enormous persecution and and military uh government we've we've seen that again and again so it's a good time to come back to pray for the christians in myanmar burma and to remember also that none who in the protection of the children knelt down in the street and held her arms out as though it was a sign of the cross of her arms spreading out with soldier armed soldiers in in front of her and all of those things we remember as we pray for the church in myanmar burma this morning and we pray of course for our own places our own families but in this diocese we also pray for archbishop justin bishop rose of dover bishop emma at lambeth here is the colleagues the special prayer for the fourth 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 amen and the collect for lent almighty and everlasting god you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may receive from you the god of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language 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 are men moments of reflection now on this mothering sunday [Music] oh is [Music] yes [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] this is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] please [Music] is [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] yes so during our reflection you've seen some scenes of motherhood showing that it's not confined to our human kind but is a capacity of all created life to show 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 amen well now leo we're expecting you to be really nice to your own mother lily today it's not normally in your nature to be so but we shall see how we go on your fair is really wet with the with the misty rain falling but lily will be expecting a nice little mother's day card or treat from you in some way or another and we'll see how that goes through the day all right you better come inside and get dry i think uh you