good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of thursday the 20th of january as we meet together for our morning prayers feel welcome wherever you are in the world it's a very frosty morning here but the frost is beginning to go away because the sun has come up in winter glory of a great golden sunrise which is now on the rooftops and on the top of belharry tower from where i'm sitting but at the same time we are thinking of areas across the world and the news the very good news that at last a new zealand plane bringing relief supplies has reached tonga now those supplies have to be unloaded we're told with all kinds of kovid restrictions because tonga is a pandemic free area and there must be no danger of spreading the pandemic there through human contact and so we think of all that and the care that has to be taken but the necessity of supplies so badly needed and help so badly needed after all these days since the eruption of the mountain at the same time we look at another story of human fragility and sadness at the death of uh gaspard julio the very famous french actor who was one of the marvel heroes and uh he died in a skewing accident in obviously a happy occasion when he was skiing and then suddenly um he he had an accident with another skier which has caused his death and we're very sorry to hear about that but it's simply a symbol of our human fragility in this world so let's bring our own concerns you will have many and then begin our prayers o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your light springs up for the righteous and all the peoples have seen your glory blessed are you sovereign god king of the nations to you be praise and glory forever from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is proclaimed in all the world as the sun of righteousness dawns in our hearts anoint our lips with the seal of your spirit that we may be witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the earth 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 morning of the month the 20th morning of the month is psalm 103 bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with faithful love and compassion who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagle's the lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed he made his ways known to moses and his works to the children of israel the lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness he will not always accuse us neither will he keep his anger forever he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our wickedness for as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his mercy upon those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so far has he set our sins from us as a father has compassion on his children so is the lord merciful towards those who fear him for he knows of what we are made he remembers that we are but dust our days our butters grass we flourish as a flower of the field for as soon as the wind goes over it it is gone and its place shall know it no more but the merciful goodness of the lord is from of old and endures forever on those who fear him and his righteousness on children's children on those who keep his covenant and remember his commandments to do them [Music] the lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom has dominion over all bless the lord you angels of his you mighty ones who do his bidding and hearken to the voice of his word bless the lord all you his hosts you ministers of his who do his will bless the lord all you works of his in all places of his dominion bless the lord o my soul so we return to the first book of samuel and today i'm taking up from chapter four and reading the first 18 verses the book is too long historically for us to go through every chapter but to catch up with the story chapter 3 tells us not only of samuel's development and the way in which his own vocation to be prophetic and to have a ministry to the whole of the tribes of israel at shiloh at that time the place of the tabernacle where the ark of the covenant is but at the same time of the wickedness of the two sons of eli the old priest who can't seem to control them and uh hofney and finnehas are seen as unworthy ministers there now all the time at this uh time the philistine cities to the west of israel and uh nearer to the coast are strong and israel itself is still a collection of tribes with a focus on the ark at shiloh placed quite well geographically for all of them but nevertheless they are suffering defeats from the incursion of the philistine armies and we come now into a time when everything comes in war to a head and the israelites who trust that god is fighting with them for the lord is their king are going to face some fairly difficult times here's chapter four and i'm reading from verse 1 to verse 18 and the word of samuel came to all israel now israel went out to battle against the philistines they encountered ebenezer and the philistines encamped it affec the philistines drew up in line against israel and when the battle spread israel was defeated before the philistines who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle and when the people came to the camp the elders of israel said why has the lord defeated us today before the philistines let us bring the ark of the covenant of the lord here from shiloh that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies so the people sent to shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim and the two sons of eli hofney and finnehas were there with the ark of the covenant of god as soon as the ark of the covenant of the lord came into the camp all israel gave a mighty shout so that the earth resounded and when the philistines heard the noise of the shouting they said what does this great shouting in the camp of the hebrews mean and when they learned that the ark of the lord had come to the camp the philistines were afraid for they said a god has come into the camp and they said woe to us for nothing like this has happened before woe to us who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods these are the gods who struck the egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness take courage and be men of philistines lest you become slaves to the hebrews as they have been to you be men and fight so the philistines fought and israel was defeated and they fled every man to his home and there was a very great slaughter for thirty thousand foot soldiers of israel fell and the ark of god was captured and the two sons of eli hofney and finnehas were killed a man of benjamin ran from the battle line and came to shiloh the same day with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head when he arrived eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching for his heart trembled for the ark of god and when the man came into the city and told the news all the city cried out when eli heard the sound of the outcry he said what is this uproar then the man hurried and came and told eli now eli was 98 years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see and the man said to eli i am he who has come from the battle i fled from the battle today and eli said how did it go my son and the man who brought the news answered and said israel has fled before the philistines and there has also been a great defeat among the people your two sons also hophni and finihas are dead and the ark of god has been captured as soon as he mentioned the ark of god eli fell over backwards from his seat by the side of the gate and his neck was broken and he died for the man was old and heavy he had judged israel for 40 years it's an end and a beginning never again will the ark come to shiloh eli's line is over and instead samuel is looking after for the moment an empty tabernacle without the ark of god there something that would have seemed unthinkable for the ark was the sign of god fighting for the israelites as their king but only a sign the covenant had always depended upon the right response and no holy should we say holy objects or artifacts however holy however important in cultic terms however they were viewed could help if the right response was not there and eli probably knew that and his line ended just there we've been talking about a time in the israelite history the hebrew kingdom history before there were kings there's been before that a kind of theocracy with uh prophets and prophetesses like deborah and she herself a great prophetess and eli was part priest part judge between people part prophet but not a king not a military leader and instead in the book of judges we've seen people chosen to meet a crisis and some of those are named if you remember in that catalogue of the heroes of the faith which we were looking at in the epistle to the hebrews when we were studying that before christmas and there in chapter 11 in hebrews you get a list of those champions and that the writers saying time would fail me to tell of gideon barack samson jephthah it goes on samuel and david and samuel and so on but those four that i've just named were seen as judges and their story which is a sort of checkered story in all kinds of ways is told in the book of judges and now we've come to this time where we begin to see the exploration of a new beginning it's a time for a leader to be appointed but we're not quite there yet for the moment israel has to look dis defeat and disaster in the face and eli and hofney and finihas the shrine keepers are no more and it seems that haphazard leaders are not enough there is in the middle of all that only the figure of samuel and the tribes of israel and we'll go on to see more about this tomorrow the tribes of israel are not united in their leadership but they have been united only in their focus on that place that holy place in shiloh and now that is gone it's over and samuel is left human figure of samuel everything is on his shoulders that little boy who was the gift of hannah that we saw her offering as a gift of thanksgiving to god for having blessed her with a son and as the gift is given she knows that something wonderful will happen but at the same time as the gift is given there is a sense of having uh given something so precious but there will be pain still to come but we were told in our reading yesterday that hannah would go each year to see how her boy was getting on and she had other sons and daughters with elkanah but nevertheless the focus of the lord was on samuel and we will see how that begins to work out as israel comes to him as a focus and leadership begins to be worked out the way the tribes as a unity will be governed well let's look at some of the dates that happen today and let's say and i'll come back to it a bit later that of course this is the 20th of january and every four years that is a crucial day in the political life of the united states of america when a newly elected president takes the oath of office the 20th of january in years when it falls on a sunday then that is transferred to the monday though the oath is still taken privately on the 20th and the 20th becomes a significant iconic day for the political life of the united states we remember last year as one of those dates when the president joe biden swore his oath of office on this particular day we'll come back to that in a moment because there's something else which links us with that later on but i wanted to say that in 1265 after years of development england's first parliament sitting in houses and remember that the the development of shall we call it a democratic type of government with representatives as well as with the king had been developing through saxon times with their councils and then uh in 1265 which is the data i'm talking about today 20th of january 1265 was well after 50 years after magna carta and yet on this day in the great hall at westminster which is still their standing one of the most historic buildings in all england and certainly the oldest part of the palace of westminster built by uh william rufus who actually was seen apart from that as a fairly nerdy well king and had terrible quarrels with his archbishops of canterbury but nevertheless he built westminster hall as a sign of grandeur that was much earlier on for he was the son of william the conqueror who'd come here in 1066 and now here we are in 1265 in that great hall massive building with its roof having no supporting pillars but the hammer beams which were put up later up there uh a century or two later are holding that roof as a sign of the system here in england and later in these islands of the way in which political life developed it's seen some fairly uh dramatic historical moments on the 20th of january 1649 parliament sat to try king charles the first and that was in westminster hall there's a mark where he sat and was tried it was a trial that he himself didn't recognize as for him parliament was a combination of the house of commons the house of lords and the monarch and the monarch was not consenting to this but 10 days later on the 30th of january he was executed in whitehall and the years of the commonwealth which we've spoken about many times when our own system of worship and the book of common prayer was made a criminal activity and people had to keep a very low profile if they were adhering to the rights of the church of england but i'm talking really about the development of the system and how westminster hall absolutely is a sign of all that and thank god the whole escaped the conflagration of the rest of the houses of parliament in that great fire of the 1830s and still stands as a symbol of all that's gone on there well other things that happen in westminster hall the lying in state when a monarch dies and on this day in 1936 king george v died who'd become king in 1910 and had celebrated a silver jubilee but at the same time he had been the king that saw the nation through the first world war and on this day in january 1936 he died and a few days later four of his sons attended a lying in state the watch of the princes around the coffin uh with the honors of the king over it and um and stood in the uniforms of the regiments and and uh naval places that they represented the forces that they represented so around the coffin stood king edward viii newly king on this day in 1936 when george v died albert the duke of york who later would become king george vi prince henry duke of gloucester and prince george duke of kent and no photograph was taken of that but there is a very famous painting by frank bellisford of that lying in state but of course that was only one moment in the lying of state for in westminster hall when this happened and it last happened at the death of the queen mother uh and the people in respect file into the hall and around to pay tribute before a funeral takes place so that's a moment of memory and looking back on a particular rain but there are also times when during the reign of a monarch when the houses of parliaments the commons and the house of lords want to address the monarch with a congratulatory speech then that happens also in westminster hall and so then it's a place of great festivity and happiness and it's a place also where heads of state of other countries are uh sometimes honored by being asked to address both houses of parliament and uh there are moments someone remembers nelson mandela being honored with that and addressing the both houses of parliament and barack obama uh in the same way uh was asked to address both houses of parliament all that in westminster hall so that symbol of the development of leadership in these uh uh nations and the the the uh symbol also of the development of the way in which the checks and balances of parliamentary government with the constitutional monarchy works now there will be completely different systems right across the world in nations that you yourselves are watching from but leadership is something that every nation needs and wisdom in leadership every nation needs and so we we think of that and the heavy responsibility being laid on samuel in our story this morning we think also and pray for our friends in the united states and um here political life is active at the moment in all sorts of ways but uh over there as well but we're living in a dangerous world in dangerous times when all kinds of tensions are building up and people also feel all the frustrations of the pandemic and leadership has never had more challenges and so it's that sense of so how do we go forward and our prayers for one another on these days and i mentioned the united states today only because it's january the 20th but we're thinking of all nations and their leadership as we say our prayers this morning so let us remember that i wanted to mention just two other things but only very briefly one is the fact that on this day in 1568 miles coverdale the translator and publisher of the first complete bible to be printed in english printed in 1535 and miles coverdale's words are still used in our book of common prayer 1662 uh because his translation was not supplanted as the gospel and epistle lessons were by the new translation of the bible in 1611 and so many of the psalms when they're sung by the choir are in coverdale's words and they're of great beauty when the psalms are sung and we give thanks for his translation his gathering together of other people's ideas as well as he put that translation forward in 1535 and at the same time i wanted to say that on this day and we mentioned him before christmas uh it was on this day that terry waite in 1987 in attempting to achieve the release of hostages kidnapped was himself kidnapped in beirut and then faced that long dark lonely lockdown and then has has described that since but as i say we we've done that quite recently but this was the day in which uh on which he was seized so let's say our prayers on this particular morning and we are now praying on this day for the 20th of january the diocese of kaaba in the church of nigeria the lakoja province and also in our own diocese for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and the parish of hen bay christchurch hamptons and andrew and the priest there is anthony everett and we pray for the ministry in that parish so at the same time this is a day in the week of prayer for christian unity and we pray for the unity of all christians throughout the world and the unity of christ's church let's use that collect first and then we'll use the special prayer for this week heavenly father you have called us in the body of your son jesus christ to continue his work of reconciliation and reveal you to the world forgive us the sins which tear us apart give us the courage to overcome our fears and to seek that unity which is your gift and your will through jesus christ our lord amen and then the collect for this week almighty god in christ you make all things new transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language and uniting our prayers right across the world from many different lands 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 and reflection now for your own prayers [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so during the time of reflection i was thinking of other occasions in westminster hall and there was a wonderful occasion when pope benedict the 16th uh addressed the parliaments in in westminster hall and so there's are reaching out to other nations at particular times and we give thanks for that and very necessary in a world where we're praying for the unity of the church as a symbol of that too christ the son of god perfect in you the image of his glory and gladden your hearts with the good news of his kingdom 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 [Applause] so we leave the ark of the covenant behind the walls of the philistine city and uh behind me you can see the the city walls of canterbury and so uh that's a nice symbol to think that the holy object is now in the hands of others beyond the wall i'm not suggesting that that the city of canterbury is philistine so have a have a lovely day thanks