good morning and welcome to the deanery in canterbury cathedral on this morning of monday the 3rd of january it is a quiet day it's a public holiday following the weekend but at the same time it's the tenth day of christmas and we still continue to celebrate the festival of our lord's birthday but we wanted first to pay tribute this morning to richard leakey the kenyan conservationist paleontologist who died on sunday age 77 he'd been born just in nairobi in uh at the end of the second world war in 1944 and he we would like to pay tribute particularly for his massive work in the conservation of areas of protection let's say especially for the african elephant elephant but he became someone who was put in charge of the conservation of kenyan wildlife and he was very successful in those protected areas very dangerous work because poaching the elephants is a highly lucrative business and the wardens that he had put in place face dangers at all times and yet now the uh african elephant there thanks to his work in kenya in places like the the meru national park are being protected in a a wonderful way so he is an example of tremendous staying power uh he in i think 1993 in a plane crash lost both his legs below the knee and yet continued to work in a wonderful way and it reminds us of the the way in which the african elephants were endangered our friend mark corres the father of jamie corey who painted my portrait up in the drawing room upstairs he himself is a sculptor of wildlife and he was particularly keen one thinks of richard leaky here particularly keen to sculpt an african bull elephant but in order to do that would have to go amongst the herds and he managed to achieve that and if you look at his website mark corey's website he describes the experience of being amongst the quietness of a herd of unthreatened african elephants and he managed to sculpt one of the old bull elephants there and actually there is a maquette of that in their home uh in wiltshire in the garden of the home in in wiltshire but all those things remind us of the precious quality of wildlife and the dangers involved in those who are attempting to protect wild species across the world the president of kenya and the vice president have paid full some tribute to richard leakey for his devotion to kenya and particularly the wildlife in kenya which he has done his best to protect through his life so god bless him for all that work on this particular day we've come into an area of the the deanery itself to revisit some parts of christmas that we've been celebrating through these 12 days tomorrow the 11th day and of course wednesday twelfth night as it's called and that we'll see the end of the christmas festival and going on into epiphany we've come back today to the white christmas tree here i mean by white decorations with the doves here and it will become apparent why when we come to our reflection as also it'll be apparent why i'm sitting near a window where light is coming through the window all of these things will come in the reflection when we come to it but meanwhile we continue to give thanks for the joy of the celebration of christmas and some of us have asked some some of you of us why our presence aren't being opened and the answer is that we always open presents at epiphany on the 6th of january when we celebrate the coming of the magi and we'll talk very very much about that when we come to thursday itself the feast of the epiphany so let's begin our prayers on this day of christmas time the tenth day of christmas oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands blessed are you sovereign god creator of heaven and earth to you be praise and glory forever as your living word eternal in heaven assume the frailty of our mortal flesh may the light of your love be born in us to fill our hearts with joy as we sing 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 this morning on the third morning of the month is psalm 16 [Music] [Applause] preserve me o god for in you have i taken refuge i have said to the lord you are my lord all my good depends on you all my delight is upon the godly that are in the land upon those who are noble in heart though the idols are legion that many run after their drink offerings of blood i will not offer neither make mention of their names upon my lips the lord himself is my portion and my cup in your hands alone is my fortune my share has fallen in a fair land indeed i have a goodly heritage i will bless the lord who has given me counsel and in the night watches he instructs my heart i have set the lord always before me he is at my right hand i shall not fall wherefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices my flesh also shall rest secure for you will not abandon my soul to death nor suffer your faithful one to see the pit you will show me the path of life in your presence is the fullness of joy and in your right hand our pleasures forevermore today we're going to read one of the old testament lessons which is generally in our minds connected with christmas time and i'm talking about the beginning of chapter 9 in the prophet isaiah it would have been again a passage that our lord knew very well probably by heart and i'm going to read verses 1 right through to the end of verse 7. some of those verses form a lesson at a christmas carol service others are strange to us and yet the whole compass of those seven verses become important at this time when we're continuing to think of the blessed virgin mary treasuring these events and pondering them in her heart waiting with patience for the lord [Music] but there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish in the former time he brought into contempt the land of zebulun and the land of naphtali but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea the land beyond the jordan galilee of the nations the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shone you have multiplied the nation you have increased its joy they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest as they are glad when they divide the spoil for the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder the rod of his oppressor you have broken as on the day of midian for every boot of the trampling warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire for to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counsellor mighty god everlasting father prince of peace of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of david and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore the zeal of the lord of hosts will do this it's a wonderful lesson when read in its completeness though of course we we know certain of the verses very well not only from the lessons read at the nine lessons and carols are carol services but also as choruses from handel's messiah and i wanted to begin with the beginning of that little paragraph because of course there's a prophecy there about galilee and that's very unusual for as we know from the contempt with which their accents are heard in the high priest courtyard even in their own land galilee was thought of as being some are not terribly important your accent gives you away your galilean we need to take notice of you but you're probably associated with this man jesus who is a galilean um even the nathaniel quote about nazareth being contemptible and can anything good come out of nazareth and yet here in the prophet isaiah the beginning of chapter nine we get this sense of in former times the land of zebulun and the land of naphtali looked after looked over with contempt but now in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea the land beyond the jordan galilee of the nations and then at the same time wonderful prophecies of light coming into the world and how is that light to come into the world how is that peace to be established and i make no apology for reading verses four and five because verses four and five speak about all the accoutrements of war and the bloodsail rags of the devastation of war now being put on the bonfire because a time of peace has come and why and then the great prophecy because for to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and then the series of names which are attributed to this child who has been born whom we are with mary pondering on and reflecting on in these wonderful 12 days of christmas time which gives us time to think of the real meaning of the coming of the christ child now i'm once again taken back and i've mentioned this once or twice really not for this particular reason but for the way in which he was able to explain the scriptures taken back to professor george cadd's lectures in mansfield college at oxford and one would go there to hear him lecture with the excitement of hearing him lecture about the new testament he brought it all to life and i've mentioned him before in the way in which he brought the children playing in the marketplaces and finding that the sulky ones wouldn't join them in weddings or in funerals but on this occasion i have another memory of him uh and his voice being raised in exuberance when he was dealing with this chapter nine and i want to deal with that little punctuation mark the comma which in modern translations is not placed between wonderful and counsellor and so it reads and his name shall be called wonderful counselor mighty god before in the vulgate latin version and in the king james version the comma came between and so one had time to savor the titles of this child his name shall be called wonderful admirabilis wonderful counsellor the very title that our lord jesus christ gives to the spirit which will be given to his church mighty god everlasting father prince of peace and i remember george cad actually looking up and stabbing the book with his finger saying handel got it right well of course we were instantly back into that wonderful chorus for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and his name shall be called and the violins begin to get excited wonderful pause as the violins play counselor every title giving us a chance to reflect on what that title means so often in life moments like that which seem unimportant at the time are there whenever you read a section and i find it very difficult to read the two words together now wonderful counselor it seems to diminish both of them wonderful counselor mighty god everlasting father prince of peace it's a litany of glory given to those who are awaiting the time of the prince of peace is birth and prince of peace is the last title given and of the increase of his government his dominion and of peace there will be no end it's an amazing prophecy from isaiah and it's a prophecy that we ponder in our hearts with mary on this particular day the tenth day of thinking about christmas time and what it means the establishment of the son of david who will bring justice and righteousness all these things that we now are charged with the same gifts of the wonderful the counselor the mighty god the everlasting father the prince of peace being given to us in the child in the manger that is the wonder of it all and every one of our carols which we continue to sing in these 12 days of christmas given to us for that very reason as our eyes ponder and our hearts ponder the christ child unable to speak and as chatterden dixie's him said yesterday the word in silence pleading for sinners from the manger all of those things as the carols continue to sing [Music] the christmas tree in this room is decorated in white and it's full also of white doves a memory of the time when we used to keep white fan-tailed pigeons we no longer do but the sound of wood pigeons in the trees here it's very much a sound of the english countryside as is the sound of the collar doves as they come down very different kinds of birds than the wood pigeons there are even turtle doves in kent they're extinct in most of the united kingdom but in the fields around wingham which is about seven miles away there are still some wild pairs of turtle doves and we remember them of course from the song of songs as a sign of the coming of spring the voice of the turtledove is heard in but at the same time i am reminded by this i should say also there are some hummingbirds on the tree we tend to get a hummingbird from the uh little shop in the huntington museum and two lovely crystal hummingbirds from our friend erin in california because they're fletcher's favorite birds but of course you can't keep them in in england and so they're just a sign of a different part of the world as are the voices of the badges that you hear the australian voices of the budgies that you hear and in with the budgies in the sort of semi-indoor outdoor aviary is an emerald dove too who was bred in captivity but clearly escaped and was brought here as a rescue operation having been found being attacked by magpies brought here by beryl and now is living a happy enough life with very different species in the aviary there and you can hear the sound of them in the background but all these things remind me of a carol which i haven't sung for years but which we used to sing in school days about the birds it's called the carol of the birds some of you will know it i'm not going to attempt to sing it but here are the words from out of a wood did a cuckoo fly cuckoo he came to a manger with joyful cry cuckoo he hopped he cuts it round he flew and loud his jubilation grew cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo a pigeon flew over to galilee crew he strutted and cooed and was full of glee vrakru and showed with jeweled wings unfelt his joy that christ was in the world veracruz a dove settled down upon nazareth tsukru and tenderly chanted with all his breath tsukru oh you he could so good and true my beauty do i give to you sukru sukru sukru when we sang the carol as children we would imitate the noise of the birds we don't find cuckoos calling in the city of canterbury these days but we don't have to go far to find them when may time and june time come but those carols speak of chorus nature just heralding the birth of the prince of peace the one who was wonderful counselor mighty god everlasting father prince of peace and i want to take us to the jewel of a norman church just outside oxford in the village of ifly there it's the church of saint mary the virgin in ifly where there is the most beautiful window by the artist who became a stained glass artist john piper it was created as a nativity window for an exhibition held in bristol in 1982 but after john piper's death his widow mephanwe organized with the person who had helped piper with the window that that window would go uh with david wasley's help to the church in ifly and there it is now one of two modern windows uh we'll speak about the other one in a moment but this one reminded me of the birds carol because what piper has designed is a tree of life and a nativity window becomes a heralding of christ's birth so that on that tree of life where green sprigs are beginning once again to blossom you have right at the top the cockerel and then below the goose and then below the crow and then below the owl and on the floor beneath the tree the lamb and each in latin the same words that might be like the sound of their voice so think of russell crowe right on the top our rooster or brewster the rooster whatever you like and in latin the rooster in piper's window is shouting christus not assessed and the rhythm is cock-a-doodle-doo of course chris does not assess christ is born the next one down and if you don't want to think of a goose think about our ducky in the garden and the goose is shouting cuando cuando and that means in latin when christ is born when and next comes corny crow and he shouts in with the crow's voice on this night and next the owl who in latin shouts and lo on the ground beneath the tree the lamb and the lamb says bethlehem it's an imaginative thing and at the bottom is a quote from uh christopher smartz jubilante ano rejoice in the land which has that section in it about his cat jeffrey but the quotation beneath this window is let man and beast appear appear before him and magnify his name magnify his name is a good sentence for a church of saint mary the virgin but the blue of that window and the creatures proclaiming christ's birth is very much a nativity window from john piper just near it is another window which has been put in since this one is called the flowering tree and is a window of roger wagner's with the help of the gas maker patrick costello and this is quite different for this is the precious flowering of the tree of life beside the river of crystal running through the streets of the heavenly jerusalem as given in sin john's great vision at the end of the scriptures and underneath is a flock of sheep sheltering in the shade and resting beside the crystal stream of the water of life but in the midst of the tree is the figure of christ crucified and pleading for all the injustice and cruelty of this world and for the forgiveness of sins and his arms reaching out in love to the world and to all creation their two beautiful windows nativity and flowering tree on this tenth day of christmas we remember them in a special way and we remember the cry of those creatures in the tree proclaiming christ's birth which we continue to ponder on in heart and mind with the blessed virgin mary at this time of year so let's say our prayers on this particular day and on this day we are praying in the anglican communion for the diocese of uh in the church of nigeria in the abba province and in our own diocese for justin our archbishop and for all who have chaplaincy work in those villages we've been praying for around the village of bridge in what we call the east bridge deanery the area around that pray for each of them in their different work particularly at this time of pandemic when people need so much care so we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and also for emma bishop at lambeth and we pray the prayer for the christmas season at this time almighty god in the birth of your son you have poured on us the new light of your incarnate word and shown us the fullness of your love help us to walk in his light and dwell in his love that we may know the fullness of his joy who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so 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 are men a moment of reflection on this tenth day of christmas [Music] [Music] so [Music] was [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] so on this morning when we reflect on the voice that the creator has given to all his creation to praise his works and we continue to praise him for the gift of the christ child at this christmas time may christ who by his coming at christmas time gathered into one the things of earth and of heaven fill you with the spirit of peace and good will 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 god give you a good continuation of christmas now you've been very sleepy this morning haven't you and very quiet as well i don't know that's because you're very tired or because you're trying to be intentionally very good say that we don't notice you here [Music] leo always wants his tail when he's happy they used to say that a cat was angry when a chair was being wagged but not leo nor lily it's a sign of purring and happiness with both of them it was a time of satisfaction too i think you're going to settle down to sleep again aren't you [Music] [Music] kindness must wash for me [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] sure [Music] you