good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this tuesday the 23rd of november as we come to say our morning prayers together welcome wherever you are in the world wanted first of all to pray for all those who have lost their lives and have been rescued but shocked and injured from the horrific bus crash and fire in bulgaria of the mostly macedonians traveling on that bus many of them children coming from istanbul all the way through to skopje their own capital and the crash happening in the middle of the night and then waking uh the story is towed by those who very few of them managed to break a window and get out of the bus but the devastation and the deaths are horrendous and so we offer our prayers this morning for all involved in that situation and we can continue to pray for those in waukesha the place where the vehicle drove into the thanksgiving procession which was simply going through the town with great joy and uh the the deaths of of older people yes but but the horrendous injuries to those who are young one young boy has lost the use of both legs and and all of those awful injuries from that terrible accident we remember the tragedies of our world you will have other incidents that you want to bring to our prayers this morning we can but offer them and we do that as a garden congregation right across the world this is saint clements day and uh sin clement one of the earliest of those who followed the teachings of saint peter in rome and tradition has it that he he was in fact ordained by saint peter he died in the year about 80 100 and was uh enlists the third bishop of rome in succession to peter at that time we'll come to us and comment later on because a letter of his exists of extreme importance but for the moment let's say our prayers and bring your own intentions and concerns as we say them we've come here to this narrow passage which which marks the the way of the the journey of the the people of israel but we've come here for a very special reason because of the beauty of this salvia behind me which is still flowering and around also our golden leaves of the the jasmine and so and even some yellow flowers but the really the cold weather is now beginning to end all the leaves and uh here we are rejoicing in the flowering of this salvia um apologies for the hosepipe here and also possibly it was happening just now that peeping around the corner of the sixth guinea fowl are always curious as to what we're doing so they may arrive but we shall see oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more 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 made the light of your presence oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our son this morning is psalm 111. these psalms as we go through hundred and 1112 hundred and thirteen are psalms which begin with the word alleluia hello praise the praise the lord pilgrim psalms as pilgrims went on their way to jerusalem alleluia i will give thanks to the lord with my whole heart in the company of the faithful and in the congregation the works of the lord are great sought out by all who delight in them his work is full of majesty and honor and his righteousness endures forever he appointed a memorial for his marvelous deeds the lord is gracious and full of compassion he gave food to those who feared him he is ever mindful of his covenant he showed his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations the works of his hands are truth and justice all his commandments are sure they stand fast forever and ever they are done in truth and equity he sent redemption to his people he commanded his covenant forever holy and awesome is his name the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have those who live by it his praise endures forever it's a psalm as i say a pilgrimage and a psalm which our lord himself would have known in gladness possibly sung by the community as they went from galilee to jerusalem with his mother and father joseph and mary going up as a boy of 12 to the temple and these psalms were psalms sung along the way beginning with that praise the lord and in modern terms the alleluia reminds us also of new life and resurrection but notice the last verse the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding of those who live by it his praise endures forever notice is only the beginning of wisdom the end of wisdom is never reached in this life for we learn new things every day but in the context of the honoring and fear of the lord the beginning of wisdom so we're going to go back to the exodus and we're taking up from where we left off at the beginning of chapter 34 and there's a sort of new beginning here as goes moses goes back to the mountain as though to begin again after the incident of the golden calf now a new beginning and as i read chapter 34 um i shall do what we're going to do now with the exodus to take significant passages to take us through so that all the infinite details of the law of the old covenant is there for you to read if you would like to read it but it would take more time than we have to to do that and and we should reach advent and christmas uh long before we ever got to the end of it so i'm going to take sections to take us on the journey and i'm exodus 34 i'll read 1-10 and 27-33 the lord said to moses cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first and i will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke be ready by the morning and come up in the morning to mount sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain no one shall come up with you and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain so moses cut two tablets of stone like the first and he rose early in the morning and went up on mount sinai as the lord had commanded him and took in his hand two tablets of stone the lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the lord the lord passed before him and proclaimed the lord the lord a god merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation and moses quickly bowed his head towards the earth and worshipped and he said if now i have found favor in your sight oh lord please let the lord go in the midst of us for it is a stiff-necked people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance and the lord said behold i am making a new covenant before all your people i will do marvelous marvels such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the lord for it is an awesome thing that i will do with you we move on then to verse 29 and the lord said to moses write these words for in accordance with these words i have made a covenant with you and with israel so moses was there with the lord for forty days and forty nights he neither at bread nor drank water and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant the ten commandments when moses came down from mount sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with god aaron and all the people of israel saw moses and behold the skin of his face sean and they were afraid to come near him but moses called to them and aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him and moses talked with them afterwards all the people of israel came near and he commanded them all that the lord had spoken with him in mount sinai and when moses had finished speaking with them he put a veil over his face the brightness of his face so great that it spoke of the glory of the lord which was too bright for the people to see and so we have this veil put over the face of moses which later on in the epistles of sin paul simple makes much of but at the moment let's just think of this here is a call to a new beginning it's a covenant and the lord is making it brand new it will be as we know it the old covenant by which the people in which our lord grew up of which he was very much a member in the little province of galilee there these people lived by that covenant and for the first time in the book of the exodus those two tablets of stone and the writing on them are known as and we heard it said the ten commandments but let's go back first to the fact that when the lord passes before moses then it's very difficult in our scriptures in translation to to get how the names given to the god who appears before moses god of gods lord of all and moses uh uh buying and worshiping before him i know you by name he said to moses yesterday and then he gives moses his name as he had at the burning bush surrounding by all these golden leaves this morning is a good sign of the burning bush again and at the burning bush he had given the name sometimes that is translated yahweh in some translations we have been used to it being called the lord but it's done in often in translations as capital letters meaning it's that word which is taken from the first person singular of the present tense of the verb to be i am and it is that which is being proclaimed as the lord passes by the lord passed before moses and proclaimed the lord the lord the name and that name so holy that moses bows in worship bows to the earth and as the name is proclaimed in the present tense uh and reflecting that same verb in the new testament which jesus uses all the time about himself i am i am the true vine i am the way the truth and the life and so on as the lord proclaims it on mount sinai he also gives something of the character that he he once known the lord the lord a god merciful and gracious slow to anger abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but moses has really only one prayer and one plea he is pleaded for the forgiveness of the people but now he says once again come with us and the implication as with yesterday i don't know how we'll find a way i don't know how we'll manage if you are not with us come with us i know there are stiff-necked people but come with us if we have to find the way and if i have found favor in your sight it's not so much bargaining with god there's nothing to lay before him the incident of the golden calf has more or less broken every commandment which was given the gracious commandment of all and yet here is moses simply pleading in intercession for his people and saying if their vocation is to make your name known throughout the whole world and if they are chosen for that vocation then come with us be with us there and show us the way as we walk and the lord agrees and notice in the symbolic figures of the old testament just as in the symbolic figures of the new testament the new covenant moses is with the lord on mount sinai 40 days and 40 nights fasting and of course i don't even need to remind you or ask what that reminds us of that beginning of the new covenant with the lord's christ there in the wilderness and fasting and at the end he was hungry and then his ministry began of a new covenant the kingdom is upon you he says he comes to the people so here we are with a reflection once again so often the new covenant mirrors the old covenant but expands it to a worldwide and timeless dimension and this gift is now being given and moses is promised that god will accompany them and after the 40 days he takes the two tablets of stone which later would rest in the ark of the covenant and he wrote on them the words of the covenant the ten commandments which we saw in exodus chapter 20 and they get a capital t and a capital c in our translations normally the ten commandments and he came down with the tablets and there were the people and the glory of his face was so great that they had to hide their faces from it and a veil had to be put over him for as yet they're not ready to receive all of that but he calls aaron and the leaders up aaron who has been forgiven for he of course was the one whose hands had created the golden calf and told them what the lord had said and then the law begins to unfold and what we have here was written down over the years which followed so here is an important new beginning as they begin their journey and the tablets of stone will go with them they are foundation stones of the old covenant and of israel's relationship with god they've been chosen for a purpose in time and shall we say in modern times internationally amongst all nations well let's go now to the various dates that today uh celebrate or remind us of the first one as i said it's in clement's day and clement bishop of rome in most lists the third or fourth bishop of rome in some lists the second bishop of rome the immediate successor to peter but certainly there is a close connection with the first bishop of rome peter himself and clement wrote a letter when he was the bishop of rome to the corinthian church and that letter miraculously survived there have been times when it was a certainty that it would be put into the making up of the canon the the collection of letters which make up the new testament together with the four gospels in the end it was not put that but we still have it as the earliest letter apart from from those in the new testament itself which exists for us and it talks about the ordering of the church and gives us an insight as to how that infant church was beginning to order itself so by an act of grace that letter survives and we can read it and think this came from the hand of one who was taught by and possibly ordained by peter himself and here is this lecture there is even a chance that in as you read the letter to the philippians in chapter 4 clement is mentioned just before that lovely passage rejoice in the lord always there's a moment where saint paul talks about a fellow worker clement and it's quite likely this is exactly who he is talking about so we remember with thanksgiving clement who was martyred and tradition has it that uh having been taken prisoner and there is a legend that for the the other prisoners working in the stone quarry he struck the rock and a spring of water gushed out for them certainly he quenched their thirst by his courage and his teaching and in many other ways but it said that he was martyred by having an anchor titan and being thrown off a ship so that the sign of sin clement very often is an anchor and on this day we take pleasure in praying for the parish church in sandwich near tahir which is saint clements church so we pray for canon mark roberts and his wife jasmine in their ministry there in sandwich on this day it's in clements but we give thanks most of all for the ministry of clement in those early days of the church letters are so important and the accidental almost though by grace we have those letters um survival of such flimsy things as letters written by apostolic hands to the infant churches of the growing church those letters have proved such a a wonderful grace to those of us who are those of that new covenant just as the four gospels by grace give us the story of the humanity of our lord himself so the letters and also the writing of st luke's acts of the apostles give us and not only an insight but the meaning of so much that is there and i said earlier that paul makes much of the veil over moses face and and how the people were afraid to approach god with the old covenant and yet christ's face was there on the mountain with the people unveiled and the the gift of the the good news was being given to them but given for a very special reason that they too might be those who convey that good news right across the world two other dates for today the first one is in 1963 the 23rd of november 1963 the day after j.f kennedy president of the united states was assassinated and that's a day which stays in so many of our minds the 22nd of november 23rd of november a new program was broadcast on the bbc television and i remember it happening i was 16 at the time and on a saturday afternoon a 25-minute program was broadcast it was the very first episode of doctor who and that episode at the time seemed an ordinary thing it was a strange thing and that the the signature tune was first heard and that quirky police box the tardis which when you open the doors opened up into something absolutely wonderful was seen for the first time and william hartnell in fairly senior years became the first doctor who the time lord who had the ability to transport that tardis across time and space an amazing concept of reaching and it's a human dream of reaching through time time traveling or traveling through space in a way that in time is impossible because of distances but the imagination of this program caught fire in the uh nation watching it and later on has become really a cult series companions went with doctor who always but the i should say that the the magic of it all was that the the doctor at the end of a time when someone like william hartnell who was beginning to grow quite frail and unsick wanted to change the doctor was given the power to translate himself and transform into someone else and look quite different and be renewed and the companions would change from time to time as maybe they were brought back home normally and over the years we've got to know so many different companions but also so many different doctors looking this morning i see that it was broadcast from 1963 to 1989 a long run and different doctor who's and different companions and then a break and an attempt to start again in 1996 but then in 2005 it took off again in a completely different way and we got used to david tennant playing doctor who and then matt smith playing doctor who and different companions on the way through and now it's played by jody whitaker and she has transformed the doctor into something completely other and the same kind of success attends everything that that program has done over the years it's the longest kind of program of this kind in in the guinness book of records uh in in that time 13 people have played the doctor but it's talking about how humanity yearns to shall we say lift off and break the bounds of being finite and break the bounds of time and space and we of course are in our benedictine way of thinking of each of us as a fusion of body mind and spirit living out in a community given to hospitality to many companions that in spirit and in mind in mind the imagination and in spirit in a reality which transcends our finite being are doing exactly that and being embraced into that by the new covenants given to us and yet at the same time it's intensely enjoyable to enter the imagination of those who have created a program like doctor who and see what pleasure it gives and also the time lord always on the side of of of good and order and that which is right and always on the side of those in need of help and a whole quantity of different opponents for him have been created demonic characters probably the most famous of the daleks and uh from 1963 onwards uh people began to imitate the voices of the daleks as they went around in the beginning it was thought by the producer when the the designers said we've got these he said no that's not suitable at all in fact they became the most popular of of the the opponents of the doctor or the cybermen or um in sometimes that sinister figure the renegade time lord who's certainly not on the side of good and justice and those who are in need of help the master he's called all of those now each of you if you are doctor who fans will have your own person in your mind as doctor who because at the time you were watching it that was who was playing it and some will have several but we give thanks for all of that today and the way in which concepts of time and space are possible for us to imagine and enter into and then i just wanted to think of someone else of immense imagination uh we've done him before probably a year ago on the 23rd of november 1990 raul dahl died and he of course had the imagination to produce particularly in children's books wonderful characters as in james with james of the giant peach or charlie in charlie in the chat chocolate factory or matilda or the big friendly giant or danny champion of the world again imagination which takes off once the book is being read many of them made into films but they started as books as letters on paper and as one read then one imagined and those letters like the letter of clement or the letter of paul to the philippians stay with us and help us as we read to enter into the life of a particular community and in the right sort of writing to be helped by that to be stretched by that to have our wisdom extended the fear of the lord is the beginning the foundation stone of wisdom but only the beginning wisdom goes on from there to learn many things and the foundation stone of the fear of the lord sifts good from bad and right from wrong and what our particular gifts of creativity are fed by and we give thanks for all that on this morning of the feast of sin let's say our prayers then on this particular day and we are praying in our anglican communion this morning on the 23rd of november for the diocese of ibadan south in the church of nigeria and here continuing to pray for the parishes in the area of romney and tentative the area deanery there and today we pray for all who act as chaplains an exercising ministry as chaplains in schools uniformed organizations residential care communities clubs businesses health care groups prisons police armed services and sport we remember all of them in their work today you will bring your own prayers we pray here for archbishop justin and for bishop rose of dover and bishop emma at lambus and as i've said we pray especially for the church of sin clement in sandwich and all churches throughout the world dedicated to the name of clement here's the collect for this day creator and father of eternity whose martyr comment bore witness with his blood to the love he proclaimed and the gospel that he preached give us thankful hearts as we celebrate your faithfulness revealed to us in the lives of your saints and strengthen us in our pilgrimage as we follow your son jesus christ our lord amen collect for this week the last of the christian year stir up o lord we beseech you the wills of your faithful people that they plentifully bringing forth the fruit of good works may by you be plentiously rewarded through jesus christ our lord amen so we say the prayer our savior taught us in whatever language you like to use 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 now for your own prize so spirit so [Music] 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 amen