good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of tuesday the 11th of january we've come to the edge of the orchard and fletcher's created a a sort of thomas hardy scene we'll think about that in a moment um but we have around us that the log piles at this time of year which are places where you will find the stag beetles sheltering and the uh lizards um and also uh it's a good place for hedgehogs to to um hibernate in the winter and for snow worms to be as well and so all those things in this part of the garden which at the moment above me is fairly leafless i'm sitting next to this magnificent mulberry tree which has such contours and so many faces but mulberry of course very much a plant a tree of canterbury precincts after the beckett story and tigers come to join us as well um this is a a a sort of autumn winter fire and remember the the poem that i read of thomas hardy very short one uh the the first two verses speak about perspective in human life and dimensions and of course we we looked at the astronomy book uh two on a tower where swiftinson cleave is saying to lady constantine if you want real perspective look up at the stars um and at the same time one core is back with paleontologists and we have news of of fossil finds at the moment they seem to come sick and fast the the biggest ixia saw and most whole extras or millions of years old uh uh found and also giant millipedes which must have been absolutely terrifying uh 10 feet long but again millions of years old suddenly found as rocks split and reveal their secrets and on this day we are giving thanks for the whole of creation in it's shall we say it's sleeping state but here are the two verses uh there's a third one about a young man and his his girlfriend but these are the first two which gives the context for this with hardy it is actually the year's mind of thomas hardy's death today so his anniversary but here's the poem we read the other day only a man harrowing clods in a slow silent walk with an old horse that stumbles and nods half asleep as they walk only thin smoke without flame from the heaps of cooch grass yet this will go onward the same though dynasties pass hardy setting the hardy's setting the context the tigers muffling my microphone um hardy's setting the context of the the um cooch grass just thin smoke coming away from it and the silent walk of the old man with his horse harrowing the clods saying that this and of course the the two lovers in the street become more important to humanity and go on just the same though dynasties pass and that perspective is what we're thinking of on this particular day as we say our prayers so bring your own concerns from across the world and let's begin our prayers on this morning oh 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 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 does 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 son this morning is psalm 57 for the 11th morning of the month be merciful to me o god be merciful to me for my soul takes refuge in you in the shadow of your wings will i take refuge until the storm of destruction has passed by i will call upon the most high god the god who fulfills his purpose for me he will send from heaven and save me and rebuke those that would trample upon me god will send forth his love and his faithfulness i lie in the midst of lions people whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword be exalted oh god above the heavens and your glory over all the earth they have laid a net for my feet my soul is pressed down they have dug a pit before me and will fall into it themselves my heart is ready oh god my heart is ready i will sing and give you praise awake my soul awake harp and liar that i may awaken the dawn i will give you thanks o lord among the peoples i will sing praise to you among the nations for your loving kindness is as high as the heavens and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds be exalted oh god above the heavens and your glory over all the earth so we come to our reading which is continuing where we began yesterday with the lovely book of ruth in the old testament and as i said yesterday it is like a pastoral ideal one feels that thomas hardy might well have told this story which is uh a wonderful story though it has a a finer ending in terms of our enjoy than any hardy story tends to have for he tends to end either with tragedy or sadness but here is the first chapter of the book of ruth and i'm beginning where i left off yesterday beginning at verse six and reading to the end there is the most wonderful painting by william blake and it shows ruth and oppa with naomi their mother-in-law and encapsulates all that is going on in this particular chapter then naomi arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of moab for she had heard in the fields of moab that the lord had visited his people and given them food so she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law and they went on the way to return to the land of judah but naomi said to her two daughters-in-law go return each of you to your mother's house may the lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me the lord grants that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband then she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept and they said to her no we will return with you to your people but naomi said turn back my daughters why will you go with me have i yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands turn back my daughters go your way for i am too old to have a husband if i should say i have hope even if i should have a husband this night and should bear sons would you therefore wait till they were grown would you therefore refrain from marrying no my daughters for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the lord has gone out against me then they lifted up their voices and wept again and kissed her mother-in-law but ruth clung to her and naomi said see your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods return after your sister-in-law but ruth said do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you for where you go i will go and where you lodge i will lodge your people shall be my people and your god my god where you die i will die and there will i be buried may the lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you and when naomi saw that ruth was determined to go with her she said no more so the two of them went on until they came to bethlehem and when they came to bethlehem the whole town was stirred because of them and the women said is this naomi she said to them do not call me naomi call me mara for the almighty has dealt very bitterly with me i went away full and the lord has brought me back empty why call me naomi when the lord has testified against me and the almighty has brought calamity upon me so naomi returned and ruth the moabite her daughter-in-law with her who returned from her country of moab and they came to bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest great sadness and grief at the beginning of that story for not only elimelech naomi's husband has died as we saw yesterday but also her two sons the husbands of ruth and oprah marlon and chilean have died and hence naomi's words saying there is nothing left for me to give you stay in your mother's house be married again have children and live your life here in your own country and then we get that astonishing promise of loyalty from ruth to naomi it's one of the loveliest promises of loyalty of companionship between two people in all the scriptures ruth said do not urge me to leave you or return from following you for where you go i will go and where you lodge i will lodge your people shall be my people and your god my god where you die i will die and there will i be buried may the lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you the emotion in blake's painting says it all he stressed them really in the close of the late 18th century when he's painting this but nevertheless one sees in his painting the total grief and sadness withering the face of naomi who now says to her own people when the women of bethlehem say what on earth has happened to you can this be naomi she says call me not naomi but call me mara which means bitter because the lord has dealt with me with calamity in my life and they come ruth and naomi to bethlehem which is always a sign of a beginning and they come at the beginning of the barley harvest a new spring is going to open up but for the moment naomi is thinking that her particular role for ruth and for orpah is now over and as that is her feeling she's urging them to stay with her own people also for ruth ruth is coming to a foreign land and it's a land that's not always been friendly to to strangers in that way and yet her love for naomi is so great that she swears that beautiful oath of loyalty and it's good to read it and have it as part of our lesson as this story begins but besley him itself is a place of new beginnings and has not not been our our christmas story all the way through that bethlehem is a place of new beginnings where god in his infinite eternity that perspective which we find it impossible even to imagine narrows himself down to a point where we can see our humanity in divine form in the life of the babe in the manger the life of the young child in the temple the life of the man jesus entering the waters of baptism and all of those things giving us a perspective we can understand and see but at the same time an interpretation of all that is around us at the moment so much dormant in a time of winter midwinter here in england wherever you are in the world you will be in some kind of season whatever that be and uh the fire is going to give us some new beginnings springing into life and flame not just the thin smoke well let's go to both thomas hardy who died on this day in 1928 very much a famous person by then and there was a great controversy about where he was to be buried westminster abbey or stinsford his own parish church and in the end as you probably know his heart was buried at stinsford and at the same time the funeral of his body was taking place in westminster abbey and his ashes now lie there and at the same time on this day in 1980 but we'll deal with hardy first um barbara pym the english novelist died and just like hardy barbara pims norfolk's but in a different century before she died in 1980 and began writing in about 1936 or so but was only becoming well known later than that and both hardy and barbara pym started off with rejections from publishers but they were writing from real life and writing about small and quite often intimate groups of people and the strong emotions that they feel about each other let's start with hardy i'm only going to one of his books this morning and this is quite quite different from two on a tower it's the only historical novel that thomas hardy wrote and he wrote it in the age of jane austen and the napoleonic wars it's called the trumpet major and i remember studying it as a setbook in school examinations and it takes place in budmas as hardy calls it in his imaginary map of the west of england but in fact he means wamus a famous watering place where people came to take the waters and and be in the coastal air and it takes place there in an old mill and the cottage next door and let's meet the people who live there first in the mill is old miller love day and next door lives martha garland a widow and her daughter anne and they have come there and the miller is very fond of both of them but particularly the widow and has eyes on perhaps a match with him and at the same time the miller has two sons and one of them john gives the title to the book the trumpet major for john is a soldier which brings us into the scene of what's going on in the states the napoleonic wars this is a time when england is fearing invasion in 1804 and the beacons are set ready to light and flame on the hilltops to say that the french have come and landed and the people are nervous and afraid and at the same time camps of soldiers are all around and john finds himself camp near enough to the mill to visit them quite often so john the trumpet major comes back and here's a likely match for anne and then in the book bob his brother who's a sailor in the merchant navy when the book starts but later on in the royal navy and we come to aspects of the battle of trafalgar and things of that sort in 1805 and still the nervousness about a french invasion lasts until that battle of trafalgar is probably one and and things begin to change but you've then got two suitors for anne and then there is also the nerdu well squires son of a different social class but not nearly as worthy as john and maybe bob who's a bit more flighty festus is uh the festus dereman is the son of the squire and all three make a play for anne and during the book you get snippets the odd snippet of a picture of what's going on nationally and until even king george the third and his wife queen charlotte and the daughters arrive in weymouth to take the waters in budmotors how do you call it and everyone comes out and and the king stops to speak to anne garland in her grief and there's a lovely sort of little cameo of of king george iii who was known as farmer george if you remember um because of his interest in agriculture and all things uh ecological in the in in the earthen skies but the peninsula war and even the victory sailing by were now bob is a naval officer on board none of that is as important as the loves and jealousies and the way in which if someone begins to make a relationship something in terms of jealousy will cause another to have a different reaction and try to alter the situation by turning from one to another it's full of that kind of human activity which we know only too well for human passions are very very strong and they often counter the best intentions and hardy is dealing with that and giving all those national international events perspective on the way that decisions are made in ordinary life so i recommend the book but let's go to barbara pym because barbara pym also but in a different century looked around to what she could see in terms of her local society and her own experience and once again she had book after book rejected at first her book um some tame gazelle one of the earlier books she wrote in fact i think probably the first novel she wrote and they all have lovely titles excellent women and a glass of blessings but i'm wanting to concentrate just again on one book and it's called the sweet dove died it was published in 1978 and she barbara pim died in 1980 but in that this is the story of an elegant but rather selfish single lady called leonora who had a particular image of herself and the the book is is taken i'm sorry the title of the book is taken from a poem by john keats i had a dove and the sweet dove died it begins and leonora is um in the book trying to be the mover and shaker in her elegant ways and she comes across someone who again like miller love day and mrs garland rather takes suha he's an antique dealer called humphrey boyce and he is sweet on leonora but then he introduces her to his nephew james who's much younger and of course far more good-looking and leonora whose perception of herself is a little different from what others are seeing uh falls in love with james to start with and so all these emotions begin to drive things and leonora believes that she is in control and in to a degree she is she interferes with people's lives she interferes with james's life and the girlfriend he has phoebe and sends her packing she gets rid of her own tenant in her lovely flat and upstairs there's room for another flat and she gives that flat to james but all these machinations are not nearly as strong as the way in which human lives want to live their own life and live themselves through and so really leonora is in for sadness and gradually you see how she comes to a sense of what is real and what you can and you can't control and what damage you create when you try to control in that way what emotions are driving the situation and there's a very sad moment where towards the end of the book when she's had one or two setbacks in her life with these relationships she decides she'll go and stay with two friends in the countryside joan and dickie murray and they welcome her and say we're having a party tonight with friends and neighbors coming in and leonora feeling very elegant walks downstairs and the first thing that is said to her by one of the guests is oh i can see you come from london you look so washed out which is not her perception of herself at all and then sadness begins to encroach on her and as she lies in bed above she hears the happy sound of joan and dicky laughing in the kitchen below giggling and laughing as they wash up and she is convinced they're laughing about her and that's the sort of feeling she wakes the next day with a migraine and spends the day in bed and so on these are facts and emotions of a tiny kind compared with all that is going on but at the same time those things can move us more than the great events and a good decision we're going to make can be hit off course in a particular way it's why we in our prayers ask for perspective and also concentrate on the quality and figure of our lord's human life and ask that the holy spirit in being given to us give us perspective about ourselves and our own relationships as well as the creators gifts in the world and that is a prayer that comes daily and i'm thankful for having read books by barbara pym uh and uh had the the the flavor of the society she gives us and by thomas hardy we've enjoyed some of his works but at the same time our study on ruth and naomi is a study of total and self-sacrificing loyalty of ruth to naomi as they come to bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest and a new beginning for them another little group of people but some characters haven't been introduced to us yet so we look forward to their entry as we continue the story so our fire is giving us nice light now and not just thin smoke as we begin to say our prayers on this day the 11th of january we're praying in the anglican communion for the diocese of jalingo in the church of nigeria the jos province and here in the diocese of canterbury as we pray for archbishop justin and bishop rose of dover and uh bishop emma at lambus we're praying for the little star benefits and gillian craig in his ministry there and that benefits has five beautiful churches in the countryside and uh the first is saint vincent at littleborn and then saint mary the virgin wingham and then sent john the evangelist ikham and then saint mary stoddmarsh and fletcher was saying he remembers lovely carol services in stodtmarsh all my candlelight and finally very beautiful indeed sint andrew wickham brew parishes within that little star benefits as it's called and uh sin vincent at littleborn is one of our our nearest as we run along the road to sandwich from canterbury so let's pray for the ministry there and bring your own prayers this morning as we say prayers on this particular day first with the colic for this week which take us back to the image of the baptism of jesus and then the our father in whatever language we like to use eternal father who at the baptism of jesus revealed him to be your son anointing him with the holy spirit grant to us who are born again by water and the spirit that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children through jesus christ our lord amen so together we say 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 now of reflection for your own prayers on this day [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is is [Applause] my [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] see [Music] christ the son of god perfecting 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 are men well tiger this is a nice place to be isn't it with our fire like a little thomas hardy scene from the woodlanders and you've been very patient and still today i don't think you're nervous because there's no sign of our friend leo around and so the scene is all yours little bulbs are growing up everywhere around me so one has to be very careful where one treads because already plants are beginning to spring in the ground here you