good morning and welcome to the deanery garden on this morning of friday the 18th of march welcome wherever you are in the world and let's begin our prayers first and foremost in our attention with the uh situation in ukraine because of course that gets no better day by day and more people are being killed more people are fleeing their homes and so that becomes an urgent point of prayer to start our prayers off if one wants a sign of that let's go back to the flowers we were using yesterday in the colors of of the ukraine uh the blue of the hyacinths and the yellow of the narcissi and the green of hope a hope for peace and that is the fervent hope of our prayers together with thanksgiving for the hospitality being shown by so many in opening their homes to give a home for the people who have left theirs in such great fear this is a day which is actually full of themes and if we move on to other themes then this is the day for comic relief or red nose day and uh i've several things here to help us with comic relief and red nose day just ought to mention um i'm sitting in the apple orchard and there are one or two friends around us and so you'll see them from time to time our little friend from yesterday i see has actually squeezed into the picture as well and is sitting on the apple branch there and of course leo is here he's actually been having a quite a sort of eye battle with the robin who's been teasing him from this side so that will continue i'm sure during the our morning of prayer this morning but we want to talk about comic relief and it's a day when uh comedy is there to prompt us to do many things in giving to various charities and the comedy is always in red noses now this year the red noses have a sort of theme a kind of puzzle and if you go into supermarkets you collect different kinds of red noses until you've got one two three four five six seven eight creatures that's quite different from normal years and it's quite fun to do so i've got some here but not all uh i don't know which ones we've got let's have a look and see here's here's a character a creature and if i match this up with uh the box this is dot so instead of just wearing a plain red nose then you have a face on your red nose and it's the face of dot but if i take dot off and this is great fun for the children searching so they can get all eight ah then the next one uh is this one and if i put that on and look at the box to see how i'm doing then this is dash turn it up and uh dash is very distinctive not just red but lots of white as well so we've got dot and dash and i'm collecting the red noses as the children have been and are wearing them i'm sure at school today and adults too are meant to wear them so that when the smile happens you are actually smiling a welcome to the charities that you're giving to and the welfare of people i'll look at those in a moment uh this is the third now which one's this let me have a look i put this on i've got the so this is where are we this is lucky here's lucky who's got a single tooth it looks to me and uh who will find who will you find when i found lucky and i've found dot and dash i've only got one more actually so i will see who that is and then there are four that i don't have and i have got here uh i've got here um let me see i'll put this on and it is i finally difficulty find this finding this one uh oh here we are it's sky and sky is a lovely cow and there's actually then this to go with it and i'm sure that i'm now looking a bit like sky but as i do so then let's think can't keep this on uh let's think of what this comic relief is meant to be doing because the important thing is that we are giving to particular charities and that perhaps it will stay that from it um we're beginning to and and the the charities that you can choose and you can go online for this and go to the bbc there's a four-hour program about it tonight uh and those of you here the comic relief is year-round and for example tom daley's challenge which happened and came to a conclusion on february 18th after a real physical endeavor and pilgrimage makes you feel tired even to look at tom doing that but it's a challenge to give and this comic relief is aiming to give a safe place to be and call home and to challenge negative attitudes to homelessness in migration to help children survive and thrive and fighting hunger disease and abuse so that children may across the world were meaning survive and thrive and then we're looking at the challenge for safety and equality for women and girls so that we're talking there about violence and abuse against women and girls which affects one in three women and girls worldwide we're told we're looking at charities to give better mental health and there are apparently one billion people a year suffering from mental health issues there may be many many more because they're not reported so many of them and tackling the stigma which makes them uh not to be reported because people feel mental health has a certain stigma so tackling all of that tackling poverty tackling domestic abuse now this is such a massive wine subject and the charities you can give to actually are so many that you're asked if you want to choose your age group and find yourself among people doing things for various charities and making partnerships and there's a special one for ukraine of course there is because so many of these things are affecting the people of the ukraine at the moment they're losing their homes their families are splitting up they need to come back to a peaceful home and all those things are part of comic relief on this red nose day so let me take skye off and let me take the cow's horns off there we are and we put these down we're not forgetting that but we are going on to other themes as well because this is an interesting day with all the themes we are there but please do tune in on websites to comic relief and see where you fit into that and the children will be doing the puzzles and searching around and i'm bound to say that in searching around quite often they cheat and open the boxes to see which one they're getting now here's the robin who's come because leo's gone hello robin hello hello he's got a red breast and red is the color of today comic relief robin you're really fashionable how are you this morning come down and you've seen that your great adversary leo has gone so you're safe now and you're safe on the apple branch we shall say later why we're in the apple orchard but it's very significant today and robin is here with us to show a red breast for comic relief on the apple branch there so let me pick up the book and let's start our morning prayers and give thanks also for the glories of spring all around us in the daffodils but it's the apple trees we're going to concentrate on in our reflection a bit later on so let's start our prayers bring your own concerns and your own intentions from across the world as we join together in morning prayer oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice so 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 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 the 18th morning is psalm 90. lord you have been our refuge from one generation to another before the mountains were brought forth all the earth and the world were formed from everlasting to everlasting you are god you turn us back to dust and say turn back o children of earth for a thousand years in your sight are butters yesterday which passes like a watch in the night you sweep them away like a dream they fade away suddenly like the grass in the morning it is green and flourishes in the evening it is dried up and withered for we consume away in your displeasure we are afraid at your wroteful indignation you have set our misdeeds before you and our secret sins in the light of your countenance when you are angry all our days are gone our years come to an end like a sigh the days of our life are three score years and ten or if our strength endures even for score yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow for they soon pass away and we are gone who regards the power of your ross and your indignation like those who fear you so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom turn us again o lord how long will you delay have compassion on your servants satisfy us with your loving kindness in the morning that we may rejoice and be glad all our days give us gladness for the days you have afflicted us and for the years in which we have seen adversity share your servants your works and let your glory be over their children may the gracious favor of the lord our god be upon us prosper our handiwork o prosper the work of our hands it's a psalm offering worship to god but also asking for thanksgiving and gladness even for days of sorrow when we learn many many many lessons verse 15 give us gladness for the days you have afflicted us and for the years in which we have seen adversity and verse 12 so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom so as we apply our hearts to wisdom we ask for wisdom in hearing the next part of the gospel of saint john which we are reading this morning we're in chapter seven where we left off yesterday and jesus's brothers you remember have said to him why don't you go up and show yourself in jerusalem in judea for if you want to be known no one who wants to be known keeps themselves secret but at that time jesus doesn't take the advice of his brothers he knows that for the moment they're not believing in him and as that is all happening jesus says no i'm i'm staying here you go to the feast but then later as we saw yesterday he decides to join them secretly privately he's in great danger in jerusalem and we'll see why in a bit but then i'm starting to read at verse 14 of chapter seven about the middle of the feast jesus went up to the temple and began teaching jews therefore marveled saying how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied so jesus answered them my teaching is not mine but his who sent me if anyone's will is to do god's will they will know whether the teaching is from god and whether i am speaking on my own authority one who speaks on their own authority seeks only their own glory but the one who seeks the glory of the one who sent them is true and in them there is no falsehood has not moses given you the law yet none of you keeps the law why do you seek to kill me the crowd answered you have a demon who is seeking to kill you jesus answered them i did one work and you all marvel at it moses gave you circumcision not that it is from moses but from the fathers before him and you circumcise a man on the sabbath if on the sabbath a man receives circumcision so that the law of moses may not be broken are you angry with me because on the sabbath i made a man's whole body well do not judge by appearances but judge with right judgment well there are many things that we can say about that particular passage first and foremost let's introduce again jesus's four brothers james and jose's and judas and simon common names at that time and we spoke about them yesterday and they've gone up to the feast as jesus's family actually is shown doing in luke's gospel when they go up with a 12 year old jesus and also jesus quite often going up to the temple in st john's gospel but for the moment the brothers have said why didn't you go back to judea and show yourself if you want to be well known and you're teaching well-known no one keeps themselves secret if they want to give their teaching out and jesus at the moment is is doubtful in fact the evangelist says his brothers didn't believe in him it's a question of of sibling rivalry and doubt at that time but they do become important later of course they do as we said yesterday and jesus now takes the earlier advice of his brothers and he actually goes to the temple and begins openly to teach the outer courtyard of the temple where anyone could go was a great place for teaching and there he is teaching and we're told in other gospels and in john's gospel where he would be teaching we come to much more teaching in the last week before his betrayal and arrest but here for the moment he is teaching now we don't really get in the fourth gospels in john's gospel we don't get detailed teaching of the type we get in the three synoptic gospels and it makes me more than ever certain that the evangelist whose hand is writing this gospel is assuming that we know the other synoptic gospels for so much is assumed and the the teaching the detailed teaching of jesus is left for us to know from the other gospels and to mix with this immense uh reflection shall we call it which is taking that the message which jesus is giving of the signs of earth and helping us in a spiritual way realize them in that other dimension the dimension of the spirit which jesus is always longing to give to people and longing them longing for them and you and me even now to enter and it's an entry into all simplicity and they ask the question when he's teaching here we do hear this how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied now what they're talking about is the formal kind of study that would have gone on in the temple courtyard and think of how saint paul says he studied at the feet of gamaliel a leading teacher at that time and they're thinking but this man never did this so why is he teaching with such not only conviction but with such power and jesus turns the thing round onto them and says because it's not my message it's the message of the one who sent me and it's the message of the creator whose will he is doing in his human life and whose word and you might even put that as a capital letter as with the logos in the first chapter of st john's gospel whose word jesus is giving and in his parables and the signs interpreting in the present tense with those people and by the gift of the spirit in the present tense with us today the evangelist assumes so much detailed knowledge of jesus's teaching but what we need to hear is from jesus himself that the message does not come with his authority the human jesus he is actually giving the message of the one who sent him and that is the eternal message and can only be received and then acted out in earthly terms in the life of the spirit claiming that dimension of our humanity body mind and spirit and here is jesus saying that just as he said it let's go back once again to the woman at the well in samaria god is spirit those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth for the father seeks such to worship him and that becomes a sacred duty to hold ourselves and search the scriptures but at the same time to open ourselves in reflection to the power of the spirit which then prompts us into those areas of welfare which are our comic relief our red nose day and all the things we've been speaking about in helping those in ukraine this is physical help and healing and comfort and consolation and helping people to feel gladness and to feel they have a sense of home here on earth thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven that's not talking about what we would call spirituality it's called talking about the real works of mercy which that spirituality of receiving the gift of the spirit causes us to perform and give our resources to and then perhaps we ought to go to the last sentence which always reminds me of the choosing of david when samuel is looking there the lord doesn't look on the outward appearance the lord judges from the heart so jesus's words which finish at us today 24 do not judge by appearances but judge with right judgment now probably for you and certainly for me it that takes you to the collect for pentecost day with sunday as it's sometimes called because the collect that day talks about the spirit who was given of old time and then says grant us by the same spirit to have a right judgment in all things well right judgment is a human quality and it's a quality of fairness and wisdom and all of those things which we think of when a person is giving judgment with integrity don't look at outward appearances so often people judge by outward appearances jesus is saying judge with right judgment and that is both an intuition mental intuition but also a spiritual connection so that the gifts of the spirit are helping us effect right judgment and that's very very important well let's first then now see why we've come to the apple orchard and the answer is that on this day in 1774 the 18th of march sorry in 1845 a man who was born in 1774 died and he is known throughout the united states as johnny appleseed his name john chapman and he was an american pioneer nursery man who introduced apple trees to pennsylvania ohio indiana illinois ontario and the northern counties of western virginia he simply went around planting apple trees now it there is a sort of sense of wherever he went he was planting apple trees it didn't happen quite like that he planted nurseries for like human children and care they need to be looked after to thrive and so he planted nurseries of apple trees in places where they would grow and then surrounded them by the proper fencing to protect them from their trunks being eaten away and the bark being chewed away as we find with the pigs if they are allowed to to roam around when there's not enough fodder they'll start tearing the bark off the trees so johnny appleseed was actually very careful of the nurseries but he spent his life's journey walking about helping people plant apple nurseries and apple trees and at the same time he carried with it a spiritual message he was a devotee and quite a scholar in the swedish theologian swedenborg and so edenborg's theology was very much his books and writing very much a dream of the spiritual dimension beyond nobody better at doing that and johnny appleseed was always pointing to the beyond and how the earth actually meant by its signs to help you think of heaven and dream of heaven as well we're told that uh in 1819 he himself almost died as a result of standing on a ladder in a tree falling and getting caught by the neck in the fork of a tree and he couldn't help himself at all and was in danger of dying and one of his lads eight-year-old lance who was helping from the family that was planting with his help the nursery was quick as a flash with an axe and chopped down the tree and saved johnny appleseed's life john chapman's life but we give great thanks that this sign of the apple became a sign of the gospel as well the fruits of the gospel and the native americans as well saw in johnny appleseed as he walked about we're told normally barefoot and with a cooking pot as a hat on his head because that was his way of cooking his food wherever he went and people learn to love him he loved the creatures around whatever he had a pet wolf that he had um helped heal and then which would follow him around uh and in a very friendly way but he would make friends with bears and their cubs he would make friends even with the insects and there's a great story and whether it's true or not because he's an enormous legend right across the states and we were saying earlier fletcher and i it's a pity that it wasn't a legend that was imported here because johnny appleseed is the most wonderful missionary character teaching the gospels reading the scriptures but at the same time anchoring himself in this theology of swedenborg which reached out at all times to the eternal dimension and the the ways in which uh swedenborg's theology were taught by johnny appleseed was with the glory of the way in which an apple tree develops and i'm sitting here amongst the apple trees of the orchard you're seeing the gold of the daffodils it's their time of year but very soon now these little buds are going to pop out into into into leaf and and the whole orchard in not too many weeks time will be full of apple blossom in white and pink and that apple blossom in the end will of course develop which is what johnny appleseed wanted into wonderful fruitfulness and and baskets of apples and will be picked from the trees and become something that can be shared and that was what he was wanting but he always taught the spiritual lesson and we're told that as he walked about and did that there was a sense about him that even native americans saw him as one who had been touched by the great spirit and even hostile tribes left him alone and his care of nature and his care of creatures and the way in which he tenderly planted the apple seeds and watch them grow as a nursery man and then watch them grow into young trees and then bigger trees and become really fruitful mature trees was something that was quite wonderful and became a parable in its own right he's actually buried in fort wayne in indiana at a place called canterbury green i like that it's a nice connection for us but he's a legend and he's a legend of a missionary who had no church of his own i mean in terms of a building he simply moved around and wherever he was he felt at home and people made him at home because he was the most popular person with the children and with all the communities he became a neighbor to so many now he's the first of two nursery men that i want to talk about this morning because on this day the 18th of march in 1988 the english gardener percy thrower died and percy thrower was someone i knew in my shrewsbury years uh then let me just sort of talk about him a little bit first but at the time i knew him he was just beginning to come to the very end of his time as the park superintendent in showsbury which he'd been at for a very long time but uh at the time of the end of the second world war when percy thrower had been somebody expert at showing people how uh flower gardens could be used as vegetable gardens in the digging for victory campaign well after that he began to plan other gardens and he wanted nothing more than to be as his father had been at horward house a head gardener somewhere and he became a head gardener on the 1st of january 1946 to showsbury in its in his gardens and he had 35 staff under him and was at the time aged 32. and he went on in that task for many years i went to showsbury in 1974 i was ordained on the 2nd of july as a deacon and went straight to the wonderful church of sinchad's in shrewsbury which looked out over the quarry now the quarry is a strange name for one of the most beautiful gardens looking down at the river seven and percy thrower was in charge of that in many many other areas of course of chezry but the the park keepers house was was there on the top there it's still there at quarry lodge but forget the word quarry in your mind all you see is beautiful trees lime trees along the river seven and beautiful gardens and in the middle of it all a place called the dingle which is a wonderfully uh um kept garden which flowers through all the seasons and people go there and rest there and the lovely thing for me and i may have said that before was that my house which was along the road from chad's led from its front door in crescent place down onto the riverbank and i could walk along that avenue of lines and then walk up through the quarry on fine days in the spring and summer and autumn up to early matins in saint chad's church but there was one time of year when percy thrower came into his own and that was at the time of the flower festival there's nothing like the frisbee flower festival it happens in august didn't happen last year because of the pandemic it is due to happen this year on the 12th and 13th of august and that was a huge opportunity for us as a church because there was some chance with its open doors looking out onto the flower festival and we as currents there were two of us and and the vicar himself who had boundless energy for this kind of thing and was a great example to us all we all had membership of the flower festival and it was our task of course to receive the the joy of the festival but mostly to walk amongst the thousands of people there as representatives of christ's church enjoying the festival enjoying the people and saying welcome to the hospitality of shrewsbury and our church doors are open there on there and there will be a coral even song being sung by the choir and all of those things going on meant that really fruitful ministry think johnny appleseed again really fruitful ministry was going on by us as curious me and my new white collar and then for three years while i was there we had the beautiful shrewsbury flower show and we would move amongst the people and have our lunch there at the various stalls and talk to the people and our collars were a sign of the fact that we were priests in active service but at the same time our membership there meant we were part of all that was going on and percy thrower was the really driving spirit of that wonderful flower show at that time he resigned from his position and moved to a nursery of his own still on the outskirts of of showsbury but at the same time he became a television personality from 1956 onward he'd done gardening club and then from 69 to 76 gardeners world some of you will remember this they were the first kind of programs which helped people visually and with lots of demonstrations from percy himself and he was a great talker in that way and he could do blue peter with the children and help them make a children's garden or he could do a gardener's world and talk about very distinct gardeners problems and all of those went on and on to make him one of the most famous gardening characters at that time until his his uh his death in 1988 on this day 18th of march so i want to give thanks for percy thrower not only for his gardening expertise but for that opportunity for mission and the the the signs of god's creation amongst all those flowers with church doors open to the people and and the sound of music going on in that to help the people come in and of course the church itself was decorated with flowers and it's sunday even song we could hear the brass band playing in the band stand as well to give us that sense of a festival going on and it surely was a great festival at that time and i know it will be again this year as people come back to the shrewsbury flower show on the 12th and 13th of august there's a nice little advertisement for the stranger flower show as well so all of these things are going on and percy thrower has engendered so many different people who've come after him i know that uh alan titchmarch said that he actually himself learned to be a television presenter by watching persethra at that time and you're always very aware that whatever you're doing in this life is witnessed and witness can mean that people take on good practice and learn to have a right judgment but also have moments of quiet and reflect on the gifts of our spiritual side which these beautiful flowers can give us and the robin here with me and the orchard bows can give us as well and our ability to puzzle through which the children have been given by the different noses this year said that they collect and as they do so they say that see the charities that that are there and one thinks of uh tom daley's great challenge of of of that for comic relief but uh it's also a point where even in old age we can still garden and have a wonderful sense of mixing ourselves with god's creative gifts and no better than a morning like this when the sky is blue here and the flowers here are opening up and little primroses and cow slips and all the flowers of spring are beginning to flower in the orchard so let's say our prayers on this day if i can find my office book here and we lead from the apple trees and the flowers into our worship and we bring our intentions and we offer our own prayers right across the world and as we do so we think of the people of ukraine and christian leaders there but leaders of all faiths as they try to give comfort and hope to their people and on this particular day the 18th of march were praying in our anglican communion for justin our archbishop and the diocese of kissangani in the congo the french-speaking province of the congo legalese anglican du congo uh and in the diocese we're having general prayers for the parishes today so as we think of the way in which we help people in all those situations of danger to find a home to relieve them from poverty to relieve them from fear to relieve them from mental distress and make them feel a sense of safety and welfare all that we put into our prayer as i'm using today the uh colic for this week almighty god you show to those who are in error the light of your truth that they may return to the way of righteousness grant to all those who are admitted into the fellowship of christ's religion that they may reject those things that are contrary to their profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same through our lord jesus christ our men and then we use the prayer for each day of lent almighty and everlasting god you hate nothing that 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 our men and then perhaps because i mentioned it the prayer for pentecost which can be said any day you like o lord from whom all good things come grant to us your humble servants that by your holy inspiration we may think those things that are good and by your merciful guiding may perform the same through our lord and savior jesus christ and the day of pentecost itself god who as at this time taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your holy spirit grant us by the same spirit to have a right judgment in all things and ever more to rejoice in his holy comfort through the merits of christ jesus our savior a right judgment in all things that's how jesus left us those words judge not by outward appearances but have a right judgment in all things and we give thanks for our savior's words saying exactly that judge with right judgment so let's say the prayer our savior taught us in whatever language we like to use joining our prayers with the church throughout the world 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 well we're going to have a reflection and it's very much a johnny appleseed song which is being sung by melinda carroll who herself is a writer of songs and lives now in hawaii and fletcher reached out to her this morning um and so we give thanks for melinda and her musical ability but even more so for this song which tunes with our worship this morning in a very joyful way [Music] the lord is good to me and so i thank the lord for giving me the [Music] and things seat that goes shall go into a tree and one day soon there'll be apples there for everyone in the world to share the lord is good to me [Music] 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 are men well this is the most beautiful day here and we're promised another tomorrow no better time of year when spring is just beginning to unwrap its fresh freshness and there have been butterflies around the bees are around and i can see from here lovely primroses and cow slips and all sorts of spring flowers beginning to open and you've been hearing challenges sing and grated sing on the branches as well as our robin it won't be long now before the summer visitors the warblers begin to arrive and the birds song is is uh enriched by the the migrants coming back here and so all of that is to to wait for but may i say to you don't forget if you're here and uh have it available to tune into the bbc uh um comic relief red nose hours tonight because there will be the most wonderful uh encouragement for the charities we've been thinking of so have a wonderful day yourselves [Music] is [Music] r [Music] oh [Music] jesus [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] my [Music] which [Music] jesus [Music] creatures you