uh heavy good morning i'm just teasing lily she loves the wisteria tree good morning and welcome to uh the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of friday the 10th of september as we join together for morning prayer bring your prayers and intentions and feel welcome wherever you are in the world i'm sitting here outside the iron gate to the golden flower garden which is the the meadow we shall be again in on monday but for the moment i'm locked outside it and we shall think of various situations of both powerlessness and lockdown in our reflection we actually have one or two things of freedom though the last jewish person left afghanistan yesterday and uh taking with him many others not of the jewish faith but but being nervous about the taliban's history of not having sympathy with other faiths and so we're glad that he is now out of afghanistan but we're still thinking of all those who are inna and are nervous about all that's going on we remember in with regard to other faiths the huge ancient buddhist statues which in the last time the taliban were in power they simply destroyed taking away a whole slice of the history of that area of the world and we also begin to cast our mind around the world and there are plenty of places where people are mightily in danger new fires in spain floods and flash floods in france homelessness and people in danger and many areas where the pandemic is is still very very prevalent but we've nice news too because on this morning and we've heard this this is overnight uh the um two friends of ours yolanda and simone have had a new baby boy elijah and they're in washington uh for many years lyland has been the chaplain of howard's university now part of the staff of the national cathedral in washington so it causes us to remember all our friends there and at the same time we first met yolanda when she was training for ministry at berkeley divinity school at yale so we think of our friends there too so glad news of a new elijah uh having been born in washington as we begin to say our prayers bring whatever intentions you have in your mind and any strong images on this day oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon earth your saving power among the nations blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief your only son was lifted up so that he might draw his the whole world to himself may we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight declaring your love for all the world 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 son this morning is psalm 52 this tenth morning of the month why do you glory in evil you tyrant while the goodness of god endures continually you plot destruction you deceiver your tongue is like a sharpened razor you love evil rather than good falsehood rather than the word of truth you love all words that hurt o you deceitful tongue therefore god shall utterly bring you down he shall take you and pluck you out of your tent and root you out of the land of the living the righteous shall see this and tremble they shall laugh you to scorn and say this is the one who did not take god for a refuge but trusted in great riches and relied upon wickedness but i am like a spreading olive tree in the house of god i trust in the goodness of god forever and ever i will always give thanks to you for what you have done i will hope in your name for your faithful ones delight in it the shortest of the psalms on this day 50 and 51 much more famous but this one a sharp warning for those who see themselves utterly in power with no one to challenging challenge them relying on earthly resources or also wickedness in whatever way that shows itself and here's a simple psalm of trust in the context of all that and a lovely psalm too let's turn to our reading and we're going back to the book of genesis and i'm starting at the beginning of chapter 39 and i shall read through to verse 20. remember as we said the scene in this huge story of joseph and also of jacob and joseph's brothers changes scenes all the way through and we left the brothers having sold joseph going back to jacob with the many colored coats now covered in blood and torn and their father now believing that a wild animal has killed joseph and he is no more and so we left jacob in grief and the brothers in total wicked deceit and now we return to a completely different story we're going down to to egypt we followed the the caravan of camels with the ishmaelite traders going down into egypt where joseph is to be sold into slavery chapter 39 verse 1. now joseph had been brought down to egypt and potiphar an officer of pharaoh the captain of the guard an egyptian had bought him from the ishmaelites who had brought him down there the lord was with joseph and he became a successful man and he was in the house of his egyptian master his master saw that the lord was with him and that the lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands so joseph found favor in his sight and attended him and potiphar made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had from the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had the lord blessed the egyptians household for joseph's sake the blessing of the lord was on all that he did in house and field so he left all that he had in joseph's charge and because of him potiphar had no concern about anything but the food he ate now joseph was handsome in form and appearance and after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on joseph and said lie with me but joseph refused and said to his master's wife behold because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house and he has put everything that he has in my charge he is not greater in this house than i am nor has he kept back anything from me except you because you are his wife how then can i do this great wickedness and sin against god and as potiphar's wife spoke to joseph day after day he would not listen to her and lie beside her to be with her but one day when joseph went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house potiphar's wife caught him by his garment saying lie with me but joseph left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house and as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house she called to the men of her household and said to them see he has brought among us a hebrew to laugh at us he came into me to lie with me and i cried out with a loud voice and as soon as he heard that i lifted up my voice and cried out he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house then she laid up his garment by her until potiphar joseph's master came home and she told him the same story saying the hebrew servant whom you have brought among us came into me to laugh at me but as soon as i lifted up my voice and cried he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house as soon as his master heard these words that his wife spoke to him this is the way your servant treated me his anger was kindled and joseph's master took him and put him in the prison the place where the king's prisoners were confined and joseph was there in prison well it's a dramatic story and one has the sense of the moral code which joseph is now establishing remember this is years before the the law of moses and we're looking back into an ancient story but joseph is is full of integrity but also of gratitude to his master and this would be the the biggest denial of his faithfulness and gratitude as a servant to potiphar it would also be going against all that he believed about god and the way in which god blessed him but he is now once again in a world of deceit which we left behind with the brothers deceitfully telling their father lies about joseph and leaving their father father in great grief believing in joseph's cruel death and now here's potiphar's wife making up a story from a a powerful position but not a powerful enough position for her to be seen as powerful over the whole household she is simply potiphar's wife and yet potiphar listens to her and at that point he puts joseph in prison there's a wonderful verse in psalm 105 and psalms 105 and 106 which uh come later in the month the 21st of the month um those psalms tell a huge history story and in it the story of joseph is is told in a few verses and the psalmist sees joseph going ahead to prepare the way in egypt but at the same time he tells the story of of him being put in prison and given um an iron around he imagines around his wrists and and and the uh the old translation the coverdale translation of that psalm had that wonderful phrase which is passed into the english imagination is sometimes used when we're talking about various people who have a great bitterness within them the iron entered into his soul it's a wonderful phrase but it shows the the the way in which iron is something that the the human frame can't deal with but the iron entered into his soul goes very deep indeed and the new translation i don't don't actually think gives the same power his neck was ringed with iron it's a very different exercise so that that iron entering into the very depths of joseph's being talks about despair in the prison though as we shall see he doesn't despair he holds on to that particular faith which he very definitely had because he is the one who goes ahead of his people into egypt and what happens there becomes so much part of god's plan and yet that sense of going down into the pit where his brothers first put him being lifted out of the pit being sold into slavery and then once again god blessing him and him finding himself not only in a happy household but ordering a happy household and at the same time suddenly finding the deceit of another who is jealous of the position but also who thinks after him with a lust which which joseph cannot actually satisfy because of the way he feels it would transgress the law of god and also his faithfulness to his master all of that very human story indeed and it actually gives us a really modern take to the way this story develops as we saw yesterday with the way in which the jealousy of the brothers for joseph develops into a great deceit and a desire first win violence to kill him and even when they're stopped from that they put him in the pit and now in a sense he's been put into another pit into the prison and there he has to once again ponder on what the will of god for him is and we're given insights into the way things are for joseph and also of his character the way he relates to other people now this is a day when uh i find three dates which hang together historical dates and they hang together in a particular way in one sense a sense of powerlessness because of the situation the dates are dates of three different royal or imperial women the empress matilda who really should have been queen of england in 1135 when her father henry the first died she died on this day in 1167. come back to her story in a moment the empress elizabeth of austria empress of austria for 44 years until 1898 and she was assassinated on this day the 10th of september in 1898 come back to her story in a moment and finally queen henrietta maria who was queen of england who died on the 10th of september 1669 but her reign was anything but happy and with all three of those women despite their imperial or royal titles because of their gender there was powerlessness and i want to link that also with the fact the coincidence that on this day in in 1759 uh mary wollstonecraft was was uh was um born and in 1797 died she was a writer philosopher advocate of women's rights and is seen as one of the founding feminist philosophers but her book a vindication of the rights of women would have been just the thing which would uh be a thinking of how we look at those three women who to all intents and purposes and all the glory that of the imperial court in the royal courts that they belong to should have made them powerful and possibly even happy but there was great sorrow with all of them now let's start all the way back with matilda the empress matilda she was an empress because her father henry the first has caused her to be married to the holy roman emperor henry v but he died and then also her brother was drowned on the the white ship in 1120 famous historic story in england how the only male heir uh william of henry the first was drowned on that day and his other child was matilda sometimes she's called maude but the moment henry the first died in 11 35 it was quite clear that because she was a woman her claims weren't going to be recognized and her cousin stephen seized the throne instead matilda was a a determined lady but what happened then in the civil war without results which ravaged england gave its title the anarchy to those years between 11 35 and 11 53 when that civil war when matilda's rights weren't being claimed and and respected just ended all sense of law and order in england everything completely broke down and stephen's reign was an intensely troubled reign now i wouldn't have known much about the reign of king stephen it's not my period of history but i do have very strong impressions of it simply because of read yes reading the [Laughter] some of you will be saying brother cadfail because of course all the brother cadfail novels are set in the reign of king stephen and you have that civil war and disorder going on now we'll return to brother cadfail because he's a character i would want to come to from his benedictine life but at the same time those novels which ellis peters who i knew edith parted her her real name parji her friends called her and she was someone who was in the the country around shows three and began to write books about shrewsbury but was also a huge friend from wartime days of one of my parishioners in charbonne and it was always lovely to meet her because she had such an imagination and it combined the benedictine order of life and also a spot of english history and a detective novel which is for me a a really compulsive trio and i read each book as they came out with great enjoyment but it taught me about what was going on in king stephen's reign and you remember if you read brother cappell novels that the sheriff hugh beringar who is the great friend of of canthale is a royal officer of king stephen but the battles are waged backwards and forwards during all those novels and england has shown to be in a state of of really troubled disorder and violence at that time but the empress matilda um eventually her own son henry became henry ii rightful heir on because stephen had no heirs and henry ii was the grandson through matilda of henry the first and we know that henry ii reigned for a long time 11 54 to 1189 and was the one of course that we we know here because of the beckett story but also was a powerful king and ruled not only england but most and not only normandy but most of western france so this huge anger van empire as it was called in the reign of henry ii but for the moment let's just think of his mother poor matilda who despite all her um power by title had an unhappy life which was really powerless and it was her half-brother robert and and and stephen fighting and and all of that going on at the time well let's go on to a different empress the empress elizabeth of austria who had come from the bavarian court uh so beautiful she was beloved by everyone a person who had a a beautiful character too and poor ludwig the second of bavaria that tragic character who built all those lovely castles and financed all the amazing um uh operas of of wagner much to the the displeasure of his court and the royal finances but he adored his cousin elizabeth sisi the royal families of europe called her and yet when she went from the little sparks court in bavaria up to vienna she found us to marry francis joseph the emperor there she found a stiff court ruled by all kinds of protocols and the archduchess sophie franz joseph's mother very much in charge and poor elizabeth had really no power until she bore franz joseph whom she loved a son rudolf who became the heir to all the habsburg empire and that gave her more happiness and also a certain amount of respect and status there she loved the hungarian lands because they were more informal she loved the music of hungary but at the same time in 1889 you'll know the story rudolph committed suicide admiraling in an unhappy love affair which couldn't be recognized by the the protocols of the habsburg court and from then on elizabeth would take no part in any of the imperial formalities she with a small retinue wandered across europe people knew her often she tried to go secretly but on the um the the the date that i mentioned september the 10th 1898 standing on a jessie overlooking the lake at geneva an assassin uh an anarchist simply stabbed her through with a sharpened file that he'd attached to a wooden handle and at first she she dropped so gently that people didn't realize that she'd done anything other than fainted and uh that had her lady in waiting who was it way off came up and they carried her onto the boat but but but she died and we remember all that imperial pond and the body was instantly taken back to vienna for an enormous habsburg funeral with processions through the streets but she had always felt herself powerless and yet her gracious personality as a human being had been recognized by so many and was deeply loved and then finally powerless also queen henrietta maria the wife of king charles the first who was married by proxy to king charles the first and then the king met her when she came across from france speaking no english and they said their prayers here in canterbury cathedral as husband and wife and had their first night together in the room in central augustine's the old monastery which had become a royal palace over on the other side of the the road outside the the precinct walls here henrietta maria who went to court and because of her roman catholicism was vilified we're back now to a different sort of bigotry and powerlessness and then of course she was blamed for just about everything that happened and she hated the duke of buckingham the king's favorite and when he was removed himself by assassination in portsmouth she and king charles formed a really loving relationship but she had to be in the civil war sent back to the safety of france in 1644 never to see her husband again he was executed in 1649 when her son charles ii came to be king here on two or three occasions henrietta maria came back as an an older lady but england was a place which she remembered as not happy and she returned to her family's court in france and is buried in the royal muslim there at sandini three titled the highest titles in in the lands they were in ladies but without power and it's uh an interesting thought for us today how certain things prevent people from being respected or it makes them vilified or there's a prejudice against them all those things of gender or race or faith in this point we remember and are filled with sorrow for and we remember mary wollstonecraft who went across to paris because there in the french revolution she thought there would be a freeing up for women and then she found that the whole thing had turned into violence and was in great danger herself many of her friends were guillotined not but not aristocrats by then in the late 1990s it was just factions within the reign of terror that caused her danger but she came back and and uh then uh um bore a son but but came back to england but all those things we remember on this day give thanks for people's courage and give thanks also for the development of ways forward but we gave thanks most of all for the story of joseph because that story is told in such a way that it stays in our heads and hearts and the deceit not any of his brothers but also a potiphar's wife uh i said the other day she was played by joan collins in the in the in the uh musical uh joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat the lloyd webber tim rice musical and she played that when donnie osmond was playing joseph well let's say our prayers with those strong images in our mind bring any prayers you have for today um there's the funeral uh in hearn of a great worker for the order of saint john dr david barton and so i would want to pray for the repose of his soul and all those who will be gathering for his funeral this afternoon and you will be bringing your own prayers and concerns and we have to pray for today in the anglican communion the diocese of elchi in nigeria in the delta province for justin our archbishop rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and today for the parish of of the benefits of tunstall with bredgar which includes milstead and frinstead and for uh the parish priesthood alan pineka and the curet paula jardine rose and the life of milstead and frinstead church of england primary school tunstall church of england primary school and bredger church of england primary school and we think of various people living in that area rose kingstown a great friend of ours living there but things that i've awakened in your memories and minds by all the things we've think thought about this morning bring them into our prayers remember people with thanksgiving remember people in need and we say the collect today for the 14th sunday after trinity this week almighty god whose only son has opened for us a new and living way into your presence give us pure hearts and steadfast wills to worship you in spirit and in truth through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language we say the prayer our savior taught us our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen image of silence now for your own prayers me the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and of his son jesus christ our lord 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 the iron entered into his soul but iron gates can be opened by gracious words and encouragement and at the same time um golden fields by prayer can be released for others too so let's open the iron gate and go into the golden fields together um [Music] um oh