good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of tuesday the 17th of august it's a cool gray morning here no wind no rain yet so rain is on the way but wherever you are in the world please feel welcome here and bring your own concerns and prayers this morning to our act of worship as a garden congregation you are looking at the moment at the runner beans which are growing well and the beans are forming and even being picked now and being used and also the squashes behind them growing up but we've got to a whole a host of brassicas the green vegetables cabbages and and everything else that comes from that family which we really use as a staple crop here in this part of the world and as one comes round there's even beside me some of the blue echium growing which are in front of where tiger's having his breakfast here which is uh the plant we were talking about yesterday in the world garden as being so very important and mixing with the calendula when it seeds are ground together milled together to give us the omega-3 and i'm sitting in front of the great vine here which was pruned well back and is now leafing magnificently and the crunch's bunches of grapes are forming and that will be one of our themes this morning i ought to mention the broad beans in front of me here which are flowering too but not yet forming and behind the vine is the huge defensive wall of canterbury it's been a defensive wall for a settlement here for thousands of years originally the kantyaki tribe and when julius caesar came first of all to britain to attempt to conquer it failing and then the romans coming later uh they then made there's a proper fortification using the flints and and uh stones that they could find at the time here and then as that went on and the romans left and the anglo-saxons came and then we come to the time of of king ethelbert and queen bertha all these history going through this has always been a wall of defense and you've begun to know it quite well because we've sat on bastions and seen the war at different stages around but now it's a shelter for the vegetables at a time of peace here but it's not always been a time of peace here as you well know because you've seen some of the damage which was done with the uh bombing of canterbury in the second world war which is in terms of our long history not too long ago this is a day when i want to say happy birthday to a friend of ours and that's andrew mcgowan who is the dean of the berkeley divinity school at yale university he and felicity his wife bring groups of students mostly in training for the sacred ministry over here usually annually but of course that was paused because of the pandemic but andrew has a very significant birthday today andrew is a great baker of bread and also a student of the way in which bread was baked in the older new testament and just as i've said wine will be important today so bread will be important but i want to say uh happy birthday to andrew on this particular day he and i both have a birthday on the 17th mind the 17th of may here's the 17th of august and uh i always rejoice in the fact that that uh um the psalm which were given on the 17th of the month for the afternoon psalm is the beautiful psalm 89 that's in the kramer sequence of setting out the psalms and so when i say that on the 17th it's always for me a birthday psalm and it is for him as well my song shall be always of the lovingkindness of the lord with my mouth when i proclaim your faithfulness throughout all generations so it's a good birthday psalm to have let's begin our prayers on this morning but first let's set out those things which are concerning us in a very serious way and of course while we continue to pray for all those who are facing devastation of their homes and threats to their lives through natural disasters fire and flood the the most potent images today are of the city of kabul and of the nation of afghanistan and all that that nation is suffering at the moment our hearts and minds go out to them and not only to them and one thinks you'll have different photographs in your mind the one that is sticking in my mind at the moment is the uh is the the cargo plane filled with 600 people and taking off and then safely landing in qatar it seems unbelievable that that that was able to take off and and land in that way but such is the desperate situation there at the moment and we think not only of all of those and those who are soul-searching from the decisions made and promises given in all kinds of ways but also we think of those who in ngos and ngas and and and even in serving in the the military attempting to keep peace over the last 20 years as a society was built up all those people now today wherever they are in the world who must be filled with sadness and disappointment to see this as the result of all their work and patient work bring your own images to this act of prayer because all that we can do at the moment is to hold that situation in prayer oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon us 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 that he might draw 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 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 are men our psalm on this morning of the month this 17th morning of the month is psalm 87. her foundation is on the holy mountains the lord loves the gates of zion more than all the dwellings of jacob glorious things are spoken of you zion city of our god i record egypt and babylon as those who know me behold philistia tyre and ethiopia in zion were they born and of zion it shall be said each one was born in her and the most high himself has established her the lord will record as he writes up the peoples this one also was born there and as they dance they shall sing all my fresh springs are in you so we turn to the book of genesis and go back to our story of abram but today the overall title i would give um to the reading we're going to do would be the battle of the kings it's a story of human warfare and of the struggle of one warlord really against another we're we're really well back at 2000 bc or something like that and we're talking about kings because that's the translation given and the names come out but in fact we're talking also about warlords and leaders of their peoples at that time and i'm inclined to think of the city-states of italy much later on in medieval times who would go out in armies against one another these aren't great nations they are sections of that land which we now call the holy land and i'm going to read and we'll do this now from now on in the book of genesis because it's a very very long book to read day by day in sections so i'm going to choose aspects as we go through in sequence but i'll i'll give you the the titles and if you want to read the bits in between then please do i'm in uh i'm in genesis 13 to start with and i'm going to read from verses 12 to 18 of chapter 13 and then i'm going to chapter 14 and reading from verse 8 to the end i'll give you the text again when i i switch from one to the other so here's genesis chapter 13 verse 12. abraham settled in the land of canaan while lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as sodom now the people of sodom were wicked great sinners against the lord the lord said to abram after lot had separated from him lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northwards and southwards and eastwards and westwards for all that land that you see i will give to you and to your offspring forever i will make your offspring as the dust of the earth so that if one can count the dust of the earth your offspring also can be counted arise walk through the length and breadth of the land for i will give it to you so abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of mamrie which are at hebron and there he built an altar to the lord now this is the point where we change see that abram and lot have separated as nomadic with their flocks and herds because there wasn't enough pasture for both of them and now abram comes to settle and i always think the image of the oaks of memory which become important become important also in the story it's a visual image but it's also a sign of where abraham for the moment actually is and notice he builds an altar to the lord to make that place holy a whole list of kings excuse me of warlords follow i'm not going to read their name but they then become war-like towards one another and we come to what's called the battle of the kings so they're setting out really to gain things from each other with force of arms verse 8 of chapter 14 and i'm going to read to the end then the king of sodom the king of gomorrah the king of admira the king of zebo him and the king of bilah that is zoar went out and they joined battle in the valley of siddhim with kida layama king of elam tidal king of gohem amraphel king of china and arioch king of elisa four kings against five now the valley of siddhim was full of bitumen pits and as the kings of sodom and gomorrah fled some fell into them and the rest fled to the hill country so the enemy took all the possessions of sodom and gomorrah and all their provisions and went their way they also took lot the son of abraham's brother who was dwelling in sodom and his possessions and went their way then one who had escaped came and told abram the hebrew who was living by the oaks of memory the amorite brother of eshkol and of anna these were allies of abram and when abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive he led forth his trained men born in his house 318 of them and went in pursuit as far as dan and he divided his forces against them by night he and his servants and defeated them and pursued them jehovah north of damascus then he brought back all the possessions and also brought back his kinsmen lot with his possessions and the women and the people after his return from the defeat of kedar leoma and the kings who were with him the king of sodom went out to meet him in the valley of chave that is the king's valley and melchizedek king of salem brought out bread and wine for he was priest of god most high and he blessed abraham and said blessed be abram by god most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be god most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand and abram gave him a tense of everything and the king of sodom said abram give me the persons but take the goods for yourself but abram said to the king of sodom i have lifted my hand to the lord god most high possessor of heaven and earth that i would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours lest you should say i have made abram rich i'll take nothing but what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me let anna eschko and mamrie take their share it's a very strange story but the icon in the middle of it of this person melchizedek who's i think only mentioned twice in the old testament here and in psalm 110 and then very much in the letter to the hebrews in the new testament he becomes what you might call a sacramental symbol not only of kings as warlike leaders but as kings of leaders in times of peace and of righteousness and melchizedek is is seen in the new testament to be an image of the priesthood of christ himself i was thinking as i read that passage of john newton's hymn how sweet the name of jesus sounds in a believer's ear and the verse which gives titles to jesus jesus my shepherd brother friend my prophet priest and king my lord my life my way my end accept the praise i bring well melchizedek is an image a mystical image the king of salem and the the uh writer to the hebrews says that is a king of peace and a king of righteousness and here is my prophet priest and king what melchizedek does with abraham is an extraordinary sign abram coming back from a battle where he's gone out to help his nephew lot and is coming back victorious is quite a journey down from north of damascus down through to the area he's coming back to to the oaks of mamrie and on the way the king of salem melchizedek comes out and what does he do he offers abram bread and wine symbols of peace symbols of feeding but also instantly in our own minds sacramental symbols so that melchizedek to the writer of the hebrews and the writer of psalm 110 we might read that bit of the psalm this morning because our psalm was rather short but here's psalm 110 which is a psalm recognizing david as the prophet priest and king psalm 110 the lord said to my lord sit at my right hand until i make your enemies your footstool may the lord stretch forth the scepter of your power rule from zion in the midst of your enemies noble are you on this day of your birth on the holy mountain from the womb of the dawn the dew of your new birth is upon you for the lord has sworn and will not retract you are a priest forever after the order of melchizedek and the writer to the hebrews says in the new testament melchizedek was without generation or genealogy he is simply a symbol he doesn't appear in any of the lists he's not one of the aaronic priesthood his priesthood is something that is given to him by god and he in turn not only gives bread and wine to abraham but also he blesses abraham with that amazing blessing blessed be abram by god most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be god most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand and abram gave him a tenth of everything the tithe the first time we hear that mentioned that giving to god in a symbolic and sacramental way of one's own possessions and resources the tithe which is something that becomes important in the life of jesus's own people and for many also in their own spiritual life as i say it's an extraordinary story and on this day we give thanks for it but we give thanks for the image which is then the image that we place on to the anointed one jesus my prophet priest and king my lord my life my way my end accept the praise i bring on this day there are in the dates as there always are symbols of massive earthly power frederick the great the great king of prussia in the 18th century died on this day in 1786 having carried all before him not long afterwards the emperor napoleon would come and wipe all those victories away by conquering across these other lands and after that it would be the emperor of austria with metternich prince metternich his chancellor's guidance who seemed to be orchestrating how the nations of europe used the victory which had been won and the peace which had been won in 1815 and one goes on then with the habsburg family monarchy all these are the the the uh the frederick the gate came from the poen's island monastery from which the emperors of germany later on came and all of these are characters in history who used forces of arms in diplomacy but knew not only victory but defeat and often the kind of desolation that defeat meant for their people in wasted cities and terrible bloodshed was there as well it's the day also and here's a very different kind of image it's the day also when charles the last habsburg emperor in vienna was born he was born in 1887 on this day august the 17th but died on april the 1st 1922 having been crowned as emperor of austria and king of hungary in the middle of the first world war in 1916. how long did he reign a couple of years and then no massacre of the imperial family in vienna simply on a train just going away from there with a sense of defeat and then a life of relative poverty and at the age of 33 coughing his life away and dying in madeira his son who was the grandson of the last emperor became actually a european member of the european parliament otto von habsburg and all of that it shows the way in which history can transform itself but for the moment see these great symbols of power one moment and the next they're elsewhere but what are the symbols of power in melchizedek's hand when he comes to abraham not a sword or a spear or a shield but bread and wine and a blessing no wonder he becomes an image though only mentioned twice in our old testament scriptures that name would have been known to our lord and also psalm 110 the davidic psalm of the shepherd king and priestly sense of david himself all of that um i noticed also that menelik ii emperor of ethiopia was born on this day in the on the 17th of august 1844. he had great victories over the italians when they were trying to take over his land in the later part of the 19th century but but uh he he won that battle and uh later on of course ethiopia which was mentioned in our song this morning became a a nation in its own right with haile selassie as the emperor but then he passed and ethiopia in a different way i used to stand in khartoum when being there and watch the waters of the blue nile come down from ethiopia to walk to the waters of the the white nile and would think of of the way in which charles gordon who'd been sent to evacuate people from the the uh um city of khartoum would would not go himself and the river was the way of escape at that point but was waiting waiting for relief to come which never came um on this day also orwell's animal farm was published and there the symbols of power shown in earthly people are cartooned in animals and you get those uh caveats which always come with promises and the best one of those of course it'll be in your head is this is with mine when the the title all animals are equal was posted on the wall and later on when the animals go back they find all animals are equal but some are more equal than others and that's become a famous saying and it was put there by the pigs who had taken over authority at that time and we think of the way in which they then began to fall apart with with napoleon and snowball well we know who that was trying to symbolize but it could have been really any kind of earthly power and then i want to mention too that on this day ted hughes was born august the 17th in 1930 ted hughes was the poet laureate of this nation between 1984 and 1998 when he died and many of his poems involve animals and there's a very famous sequence about the crow the life and songs of the crow well anyone have no crow it's a very strange song we have a a crow here whom we call corny crow and he will sit on the branch of the tree making his croaking song but the crow song no doubt is very beautiful to him and all those who hear it of his family but hughes was great in setting out the the life of plants and animals but he said i want my poetry to show the mixture of beauty and violence in the natural world well we don't have to go far to look for that but there is one of his poems i wanted to use this morning and it's i know it's on page 19 of his collected poems for children and it's called cat this is for you tiger cat you need your cat when you slump down all tired and flat with too much town with too many lifts too many floors too many neon lit corridors too many people telling you what you just must do and what you must not with too much headache video glow too many answers you never will know then stroke the cat that warms your knee you will find her purr is a battery for into your hands will flow the powers of the beasts who ignore these ways of ours and you'll be refreshed through the cat on your lap with a leopard's yawn and a tiger's nap well anyone who owns a cat will know that to be true and we've got ours here enjoying his own little breakfast this morning but i mentioned andrew uh mcgowan's birthday special birthday today and he and felicity have a lovely lovely cat called ava so they will definitely know what that poem means this morning let's say our prayers and bring our intentions to those prayers you will have images of your own because the newspapers and media are full of them today so bring those images of sorrow but also of thanksgiving for so much else which is being shown at this time oh god you declare your almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace that we running the way of your commandments may receive your gracious promises and beam up partakers of your heavenly treasure through jesus christ our lord amen today we're praying in the anglican communion for the diocese of eau claire in the episcopal church of the united states but also praying for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth and here in the diocese we're asked in this list to have a day of listening and discerning on the way well as we pray for the parishes in their life of prayer we pray for christians the world over who can hold up holy hands of prayer at this time when so much violence and danger is shown in every aspect of news and media let's say the prayer our savior taught us together in different languages across 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 amen moment of silence now for your own prayers on this morning so [Music] so so 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 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 did you like that poem we'll be finished now so we can go inside can't we poem was for you you're a champion power