good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of friday the 15th of april it's good friday it's very early in the morning and when we came out of the french windows to come into the garden early the sun with in a clear blue sky the sun was just peeping in glimpses through the bamboo with its golden very early morning light so there were glimpses of glory and much shade on this very still morning here in england feel welcome wherever you are it had only been a few hours before that we'd been standing outside those same windows on the evening of monday thursday with a mug of tea in our hand after all the worship of yesterday looking at the beauty of the full pascal moon shining down in all its silver light again through the bamboo and onto the garden giving a very different quality of light and now here this morning as the sun begins to rise and up a full day of worship in the cathedral opens up we are going to say our prayers with you and we welcome you wherever you are in the world we've come into this part of the garden the herb garden the vegetable garden because uh behind me stands the great cross which we used last year in our our good friday reflections that was an earlier time april the second last year but today here we are again worshiping in the same way across the world and in front of you uh the beautiful maze of the herb garden itself showing perhaps if we're using signs the complexity of the political situation for pilate of the religious situation for those who want themselves still very much to be an authority on their own terms who are demanding the crucifixion of jesus from the roman governor and at the same time of the crowds themselves who will wake in jerusalem to a very very different scene from the day before it's the day of preparation for the passover and we can talk about the haste with which the jewish authorities want this done they want jesus sentenced to death crucified and off the cross before the day of passover begins and that will happen at sunset on this day of preparation all those things and around us in this early morning light the of our own flock of poultry are crowing in their various lockdowns small cries from the little silky the malay cockrells but big cries from russell himself as they greet the morning for it really is a morning to be greeted in terms of weather lovely lovely blue sky and uh the sense of of spring beginning to flourish all around us so let's begin our prayers on this good friday morning and bring your own intentions and concerns of course we begin with our concern for the people of ukraine suffering themselves such distress and violence in their own nation such danger to their life such numbers of those who've been killed in war and all those who have become wayfarers seeking hospitality in another land and are shall we say hopefully temporarily making their homes with the hospitality of others but thinking all the time of those they've left behind still facing enormous danger and military conflict we continue to remember those who've been affected by the floods in durban in south africa also and you will have uh things that you want yourself to bring on this good friday morning to our worship 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 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 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 thus we rejoice in the gift of this new day say o may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever are men our son this morning good friday morning is a special psalm one of the uh great days of the year and so our psalm is part of psalm 22 and it begins with that cry of desolation on the cross which we are are given in the uh synoptic gospels matthew and mark of jesus crying from the cross my god my god why have you forsaken me and are so far from my salvation from the words of my distress oh my god i cry in the daytime but you do not answer and by night also but i find no rest yet you are the holy one enthroned upon the praises of israel our forebears trusted in you they trusted and you delivered them they cried out to you and were delivered they put their trust in you and were not confounded but as for me i am a worm and no man scorned by all and despised by the people all who see me love me to scorn they curl their lips and wag their heads saying he trusted in the lord let him deliver him let him deliver him if he delights in him but it is you that took me out of the womb and laid me safe upon my mother's breast on you was i cast ever since i was born you are my god even from my mother's womb be not far from me for trouble is near at hand and there is none to help mighty oxen come around me fat bulls of beishan clothes me in on every side they gape upon me with their mouths as it were a ramping and a roaring lion i am poured out like water all my bones are out of joint my heart has become like wax melting in the depths of my body my mouth is dried up like a pot shed my tongue cleaves to my gums you have laid me in the dust of death for the hounds are all about me the pack of evil doers close in on me they pierce my hands and my feet i can count all my bones they stand staring and looking upon me they divide my garments among them they cast lots for my clothing be not far from me o lord you are my strength hasten to help me deliver my soul from the sword my poor life from the power of the dog saved me from the lion's mouth from the horns of the wild oxen you have answered me a psalm which is traditional for good friday and one sees why so much of that psalm speaks in prophetic words about what is happening on this day and as we said yesterday about maundy thursday the scripture now and we're staying with our fourth gospel as has always been traditional within the readings of the church to read this fourth gospel as the passion on this good friday we're staying with that and will read together the whole of chapter 19 as a narrative and then we can think about what that narrative is telling us for in all four gospels at this time the writer the collector of all the traditions that they have in their hands turn to a simple narrative of the passion with many signs of what that means so here is saint john chapter 19. then pilate took jesus and flogged him and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe they came up to him saying hail king of the jews and struck him with their hands [Music] pilots went out again and said to the jewish authorities see i am bringing him out to you so that you may know that i find no guilt in him so jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe pilate said to them behold the man [Music] when the chief priests and the officers saw him they cried out crucify him crucify him pilate said to them take him yourselves and crucify him for i find no guilt in him the jews answered him we have a law and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the son of god when pilate heard this statement he was even more afraid he entered his headquarters again and said to jesus where are you from but jesus gave him no answer so pilate said to him you will not speak to me do you not know that i have authority to release you and authority to crucify you jesus said to him [Music] you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin from then on pilate sought to release him but the jews cried out if you release this man you are not caesar's friend everyone who makes himself a king opposes caesar so when pilate heard these words he brought jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the stone pavement and in aramaic gabatha now it was the day of preparation of the passover it was about the sixth hour pilate said to the jewish authorities behold your king [Music] they cried out away with him away with him crucify him pilate said to them shall i crucify your king the chief priests and said we have no king but caesar so pilate delivered jesus over to them to be crucified so they took jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull which in aramaic is called golgosa there they crucified him and with him two others one on either side and jesus between them pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross it read jesus of nazareth the king of the jews many of the jews read this inscription for the place where jesus was crucified was near the city and it was written in aramaic in latin and in greek so the chief priests of the jews said to pilate do not write the king of the jews but rather this man said i am the king of the jews but pilate answered what i have written i have written when the soldiers had crucified jesus they took his garments and divided them into four parts one part for each soldier and also his tunic but the tunic was seamless woven in one piece from top to bottom so they said to one another let us not tear it cast lots for it to see whose it shall be this was to fulfill the scripture which says they divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots so the soldiers did these things [Music] but standing by the cross of jesus were his mother and his mother's sister mary the wife of clopaz and mary magdalene when jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby he said to his mother woman behold your son then he said to the disciple behold your mother and from that hour the disciple took her to his own home after this jesus knowing that all was now finished said to fulfill the scripture i thirst a jar full of sour wine stood there so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth when jesus had received the sour wine he said it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit since it was the day of preparation and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the sabbath for that sabbath was a high day the jews asked pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away so the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with jesus but when they came to jesus and saw that he was already dead they did not break his legs but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and at once there came out blood and water he who saw it has borne witness his testimony is true and he knows that he is telling the truth so that you may also believe for these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled not one of his bones will be broken and again another scripture says they will look on him whom they have pierced the passion according to the writer of the fourth gospel and as i said it's the traditional one that which the church has always read on good friday but in our minds there are many other details from the other three evangelists nevertheless this morning as we think together on this really beautiful morning we are using the signs of the fourth gospel and those signs become totally important in the life of the church [Music] let's notice first that still there is hesitation on pilot's part he knows this is unjust he knows he is the representative of the imperial law which stretches right across the mediterranean region but he knows he is also sitting on shall we say in more modern terms a powder keg jerusalem fills to the absolute brim every lodging taken with those who've come for the feast of the passover it could explode at any moment and the jewish authorities know that too so that they are playing a delicate game of politics with pilots it's hair trigger diplomacy and what is going on has a little of carrot and a little of stick and they're using that with the roman governor pilate himself is probably longing to be um back in caesarea the roman capital by the shore but at the same time he has had to come to the traditional capital of this land jerusalem for this feast to make sure that nothing really bad happens and that his own reputation does not become solid pilot is keen for promotion of course he is and at the same time the jewish authorities who are a very unlikely combination of the different parties of the sanhedrin united in this way because they want the peace of the city of jerusalem they want this man dead and here is the roman governor with whom they are playing politics pilot has also because this is the day of the preparation and they have purified themselves for the feast of the passover which will begin at sunset pilate has to play this physical game of going backwards and forwards backwards and forwards into where jesus is being kept and now really badly treated physically but outside to talk to them because they cannot make themselves impure unclean by coming into this foreigner's house and so pilate for the moment allows the soldiers to make fun of jesus to mistreat him physically this is part of the occupation of the soldiers beating him about the head striking him twisting a crown of thorns and placing it on his head finding an old purple robe with a sign of imperial power and wrapping it around him and then striking him and saying hail king of the jews here is what they're doing and then pilate as part of what's going on and perhaps his intention to show them how utterly ridiculous this claim that he's calling himself the king of the jews is he brings out jesus to show them now beaten and crowned with thorns and wrapped in this purple robe of ridicule and he says behold the man which is itself a significant uh statement for right at the beginning of this gospel we are told that the eternal word took human flesh and dwelt among us and here pilate is saying well here is that human being you're wanting crucified behold the man isn't this quite ridiculous this is not justice this is the inference and yet at the same time the answer comes back even more fiercely and they play the political game even harder and they say he this man is calling himself a king anyone who calls themselves the king is not caesar's friend and by not crucifying him you are showing yourself also not to be the emperor's friend well there's the last throw and pilate realizes he's beaten and comes out and sits on the judgment seat and hands jesus over to crucifixion pronounces the sentence of death knowing that it is unjust and so he writes as his one last kick at them jesus of nazareth the king of the jews to be placed above him over the cross and so that everyone can read it the cross were told was by a public wayside travelers coming to jerusalem going from jerusalem would see this for crucifixions were done so that people might see what would happen to them if they faced up to the imperial roman power the people were left hanging on crosses along the road and the people would read above it jesus of nazareth the king of the jews written in aramaic so they could read it in their own language if that was their language in latin in greek the common greek of the whole of the eastern mediterranean which jesus himself would have understood and in that way pilate says this is your doing and they say don't write that right he said he was the king of the jews and pilate then in a memorable sentence says what i have written i have written so it's then set down in writing by this evangelist as one of the signs of this day so one goes on and the crucifixion the details of that crucifixion given in so much more detail in the three synoptic gospels as we've said this evangelist assumes that much of that is known to the communities of the early church and he concentrates on certain significant signs the first of the signs is the piercing of jesus's hands and feet but also then the soldiers sitting below the cross and dicing for the robes this was their right when they stripped their prisoners anything that was there that was theirs and it was a poor pittance um and uh here they are deciding there are four of them so we'll divide this into four parts and then you come to the sign of the seamless robe the seamless tunic or tunica which would have gone over their head and down back in front woven entirely of one piece now that is utterly significant because if you look at the details of how the tunic of the high priest in who is about to offer at the feast of the passover the sacrifice in the holy of holies in the temple if you look at the details of how his tunic has to be woven it is all in one piece a seamless robe so that caiaphas will be wearing a seamless robe in the temple at the feast of the passover the holy of holies when sacrifice is made and at the same time jesus as the high priest is giving up his seamless robe to soldiers who as a sign say we can't tear this let us cast lots for it hence the dice being so much a symbol in so many of the objects of the crucifixion the crown of thorns and the spear and the dice the seamless robe [Music] and as that seamless robe is noticed so many of these things in the fourth gospel you simply have to notice the high priesthood of jesus to which he has consecrated himself in the temple courtyard the night before when this day had already started this day of preparation and now here he is hanging on the cross the lamb of god slain for the sins of the world while the passover lambs are at the same time being sacrificed in the temple for the feast of the passover which will begin at sunset and the law says that nobody must hang on the cross in on the sabbath and at the same time this is a sabbath a high day it's the feast of the passover also which the paschal full moon was telling us last night and then a tender scene for as jesus looks down from the cross he sees his mother the psalmist mentions in psalm 22 that psalm which opened the opening sentence of which is the cry of desolation from the cross my god my god why have you forsaken me but mary hasn't she is there below you you took me from my mother's womb even from my mother's womb you bore me and in one sense this song is saying gave me that vocation and now they stand staring and look up looking upon me but his mother is standing there below with her sister mary the wife of cleopas and also mary magdalene and the beloved disciple and there's been so many questions asked about who the beloved disciple was i'm staying with john the son of zebedee at this point and as jesus looks down he sees them both there and realizes that there is one commission of love and care he still has to perform and this for his mother who has been the one with him not only from the very beginning but from the coming of the holy spirit to her to announce her vocation and that path has been kept faithfully ever since up to that moment and here now she stands seeing how her own heart will be pierced with a sword the prophecy of simeon in luke's gospel to mary as he holds the child jesus the baby jesus at that time only 40 days old you've been with me from my mother's womb and his eyes looked down from the cross crowned with thorns and hands and feet pierced with nails as the psalmist had prophesied but there below the faithfulness of his mother and she herself having received that coming of the holy spirit to engender the lord now the anointed one the lamb of god being slain for the sins of the whole world with arms outstretched but the loving commission mother behold your son looking at the beloved disciple until the beloved disciple behold your mother and we're told from that very hour that disciple took her into his own home receiving the blessed virgin into his own home all of these are signs for the church and there is one great sign left first so let's think of how the wellsprings of jesus himself have run dry he is now saying i thirst and we're taken back now to that scene on the side of the well in samaria sitting there with a stranger the woman from samaria who has come to draw water from the well and we're here with the the fountain in the middle of the complexity of our herb garden and the complexity of the political situation and all the people around there in jerusalem and jesus says i thirst as he said to the woman at the well give me a drink and then at the same time he says when the the uh woman comes to the well if you had known the one who was asking you give me a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water we remember that from this very gospel early on in the fourth chapter and as we discussed it we remembered that that woman then became a carrier of the good news herself back to her people come and see a man who told me everything and then he had said when she said we know that that when the anointed one comes the christ he will tell us all things and jesus says to her i am he well now he is asking again for his throat to be uh moistened and the soldiers in an act of kindness take from their own sour wine with a sponge on the end of a long hiss up stick they moisten his lips in order that he may say in our greek gospel tetelestai uh it is fulfilled it is accomplished or more traditionally it is finished everything that he had been sent to accomplish and we've seen the hardest part of the journey everything is now accomplished and he bows his head and yields up his spirit and when they come to break the legs of the others so that they may die quite quickly and not hang on the cross they come to jesus and find him already dead and a soldier piercing his side with the spear blood and water flow out in the eyes of the one watching and the testimony is given that this evangelist draws it from an eyewitness the one who is writing this has has seen this to them the sacramental life of the church in the cup of the new covenant the blood and the water of a new beginning in baptism all of those things jesus receiving the holy spirit just as mary had received the holy spirit to conceive him and now here we have jesus turning our mind to all of that and the evangelists writing out those signs for us to become very aware of i think back to walking the way of the cross myself as many of you would have done in jerusalem and what i remember is uh thinking uh there are all these people here making such a noise and tugging my sleeve and offering me things to buy and the noise and as we walk this way of the cross come and stop and the the guide is trying to tell us things as we go along and i was irritated by that because one is used as we shall this afternoon in the cathedral from 12 till three to silence as as the the contemplation of what is happening but it was not like that i suddenly realized that as i stood in that street this is how it would have been this city boiling with people who have come up for the feast and now as with any crowd crowd absolutely uh agog what is going on what is happening here and knowing that this was the one that they only a few days before were cheering with pound branches now crowned with thorns bleeding and buffeted carrying his cross and being whipped through the city to a place of execution outside the city wall all of that was going on there was no peace the blessed virgin and the and the beloved disciple the mother of jesus the beloved disciple mary magdalene mary the wife of clopas and all those who had had the the sense of jesus being beloved for them they had no peace in this to contemplate what's going on even when they stood before the cross they were surrounded by the shouts of those who were making fun of this person who had said that he was the king of the jews and the psalmist puts or all that and they curl their lips they stand looking upon me psalm 22 so that everything is being fulfilled so that that word tester less style in the greek it is accomplished there is a true fulfillment and he bows his head and yields up his spirit and then the flow of blood and water and the speed now with which they want to take those bodies from the cross to accomplish the burial so that they themselves totally clean can begin their feast of the passover from those lambs who had been sacrificed as jesus was hanging on the cross on that day of preparation well i think um not only of that on this day but i think of a day in 1980 and it wasn't at this time of year it was at the feast of pentecost the day after the piece of pentecost in 1980 when i found myself with a lovely parish group from my parish in tisbury and wiltshire and everything had been prepared for us by the wonderful organists there david power and his wife mary was with us too and they'd arranged a group to go across europe from wiltshire in england to be present at the uh passion play at obaramagao in 1980 and the hours of that play when we sat together watching everything was going on having stayed with the villagers the night before and having watched the play and stayed also the night after so we had an opportunity to eat with them and find out how every 10 years they perform this passion play it was put off in the year 2000 but i remember with enormous enormous uh and moving i didn't want to say pleasure but it was an experience that i will never forget and somehow experiences like that i don't quite want to repeat because it is part of me and all that was going on i watched with with complete fascination the time went just like that there was a stop when we we had a midday meal and then came back into that plain auditorium in those days open to the alps with a blue sky beyond and i shall never forget jesus turning over the the seats of the money changers and releasing all the doves and they were all white doves which flew up into the blue sky and and no doubt were homing pigeons which would go and be used for others two days later and yet it was absolutely fascinating and the tableau from the old testament but the crucifixion was so utterly tragic because you had lived through all these days scene after scene with sign after sign and that too mingles with everything that i think about on this particular day as this good friday begins its course and we are part of that in the present tense the fulfillment of jesus's own vocation and the fulfillment of the vocation of his mother up to the point where the sword pierces her heart in uh simeon's sign of prophecy also here she knows that true sorrow which is encompassed by so many of pieces of our poetry most of all of course the starbuck martyr at the cross the the mother uh keeping the cross has station keeping stood the mournful mother weeping and there we are with that focus of that long lashing poem as an ancient sith hymn of the church set to music by so many musicians oh [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] we've had a a break of half an hour because i had to go and have an interview with bbc radio kent about what the cathedral will be doing this day on good friday and it actually was a a lovely thing to be speaking to the people across this area of england about what will be happening in the cathedral but we had to leave you for a while so you'll see that the scene has changed in terms of the light here much to flesh's irritation because he wanted a continuity but this interview was an important one to invite people into the cathedral and talk to the interviewer who was interested as to how we are feeling at this time and and how our our emotions about ukraine are helping us to understand the the need of people who are suffering so much so all of that in an interruption to our own worship this morning but here we are again now with our own morning prayer in the garden so uh no interruption for you because we can make this quite seamless uh and uh i was talking about the the lovely passion play at uber amaga and the way in which that those pictures uh affect me but also i remember the conversations that we had afterwards as we traveled on in two different uh bavarian and swiss communities and cities but we were talking all the time about the scene set forward because a narrative especially if it's acted out is something which is really powerful and it was acted out and given music and everything else that that stays in the heart and mind is an experience i wouldn't try to replicate it's an experience rather like walking the way of the cross in jerusalem which is becomes part of one's own being and then the moment the passion is read again all those scenes come across one's heart and mind with the marvelous mechanisms of human memory feeding into spiritual imagination all that happens on this day just to think of of dates on this day i've only two i want to talk about uh both are dates of supreme tragedy one in 1912 for april the 15th is the date when in 1912 that huge luxury liner with its four funnels titanic sank on its maiden voyage on a completely uh still sea and ocean having struck an iceberg in the middle of the night and we have really been fascinated by that story ever since because it seemed like uh almost a sign of the civilized nations of the world steaming towards that huge conflagration which would change society and them forever in 1914 with the coming of the great war but no one could have conceived that the titanic would sink with the loss of what fifteen hundred people on that night in those icy waters and it's it's been portrayed in in so many different ways we don't have to speak about it this morning but one of the things which always comes from that is the sense of people then turning to their prayers and their devotions and the hymn most associated with it nearer my god to thee nearer to thee and that hymn which isn't sung so much nowadays is very much the the titanic hymn and as all of the the um images of titanic and people still searching for things below the sea and now we can see the wreck itself in two parts all of those things still capture the imagination for huge disasters unexpected completely and then the loss of life and at that time this was in peacetime uh in 1912 sailing to new york expecting simply to arrive to the chairs of new york harbor and everything about that ship which was said to be unsinkable disappearing beneath the icy waves of the atlantic ocean and the grief and also shock was intense and then what came from it were safety measures which have helped others and of course the development of radio signals which would attempt to make this uh inconceivable now but at the time and i think i've said before my grandfather remembered he was singing uh uh in a a a concert in bristol and in a in a choir and in the middle of it the manager of the concert hall walked onto the stage and said i'm sorry i have terrible news to announce and then he announced it and people then all stood in silent prayer and the concert didn't go on everyone simply went home and rather like last night's watch the grandfather said they went home hardly able to say anything because the shock was so great and human spirit had to take on that realization and that the intention that this must never happen again but of course it does happen over and over again because of the fragility of our humanity and that spiritual dimension to feed into our intentions becomes one of the hallmarks of good friday as we like the blessed virgin and the beloved disciple and mary magdalene stand looking at the figure of jesus arms outstretched hanging on the cross and in this gospel blood and water of new covenant new beginnings flowing from his side [Music] [Music] nearer my god to thee nearer to thee [Music] [Music] me still all my song shall be near my god to thee [Applause] [Music] nearer my god to thee nearer to thee [Music] the sun gone down [Music] darkness [Music] yet in my dreams i'd be [Music] near my god [Music] to [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] clean the sky sun moon and stars forgot up i fly still my song shall be [Music] my god two [Applause] [Music] the [Music] this [Music] and the other date 2019 on this day another date of real horror of a different kind and that was the horror of seeing notre dame that huge gothic cathedral the largest in the world i think of gothic proportions um blazing with the fire which looked as though to all intents and purposes going to completely consume it and the hundreds of people and the weeping um parisians as they stood around watching the flames shoot from the roof of notre dame cathedral on this day and the then that the the time when the the central uh flesh uh the arrow as it was called fell right down through onto the the the floor of the the cathedral there at an extraordinary uh horrific site but people around beginning to sing the old words of the salve regina as they as they watched and wept and tears flowed for titanic tears flowed for this and hymns were sung and the spirituality of the of of the the human race had to somehow step forward to embrace what was going on thankfully the whole building was not consumed thankfully there was an intention immediately that this must be restored and uh the intention was was i remember president macron saying we'll have this restored in did you say five years or something we're here at canterbury cathedral know how long it takes first to assess historic structures and assess what has happened to stained glass assess what has happened in terms of safety and knew that this would take years and years and years to put rights but the intention was there and our own people here in restoration were called on to to help in advice in all sorts of ways at that time but every tragedy because of the human spirit always calls forth intention not only of those little bits of prayer and music that people have inside them but at the same time an intention to say this must never happen again like this and we we will make this good [Music] yes [Music] schools [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] too [Music] is [Music] so [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] series [Music] [Music] to [Music] my [Music] [Music] this must never happen again like this and we we will make this good human lives lost can never be made good everything has to be restored in terms of intention for the welfare of others afterwards and and war which is happening absolutely in our midst in europe at the moment in ukraine war is something that can never be put right it has to be as the human spirit is called force and the graces of the kingdom of heaven somehow restored in the terms of the gift of peace being restored to the people of ukraine but the scar of the tragedy of their loss is there really signaled by jesus hanging on the cross at this time and the intention that humankind though capable of this is capable of so much better and so many more graces of the kingdom of heaven and we go back once again to that prayer the simplicity of that prayer that jesus taught his friends to say when the disciples said lord teach us to pray as you pray and uh and he's he taught them and that that sentence thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven the graces of the kingdom of heaven are realizable even here and now but also other forces can be at work in us forces of evil intent and hence that prayer being needed in all its simplicity every time we meet together at the beginning of a new of the gift of a new day and it's the one prayer that so often is still on the lips of people at their their last moment when one is with them um towards the end so let's think of all that this morning on this good friday morning you will have so many thoughts in your mind from across the world so many different intentions as we sit here in the complexity of the herb garden with pure water springing up in the middle of it and we think of our lord on the cross thirsty himself having drained his own wellsprings for our sake and being with that last sip of the sour wine offered to him by seemingly unfeeling soldiers but maybe this was a gesture of kindness so his lips could then utter after his loud cry could usher the word the simple greek word tetelestai it is accomplished all is fulfilled and in one sense in his humanity he is saying not i am he on this case but i have managed it because i know that we've seen him with his sweat like great drops of blood in the garden of gethsemane that was his humanity knowing that it could only be done because it was the will of the father and also the spiritual resources were there to do it if reached out for maybe that intention for the future is the whole heartland of good friday when we look at the cross and see of what humanity is capable in terms of suffering on imposed on another and also political prevarication for the sake of of of human goals which will soon ebb away and at the same time what humanity is capable of in the figure of the one who opened his arms wide for us and showed us that we are made in the image of god and in spiritual ways and in real ways body mind and spirit can claim that divinity within ourselves of the gifts of the kingdom of heaven even here and now on earth as it is in heaven so god bless this good friday to us all and let's say our prayers on this day uh there's in the anglican communion this morning uh we're asked on this good friday morning to pray for the diocese of kushtya in the united church of bangladesh and our diocese is simply asking us to pray for all on this good friday morning and so you will bring all your own intentions as we say the collect for good friday just that alone today the lent is over now and we've entered the sacred triduum the three days of the most holy part of the year almighty father look with mercy on us your family for which our lord jesus christ was content to be betrayed and given up into the hands of sinners and to suffer death upon the cross who is alive and glorified with you and the holy spirit one god now and forever are men and so with full intention and in total simplicity in our own language we use together across the world 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 moment of reflection now on this good friday morning [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] r [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] yes is [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is you will have noticed that uh because of our pause the morning has gone on a little only by half an hour but it's no longer early morning in the sense of the day awakening and the cockrules are silent you hear nothing whereas before they were trumpeting the morning and that crow now there's the duck the cockroach um very much a part of this sense of the betrayal in the middle of the night and what we have to understand at good friday is that we cannot place moments of suffering and awful tragedy uh behind us as though they never happened they are actually embraced into our own spirituality and then given the sense and fragrance of new beginnings from the kingdom of heaven those new moments happen because of our reaction to the horror not by trying to forget it and put it aside but by embracing it and saying this has come also as part of our vocation of care for one another for god's world and the quality of the kingdom of heaven let's uh then say first of all the blessing and then we'll look at our riddle christ crucified draw you to himself to find in him a sure ground for faith a firm support for hope and the assurance of sins forgiven 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 this good friday and always amen well let's see where we go to brighten the day a little as well uh with our riddles i think yesterday if i can find where i asked you from i asked i have teeth that cannot bite what am i and the answer is a comb and then the other one was until i am measured i am not known yet how you miss me when i have flown and there of course one single word time time has flown and we wish we could reclaim it and then this morning i am a ring but i am square what am i and finally i am heavy forward but backward i'm not what am i two little puzzles for the day and we'll come back to them tomorrow and uh then our lost words in this lovely book and yesterday we were with the magpie and so if i go on past kingfishers and larks and there was a lovely black bird singing when i came out early this morning when we came out and the black bird i'm you know how much i love the song of the thrush but the blackbird is really the song of england at this time and the the mellow uh kind of song that the blackbird was singing was a lovely call to the morning now today um actually i'm laughing because uh the the the word is the newt n-e-w-t and here we have this nice little amphibian and newts are in the um orchard garden as well and if i give the poem and i try to get the book so that you can see it at the pictures as well and uh we've got it but it's i'll have to lean forward to see the poem say the acrostic down newt oh newt you are too cute emoted the coot to the too cute newt with your frilly back and your shiny suit and your spotted skin so on her suit too cute rode the newt to the unastute coot with all this careless talk of cute you bring me into disrepute for newts aren't cute where kings of the pond lions of the duckweed dragons of the water albeit it's true he paused my newt so let's open the big picture and see what that's like oh it's just a very very large newt and let's see if i can get the thing right and at the top of the picture the big newton the the main picture and a coot standing on a stone with the newt making fun of the coot and the coot making fun of the newt on this good friday morning so we'll go on with that tomorrow and god bless you um on this good friday as we worship together i'm sorry for the pause in the middle hello mr pauls how are you you're enjoying the sun now you're being our constant friend in these uh days of monday thursday and good friday aren't you and behaving very well we like your company okay tiger's fur is quite warm on this lovely day well we must go on most of this day will be spent in the cathedral and so i've much enjoyed being in the open air with you with so many lovely things flowering around me ah