good morning and welcome on this friday december the 11th to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral where we've come to say our morning prayers welcome wherever you are in the world on this early winter morning and bring your own concerns and everything that you would like to bring into our morning prayers in remembrance of situations and people that you would like to pray for this morning i've come to this rather strange place this morning it's a little thicket really um by this area which used to be our duck pond under the willow but it's because our tree this morning is the black sworn the giver of slows for all kinds of fruitfulness and around me are young black thorns that are growing up and behind me to my right some big blackthorne trees which we harvested the slows from earlier on to make wonderful jams and jellies and some people harvest them to prick them and soak them in gin for a long time to make slow gin and that becomes a warming christmas drink but here we are this morning with black thorn all around us growing up and it's a wonderful area for for wildlife i've actually got leo here beside me but he's not part of the wildlife but there were squirrels running along the wall behind me a little bit back and a multitude of little birds all over this area as well as the thrushes singing high up we were talking about the layers of eco diversity before and it's very evident in these mornings as we look around at this place well let's think about this particular date as we always do december the 11th and there are certain categories that we can group events in one is the falling and changing of dynasties at a high level this is the day in 1688 when king james ii fleeing london through the great seal of the realm into the river thames and of course it was the beginning and almost the end of the glorious revolution which brought william of orange and queen mary the second to reign here in england so a change of uh of regimes and dynasties at that time um we also find that on this day the in 1282 the last native prince of wales llewellyn ab griffith was killed in the battle of alwyn bridge and a change of dynasty there 1792 louis xvi of france put on trial and during the french revolution which would end in his execution and in 220 the emperor john of han in the in china the emperor of china abdicated and ended the han dynasty and here in england in 1936 king edward viii abdicated on this day and george vi became king and princess elizabeth as she was and our now is now our queen became the heir to the throne and so we remember that and use this day as a day for praying for her in her role as our queen there are other kinds of things which events of events which happened too creative events um in 1997 the kyoto protocol was adopted which is the precursor to the united nations convention on climate change and the paris agreement which president-elect biden is is keen to sign he says and then the united nations international children's emergency fund was founded on this day in 1946 and in 1903 in great britain the first wildlife preservation society to protect the fauna of these islands was formed and that of course is developed right through since then all those things together with one or two other events which we shall remember when we come to our uh reflection in 1991 sorry in 1941 hitler declared war on the united states following the united states declaration itself after the pearl harbor event this is also international mountain day mountains play an enormous part in the imagery of the prophets and in the old testament in the giving of the law like mount sinai and also in the life of jesus where very often he will go up into a mountain to pray and there one finds that the spiritual layers on this earth getting into a a silent realm where he sometimes takes the apostles or teachers from the mountain i don't know if you're like us we we love mountains and uh found a new mountainscape last year on holiday on the north coast of spain at 40 today and there one can go right to the top and look out over an amazing landscape well uh when we were there chuffs which are no longer here the black crow like birds which appear on thomas beckett's shield chuffs surrounded us to help us eat our breakfast as well but the mountainscape was wonderful there's another mountain that we love in spain in southern spain which protects the town of javier and it's called and has a huge scape like an elephant's head with its eye and all of that seems to protect the town not only from incursions because no motorway comes into that it's well beyond but also from the weather as it rolls in and very often one can see sunlight all around with the mediterranean there and the mountain holding back the clouds of rain so mountains are part of today on this international mountain day let's say our pros oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise reveal among us the light of your presence that we may behold your power and glory blessed are you sovereign god of all to you be praise and glory forever in your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night as we look for your coming among us this day open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you 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 does we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever are men our morning psalm on this day of the month the eleventh day of the month is psalm 57 be merciful to me oh god be merciful to me for my soul takes refuge in you in the shadow of your wings will i take refuge until the storm of destruction has passed by i will call upon the most high god the god who fulfills his purpose for me he will send from heaven and save me and rebuke those that would trample upon me god will send forth his love and his faithfulness i lie in the midst of lions people whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword be exalted o god above the heavens and your glory over all the earth they have laid a net for my feet my soul is pressed down they have dug a pit before me but will fall into it themselves my heart is ready o god my heart is ready i will sing and give you praise awake my soul awake harp and liar that i may awaken the dawn i will give you thanks o lord among the peoples i will sing praise to you among the nations for your loving kindness is as high as the heavens and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds be exalted oh god above the heavens and your glory over all the earth you come to chapter four of paul's first letter to the thessalonians and i'm reading this morning from verses 1 to 12. finally then brothers and sisters we ask and urge you in the lord jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please god just as you are doing that you do so more and more for you know what instructions we gave through the lord jesus for this is the will of god your sanctification that you abstain from fornication that each one of you knows how to control their own body in holiness and honor not in the passion of lust like the gentiles who do not know god that no one transgress and wrong a brother or sister in this matter because the lord is an avenger in all these things as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you for god has not called us for impurity but he has called us to holiness therefore whoever disregards this disregards not humanity but god who gives his holy spirit to you now concerning love for one another you have no need of anyone to write to you for you yourselves have been taught by god to love one another for that indeed is what you are doing and to all the brothers and sisters throughout macedonia but we urge you to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly to mind your own affairs to work with your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one some fairly straightforward teaching from the apostle paul to those whom he loves so much in thessalonica and that little church as it is developing and growing which has given him such pleasure through the news of timothy and silas who testify to all that is going on now but paul knows only too well even in his own being and we know this from his own letters how easy it is when one thinks one is going well suddenly to stumble and fall through an unseen temptation an unrealized temptation and he's marking out the steps there sometimes in his letters the warning is against too much being scrupulous and that he sets out and again again i think from his own experience in his earlier life which he respects and values so much as we said yesterday and longs for his own people to hear his good news but that kind of dwelling too much on detailed scruples was part of his earlier life and there's a temptation always in him in his own jewish faith to continue to do that for that faith is it the foundation of the good news of the gospel it's on that that he builds all the old testament scriptures and teaching he builds but there are warnings against being too scrupulous and okay he he doesn't give that this time because these are gentile christians and they are living out their life in cities which are full of license to do whatever you please and to see human relationships is something you can take or leave and use and throw away and that's why he warns so much to be careful of those temptations within the context of the city of thessalonica he would do the same very much to the corinthians and would have said the same in a letter to the athenians if we have one maybe he did write one but uh we certainly don't have it but here is paul just warning and these simple instructions within the context of his enormous love for the thessalonians and at the end these little instructions which he is so keen himself to show them how he has never tried to be a burden to anyone he worked with his own hands as an apostle earned his own keep or else when it was not possible would not be a burden to the new church but would get have fun sent to him from his other children in different churches shall we say and here he's saying to them live quietly earn the respect of those around you because that's all part of what it means to love one's brothers and sisters not just of the flock but also those who seem to be your enemies the teaching of our lord and in that way he asks them to strive and he uses the words both at the beginning and at the end of this little passage when he is teaching them and asking them to do these things so that they may be respected but dependent on no one because while they have the gifts to do so they are working for themselves within the context of their newly found christian lives and resisting temptations all of that and twice in this short passage he uses the words more and more at the beginning he says to them god has called you to holiness and here is is the the way in which that shows itself out as i know you are doing but i want you to do it more and more and then when he comes a little later on just a few less verses later on he says in his instructions to them as to how to show their love for one another and those around them in macedonia i know you are doing this but i want you to do it more and more and those words ring out now there are two other dates that i wanted to remember today and i'll get the dates right so i'll check them the first one is the uh birth in 1803 of the french romantic composer hector berlioz berlioz was a composer of massive works and he he used orchestral resources like no one else probably except for maybe richard wagner in terms of getting more and more resources and when one looks such as symphonies symphony fantastique and the great funeral symphony and romeo and juliet or the harold in italy symphonies you'll find those resources but not more so than his huge requiem the grand requiem where forces of instruments come into such a degree that it's hard for any choral society to marshal the forces to do it and his work seemed to grow more and more his operas the trojans uh were so so much uh needing resources of that sort and was so long with five hour-long acts that opera houses in paris said we actually can't put that on it's beyond our resources and he had to cut the thing in half and perform it that and even then was cutting out works to his disappointment on the way through all of that and yet one of the things he's best remembered for is uh in his long fast decreased the infancy of christ a little carol which is sung often by choirs at christmas time called the shepherd's farewell and in that tiny cameo almost unlike berlioz though he loved the enormous panorama of the flight into egypt but in this little carol he's remembered more and more for berlioz meant more and more and more resources not satisfied with what was there well let's go to someone else in 2018 a great friend of ours a fellow freeman of the city of canterbury an honor i'm proud to bear wearing the chuffs of the three birds the chuffs of sin thomas beckett uh peter thurman freeman of the city died now peter fuhrman will be known as a a partner in his work of oliver postgate and the two of them created small films which gave us much to our delight and pleasure in earlier years the saga of nog in the nog on television the saga of eye for the engine or shall we say the story of either the engine the clangers and most of all perhaps bagpus the cloth cat who sat in the window and when he sleepily woke up his imagination gave us all the stories of bagpus and all those things were created they they they never ceased to be created in by his animation in the barn here at bleen where he and his wife joan lived on the farm there and he had the imagination to create this with oliver postgate and gave us enormous pleasure as we were growing up but they never ceased to be small films and that's a different kind of more and more it's if you like we're back with emily dickinson and the the way in which things are created quite quietly two different ways of more and more and we in our reflections can be tempted either way because we can be tempted to think we need more and more and more resources or we can be tempted to become almost reclusive and if creativity stops that becomes a difficult thing for us because we go inside ourselves and are not using our gifts and paul is actually content to tell them because he knows they're doing well that he wants them to be very very careful to extend what they're doing in the right way but ends up with that little instruction and piece of advice as to how to live as christians within the context of a society he's going to tell them more about uh how that goes on tomorrow but for the moment we give thanks for people like peter fuhrman and oliver postgate who gave us such pleasure and hector bowie at berlioz um whom some people like the music of and they enjoy things so i leave that with you we're going to say our prayers now and we're on the 11th of december we're praying in the anglican communion for the diocese of sitway in myanmar and that's burma and james mindane the bishop there and his people and the diocese of aha amuffu in nigeria and daniel olynya the bishop there and his people and as we pray for archbishop justin and bishop rose of dover and the bishop of ed lambers tim we pray today with our whole diocese for those in need of mental health and well-being at this time of pandemic and those ministering to them at this time in our calendar is an ember day which is a day when we remember those who feel a call to vocation those in training for sacred ministry and those already within sacred ministry and so all those things we remember as we say our prayers on this day and join together in the prayer that you hear us the school is is going from us today this is their last day and they're traveling home so you may hear from time to time excited voices around us and uh that's a happy thing for them to go home from here for their christmas holiday wherever they live and some of them have flights to to get to to go back to their own home so we ask that they are blessed in their journey say the advent college and bring your own prayers and intentions to all that we're doing almighty god give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life in which your son jesus christ came to us in great humility that in the last day when he shall come again to judge the living and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who lives and reigns with you in the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so in whatever language you like to use 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 before we have our silence we give thanks for the black thorn behind me black thorn make very fierce hedges because of their cruel thorns but at the same time they cover themselves with pure white petals in april time usually and just as a little bit of spring chill comes into the air again and that that almost snow along the hedges which is the the black thorn flowering is called a black thorn winter but of course those flowers give us wonderful slows and fruitfulness as the seasons proceed and those thorns are often seen as the kind of thorns which wove the crown of our lord's crown of thorns but at the same time the hawthorne gives us support for the the blackthorne gives us support for the the walking along because it's blackthorne it is often used for walking sticks pilgrim staffs and in ireland the shali and all those things we remember and the kind of cover that the blackthorne offers to wildlife beneath it and birds within it so let's keep silence as we give thanks for god's creation and its diversity on this day christ the son of righteousness shine upon you scatter the darkness from before your path and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory 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 amen [Music]