good morning and welcome to the general garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of monday the 17th of may it's a wet and fresh morning the rain has been falling but it's not falling now and yet there's a lovely scent of rain having fallen and the earth and spring flowers enjoying that rain this beautiful yellow choice here behind me and the opulent flowers of the lilacs the lilacs have just come out and i'm surrounded by their scent as i always say to you i wish i could uh do scent for you virtually as well because the freshness of this morning is really too much to be believed it's it's perfect sitting here with the white of cow parsley and the white flowers of what we call dead nettles uh in front of me coming up through the bug loss here the dead nettles don't sting your hand and as children we used to pick little bunches of the white flowers and suck the end and you get a sweet rush of honey onto your tongue from that but cow parsley or queen anne's lace it's called in some parts of our country very much a sign of this time of year the apple blossom out here as well and so many things flowering and enjoying the spring and this lovely blue of a sea of blue from the bugloss around me as we say our morning prayers our son when we get to that is psalm 87 and it is centered around the vision of both earthly and heavenly jerusalem and of course our prayers at the moment are really strongly offered for the holy land and all groups of people living there for some kind of resolution to that terrible conflict which is being played out in our eyes on our screens but we pray for all those caught up in that suffering so much those who've been bereaved those who've been wounded those looking after them and those simply frightened and longing for all this to be over so whatever power the international community has to exercise for good we pray may be used during the next few days but let's begin our prayers on this monday morning as the work of the city begins outside the walls of the precincts oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise send your holy spirit upon us and clothe us with power from on high alleluia blessed are you creator god to you be praise and glory forever as your spirit moved over the face of the waters bringing light and life to your creation pour out your spirit on us today that we may walk as children of light and by your grace reveal your presence 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 amen so our psalm on this 17th morning of the month is psalm 87. [Music] her foundation is on the holy mountains for 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 and as they dance they shall sing all my fresh springs are in you the vision of the heavenly city and of the capacity to make communities without conflict where peace reigns and the vision of the heavenly jerusalem with the gifts of eternity being realized even now at times here on earth we're reading again from st matthew it's a regular day today and we arrived at the end of chapter eight you remember jesus was on the other side of the lake and to the disciples who've been afraid on the lake and alarmed by being in that to them fairly foreign country now they get back into the boat at the beginning of chapter 9 and i'm reading chapter 9 of saint matthew's gospel verses 1-17 [Music] and getting into a boat jesus crossed over and came to his own city and behold some people brought to him a paralyzed man lying on a bed and when jesus saw their face he said to the paralyzed man take heart my son your sins are forgiven behold some of the scribe said to themselves this man is blaspheming but jesus knowing their thoughts said why do you think evil in your hearts for which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say rise and walk but that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins he then said to the paralyzed man rise pick up your bed and go home and the man rose and went home when the crowd saw it they were afraid and they glorified god who had given such authority to men but as jesus passed on from there he saw a man called matthew sitting at the tax desk and he said to him follow me and matthew rose and followed jesus and as jesus reclined at table in the house behold many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with jesus and his disciples and when the pharisees saw this they said to his disciples why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners and when jesus heard it he said those who are well have no need of a doctor but those who are sick go and learn what this means i desire mercy and not sacrifice for i came not to call the righteous but sinners then the disciples of john the baptist came to jesus saying why do we in the pharisees fast but your disciples do not fast jesus said to them can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch tears away from the garment and a worst hair is made neither is new wine put into old wineskins if it is the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed but new wine is put into fresh wineskins and so both are preserved a collection of stories that matthew has drawn together some taken from mark some having that special matthew quality but the quality is also shown in the way that he alters and changes the stories for his own community that she has taken from mark the stories and uses them again in this collection of new beginnings first of all let's think of how in this story there's a great sense of coming home it's mentioned several times jesus is getting into the boat and crossing the lake and coming back home talks about his own city but we're not talking about nazareth here we're talking about the place he's made his home capernaum there by the lakeside and in doing so they've they've crossed a political boundary they're back in galilee there's a border running very near to capernaum and they've just crossed it in the boat by landing again at this place that jesus has made home and when the crowds see jesus they are glad there's none of the atmosphere of intense hostility almost violent hostility from the authorities we begin in these passages to hear uh shall we say murmurings from those who are in authority about the way jesus is behaving and the people that he is consorting with but nevertheless there's no violence there yet whereas very early on in st mark's gospel that sense of violence all around jesus is is growing up and the way that he is having to battle to get his message heard with strong opposition from those who are openly complaining about what he is doing and the message that he is giving about the good news and how that is being given to the people but no not in matthew not yet so jesus comes home to capernaum and unlike nazareth capernaum is a busy and almost cosmopolitan place for here is a border between herod's country in galilee and philip the tetrax country just over the border there they've come back through beside us on one side and capernaum on the other and here they are in capernaum which has become home this city of busyness but on the lakeside it's busy because customs and tolls can take place there as goods cross the borders going towards the mediterranean ports where things like the pickled fish of the sea of galilee can be exported right across even to rome itself and become dishes for the tables of the eastern roman empire but the moment it appears jesus at home and a little story taken from mark is told here the bringing of the paralyzed man on his bed details missing from mark remember we said that mark quite often puts in little details which give us an extra picture of what's going on and the amount of the crowds around the house that jesus has come back to in his own city around him are so many crowds that the people can't get through mark tells us that four friends are carrying this man on a bed and because they can't get through they take the initiative and go up onto the roof remove some of the tiles and lower the bed down in front of jesus that's not in matthew matthew is more interested in the healing miracle not in the bits and pieces of detail around it and so here's a bit of special matthew that the story is is dealt with quite quickly yet nevertheless it's dealt with with ease jesus senses what the people are thinking when he says my son your sins are forgiven and he looks at them and challenges them with that thought is it easier for me to say your sins are forgiven or rise take up your bed and walk but to show you that the son of man has the authority on earth to forgive sins when he turns to the paralyzed man get up take your bed and go home here we are again with home it's a dimension of this now that might seem um an easy thing but this man has never walked home he's paralyzed maybe from a stroke so it might have been some little time since he's walked home or maybe he could never walk we don't know nevertheless what happens is that the man at the command from jesus gets up and goes home not only whole in body but also holy spirit with his sins forgiven a new beginning as he takes his bed and strongly walks through the astonished crowd who are in awe that's what the word afraid means absolutely in awe of what's gone on and says how is it that such authority is given to men to humanity that this this jesus who is standing here amongst us can do this this is what matthew wants you to embrace with faith and then the story goes on and here's the interesting thing and there are no answers to this they're very often aren't in this we just receive it the the story of levi the tax collector in sin mark's gospel and luke keeps the name levi when he tells the story is changed so that levi here becomes matthew the same as the traditional attribution of this gospel to matthew and the person who is listed as one of the twelve matthew sitting at the tax desk so we've said it's not unnatural that the customs desk should be in capernaum it was a place of great trading and border crossings but maybe this matthew or levi maybe the same person we're talking about has heard the teaching of jesus because he's been sitting at his desk on the lakeside and as we hear this has become jesus's own home and the crowds come to hear him there whatever when jesus says come and follow me he leaves the tax desk and follows jesus you might say that the the debts are turned round and what has to be paid today is not to matthew but from matthew in rising to give himself to following jesus we give thanks for that story and we give thanks for the party which follows because clearly there's a party with all matthew's friends coming to sit with jesus or recline as the greek says in the way that they did at tables and there's a a should we call it a puzzle here we assume because luke tells us that this is so but he's making an assumption as well that the house they're sitting in is matthews or levi's it doesn't say so it's only a pronoun and the pronoun is his so it could be jesus house it's just that we don't think of jesus having a place where he can entertain friends and guests we think of him staying at simon's house in capernaum from the first chapter of sid mark but we don't know so our imagination thinks i think because of zacchaeus and everything else in luke's gospel that matthew's called together his friends and it's a lovely thing and they're all eating and drinking and having a wonderful time and once again there's a sense of criticism this time about the people being talked to and jesus notices it nothing misses his eye nothing and he then asks about who needs the doctor those who are well or those who are sick and in need of healing and he makes no distinction between body mind and spirit here and they're silent and in the same way jesus is perfectly happy to go on with this party but john the baptist's disciples now appear and say to the disciples we fast and the disciples of the pharisees fast it may be a time of fasting we don't know but your disciples aren't fasting and jesus comes out at the same time with the lovely image he hasn't missed the criticism the lovely image of a bridal feast an image of the kingdom of heaven and that image is replicated so often right through the gospels the evangel speaks of this enjoyment of one another's company and and wine becomes not only a symbol of self-giving but a symbol of hospitality and here jesus first says how can wedding guests fast when the bridegroom's with them but there will come a time when they will fast and of course this is the time we're thinking of now in the christian year between ascension and pentecost when the disciples have that locked in feel in the upper room with the women and mary the mother of jesus and the brothers of jesus waiting to know what the next step what the new beginning will be for them but on this occasion in matthew here's jesus enjoying the party and then he uses two images ordinary images they would all know about um stitching up a garment and using the same kind of cloth that isn't uh going to shrink and tear the old cloth and you can see people sort of nodding their heads but at the same time there's the better image which he must have thought of as he was doing this because i think that many of these things he's simply just looking around and saying what can we use this morning as i did at the beginning with the freshness of this day and the birds that i think we're hearing that pleasure and i were discussing is just now a garden warbler beginning but where we'll we'll come back on that one because they asked our visitors at this time of year right at the beginning we thought we'd heard a garden warbler so there's an excitement of visitors here but jesus then uses the images of um the wineskins and once again his guests would have been nodding or shaking their heads when he said you wouldn't do this would you and you know there's no we wouldn't do that that would be silly fresh wine has to go into fresh skins that the maturing process will cause the skins to expand in the way they can when they're new otherwise if you put fresh wine into the old skins and that maturing process begins you destroy both the wine and the skins it's a lovely image but it's an image of the giving of himself and the new ways that he is teaching them to receive the creator and we embrace all of that and give thanks for the way in which he's able to point to ordinary images to show new beginnings and to say to people go home but at the same time to make us all feel comfortable in this home of our own planet that the creator has given us to enjoy and to care for feel at home in your father's kingdom is what jesus is trying to say well um i've got some dates as always and the 17th of may uh uh some united states on the 17th of may in 1861 the young thomas cook who'd already begun little trips around for people in from leicester uh and there's i think there's a statue of thomas cook outside leicester station but on this day he set off his first group of people from london to paris on a holiday package to a foreign place and promised them that they would be looked after six days in paris from london with someone accompanying them and everything looked after for them and that became the very seed of something that has grown so much in our own day but which we've missed at this time of pandemic when no one can travel so we hope that that will open up again at this time and and begin once again to grow safely at this time 1899 queen victoria in old age two two years before her death in in early 1901 um and uh she had already celebrated her diamond jubilee in 1897 but she came to lay the foundation stone of the new victoria and albert museum building it had been founded before and had been in various places but aston webb the architect was going to build what we now know to be the main entrance of the v a and she came because of her deep love for prince albert and laid the foundation stone and made a speech about new beginnings and all that she and by influence her late husband hoped for from this place which has become so much a part of national life here so we give thanks for that day ten years later her son who was by then king edward vii with queen alexandra opened the aston webb building of the v a which we simply take for granted i wanted to say also that on this day uh sandro botticelli died in 1510 in florence he was a citizen of florence had been born there in the borgo only santi near to the church of all saints on nisanti and although he went to many places and and was painting commissions in the vatican and in in so many different places always came back to florence and that was his home always and in the end he died there and was buried in the church so nearby of omnisanti all saints but i wanted to say his paintings are everywhere in the greatest art galleries in the world you can find them in the met and uh certainly you can find them in the louvre or all over the world you find them many of them biblical scenes and and imaginatively portrayed but probably his most famous paintings are of mythological scenes from the poet ovid he was not influenced by dante and lorenzo de medici and by uh the the writings of the classical writer of it and his most famous paintings i think would be the birth of venus and also primavera a huge canvas of spring and not only are the graces dancing there and venus and mercury or aphrodite and hermes however you would have it there but carpeting the ground as a sign of spring rather like today are 190 different flowers each intricately painted 130 of them are easily identified so specific in particular and yet the whole painting speaks of this freshness of spring which the psalmist said all my fresh springs are in you and then finally on this day our own queen a picture released uh and uh i saw it for the first time this morning but i'm it's in the national newspapers on the bbc of the queen herself with the prince of wales planting a tree at windsor as part of the queen's green canopy appeal which is uh preparing for the platinum jubilee of the queen next year plant a tree for the platinum jubilee prince charles called it a tree billy and uh it was lovely to see her majesty there planting the tree the oak at windsor that she's planting and the sponsorship of cool earth the climate charity there are three million free saplings available from the woodland trust so that schools and communities can apply for them and plant a tree and we certainly aim to plant trees here during this run-up to the platinum jubilee victoria laid the foundation stone in 1899 and our own queen is turning to our care of the earth and the qgc the queen's green canopy will become something that each of us can be involved in and i know that many many will as this year unfolds so let's say our prayers on this lovely morning and the rain has kept off but the scent of the wetness of the earth and the fresh garden as that lovely hymn uh says morning has broken uh says praise for the sweetness of the fresh garden of the wet garden well that's what we've got this morning so we're praying this morning for archbishop justin of course and bishop rose of dover bishop tim at lambeth for your own uh spiritual leaders and leaders of the faith and yesterday i think i made an error and prayed for the anglican uh diocese of bhutari in rwanda well i do that again today because it should have been prayed for today and also add to it what i should have done yesterday the anglican church in korea so we pray for those churches there and their community life and of this diocese also as we watch and wait for the days leading up to pentecost and give thanks for the gifts of the spirit poured out upon us here is the colic for today oh god the king of glory you have exalted your only son jesus christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven we beseech you leave us not comfortless but send your holy spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to the place where our savior christ has gone before who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen this is the day the 17th of may when a step change in just gently coming out of lockdown happens and that means that the cathedral for the first time for some time will be open to ordinary visitors from 10 o'clock onwards well uh that's a wonderful thing you can find all details of that and how to do so safely on the website but i'm saying this so that we can pray for our own staff today we're so happy to be coming together again and to be welcoming in a hospitable way people to celebrate the life of this place let's say the our father together in whatever language we generally use 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 lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever are men moment of silence now as we say our own prayers on this day [Music] the spirit of truth lead you into all truth give you grace to proclaim that jesus christ is lord and strength to proclaim also the word and works of god and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you from those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always amen