[Music] good morning and welcome to the dinner on this sunday the 19th of december it's the last of our four advent sundays and when we light our candle it will be a candle representing the vocation of the blessed virgin mary it's a sunday preparing us for the feast of christ's birth next saturday and as we do so we've come inside as we have each sunday in advent so that we can light a still candle flame here in the deanery drawing room and as we do that also we say our prayers for areas of the world which are suffering horrendous uh climate conditions and we've been through some of them this week but let's think first of the philippines where the typhoon rey rai has done spectacular damage and caused loss of life which is still being counted because so many areas have lost all connection with uh other areas of the islands there and so those assisting those helping to recover helping those who are bereaved and themselves without homes we remember remember also devastating storms now in melbourne and sydney and places which before were suffering from intense heat the way in which the climate changes is a feature of this part of our history so let's remember all of those things and still remember with enormous sadness the bouncy castle tragedy in tasmania now six children have died they the one who was in a critical condition has has now died one of those in a critical condition has now died so we remember that and a sadness out of what should have been such a happy event at the little school there at devonport in tasmania uh so um let's think of some uh cheerful news as well because last night was the finals of strictly come dancing very popular program here and very popular winners so rose ailing ellis a profoundly deaf actress of frankie a deaf person in eastenders one with her dancing partner giovanni and enormous excitement let's see the the first time such a thing has happened in that particular way and we paid tribute to to rose who comes from highs here in kent and is popular as i say as frankie the actress who is deaf in eastenders and the the uh runners-up also uh john waite who's a chef and a former winner of bake off but for the first time two people of the same gender his dancing partner and instructor really johannes of the same gender so two firsts there and we remember that with great thanksgiving and the cheer it gives to those watching it as they've watched and watched and watched until the final last night and then the tense moments of silence before the announcement so uh different kinds of emotions this morning let's say our prayers and then we'll turn to the lighting of the wreath 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 as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen before we say our psalm this morning we will light the advent candles including the fourth candle itself but first we'll light those which we've lit in other weeks the first one over here which was on advent sunday itself the second remembering the prophets on the second sunday of advent the third here from last week when we remembered the ministry and vocation of john the baptist and the fourth this morning's candle lit remembering the vocation of the blessed virgin mary and her obedience to the angelic message and then the quality of that vocation of obedience through her whole life our son this morning psalm 96 one of the psalms for this 19th morning of the month sing to the lord a new song sing to the lord all the earth sing to the lord and bless his name turn out his salvation from day to day declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples for grace is the lord and greatly to be praised he is more to be feared than all gods for all the gods of the nations are but idols it is the lord who made the heavens honor and majesty are before him power and splendor are in his sanctuary ascribe to the lord you families of the peoples ascribe to the lord honor and strength ascribe to the lord the honor due to his name bring offerings and come into his courts o worship the lord in the beauty of holiness let the whole earth tremble before him tell it out among the nations that the lord is king he has made the world so firm that it cannot be moved he will judge the peoples with equity let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad let the sea thunder and all that is in it let the fields be joyful and all that is in them let all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the lord for he comes he comes to judge the earth with righteousness he will judge the world and the peoples with his truth we yesterday concluded our readings from the letter to the hebrews and took from it many images which we use in worship particularly the worship of the communion service and the worship of the way in which we we think of jesus and uh give him a sacrifice of praise in responding to his vocation with our own vocation and as we finish that we now begin this week throughout the days of the week to prepare ourselves for the feast of christ's birth throughout that week or this week beginning tomorrow we shall use luke's narrative but this morning as a preparation and a back cloth i'm using matthew's narrative and reading from the first chapter of the gospel of saint matthew starting after the genealogy of jesus tracing his roots all the way back through the royal line of david i'm starting at verse 18. now the birth of jesus christ took place in this way when his mother mary had been betrothed to joseph before they came together she was found to be with child from the holy spirit and her husband joseph being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame resolved to divorce her quietly but as he considered these things behold an angel of the lord appeared to joseph in a dream saying joseph son of david do not fear to take mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the holy spirit she will bear a son and you shall call his name jesus for he will save his people from their sins all this took place to fulfill what the lord had spoken by the prophet behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name emmanuel which means god with us when joseph woke from sleep he did does the angel of the lord commanded him he took his wife but knew her not until she had given birth to a son and he called his name jesus well it's a prelude a back cloth which sin matthew's first chapter gives us to what sin luke will unfold for us during the days of this coming week leading up to christmas both of them are in a way narrators of the holy story and on this day this fourth sunday of advent and this year it gives us almost a week to prepare from this sunday to christmas day on saturday next we use this day then as a prelude a back cloth and we use the narration of matthew in his gospel and luke in his gospel and then on christmas day itself john in his gospel and underneath all that for later on is the earliest account of all which has no narrative of the birth of jesus but begins already with the ministry of john the baptist our third candle here so we turn to matthew and luke and then john to give it an eternal context but for the moment we have two vocations to ponder the first is the vocation of joseph only because i'm using matthew and the second but certainly not in time the vocation of the blessed virgin mary and that's our fourth candle today the candle flames in this air of the drawing room with with no drafts burning up absolutely straight as a sign of the purity of vocation on the white candles surrounded by the leaves of the trees of the wood which the psalmist tells us shout for joy before the lord a narration but other voices are there too for matthew is very very keen always to underwrite his narration with prophecy and the prophecy is behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and he shall be called emmanuel that's the prophecy comes from the prophet isaiah chapter 7 and matthew is as we saw the writer to the hebrews doing all through these past few days when we've been going through the epistle to the hebrews actually plugging himself in to prophecy which looks forward to events which can then be interpreted as coming from that prophecy it can be prophecy in the law it can be prophecy and the prophets can be prophecy in the psalms jesus speaks of all of them when he is interpreting the prophecies to his disciples but on this occasion it's our narrator our companion in this gospel the writer matthew that is telling us that this prophecy is fulfilled and you get him helping us right at the end of that prophecy his name shall be called emmanuel and then the narrator matthew says which means helping you and me god with us and matthew goes on to write the story of joseph and joseph's vocation a troubling vocation at first and then in a dream the angel of the lord appears to joseph and that will happen several times in joseph's story which we will mostly read after christmas when joseph is charged with taking the holy family into egypt for safety's sake and then returning them eventually to galilee into nazareth all of those things are in his charge but at the same time we've now been introduced to the virgin whose name was mary and it's that vocation that luke is going to dwell on during the days of this week and he will become our narrator the characters will be introduced characters like zechariah and elizabeth and characters are named like the shepherds who will come to the manger characters in matthew's gospel unnamed like the magi the wise men who come from the east a back cloth and we know the historic back cloth but luke will give that to us as well with the names of those who are the political leaders at local level the religious leaders at local level and also the imperial leaders at what we will call an international level and to folk like mary and joseph country folk in an unimportant province galileans the the imperial dimension represents in those days a global dimension for them not for us today who receive messages all the time by different means from all around the world and can feel an identity with one another in a completely different way all these centuries later the back clause is set the characters introduced and the translators are at their work so we have two measures of interpretation here first of all we have the interpretation of the story itself as it has been handed on and matthew is interpreting that by telling the story in a particular way and rooting it in prophecy but also rooting it in a particular place and giving us clues as to what we should be thinking but we are relying on him for his narration and it's a very different kind of narration from the narration that luke will give us on the days of this week as we lead up to christmas itself and in a way it's a different narration than john will give us on christmas morning with his great prelude which reaches back into eternity reaches forward into eternity and also anchors itself in the word made flesh into the finite time constrained atmosphere and back class of this world all those things we are seeing through the lens of translators but then we have several other journeys from different translators who have interpreted the story as they have translated it into our language from the original greek of the new testament and from the original hebrew of the old testament translators have been at work and we have to realize that each one is in some way giving us some kind of personal story you can't do it without doing that it's what exactly what i'm doing now trying to understand it myself and then trying to help you to understand it and you will have other ways of thinking no well i'd rather understand it this way because each of us are unique and individual human beings at this point in history in a particular context and we cannot escape that in this world of time but what we can do is wait for moments of grace in the silence of our prayers in the way in which all the facts and insights and spiritual gifts of grace and faith and hope and above all love configure within us at different points in life and reach back into experiences we've had and look around at experiences that are being shared by others and at that point we make what we can of the vocation that god is offering us all those things we take into account as we light the four candles candles giving a sense of casting light into a place which needs interpretation but also needs action from us and the constant turning to the gospels the constant reliance on the old covenant's prophecies and the constant turning to the epistles for encouragement from them but at the same time our own faithful response to what we perceive in our prayers to be god's message to us with the gifts he's given us so in that the stillness that the psalmist always advises and the stillness that we see in jesus when he withdraws simply to be quiet and sense how his own vocation has to work itself out in joy and sorrow in pain and suffering in death and the vocation to be lifted up that all nations will be drawn to him all of those things at this time as we set the back cloth for christmas well let's think of one or two of the dates that belong to this day as we always do and what i want to do is to look first of all at the 19th of december 1861 when constance garnett as she became was born and she herself uh was clearly a a scholarly kind of person and was sent on a scholarship to university and then studied at the greek and latin literature and after that as she began to to work in libraries and as a teacher someone who would have considered herself totally unimportant in in most ways she met edward garnett who at the time became a publisher's reader for heinemann the book publishers later on for jonathan cape the book publishers she married him in 1889 and then he introduced her to a russian exile felix volkovsky who in turn began to teach her russian and introduced her to another friend of his sergius stepniak again an exile and sergius and constance began possibly to start with as an exercise in her growing knowledge of russian began to translate and because of edward's work uh constance husband their work was then published and one of the first things they translated was leo told stories little religious treaties called the kingdom of god is within you that's the translation and constance translated that and as she did so her life caught fire for the vocation of translating in a particular way because it was russian that she had learned and russian which began then to make her feel this is my vocation and she began to translate but in order to get the context absolutely right in 1894 she traveled to moscow and then to st petersburg remember was still in the empire of the tsar at that time and uh in the she when she got to the imperial city of st petersburg she decided she had to go to the beautiful estate of count leo tolstoy at yasnaya polyana so this unimportant uh girl that she as she had seen herself by these steps really quite quickly married in 1889 to edward garnett and then here we are now in 1894 what only five years later and she is traveling to yasnaya polyana to meet tolstoy who was seriously impressed by her translation and by her vocation in translation and he asked her whether she would translate more of his spiritual treaties by then she was in the middle of translating works by taganyath but there was also time for tolstoy and uh she began to translate his anna karenina which was published in 1901 and then his war and peace vast works to translate but for the first time there it was in english in a good translation in 1904 she had a mind to be the narrator of for the the those who spoke english of tolstoy's work and by the time she died she died in 1946 but when her husband died she became quite reclusive and felt that her encouragement had gone but by then she had translated 71 russian novels of tolstoy dostoevsky chekhov to gain yet and then edward died in 1937 and her encouragement went and although she lived another nine years it was a fairly reclusive life but what thanks we give for that foundation of the vast canvas of russian literature and also of tolstoy's own spiritual treaties based on the life of jesus as shown by the gospels and particularly the sermon on the mount the kingdom of god is within you and tolstoy being impressed by her vocation to translate that and to give it to english-speaking peoples a true candle in that great canvas of russian literature i'm going to connect that with another date on the 19th of december 1902 the actor seraph richardson was born and he was one of the the great uh um knights i mean uh the the the type of knight that gets knight is sir ralph richardson he became one of the three sir sir lawrence olivier uh and sir john gilgood and sir ralph richardson of the the mid-20th century of drama and films but i remember him most as uncle alex in that vast canvas of the russian landscape dr zhivago the film based on that novel and that film i remember seeing uh in 1966 a few days before christmas and it was in the empire leicester square with its massive screen and those of you who've seen it will know those snowy and massive landscapes set first of all in the old regime where yari zhivago is played by omar sharif is very much in the upper middle class society there but he's a doctor and a surgeon and and marries uh his cousin tonya in the end and his uncle alex is one of the upper middle classes of uh that society of the czarist regime and so ralph richardson plays that magnificently but he plays it not only in the early years of the film but also through the revelation and the were the revolution and the world turned upside down and inside out and at the same time uh yuri zhivago having that intense love affair with lara now one remembers all that but were remembers too the huge russian landscape and the winters and the violence of the revolution and the demands that began to be made on people by the state the choices were not their own and people had to make choices so what do we have in that and it's very much the same as we have with the landscape of the imperial world of rome at that time that we are talking about where matthew is our narrator we have people who want to show faith in one another and in the vocation that they have but at the same time passions wean them away from that and at the same time the demands of the state and political life and the needs of the people mean they have to make choices say the vast landscape and against that back cloth in time and space wherever it is in the world fidelity and the temptations of passion and in the middle the demands made by those who have power over us that will be the story that we're going to explore with a different set of characters in the same way in another imperial world right back at the time of mary and joseph and the characters who will come into our landscape in galilee tiny unimportant place in the empire and then the various demands made by vocation and faithfulness to one another and also those who have power over them um landscape maybe and this is just to mention really landscape we might think of on the 19th of december in 1851 the artist jmw turner died and he was someone who could in his huge canvases set a landscape a bit like this morning which began very misty outside and turner was the the best artist to do anything of that sort he loved landscapes where steam and mist and the sea and sunrises were all part of that setting the landscape but at the same time on the 19th of december 1848 emily bronte died of tuberculosis and she is best known for that one novel wuthering heights which was published in 1847 and i know that best as many of you will from the 1939 black and white film which was made with another of those three nights so lawrence olivier and mel abraham and it was shown constantly and still is sometimes on on television with its wonderful music behind it but one of the characters is the landscape just as one of the characters in dr zhivago is the landscape and the landscape in wuthering heights is the moor with its heather and the way in which kathy particularly loves the moor and then we have the demands of faithfulness what is right for the family passion and the landscape and the demands made so you have lawrence olivier's heathcliff representing the passion which catherine earnshaw whose faithfulness really should be given to edgar lin linton and that character in that film was played by david niven once again the faithfulness the passion the landscape and the demands made by society or those who have power over you and all in the hands of a narrator or two narrators really in wuthering heights because you have mr lockwood narrating and you then take up with nelly uh who's played in the 39 film marvelously by flora robes dame flora robes absolute panoply of actors and actresses going on in that film but we're really looking at a landscape this morning and the characters that are going to play this out for us at the very beginning of the life of the one who will become jesus of nazareth and then one that we ourselves in saint john's gospel see as the person who is lifted up to draw all nations to him and then glorified and calling us to particular vocations in our landscape where we too are tossed and turned by our own um loves and and and and passions not necessarily for other human beings but for particular things that we absolutely love to do and at the same time faithfulness and at the same time the demands of people around us are not necessarily demands but the needs of people around us and as human beings there's no escaping that these candles burn to show that but as we go back to that image of phillips brooks which i was dealing with the great american preacher one of his sermons talks about a candle and the flame burns and gives light at the cost of the candle itself burning down and spending itself so that that light can be given so many things will come across our past this week as we prepare ourselves for christmas and we look forward to that journey but tomorrow we'll turn to luke as our narrator and the concept of the vocation of the people he is describing so here we begin to say our own prayers and we have to pray this morning on this 19th morning of the month for the church of the province of central africa in our own communion and the diocese is simply giving us prayers to pray for all christians within the diocese they prepare themselves for christmas so you might this morning use that as an opportunity very much to pray for your your your own communities of of faith and those with whom you will spend christmas it's a time when many are in lockdown one thinks of places like the netherlands in total lockdown at the moment and the way that the pandemic is spreading and so we pray for one another in safety and the welfare of each other as the world continues to combat this pandemic pray for archbishop justin who now will come here with us is here today and spend christmas here and bishop rose of dover bishop emma at lambeth and here is the connect for the fourth sunday of advent which is very much concentrating itself on the vocation of the blessed virgin mary god our redeemer who prepared the blessed virgin mary to be the mother of your son grant that as she looked for his coming as our savior so we may be ready to greet him when he comes again as our judge who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen and the collect that we've said every day in advent 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 on the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so we say together in whatever language you like to use 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 some moments now of reflection as we think of our lady's vocation and at the same time think of our own vocation and preparation for christmas time um foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] is [Music] hey [Music] is [Music] god [Music] the beautiful music of that ancient latin hymn angela sad virginia speaking of the angel gabriel coming to the blessed virgin mary to announce her vocation and then to wait for her response which is a response of obedience behold i'm the lord's handmaid let it be to me according to your word and that was taken from our advent carol service where the boy choristers and the girl choristers sang together but also sang separately to give that sense of quiet distance with the angel speaking from another dimension and then coming together in a harmony of full joy with the candlelight all around them so a fitting preparation as we light the the last candle and prepare for our week getting ready for christmas 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 well we finished and uh we're going to go about our duties for the day but i think the first of those is probably to find you some breakfast this morning that you've been part of the landscape amongst the leaves this morning [Music] all right you're still a bit sleepy c so you