good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral to the deanery garden here as on this saturday the 3rd of july we say our morning prayers together welcome wherever you are in the world it's saturday morning so we've come to be here with clemmy and the piglets who are having their breakfast as we say our prayers and this is the feast of saint thomas not saint thomas beckett but saint thomas the apostle and we remember the activity of the twelve and also the sentences spoken by thomas as we go through our reflection this morning it's a special day in many ways and in the prayers we shall be remembering the 12 people who are going to be ordained as deacons in the cathedral this afternoon by the bishop of dover rose bishop of dover and praying for them it's also the 80th birthday of a great friend of mine who was important in ministry for me during my 10 years in the parish of tisbury and wiltshire he was the organist there and he david power is 80 today and i wish him a really happy birthday with much gratitude to him mary his wife and all the family not only for music given and the support given during those years but also for the immense hospitality i've always received from them and the way in which they've kept in touch and it was a lovely thing uh about uh two or three years ago when david brought his choir now from st thomas's in salisbury to sing a weekend the weekend of low sunday just after easter to canterbury cathedral and for me it was like old times with david on the organ at that point and then afterwards talking over old times in in the kitchen and uh today we wish them well the whole family have gone to st davies in wales to be together on this day so happy birthday david and bring your own uh thanksgivings and also your prayers we continue to pray for the people of canada in all sorts of ways but um perhaps especially today because the bushfires in that area of intense heat have began to begin to gain a hold and there will be areas of of natural difficulty across the world that you will know of and also areas where the pandemic still is causing enormous concern so people in the front line of the welfare of other people we think of as we say our prayers on this thomas's day oh lord open our lips and our mouths shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more 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 our psalm on this third morning of the month is psalm 16 preserve me o god for in you have i taken refuge i have said to the lord you are my lord all my good depends on you all my delight is upon the godly that are in the land upon those who are noble in heart though the idols are legion that many run after their drink offerings of blood i will not offer neither make mention of their names upon my lips the lord himself is my portion and my cup in your hands alone is my fortune my share has fallen in a fair land indeed i have a goodly heritage i will bless the lord who has given me counsel and in the night watches he instructs my heart i have set the lord always before me he is at my right hand i shall not fall wherefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices my flesh also shall rest secure for you will not abandon my soul to death nor suffer your faithful ones to see the pitch you will show me the path of life in your presence is the fullness of joy and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore i think pleasures forevermore for this uh little chap are a tickle tummy for the whole morning but we we can't spend time doing this but the look of contentment on the face is absolutely everything this morning so let's go to our lesson which we could have chosen several lessons i'm going to stay with the one that the lectionary suggests for morning prayer this morning and then we'll talk about the other aspects of st thomas the apostle in the gospel i'm reading from the 11th chapter of the gospel of saint john starting at the first verse and perhaps that the background where jesus and his his disciples have withdrawn from judea because it has become too dangerous though jesus himself knows that at some stage he will have to go back to jerusalem for that's where his vocation as the anointed one is leading him despite the dangers but for the moment they are in safety across the other side of the jordan and at rest together the twelve and jesus and those who are resourcing and surrounding them chapter 11 now a certain man was ill lazarus of bethany the village of mary and her sister martha it was mary who anointed the lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother lazarus was ill so the sisters sent to jesus saying lord he whom you love is ill but when jesus heard he said this illness does not lead to death it is for the glory of god so that the son of god may be glorified through it now jesus loved martha and her sister and lazarus so when he heard that lazarus was ill he stayed two days longer in the place where he was then after this he said to the disciples let us go to judea again the disciples said to him rabbi the jews were just now seeking to stone you and are you going there again jesus answered are there not 12 hours in the day if anyone walks in the day he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world but if anyone walks in the night he stumbles because the light is not in him after saying these things he said to them our friend lazarus has fallen asleep but i go to awaken him the disciples said to him lord if he has fallen asleep he will recover now jesus has spoken of his death but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep so jesus told them plainly lazarus has died and for your sake i am glad that i was not there so that you may believe but let us go to him so thomas called the twin said to his fellow disciples let us also go that we may die with him thomas the twin well there's a fact that we know about him from uh the the evangelist but also we begin to know thomas by his sentences and statements and they're always just sort of one sentence long and i've pondered and pondered what expression to be using with that statement of saint thomas at the end of the lesson there they're at rest they're safe and jesus is going to lead them back into danger danger actually of death maybe but at the same time it could be that thomas is saying let us also go that we may die with him speaking not only of lazarus but of jesus for they believe the jews are ready to stone him when he goes back or it might be said in an ironic way because he might be saying let's go here's something else dangerous to do let's go so we'll die with him die with lazarus or it might be said in total faithfulness to the vocation that is there and they're set to follow we can't tell but what we do know is that we learn of thomas by those statements i'll come to the most famous in a minute because that will be in your mind that's why he's called doubting thomas but for the moment let's uh let's stay with the sentences if we go to john chapter 14 we hear of thomas again when jesus is trying to explain to his disciples that he's going to leave them and that the task will be passed on to them this is the beginning of the farewell discourses at the last supper and jesus says to them uh where i am going you know and the way you know and thomas is the one who is brave enough to say lord we don't know where you're going how can we know the way and the answer from that question is an answer that is already in our knapsacks jesus said to him i am the way and the truth and the life that great statement of our lord i am the way the psalmist says you will show me the path to life in your presence is the fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forevermore and the statement from jesus i am the way the truth and the life is called for by a statement from thomas and again you can choose what expression you put into that lord we don't know where you're going how can we know the way and then perhaps we need to move on to the story that is best known about thomas for thomas was not there on the night of easter day in the in the supper uh and they locked away in the upper room with the other disciples the ten at that point and jesus came and said to them peace be with you thomas was not there and when he returned from wherever he had gone they said to him we've seen the lord and thomas once again absolutely down to us human thomas saying what he thinks straight away unless i see the marks of the nails in his hands and the wounds in his side unless i put my finger there and touch i will not believe hence his name doubting thomas thomas the twin we don't know the other side of that twin ship but we do know that thomas was a twin and at that point uh the evangelist then says that seven days later they were again gathered and this time thomas was with them and then comes the visit of jesus when he says thomas here i am reach out your hand and and and touch and and thomas as far as we know from the evangelist doesn't do that at that moment his faith is restored and she says my lord and my god many people say that quietly i've heard it so many times when they're reaching out to receive the the bread in their hands my lord and my god a meeting with jesus and faith being established but but we have that as something that we would say at any time when we realize maybe in another person or a situation the presence of jesus and the thanksgiving is given to the creator for giving us the gift of his son to give up his life lord we don't know the way we don't know where you're going i am the way thomas i am the truth i am the life the i am sayings and then one really nice thing for me thomas i think is one of the galilean group of disciples and in chapter 21 of st john's gospel thomas is there on the lakeside when they are wondering what to do and peter says i'm going fishing the list given to us is peter thomas comes next and then nathaniel of cana in galilee all galileans and all used to fishing and then uh the sons of zebedee and two other of his disciples the list is given and when peter says i'm going fishing they say inclusive of thomas we will go with you so imagine him to be there throughout the whole of that breakfast scene as well it's quite a story if you put the pieces together the tradition of the church throughout the ages was that saint thomas went off on a long journey to be the apostle to india and parts of the world in in in that area and the tradition was that in 1852 he he went off there and began to preach the gospel in that area and that he was killed martyred on the mountain at chennai which used to be called madras and to stand on that mountain as i have and look out at the the ocean and sense the apostolic ministry there and to go to the cathedral church where saint thomas is commemorated uh is a really profound experience and a point of pilgrimage a point of pilgrimage at a a a land in a land far removed from the galilee he knew that tradition is is is embraced and held so much by those christians there and uh i was privileged for a while to be part of that community and to be taken to the places that they consider so holy because of saint thomas and the apostolic ministry well this is a day for thinking about ministry in all sorts of ways because of the ordination of the deacons in the cathedral this afternoon and also this time of year being an ordination time of year and as we come to our dates um i found that there was a confluence of of of dates between three particular people very creative people but they have a similarity the first similarity is that all of them on this third of july um were born on the 3rd of july and they all came from what is now the czech republic they are tom stoppard franz kafka and janacek and if we do it in order of the um chronology then it was uh janacek the composer who was born first in 1854 now he is best known he's known for many wonderful works inspired by the music of bohemia and uh one has to remember my table is being attacked here so i think i'm going to have to just move this somewhere or it's going to be a bit um uh the music of janacek but it's best known to us in opera and to see that there are three offers that come to mind yanufa and katja kabanova and the cunning little vixen and that's an animal story but of course the animals are representing humankind in their characteristics yanufa and katya kabanova are both talking of tragic situations and the way that little rural societies deal with it sometimes with enormous cruelty and one remembers and gives thanks for the honesty of janacek in that tragic music because of the way in which he sets that out and the characters of yanufa and katya in all of that we're looking at the way the neighbors talk about it we're even in we're even doing that and in the coming little vixen but let's remember that for the moment this is a way of of hearing what is being said but the cruelty of treatment around it when someone steps out of line in a way now the next one to be born was in 1883 and that was franz kafka and we have statements don't we that that says that situation is rather kafka-esque and it's all about the way in which kafka sees bureaucracy and systems and programs actually getting in the way of human endeavor most of those systems are set in place because they really were intended to do good but then the systems the programs and the red tape as we might say take over and the bureaucrats are more intent on the red tape and the strategies and they all of that than they are on what originally for the welfare of humanity and and communities caused those systems and and and strategies to be put in place so that the intention shifts over and for kafka for at uh in that that novel the castle it becomes the the most difficult thing in the world um because uh the the uh the intention to get through where he can achieve what he wants is always blocked and if you've read the the novel um the castle or metamorphosis um or any any of the the catholic novels the trial you are filled with a sense of frustration that all this is getting in the way and no one seems to see it and kafka doesn't give our hero in or our anti-heroist almost in in the castle a name he just gives the letter k which of course is the the beginning of his own name and at that time um he is thinking that maybe the austro-hungarian empire of which bohemia or the the the what is now the czech republic uh was part is is is doing that and you you see the village authorities and the castle authorities and even the bureaucrats at the castle although they're held in awe by the villagers don't know any more than the system they can't break through the system and we know organizations like that in church and state where process and system has become more important than the original ethos welfare and if we say in the church the proclamation of the good news and the gospel and the concentration on the way the truth and the life in the human person and the divine person of our lord jesus christ well all of that from kafka who died in 1924 by then uh he was living in the state of czechoslovakia which had been formed at the breakup of the austro-hungarian empire in 1918. and then after that um let's go to tom stoppard so um stopper sir tom stoppard who was born on the 3rd of july 1937 in czechoslovakia and because he had a jewish background his parents were moved by a very thoughtful employer to one of the other factories of beta and that was in singapore so when he was very young they went off to singapore not knowing that singapore would also become dangerous and that tom's mother would flee with the two boys leaving his father who was a doctor in singapore and he died at the hands of japanese in singapore while the mother and two sons had come to india and eventually his mother married a british officer and he came here but he himself who is very much uh part of of of the english culture in his writing of plays and and and all the writings he's done and the screenwriter for things like shakespeare in love but the plays are what i want to concentrate on but he says always there's a sense of knowing that there's an aspect of of me that doesn't quite belong and it's when i perhaps mispronounce a word or do something i suddenly find myself looking in from the outside well his plays do that in a great way we remember seeing a performance of rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead in the globe theater the opener theatre in san diego and that was i don't know about five years ago or so and uh it was marvelously done but if you know that play you will know that the two characters are almost a a side issue to the plot in hamlet but he has crafted the play around them aspects of hamlet are there with the major players but he's concentrating on those looking in and what they say so that he can be philosophical by sort of looking in and it's a bit like thomas the apostle would those sentences given so the rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead changes the focus and at the same time that gives us a different way of thinking about the action of hamlet i want to speak also how in 1998 i went to see his play the invention of love and the invention of love is imagining the poet and professor of latin a.e houseman at the time of his death and because he's a classicist standing on the side of the river sticks where the boatman karen is waiting waiting for him to um get into the boat and at that point um housemand again begins to reflect on his life and is given a vision of himself as a young man and in the play he's allowed to go back and talk to himself at the age that he was in cambridge and um uh earlier earlier on so his oxford years his cambridge years and all of those are are registered by the conversation of houseman at the end of his life talking to young houseman how interesting it would be if we could do that or hear the the the developed person come back ourselves speaking and saying um you really shouldn't have done that because this is what well well that's not how we are we as human beings live in the present but stopard gives us a fascinating insight into the way in which both in his rosencrantz and guildenstern and in his invention of love the reflection from an oblique part can can open up questions for ourselves just as thomas does lord we don't know where you're going how can we know the way and it evokes the answer i am the way and the truth and the life or unless i absolutely have evidence i i will not believe and the answer thomas uh you're blessed because you've seen and your faith comes from that blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed these statements which are evoked by sentences of doubt or of human reality born of fear and sometimes human irony because the truth itself just can't be embraced and the way in which sometimes humanity by its intention and its being human can break through the red tape and get to the castle but there was so much standing in the way in in in so many aspects of organizations in modern society well let's pray to be delivered from that short-sightedness and give thanks for this day the feast of saint thomas the apostle we are praying today of course for the ordinance i'm going to read their names these are the ones who in canterbury cathedral this afternoon will be ordained deacon jeffrey abbasolo monery miriam beer hinksman karen burgess nicholas carpenter claire coleman andrew edwards jack greenhoff susan manners ancient mitchell deborah scoble caroline turvey and jennifer walpole so we remember all of those and pray for bishop rose as we always do pray for archbishop justin as we think of the diocese and also of the anglican communion pray for bishop tim at lambus in the anglican communion we pray today for the diocese of connecticut and for our friend ian douglas who's the bishop there and also the the whole of that diocese and you will have your own prayers for your own faith communities as you as you say the prayer force in thomas's day this morning here it is and we say this together bring your own intentions almighty and eternal god who for the firmer foundation of our faith allowed your holy apostle thomas to doubt the resurrection of your son till word and sight convinced him grant us who have not seen that we also may believe and so confess christ as our lord and our god who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen and to say our prayers uh and we'll say first the our say our the prayer our savior taught us in whichever language as we do so on this in thomas's day let's pray for christians in india and in those lands where saint thomas went in the traditions of the church and their christian life there our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen moment of silence now on this early morning say that we can say our own prayers so so god give you grace to follow thomas the apostle and all his saints in faith and hope and love 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 day and always amen well kemi your piglets are having a very active morning this morning but you're as peaceful and calm as ever you're the most wonderful mother we know