[Music] the life that i have is all that i have and the life that i have is yours the love that i have of the life that i have is yours and yours and yours a sleep i shall have a rest i shall have yet death will be but a pause for the peace of my years in the long green grass will be yours and yours and yours it's a poem given to violet sabo who on this day in 1945 the fifth of february was shot through the back of the head at ravensbrook concentration camp in execution alley she suffered the same fate as thousands of women and she was in an open-eyed way dying for a world where this would never happen concentration camps and abuse and torture and the power of the state to do that over human lives was the cause that she was fighting for her husband etienne had been killed earlier fighting in north africa and then she was also remembering her little two-year-old daughter tanya but nevertheless the cause was one in which she believed and that poem will always be associated with the film made in 1958 carve her name with pride which we've attached a clip to this morning it will fit very well with the reflection that we have on mark's gospel today as we remember those who have given their lives for their vocation and for the cause of others bring your own intentions this morning and welcome to the deanery garden on the most lovely morning here in canterbury the sky is pure blue and the air is fresh and as you will see the long green grass here is shot through with wonderful sprouts of growing daffodils most of them in this part of the garden simply in bud some of them showing the yellow glory that will come very soon but in other parts of the garden the protected areas are already flowering and there is a great freshness our friend the robin is hopping about in enormous ecstasy as he he takes his territory for what will happen when he finds himself a wife and then all sorts of things can begin to develop and grow in the bird kingdom but this morning wherever you are as i say bring your intentions with a wide range of of people looking across the world and asking for prayers i just want to say this morning to pedro in brazil we don't often go there in our prayers who ask for prayers for a special reason congratulations pedro and i'm glad that there's good news for you and you will be thinking of people in joy and in sorrow as we say our prayers together on this lovely day oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the true the only light banish all darkness from our hearts and minds blessed are you sovereign god creator of all to you be glory and praise forever you founded the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands in the fullness of time you made us in your image and in these last days you have spoken to us in your son jesus christ the word made flesh as we rejoice in the gift of your presence among us let the light of your love always shine in our hearts your spirit ever renew our lives and your praises ever be on our lips 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 our sun this morning is psalm 24 morning sound for the fifth morning of the month the earth is the lord's and all that fills it the compass of the world and all who dwell therein for he has founded it upon the seas and set it firm upon the rivers of the deep who shall ascend the hill of the lord or who can rise up in his holy place those who have clean hands and the pure heart who have not lifted up their soul to an idol nor sworn an oath to a lie they shall receive a blessing from the lord a just reward from the god of their salvation such is the company of those who seek him of those who seek your face so god of jacob lift up your heads o gates be lifted up you everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in who is the king of glory the lord strong and mighty the lord who is mighty in battle lift up your heads o gates be lifted up you everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in who is this king of glory the lord of hosts he is the king of glory we turn back to st mark's gospel and you will remember from yesterday that in chapter six we are in the middle of one of st mark's sandwiches he began a story yesterday of the sending out of the twelve on a mission to do his work for him so that the work of proclaiming the good news of healing and wholeness and the promise of the gift of the divine spirit of the holy spirit should be given to the villages of rural galilee as they walked about and we've paused now as saint mark did in chapter five and we come to a completely different story and after that tomorrow we come back to the other story as we've said so much like a modern series that we watch on television where a little uh scene in one family takes place and then just as it's getting exciting it goes to another just for a few minutes and then back to the other one it's the way our appetite is wetted and mark was no stranger to that as he strung his lovely beads of stories together and put them there for us to receive the good news with the speed and the the the real um anticipation that he wants us to have so here's the next story beginning in the middle of the sandwich verse 14 of chapter 6 king herod heard of this for jesus name had become known some said john the baptist has been raised from the dead that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him but others said he is elijah and others said he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old but when headed heard of it he said john whom i beheaded has been raised for it was herod who had sent and seized john and bound him in prison for the sake of herodias his brother philip's wife because he had married her for john had been saying to herod it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife and herodias had a grudge against john and wanted to put him to death but he could not for heddad feared john knowing that he was a righteous man and holy and he kept him safe when he heard him he was greatly perplexed and yet he heard him gladly but an opportunity came when herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of galilee for when herodias daughter came in and danced she pleased herod and his guests and the king said to the girl ask me for whatever you wish and i will give it to you and he vowed to her whatever you ask me i will give you up to half my kingdom and she went out and said to her mother for what should i ask and herodias said the head of john the baptist and she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked saying i want you to give me at once the head of john the baptist on a platter and the king was exceedingly sorry but because of his owes and his guests he did not want to break his word to her and immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring jon's head he went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl and the girl gave it to her mother and when john's disciples heard of it they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb it's a piece of high drama and it comes from the it comes from the political stories around jesus i'm sorry i'm having trouble sorry it cleared it comes from the political stories around jesus and we have actually to remember that what political life was going on around him because in one way it was a muddle it was consisting of many strands and were liable to get muddled between various king herods herod of course head of the great the one to whom the magi came was much earlier on and his kingdom was a large kingdom but when he died and we hear about his death at the beginning of the story of the jesus of jesus in matthew when he died his kingdom was divided between three of his sons and here today is one of them herod antipas there were others and saint luke in his story of the beginning of the ministry of jesus sets out some of them but it's this herod herod antipas that we are concerned with today because he through the ministry of jesus was the ruler of galilee and pereira to the south on the other side of the jordan he was not the ruler of judea because that had been taken over by the romans for direct rule of the procurator who at the time of jesus crucifixion of course was pontius pilate it had been ruled fairly badly and so rome decided to take it over and this herod is the second of the herods that we come across in the new testament the third herod herod agrippa the first is the nephew of this one and manages to get this one exiled to spain later on political stories and uh he is the one at the beginning of the acts of the apostles who is ruling there in jerusalem and has james not in jerusalem he's ruling that although he has given much wider authority and he has james the the brother of john executed and in prisons peter he's also the one agrippa the first who dies painfully and and that is described in in front of all the people when he raises himself up in glory again in the early part of the acts of the apostles and the fourth herod is headed agrippa the second before whom of course paul makes his defense before festus the roman governor and that's later in the acts of the apostles so we've got herod one headed two headed three headed four this is headed two and was the ruler of the area in which jesus grew up he was not well liked but he had been a great builder of cities when the romans destroyed cephalus nearby herod antipas sent for it to be rebuilt in glory among all the most modern lines and who knows because it wasn't too far from nazareth but joseph and even jesus himself working as the carpenter might well have been used on one of the projects of herod because it was a huge building project as was the building of his own capital of tiberias on the lakeside now that name gives the clue to another strand over all this was the government of rome and they were very conscious of that too king herod or head of the tetrarch as he sometimes called ruled over galilee that he had to keep his eye on rome and while tiberius was the emperor he was okay he was a friend of his but in the end it all comes to grief because emperors change and the emperors had likes and dislikes amongst those who were client shall we say i don't want to spend all this giving you a history lesson but i find it quite useful to remind myself which herod were talking about and here is herod antipas whom jesus at one sage when he is given a message about herod antipas says go and tell that fox it actually gives the impression of someone who is cunning and also violent and it's quite clear that he was both of those and here today we see on a day when we've remembered violet zabo's execution in prison we remember also john the baptist's execution in prison at a whim of the king and of his desire to please his wife herodias who wanted john the baptist dead and when her daughter danced for king herod and his guests now we call her salome that name isn't given in the scriptures it's given to us by the jewish historian josephus so salome danced and then rather like a fairy story the king says i will give you half my kingdom ask me whatever you like up to half my kingdom a large claim and i think the story has probably grown legs at that point but he does sort of say ask me whatever you like for a favor after that beautiful dance you please my guests and one remembers uh richard strauss's opera um salami as it's pronounced in the german and with the the the script by oscar wilde from this story um but let's stay with this that salome danced and the result was at the whim of a dictator john is executed there and then in prison and to prove it his head is brought on a platter open eyed john with integrity had continued his ministry in that land and whether he was in galilee or on the jordan the other side of the jordan in the perea then he was in herod's kingdom and herod had the right to do that these are the the the ways of the state the political life the and the big track of rome with augustus first of all and then tiberius and caligula and and on with the roman emperors and on this side headed and over everything as the psalmist would have a see this morning and the blue sky prompts me and the spring coming prompts me to say again the power of the creator which jesus was always pointed to and the creator's way of giving vocations to people and when they know that then their contentment can only be in that and open-eyed sometimes they step forward and give even their life so we see that on this occasion with john the baptist and we know and we shall come again to things of jesus speaking about him we know how much jesus valued john the baptist so this story of his death is a tragic one but it shows how the ways of this world and the path of god can sometimes coincide and john today enters into glory and in this gospel his disciples come and collect his body and place it in a tomb and in other gospels we read and then they came and told jesus and jesus speaks of that but in mark we're going through fast and here is the story of the capricious death of john the baptist ending on earth his enormous ministry in human terms but his task is the herald of the one to come has been performed and jesus and his disciples are in herod's kingdom in the villages of rural galilee giving the good news and herod is nervous nervous about anything that will stir up religious strife because he knows he's not too popular and he knows also that he has to keep the jewish authorities steady with all of this so he will come again into our story at the end of the ministry of jesus this is a a day when we we look back and there's one other uh thing that i want to to to talk about in the same kind of way as well as the the violet zabo story this is a day when we look back on february the 5th when all kinds of things have happened that we might just mention good things roger williams in 1632 the founder of the state of rhode island arrived in boston from england and his religious thinking is is interesting in what it brought to the united states at that time and in 1852 the hermitage museum in st petersburg which probably many of you have been to was opened and so we remember that and creative works of art we remember also that on this day in 1941 going across to the other side of the world the australian poet banjo patterson died and he wrote waltzing matilda so we remember that as an australian song in 1788 sir robert peel was born who became the prime minister and is known best now for having founded the metropolitan police force who were called uh peelers at first but then bobby's after robert peel and that name came to be a common one for all english policemen and then uh after that we might look at the fact that in 1924 the bbc time signal the pips telling us what time it is on the radio was first broadcast and in 1953 and this i actually do remember sweet rationing ended in england and there were great cheers from all of us at that time uh and uh it meant that no longer did you have to ration sweets for eight years at the end of the second world war all kinds of things were rationed but here was a breakout for children and sweets were no longer rationed now what i wanted to say was on this day also in 1881 the scottish historian thomas carlisle died and carlisle was a prodigious writer of histories with very definite points of view but carlyle wrote a history of the french revolution and that is still read today and and at the time it was devoured by all sorts of people loved to read it and one of them was charles dickens and charles dickens was inspired then to write his own tale of two cities and it's that book that i just wanted to look at for a moment this morning because of what it it helps sarcim i'm going to read the first paragraph you'll remember it i'm sure it was the best of times it was the worst of times it was the age of wisdom it was the age of foolishness it was the epoch of belief it was the epoch of incredulity it was the season of light it was the season of darkness it was the spring of hope it was the winter of despair we had everything before us we had nothing before us we were all going direct to heaven we were all going direct the other way in short the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest noisiest authorities insisted on its being received for good or for evil in the superlative degree of comparison only there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face on the throne of england there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face on the throne of france in both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the state preserves of loaves and fishes that things in general were settled forever and how wrong they were which is what dickens was trying to tell us but we live in such a time now of light and darkness of hope and despair of summer and winter between our hemispheres and all kinds of hopes for the future and hopes that we have to help realize but you will remember in that book that the whole story and it really is one of my favorite dickens books the whole story depends on the nerdy well but brilliant lawyer sydney carton and the the offering of himself that he gives through his love of lucy manette right at the end of the story when he exchanges himself to be guillotined in place of lucy's husband charles marquis de santiagrimonde who is being taken to the guillotine from prison that day they looked so alike it was easy for sydney to feign drunkenness on a last visit with lucy and then bring charles out and remain himself and as he dies the the sentence very likely the poem i read at the beginning from the violet zabo story it is a far far better thing that i do than i have ever done it is a far far better rest that i go to than i have ever known well the book is there to read and it's a book i returned to but regular intervals because it has so many symbols of life and death and light and darkness and the similarity of different ages of humanity and the parallel lines of a state which is brutal and at the same time people ready to give their lives for a better world [Music] one last thing about thomas carlisle before we say our prayers this is my school hymn book and in it there was a hymn by thomas carlyle which we sang it's very short and here it is so here has been dawning another blue day think will thou let it slip useless away out of eternity this new day is born into eternity at night will return behold it a full time no i ever did so soon it forever from all eyes is hid here has been dawning another blue day think we'll let it slip useless away so on this day we say our prayers together for the diocese of amritsar in the united church of north india within our communion and in this diocese of canterbury for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and the parish of gouthurst mary the virgin with kiln down christ church pray for rachel robertson in her ministry there and for the whole community of that benefits so we say the prayer for this third sunday before lent almighty god who alone can bring order to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity give your people grace so to love what you command and to desire what you promise that among the many changes of this world our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found through jesus christ our lord amen so bring your own prayers and your intentions for this day as we say together the words our savior taught us in whatever language you like to 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 and 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 for your own prayers [Music] in the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and of his son jesus christ our lord 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 are men lots of birds song here there's a magpie chattering away in the tree and also some jays who are around and the robin is singing too so in all ways we remember what is going on here and i wanted to say to you that every friday our school here is doing music called friday at five now if we put that on this morning today's hasn't yet been played so we're intending to put the link on because it's beautiful music each week and we put the link on for last week's friday so you can have friday at five and uh this week we have uh sienna bar playing part of mozart's clarinet concerto and she's accompanied on the piano by our assistant organist jamie rogers i hope you enjoy that [Music] [Applause] hello [Music] ah [Music] do [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] movies [Music] hmm [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] foreign [Music] hmm [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] huh and [Music] hmm hmm [Music] so [Music] mmm [Music] hmm [Music] uh [Music] foreign [Music] food foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] hmm foreign [Music] foreign [Music] hmm [Music] you