you're enjoying this leo in the sunshine here i've had some breakfast it's a really nice morning but you've got to be a good boy and leave the birds alone this morning good morning we've come to our sunday morning place and it is the most lovely morning on this last day of february sunday the 28th of february here in the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral i'm not sure that the birds will be terribly keen to come down onto the bird feeders because we have a little friend who's uh joined us unexpectedly because we didn't actually know where he was at the time but he's obviously found us and is enjoying the sunshine too so it's good to see leo here we are um reading our uh normal um psalms and and prayers for lent but of course it's sunday morning so we shall leave st john's gospel for the special lessons which sunday always give us but i'm choosing this morning to read from the old testament lesson as you'll see and that will become apparent when we come to our particular reflection so wherever you are please feel welcome here as we begin our morning prayers on this sunny morning here in england oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice so lord according to your faithful love according to your judgment give us life blessed are you god of compassion and mercy to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of our sin your light breaks forth like the dawn and your healing springs up for deliverance as we rejoice in the gift of your saving help sustain us with your bountiful spirit and open our lips to sing your 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 and 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 28th morning of the month is psalm 132 it's a psalm again about jerusalem and the house of david and reflecting on the image of the anointed one remembering that our lord is often called son of david even by the blind man shouting in the gospels lord remember for david all the hardships he endured how he swore an oath to the lord and vowed a vow to the mighty one of jacob i will not come within the shelter of my house nor climb up into my bed i will not allow my eyes to sleep nor let my eyelids slumber until i find a place for the lord a dwelling for the mighty one of jacob now we heard of the ark in ephrathah and found it in the fields of jr let us enter his dwelling place and fall low before his footstool arise o lord into your resting place you and the ark of your strength let your priests be clothed with righteousness and your faithful ones sing with joy for your servant david's sake turn not away the face of your anointed the lord has sworn an oath to david a promise from which he will not shrink of the fruit of your body shall i set upon your throne if your children keep my covenant and my testimonies that i shall teach them their children also shall sit upon your throne forevermore for the lord has chosen zion for himself he has desired her for his habitation this shall be my resting place forever here will i dwell for i have longed for her i will abundantly bless her provision her poor will i satisfy with bread i will close her priests with salvation and her faithful ones shall rejoice and sing there will i make a horn to spring up for david i will keep a lantern burning for my anointed as for his enemies i will close them with shame but on him shall his crown be bright perhaps a line that stands out is i will keep a lantern burning for my anointed and that lantern and light follows through to the anointed one the son of david whom we read of in the gospels we're leaving the gospel of saint john just for today we'll go back tomorrow and as i've said i'm i've chosen the old testament lesson to read today instead of the new testament lesson and it's from the book of the prophet isaiah i'm also um unusually reading from the king james version of the bible we read some of the poetry of george herbert yesterday and this comes from the same time of the english language being used in that way it's chapter 51 and verses 1 to 11. it's a piece almost a song a poem of great musicality and the reason i'm reading it is not only because the musicality comes in a different way and it might help us to listen to it in that way but also because there's an anthem in my head which i haven't seen or sung for years but it was a church choir anthem that used to be sung which uses the first verse of the uh sorry the third verse of chapter 51 isaiah is writing in exile and this anthem by henry hiles a victorian composer totally unknown i think apart from that uh is uh the lord shall comfort zion the tune stays in my head the lord shall comfort zion even her ways places he will make her desert like a garden of the lord that tune again giving me the words as i often say tunes will give you the words hymn tunes particularly and our lord must have known this chapter well chapter 51 of isaiah 1-11 hearken to me ye that follow after righteousness ye that seek the lord look unto the rock once you are hewn and to the whole of the pit whence you are digged look unto abraham your father and unto sarah that bear you for i called him alone and blessed him and increased him for the lord shall comfort zion he will comfort all her waste places and he will make her wilderness like eden and her desert like the garden of the lord joy and gladness shall be found therein thanksgiving and the voice of melody hearken unto me my people and give ear unto me o my nation for a law shall proceed from me and i will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people my righteousness is near my salvation is gone forth and mine arms shall judge the people the isles shall wait upon me and on mine arm shall they trust lift up your eyes to the heavens and look upon the earth beneath for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the earth shall wax old like a garment and they that dwell there shall die in like manner but my salvation shall be forever and my righteousness shall not be abolished hearken unto me ye that know righteousness the people in whose heart is my law fear ye not the reproach of men neither be afraid of their revilings for the moth shall eat them up like a garment and the worm shall eat them like wool but my righteousness shall be forever and my salvation from generation to generation awake awake put on your strength o arm of the lord awake as in the ancient days in the generations of old are not i are thou not he that has cut rahab and wounded the dragon art thou not it which hath dried the sea the waters of the great deep that have made the depths of the sea a way for the ransom to pass over therefore the redeemed of the lord shall return and come with singing unto zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their head they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away it's a poem written by isaiah as we pronounce it on this side of the atlantic isaiah on the other side and the prophet is the second of those who wrote the book of the prophet isaiah normally we divide isaiah into three and from chapters 40 to 55 we're hearing the voice of one who is in exile with the people in babylon and our lord quotes so often from that as he does from the first isaiah and the third isaiah from 55 to the end all of this this morning resonates on this beautiful morning we had someone recently who said to us but there's not much about creation in the gospel and i think both of us were quite shocked at that thought because the gospels are full of images of creation and beauty and one has to think of our lord's mind being filled with all those verses from the psalms all those verses from the prophets and also imagery of what happens to the people as that story is told even before abraham but after as the story develops as isaiah's poem talks about this morning and just as he uses images of a moth eating away at fabric and uh and the the garment wearing away and things wearing out and being changed all of that comes and that of course is reflected even in things like the epistle to the hebrews rolling the heavens up like a scroll and like a vesture changing them the images are all around us and so helpful rather like the musical phrase which caused me to remember the lord shall comfort zion even her waste places he shall make her desert like a garden of the lord joy and gladness shall be there and sorrow and sighing shall flee away all of those things are there but the imagery that we've seen being used in mark's gospel by jesus of ordinary things the imagery that we've seen him being used and beginning to use in john's gospel like the signs i am the bread of life i am the vine i am the door just reminding us as we go on on mornings like this and mornings of grayness and rain and storm and troubled waters all of those things are writ large right across the scriptures from the first verse of the book of genesis to the last verse of the revelation to john and we give thanks for that we give thanks for the fact that we can use them as spiritual imagery but enter into them in reality in our journey and no better time to do that than at this time when we are following through the lenten journey and letting those images those thoughts those intentions become part of our journey as day by day we do that we have many things to remember today on this 28th of february and if i look first um there are things that i would want to just call to attention perhaps first memories of yesterday and the kind of tributes that were being paid by him not only the family but friends of satom moore and the encouragement that he gives us with our intentions for those in the front line battle against the pandemic and also the encouragement that one can do that even age 100 as well as one can do it aged 20 and that becomes very important also the on on the the bbc the prince william and and catherine talking to those who are nervous of vaccination and talking in in reality about it a a mother and and daughter and the suffering with asthma and that the nervousness but the cheerfulness and the encouragement that both are able to give other families uh families finding lockdown hard those kind of conversations going at all levels breaking down barriers between people but there's something else i wanted to say this morning because there was also a news item from pompeii and pompeii is of course the the the uh city which was totally destroyed in a moment by vesuvius erupting in the year 79 a.d covered in ash and the ash sealed that moment as a moment in time pliny the younger much later talks about it in one of his letters to tacitus the roman historian and he he dates it certainly in 79 a.d but there's a conflict of opinion as to whether that was august the 24th or october the 24th and more recently things have come to light which makes one think it was probably october the 24th but a chariot a festival chariot has been uncovered and is gradually being brushed clean of the ash recapturing that sealed moment in time and making it live now of course this isn't the first time that archaeologists in the last few years have shown us amazing things of ordinary life and moments of terror but also of the beauty of the artwork picturing the the mythology of that time picturing zeus and picturing narcissus sitting beside the pond and looking at the narcissis which are flowering there but one remembers also that plato wrote to trajan when he was not plato pliny wrote to tragen trajan where the emperor when he was a governor talking about christians in his province and saying what do i do with them and trajan writing back we get evidence from this to make things live so we give thanks for those moments in time the moments like isaiah in exile but those moments can live again and as that happens we remember that the gospels and the words of jesus quarrying into that past which is totally in his consciousness from the scriptures but speaking ever in the present and the words i am are present tense for us too clinty's uncle died in that vesuvian eruption but before that he penny the elder had written wonderful books about the the natural life and botanical specimens and creatures of that time of the world and they survive they come forward but they're moments in time which can be used then in the present yesterday too there was no time to deal with him the swedish naturalist and abolitionist were a anders sperman who was born in 1748 and died in 1820 um he was born on february 27th so let's remember him a day after because of course we know his name for a very good reason and that is because of this particular plant which you've seen in our greenhouse and one of the cuttings today has come outside to be with us in full flower the plant is called a spa mania and it's very beautiful there are many many flowers still to come if you want to see its huge leaves on the parent plant then if you go back to monday the 14th of december and find our broadcast then you will see it was one of the first days that tiger reappeared you will see those huge green leaves behind me um if you want to go back to any or any of these uh broadcasts and say what was the garden looking like a friend of ours recently said have you have you have you got delphiniums growing at the moment and then we've suddenly discovered that she was watching something from the the early um summer and and or the bit later on but she was watching something that had come up on her youtube at that time but if you want to go back to any of them and recapture the moment of spring or summer or or autumn then all you need to do is on on google or youtube type in on your google search or youtube um the canterbury cathedral and the the date and morning prayer if you're doing it on google put youtube morning prayer and then the date and and counterweight of evil of course and then you will find that they're all there in a sort of archive of the garden so some of you who may have joined later you can look back at those but on the 14th of december there is the spar mania and here it is now today on the 28th of february one of its children rather like the piglets from winston and clemmy but this is the sparmania from the plants that sparman brought back and we give thanks for that too recapturing something and giving it new life so there are other things that happened today which are good to talk about and one of them is the fact that this is the day on which in 1943 let's think of sparman as also an abolitionist um in 1943 porgy and bess was first put on in broadway the gershwin musical and when it went to washington the actors would not perform unless the audience which was segregated were allowed to sit together and for the first time in that theater in washington dc they did but porky and bess of course is a folk opera delving into the folk tunes and nobody better to put it together than geshwin so those sorts of songs summertime and the living is easy nice sort and uh um what else have we got from from that best you is my woman now and uh various others that you will know so we give thanks for that music and then we also give thanks for the writings of the novelist henry james who died in 1916. henry james was or is thought to be by some the greatest novelist of the english language certainly his output was massive and he became a naturalized british citizen and lived had he been born in new york he was he lived in rye here beautiful town just over the border into sussex from here and he uh wrote the turn of the screw which benjamin britain turned into an opera the wings of the dove which has been turned into a wonderful film in modern times washington square which was turned into the film the heiress in 1949 with olivia de havilland and montgomery clifton richardson playing the part in that very tense black and white film and so many other things the ambassadors the bostonians the portrait of a lady the golden bowl we could do hours on henry james but the way he explored the relationships of people and got into their psyches caused him to be the transition between literary realism and literary modernism and we read them and think i know people like that or that's part of how i would feel and once again those moments which are being written down live for us as they do with the exiled prophet isaiah in our poem this morning and as they do always in the present tense in the gospels we read of other things a rather sad story of an indian man killed by his own cockerel his own the rooster in a cockfight he had put really unadvisedly knives on the cockerel's feet in order to do something which here has been illegal for years and years caused the two cockrells to fight and picking him up was killed by the knives he put on there i think that um i wouldn't dare put knives on the legs of of of russell here we'd know exactly what would happen and the intention of of all that is just something that we've set aside and it's it's violence to creatures so i was sad to read that but not really surprised at what happened after what he'd done and then what else do we have we've so many extra things to say this morning but the morning speaks for us in a particular way with the bird song all around us and creation longing to tell us stories as so many of these events have too and we give thanks for its life in flower it's life in rootedness it's life even at these little violets here at my feet which are flowering all over the garden and we give thanks for the ability on this sunday to come together and to worship well we're saying our prayers this morning for the diocese of the region of central america iglesia anglicana de la region central de america and that within our anglican communion we give thanks for and also in our diocese for archbishop justin for bishop rose for bishop tim at lambeth and today for the parry we pray for the parish of saint peter and saint paul at river and pray for andy bautry in his ministry there and give thanks for the life of that parish so with all these thoughts in our head and many which will have come to you and bits and pieces which you feel i've missed out or not made enough of and everything else but you can complete in your own thinking and creative activity today and note down we say the special prayer for today almighty god whose most dear son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain and entered not into glory before he was crucified mercifully grant that we walking in the way of the cross may find it none other than the way of life and peace through jesus christ our lord are men i found i've read you next week's colleague so i'm going to read you this week's but i'm not sorry if i having read next week's because it's one of my most favorite colleagues and it comes from the book of common prayers instructions about the visitation to the sick but let's have this week's which talks about those who are in error and that's me with that almighty god you show to those who are in error the light of your truth that they may return to the way of righteousness grant to all those who are admitted into the fellowship of christ's religion that they may reject those things that are contrary to their profession and follow all such things as our agreeable to the same through our lord jesus christ amen so we say the prayer our lord taught us in whatever language you would like to 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 as we say our own prayers for this sunday morning in lent christ give you grace to grow in holiness to deny yourself take up your cross daily and follow him 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 foreign