good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of saturday the 19th of february as we meet to say our morning prayers the scaffold on the top of the cathedral is still standing despite the fury and my goodness it was fury of storm eunice which actually raged around us most of the day yesterday and uh it it really does show the skill of the scaffolders whom you watched with us on morning prayer a couple of mondays ago before even the covering was on you watch them working at that very dangerous and very technical work but knowing how to keep something safe and then to put a covering over it which gives it more wind resistance and therefore is needs to be even safer is a really skilled task so we congratulate the scaffolders on that and in fact fletcher thinks it was the prayers of the garden congregation that kept it standing because we mentioned it yesterday but in fact everything else around us was blowing in every direction and it really was that the storm of of well certainly of 30 years or so and many many things were damaged on the far side of the cathedral stonework fell and we had to stop people coming into the precincts to lock the cathedral and as you saw last night we put on a a said even song with some recorded music from our own morning room as the wind was still swirling around outside in the cathedral still unsafe for people to approach so i myself went to the opticians yesterday morning and actually i could have just sort of ridden there on the wind and but fighting against it on the way back was like the esop's fable story about the competition between the sun and the and the wind um but at the same time uh happily no one here lost their life but we think of sad instances like the woman in her 30s simply driving through london and a tree killing her by falling on the car instances small instances in terms of the world's economy of people but at the same time these home instances bring home the dangers in multitudes to others around the world day by day so we're still praying for these uh city of the of petropolis in in brazil following the awful landscape with landslide with with terrible loss of life there and you will bring all your prayers from across the world but two mornings could not be more different here we are today with not a breath of wind and the sun rising over the trees and a pure blue sky as though nothing ever happens but you only have to look at the garden happily we've not lost any trees but you only have to look at the garden with branches and twigs and foliage and bits and pieces that have been blowing everywhere and so there's quite a day of clearing up going on and many people are still in different parts of the country without power so we are recovering from storm eunice let's say our prayers then together on this particular morning and join your own intentions and concerns wherever you are oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made and as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep 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 so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm this morning is psalm 96. sing to the lord a new song sing to the lord all the earth sing to the lord and bless his name tell out his salvation from day to day declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples for great 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 that the sea thunder and all that is in it that 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 so we come to our lesson and as i said as we go through the final chapters of the first book of samuel we're going to take one or two of the episodes there otherwise it simply becomes a battleground between david or david and saul rarely that david and the armies of other clans and tribes protecting people in his own land as we said yesterday but today we come to a really beautiful story it's the story of abigail and i'm going to tell it in two parts because it's a long story and it deserves to be savored and also enjoyed but also we need to take lessons from it and i think it will be helpful therefore if we we just take it through in two parts so it's one samuel 25 and then i'm going to read up to verse 28 today and then on monday monday we will read the rest of that and the day after part of another lesson and gradually go through to the tragic end of the first book of samuel but here we are in chapter 25 and i'm reading from verse 1 up to verse 28. now samuel died and all israel assembled and mourned for him and they buried samuel in his house at ramah then david rose and went down to the wilderness of paran and there was a man in mayon whose business was in carmel the man was very rich he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats he was shearing his sheep in carmel now the name of the man was nabal and the name of his wife was abigail [Music] the woman was discerning and beautiful but the man was harsh and badly behaved he was a calabite david heard in the wilderness that nabal was sharing his sheep so david sent 10 of his young men and david said to the young men go up to carmel and go to nabal and greet him in my name and thus you shall greet him peace be to you and peace be to your house and peace be to all that you have i hear that you you have shearers now your shepherds have been with us and we did them no harm and they missed nothing all the time they were in carmel ask your young men who were shepherding and they will tell you therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes for we come on a feast day please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son david but when david's young men came they said all this to nabal in the name of david and they waited and nabal answered david's servants who is david who is the son of jesse there are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters shall i take my bread and my water and my meat that i have killed from my shearers and give it to men who come from i do not know where so david's young men turned away and came back and told david all this and david said to his men every man strap on his sword and every man of them strapped on his sword david also strapped on his sword and about 400 men went up after david while 200 remained with the baggage but one of nebar's young shepherds told abigail nebar's wife behold david sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master and our master railed at them and yet the men were very good to us and we suffered no harm and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields as long as we went along with them they were a wall to us both by night and by day all the while we were with them keeping the sheep now therefore know this and consider what you should do for harm is determined against our master and against all his house and our master is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him hello tiger come up here here we are come on can you get down yep good then abigail made haste and took 200 loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five sears of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs and laid them on donkeys and she said to her young men go on before me behold i come after you but she did not tell her husband nebal and as she rode on the donkey and came down under the cover of the mountain behold david and his men came down towards her and abigail met them now david had said surely in vain have i guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him and he has returned me evil for good god do so to the enemies of david and more also if by morning i leave so much as one male of all who belong to him when abigail saw david she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before david on her face and bowed to the ground she feathered his feet and said on me alone my lord be the guilt please let your servants speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant let not my lord regard this worthless fellow neighbor as his name is which means fool so he is nabal is his name and folly is with him but i your servant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent now then my lord as the lord lives and as your soul lives because the lord has restrained you from blood guilt and from saving with your own hand now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as nabal and now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord and please forgive the trespass of your servant for the lord will certainly make my lord a sure house because my lord is fighting the battles of the lord and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live it's a really beautiful story it's a pastoral story which takes us out into the fields not the wheat fields as with ruth but shepard's pasturing and it's quite clear from the story that david's young men who are fighters have kept the shepherds of nabal who were pasturing their flocks in carmel kept them safe and he's done a favor to them and nabal on the other hand is a brute of a man and as we heard in the beginning his wife abigail was very discerning and intelligent and should we say sensitive to what is going on and when david's men come and say it's a feast day and my master has looked after all your shepherds in carmel uh could you give us something to celebrate the feast with and nabal gives them a surly answer in exchange for david's message and sends them away david reacts as one would with rage after that courteous inquiry whether there might be a small return of favor for having guarded the shepherds all the time they were in carmel and he's tells his young men strap on your swords we're going to teach this guy a lesson but one of the shepherds of nebar one of the young men who've been very aware of how when they were guarded all the time in quite dangerous country guarding the sheep and the army of david was around them like a wall as it was said later and so he thinks there's an unfairness going on here and as so often happens the staff know what kind of person the one who is in charge of them is and they really have no respect whatsoever for nabal and his name as i said means fool but on the other hand they have the greatest respect for abigail so they go to her and abigail is a brave lady for she realizes that uh uh the favor that david has asked was a very small favor compared with the way in which all their sheep and also their shepherds have been guarded by david's young men so abigail then decides that she will make amends and doesn't tell her husband never but makes a huge shopping list of all that she can take so that david and his men can celebrate the feast just as the country is celebrating the feast we're not told what feast this is but it is a feast day and that the list of things that abigail uh is taking makes your mouth water and she saddles a donkey goes herself and sends messengers ahead and then as she comes she bows down and she herself takes the guilt of her husband on her own shoulders and asks that this guilt be forgiven not only because she doesn't want bloodshed in naval's household because that would cause all their shepherds and good people amongst the staff to be harmed but also this is even more interesting to save david from doing something rash returning and a violence full of blood in return for the the insult she's been given my neighbor so she's saving my lord and when she's saying that she's meaning david not her own husband my lord from blood guiltiness she really is a lovely person to have stepped into this scene and and brought this first of all this lovely gift and taken the blame on herself knowing the character of her husband and at the same time uh she is saying to david i i so much wanted to save you from this act which you might regret now oops now up steady that you're right that um that story we shall continue tomorrow uh and sorry on monday when tomorrow will be a special sunday lesson of course um but let's just think about it and and what sort of lessons it's teaching us because it is teaching us that when we are in any kind of need or trouble help can come from the most astonishingly unlikely places and we've all experienced this sometimes people we've almost discounted and suddenly or maybe they thought we thought well they don't even sort of think about us know about us suddenly step forward and there is that lovely sense of help being given from such unlikely people that your heart warms and uh you want to do something in in in return well here is abigail coming with that kind of help for david and his men and uh we think of how our opinions of people can change and also how uh somehow help seems to come from unlikely places maybe that's a good theme for today because we have one or two unexpected things i'm going to start first of all and i'm going chronologically um with harper lee it's the day actually in 2016 when harper lee the american writer of the novel to kill a mockingbird she died on this day in 2016 aged 89 having been born in 1926 but that book to kill a mockingbird was born of the fruit of her own upbringing in the deep south and also the desire to write that story down somehow but in a way which would attract people and she chose to write it as depicted through the eyes of two children now i'm not going to go thoroughly into this story nor into the stories the manifold stories of of our next topic in a moment but what i do want to say is that that that book to kill a not mockingbird actually had been some years in her mind and she began to write it in the mid-1950s and it was written with the title go set a watchman and then sent to a publisher and here the story goes on and returns us to our main theme so in 1957 that script was sent and harper lee now she knew herself as nell lee and she didn't want to have that or was advised not to have that as her pen name only because she didn't want to be known as nelly and in fact the nell is n-e-l-l-e she was named after her grandmother backwards ellen the grandmother was so she was now nell harper lee and she decided she would be harper lee and as she took that name her script was sent to a publisher of jb lippincott and there was an editor a reader maybe we should call and she was called tay hohof and here is the helper coming in all unexpectedly totally unknown to harper lee who was diffident and shy and wondering whether she was someone who could write a book like this and tay hoff picked up the script and read it and she wrote at the time the spark of the true writer flashed in every line well there's a thing to say but what she saw was that that book wasn't yet a novel it was more a series of anecdotes so she asked harper lee whether she tae hohof not the author but the editor the reader could help her and uh harper lee's agreed so in conversations tay hoh over the next few years led harper lee from one draft to another of this to be a novel but what she had called a series of anecdotes and during that time the true stature of the novel emerged with that unexpected help and with the conversations that happened and i'm just going to quote uh tay hohof and said over the next few years we had many conversations about how the novel should develop and sometimes she came round to my way of thinking and sometimes i came round to hers and sometimes the discussions which we had would open up was an entirely new line of country and in the end like a flower opening the book to kill a mockingbird emerged and it was an instant an instant success and it has been ever since 40 million copies in print and in 1999 voted the best novel of the century by a poll in the library journal it's it's always been a wonderful favorite and of course some of you will know it from the 1963 it was published in 1961 in 1963 it was made into a famous film with gregory peck as atticus finch the lawyer and then it's through the eyes of his two children scout and gem that the story is told and it was a story about the irrationality of race and class in the deep south of the 1930s as depicted through the eyes of children now i'm not going to go into the story because i don't want to spoil a book that some of you may not read those of you who have read it will know how this book became so popular and famous and in that in 2015 was published just a year before harper lee died aged 89 was published go set a watchman in the original uh text but you could see from that how this story developed with the wonderful friendship unexpectedly giving help of the editor the reader tay hohof and that conversation developing from draft to draft a draft until the full flower opened and the help of that person caused harper lee to be absolutely lauded and recognized as a novelist unexpected help and it's a great grace a grace to give it because wasn't going to be credited with the novel but also grace to accept it when someone says let me help you with that you might say no it's mine i'm you know i'm i'm doing this but when somebody says that then you need grace both to accept and grace to give and you can translate that into many situations in your own life and we certainly can well the other one is again something which is far far too big a topic to go into in too much detail but it's actually the fact that in 1985 on this day the 19th of february the first episode of the very long running uh soap opera should we call it uh eastenders was filmed and this is a huge favorite of fletcher's who's been a uh uh almost from the beginning a massive fan of eastenders this if from across the world you may not know about this because it's in english soap operas it's like the other one coronation street coronation street set in the midlands this one set in the east end of london and called eastenders and it's set in a particular community of albert square one of the old victorian squares uh in a fictitious borough of walford in the east end of london and up to date it's had 6429 episodes and always with top ratings but let's just think of that first day julia smith and tony holland were the two who had the idea and began to cobble together how they would do this and it was a nervous exercise they didn't know whether this would be a winner or not because things when they're broadcast can go one way or the other and the the success of this which is really fantastic in the beginning two episodes a week and now four or five episodes a week and people looking at it all the time and it's it's signature tune when that tune starts and you're looking down on the map of the east end of london and getting nearer and nearer the bom bom bom sound of the eastenders signature tune [Music] and going down into that community where over the years so many have characters have become the nation's favorites or the nation's villains or the nation's worry or the nation's teachers almost because what these two people julia smith and tony holland wanted was to create a community which was and they in looking at the east end of london they wanted it to be tough sometimes violent sometimes funny always sharp but setting before us the issues of the day and no soap opera has done that better than eastenders they've always been a head of the game when there were things to say about the aids hiv epidemic it seemed at the time you know the way in which that caused huge fear and in setting one of their their ordinary and straight characters having had a blood transfusion with hiv aids and people they're not being frightened to touch him or drink out of the same cup when things are the princess of wales diana princess of wales going around and and visiting those suffering in this way and holding their hands and in that way assuaging fear of this and we think of our friend whom we've mentioned before uh the the reverend andrew mead now in retirement in in rhode island but at that time the director of the advent church in boston going to visit people and showing that by sitting with them and not being afraid in that way he was giving real teaching about something that was frightening people and this soap opera did just that in so many different ways it led the way in in diversities of all kinds of genders and race and all those things inequalities in in shining a light on people who were suffering for no good reason but in the same way of of uh people being dominated at home by violence in their homes you name it they've done it and helped us to understand what real people suffer so how did they start they thought we will have a community which knows itself because a square is inward looking and then there was the the place uh the queen vic the pub there which became a theater where everyone could gather and many things could happen rouse could happen celebrations could happen a crisis could happen and we're not short of those throughout those years of of this uh soap opera being shown but they began by saying we're going to identify 23 characters and they thought of the types of characters they wanted and they invented at that time the beel family and the fowler family and then various characters that they would put in there and if we started now naming them over the years we would be here all morning but what we learned was that sometimes those whom we actually vilified as as evil and villains and no good suddenly became the one who stepped forward in the best possible ways to help people in what they were doing and and other people whom you trusted suddenly proved to be people who were weak reads when people needed them to help them or else on the other hand people went through terrible crises and you lived through those with them so by doing this and on the first night and julia smith and tony holland said they were feeling sick with worry about how this would be received on the first night 17 million viewers and really is always had top ratings ever since so that the two episodes soon became four episodes and then sometimes with special episodes and there are seasons of the year which wouldn't be the right season of the year without some event in eastenders and it might be the most surprising event sometimes the most disastrous event sometimes the end at the end always leaves you in some kind of suspense whether it be what on earth is going to happen next with that or or your it leaves you in tears or laughter or horror or um this sense of of what's going to happen tomorrow which is always the secret of a good soap opera but what we're saying here again is the way in which it shows that unexpected people can step forward to help us be better human beings with one another in that closed inward-looking community which is suspicious of strangers the square uh but at the same time we get taught how to value strangers from uh different countries coming to live there and all of these things going on at that time and and julia smith and tony holland said we want that community however many rows they're having however whatever is going on to have the motto hurt one of us and you hurt us all to pull together in situations of crisis when support is needed so those are good lessons for today as we begin the beautiful story of abigail which will continue and complete on sunday in our prayers then and march to david's advantage let's say our prayers then on this morning and we are praying today in the anglican communion on the 19th of february for the diocese of kebbi in the church of nigeria in the kaduna province and here in this diocese for justin our archbishop rose bishop of dover emma bishop at lambeth and today for the benefits of sin lawrence in sanet which includes the church of saint lawrence ramsgate sync catherine's in manston st christopher's on the newington estate saint mary at cliffs end and saint mark's ramsgate and that is the ministry of andrew jacobson and ken cox and there are readers there sue cox julius andrews francis barnes anna chaplin and judith andrews and a reader in training amanda champs so we give thanks for that benefits in ramsgate and sanet the outskirts of ramsgate as well it also gives us an opportunity to pray for the community of saint lawrence school in ramsgate so let's uh say for the last time the collect a special prayer for today before we go to the new sunday conic tomorrow bring your own concerns your own intentions and your thoughts for those throughout the world suffering in any way or needing your prayers even in congratulations on this day 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 each in our own language and in our own way we say 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 moment now for our own reflections [Music] anyone can fall in love that's the easy it part anyone can fall over [Music] that's not hard to do so clever anyone could fall in love but you must make [Music] that's the easy part [Music] but you must make [Music] how do you keep the music from dying love falls asleep unless you keep trying [Music] [Applause] [Music] forever [Music] but you must make [Music] 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 amen perhaps some it might be not just those whom you love and those whom you'll pray for but those who have been and might be our unexpected friends and how we also can be that to another if we keep watchful day by day for that gift to be exercised which we've been looking at today so tiger here you are in a comfortable place this morning with no wind and with the sound of the tiny rooster lording the morning [Music]