good morning and welcome to the dinery at canterbury cathedral on this morning of sunday the 12th of december it's the third sunday in advent and we've come inside as we have on other sundays at advent this year to light the advent wreath and as we do so we think of the sequence of advent themes leading up in preparation for the feast of the birth of jesus christ the nativity christmas day which will be in just under now uh two weeks time but here we are this morning inside the deanery and i'm going to to light the candle and as we do so we pray for all those who are preparing for christmas a busy season but made much more difficult by the restrictions of the pandemic which have much increased here in these islands in the last few days so let's light our candles this morning and two of them have already been lit lit and so i shall light those first and uh here's the one from the first sunday in advent two weeks ago now and the one for the second sunday in advent last week and now another new one and this is today the third sunday in advent as we light this flame of expectation of the coming of the christ child at christmas time and also the eternal expectation of the gathering up of all things as he comes at the end of time so let's begin our prayers bring your own concerns from across the world and we remember as we do so not only joyful occasions but those in severe and also sad and horrific occasions so we're thinking still of indonesia where they're digging in the the deep ash from the volcanic eruption to recover the beloved bodies of those who've died in that uh that terrible incident there and we're thinking also of the 84 people who so far have been counted who've died in the enormous tornado storm in the united states particularly in kentucky and then we continue to think of those in the tragedy in mexico whom we spoke about yesterday so all those things are held by us and as we do that we pray for people that we know in our own situations who so much need our prayers on this advent sunday the third sunday in advent o 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 our psalm on this 12th sunday uh day of the month is psalm 62 on god alone my soul in stillness waits from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold say that i shall never be shaken how long will all of you assail me to destroy me as you would a tottering wall or a leaning fence they plot only to thrust me down from my place of honour lies are their chief delight they bless with their mouths but in their heart they curse wait on god alone in stillness o my soul for in him is my hope he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall not be shaken god is my strength and my glory god is my strong rock in him is my refuge put your trust in him always my people pour out your hearts before him for god is our refuge the peoples are but a breath the whole human race are deceit on the scales they are all together lighter than air put no trust in oppression in robbery take no empty pride though wealth increase set not your heart upon it god spoke once and twice have i heard the same that power belongs to god steadfast love belongs to you o lord for you repay everyone according to their deeds [Music] this psalm of waiting in stillness the writer has so strong an impression of that that he repeats the verse almost word for word twice he begins with it on god alone my soul in stillness waits from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall never be shaken that's the opening of the psalm and then at verse 5 it's repeated as if to say don't forget the foundation on which we're building here it is again slightly different but almost word for word the same wait on god alone in stillness oh my soul for in him is my hope he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall not be shaken notice the difference is only in line two in verse 1 it says from him comes my salvation in verse 5 it says for in him is my hope and hope is something that widens out into a future vision as well but the definite nature of the couplet that follows is exactly the same in both cases he alone is my rock my stronghold said that i shall never be shaken it is the most lovely psalm but it gives advice to wait in stillness wait on god alone in stillness oh my cell which must be an important part of every day let's then go to our reading it's a sunday reading today so we're not in the letter to the hebrews we are in a sunday reading connected with the figure who again overarches our advent thinking and it's the character and person of john the baptist john the baptist is the prelude to our lord's ministry in all four gospels and at the eucharist this morning we shall be reading how sin luke deals with that we could have gone to matthew or mark but here we've come to the fourth gospel this morning i'm in chapter one and i'm going to start at verse 19 and then go on to verse 34. and as we do so we see how the fourth evangelist in john's gospel deals with the ministry of john the baptist but it comes after the prologue which we use as a gospel on christmas morning the prologue which anchors everything not in human time but in the eternity of god himself in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god so from that we then go on in verse 19 to the witness about the ministry of john the baptist whom this candle and also that one are memories of this morning and symbols of a light shining in the darkness this is the testimony of john when the jews sent priests and levites from jerusalem to ask him who are you john confessed and did not deny but confessed i am not the christ and they asked him what then are you elijah john said i am not are you the prophet and he answered no so they said to him who are you we need to give an answer to those who sent us what do you say about yourself john said i am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness make straight the way of the lord as the prophet isaiah said now the messengers had been sent from the pharisees they asked him then why are you baptizing if you are neither the christ nor elijah nor the prophet answered them i baptize with water but among you stands one you do not know even he who comes after me the strap of whose sandal i am not worthy to untie these things took place in bethany across the jordan where john was baptizing the next day john saw jesus coming towards him and said behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world this is he of whom i said after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me i myself did not know him but for this purpose i came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to israel and john bore witness i saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him i myself did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain this is he who baptizes with the holy spirit and i have seen and have borne witness that this is the son of god it's a powerful passage and it predates what we were thinking about last week of john in prison and john sending his disciples to jesus from the darkness and tension and pain of the prison an enclosed space where this man who had lived all his life and ministry in the open air in the wilderness was now confined restricted he sends his disciples to say to jesus are you the one who is to come or are we to look for another just that flickering of the light where hopeful short and he needs reassurance and you remember last week that jesus sends back the disciples not with an answer yes i am he but look around and see if by what is happening here with all who need me in healing and good news look around and see if the prophecy is being fulfilled for john himself knew that another prophecy was being fulfilled in him and now here is the prophecy of the anointed one coming to bring healing and salvation and good news and the disciples return with that answer jesus points to the activity of his earthly ministry as a sign that prophecy is being fulfilled and in the psalm which we have just read that last verse talks about not only our faith and our hope in our rock but also that the deeds we do the last verse which are signs of our faith and hope and love as we claim the role and vocation of being members of the body of christ the candle burning for john so what did he say of himself uh he didn't claim to be any of the things he's not elijah certainly not in the earthly sense but in one way of course he is elijah the one who is coming to prepare the way and the prophet malachi the last verses of the old testament says i will send you the prophet elijah again who will prepare the way well it's isaiah who really gives us the prophecy which john wants to rest on and they say what do you say about yourself we've got to give an answer these people who've come partly to trick but also themselves they're only servants of those in great authority and in the end it will be an authority which causes john's beheading in the uh prison house not the authority of the pharisees but another authority the authority of king herod and at this point when they are say tell us what you say about yourself and he answers once again with those words that we've mentioned again and again and again everything in the present tense i am and then he quotes the voice of one crying in the wilderness makes straight the way of the lord and he testifies then uh the next day and on from there to disciples who overhear him and go to find jesus behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world those words are a significant moment in handel's oratorio the messiah as a new section of new covenant begins but on this occasion they also gives uh a give uh something that we we repeat often the anesthesi behold the lamb of god oh lamb of god you take away the sin of the world have mercy on us it's from john behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world and he is of course using the image and symbol of the perfect sacrifice which christ himself offers on the cross and opens the gate of salvation and hope to those who would come after the one who said i am the light of the world and we light a candle which gives the sense of light in this world and the next so as we think of the character and ministry of john the baptist on this particular day for the second sunday in a row we think this time not of him standing in the ministry of the ancient prophets but of pointing forward to the true light which lightens everyone who comes into the world and has the capacity to do that for us day by day that anchors it back into that prelude the verses of john chapter 1 before these verses we started reading well this morning we've got some interesting reflections because the the light is at christmas time is very often seen as both the light of the manger itself and the light of the night sky we think of magi traveling with the night sky guiding them we think of shepherds looking up into a brightness giving them into the night sky christmas is a festival when darkness is pierced with wonderful light now there was a moment i think about three four days ago when veteran and i were standing in the the garden very near to where we were filming from yesterday that scene by the greenhouses and the night sky was frosty and absolutely clear and looking up it couldn't have been more than about oh past four quarter to five because the darkness comes early now looking up into the sky there was a wonderful sight the silhouette of the cathedral and then behind the night sky and a panoply of planets and a crescent moon by the cathedral and lowest of all but blazing in full glory the planet venus about to set following the sun as she always does and uh sometimes heralding the sun in the mornings but at the moment venus is a night sky planet very bright indeed and then just a little up if you trace the ark upwards a tiny pinpoint of light but quite easily visible to the naked eye before other stars became visible the planet saturn and then rising up to about the same distance from saturn as saturn was from venus the planet jupiter largest of the planets and much bigger but bright in the night sky and then above that not too far away queen of them all a wonderful waxing crescent moon and the moon just giving that silver light to the garden at that time it was a wonderful sign of the night sky but it prompted us to remember a poem by a poet called james agui and i'm going to read you the poem first and then this poem has been set to music by samuel barber but i think we think more beautifully by morton lawrence the musician and composer who has spent most of his composing life in los angeles and for over 50 years now has been the professor of composition in the university of california the thornton school of music there at christmas time we sing lauren's music to the lovely omania mysterium which is a a latin antiphon for christmas time talking about the creatures in the stable receiving the news in their silence of the birth of christ emmanuel's gender great mystery that animals should see this first before humanity but then um the agee poem has also been set to music by him in the most beautiful way and here are the words so that later when you hear this sung by the choir of our cathedral school the king school canterbury here we have these words being sung to us these are the words sure on this shining night of star-made shadows round kindness must watch for me this side the ground the late year lies down the north all is healed all is health high summer holds the earth hearts all whole sure on this shining night i weep for wonder wandering far alone of shadows in the stars it's winter but also there's a vision of high summer and starlight is giving that vision with its shadows that was written by james ague who was born in 1909 and died in 1955 written as a young man and published in a book of poems his only book of poems which is published under the title permit me voyage a journey of travel where he is so far he wrote that he published that book rather in 1934 when he was 25 and that as i say has been set by many composers particularly samuel barber and morton lorison lorenson said it is one of his knock turns in 2005. but let's look for a moment at james agui for at the age of eight his father was killed in a car accident and his brother his mother brought him and his sister to go to school um james himself to go to school but she brought both of them to suwani in tennessee and there at sint andrew's school in suwanee james began his journey to be what he became a parrot a film writer a novelist a thinker not so very well known as a person in his own life that name but known by many of his film scripts and particularly we think of the african queen but at the same time he wrote novels about his own life which tell tragic stories and also try to put together in words and he expresses the difficulty he finds in doing that because too many words pour out and the experience is too great and so in fact his fame came almost after his death he received a pulitzer prize for his novel about his father's death a death in the family he called it that pulitzer prize came in 1958 whereas he himself had died of a heart attack in a new york cab in 1955 but other aspects of his life became known and particularly from a friendship which was made very early on in his life at st andrews school at suwani now by coincidence only about three days ago i found myself giving a reference for a great friend of ours who wanted she was wanting uh to to be part of the staff at saint andrews school and although i'd heard of siwani school i'd never heard of st andrews before and now on two occasions now because thinking about james mcgee i've now come across in andrews again on this morning and william temple always said when you pray coincidences happen we find that again and again well here we are at our prayers and a coincidence has happened to bring us to that point because when little james at that time and he called himself rufus he was james rufus aggie and uh at that time he went to the school of sin andrews and literary life and his love of the classics and his ability to write imaginatively and to be a poet opened up and what it was an episcopal school and one of the priests there and that priest's wife also became enormous friends of the little boy and obviously his his mother was was there too with his sister but here was the opportunity for almost a a surrogate a surrogate father and and james at that time relied on father mcfly his name was and father mcfly and his wife kept in touch with james and uh they would get letters all through his life signed in the beginning love rufus because that's how he was known at the beginning he became james mcgee rather when he was when he was later on writing poetry and writing film scripts and after he had died father mcfly and thank god he did collected all the letters that james had sent and published them letters to father mcfly we see moments of james's life he didn't have an easy life and relationships would break down he was a slave to alcohol he smoked too much and the heart attack in the new york taxi cab far too young uh became actually a an an uh a time when uh all of that caught up with him but one sees his spiritual struggles as well as his physical struggles and his joys and sorrows and good relationships and broken relationships in these letters and so i'll just quote one or two moments he went because he was writing articles for a magazine called fortuna he was sent to the sharecroppers in arizona now sharecropping meant that you were working in the fields and your wages were some of the harvest you cropped and you shared the proceeds it was sometimes a good arrangement and sometimes a very poor arrangement depending on the way in which the uh the the the contract so so to speak worked itself out and he went down to share the life of these men it was a hard life and the experience for him was a hard experience but he wrote to father mcfly at the end saying the trip was very hard and certainly one of the best things i've ever had happened to me strange juxtaposition the trip was very hard and certainly one of the best things i've ever had happened to me writing what we found was a different matter a torrent of words came out of imaginings and everything about these sharecroppers and their life and the conversations he'd had and and fortuna magazine said well we can't publish this as a short article this is impossible give us give us something we can publish and he tried and tried but this vision of what he'd experienced would not compress into that and so his attempts some of them survive his attempts sort of were pushed aside but at the same time he saved that up to be written out as a novel and the novel again became famous after his death let us now praise famous men he says and he's talking about those sharecroppers in arizona and it meant that the article the short article in fortuna had expanded and expanded and he played with the words and wrote them in a book so we then see in his letter to father mcfly why the trip was very hard but also certainly one of the best things i've ever had happen to me and then another because this probably this film we know quite well with catherine hepburn and humphrey bogart the african queen the scriptwriter for that and he wrote to father mcfly and the left was continuing until four days before his death in 1955 uh he he wrote writing the script was a great deal of fun treating it fundamentally as high comedy with deeply rippled undertones and trying to blend extraordinary things poetry mysticism realism romance tragedy all with comedy well that film has become an absolute classic which most of us will have seen time and time again because there was a time when the bbc seemed always to be showing it at holiday times the african queen but we remember that short life of james agui born in and died in 1955 so quite a short life and uh we give thanks this morning as we hear his poetry sung to the music of morton lauritsen there are two other people i wanted to remember today who in the way that they portray things portray the same mixture of what it means to be a human being in terms of fears limitations terror sometimes and hope and faith and love and tragedy all those things the first of them is gustav flober who was born on this day december the 12th in 1821 known probably best for his novel madame bovary and that is a novel filled with disappointed expectations and unrealistic expectations and tragedy and enormous love and a sense of of faithfulness as well which in itself becomes tragic known also for his novel sentimental education but also for and this you may not know so well i i uh read them on one occasion and found them deeply moving his three tales they have a spiritual content the first is called a simple heart the second is a story of sin julian the hospital and how the the leper whom he is tending becomes for him christ in the service being given and the last one is simply called erudias and of course you're back with the story of sin john the baptist and this is the story of the execution in in that that uh indulgent and and what shall we say immoral court of herod and the great feast and the cruelty perod shows to his family and to those around him but particularly the beheading of sin john the baptist that from flaubert and the other person i wanted to mention this morning is edvard monk who was born on december the 12th 1863 quite a solitary character norwegian and he is someone who in his art portrayed the depths of human emotion and he's known best for that tragic painting the scream it became immensely famous but he became more and more and more withdrawn and lived quite a solitary life as he continued to paint and when someone asked him how did you conceive the painting the scream and monk replied i was out walking at sunset when i heard the enormous infinite scream of nature a mixture of beauty with the sunset and the pain of created the created order coming together for him and that painting became intensely and still is intensely famous so let's go on then uh to say our prayers what i should mention also which i found an interesting fact is that uh morton uh laurens who as i said for 50 years has been the professor of composition at the university of south california thornton school of music was earlier in life a forest service firefighter and a lookout for fires even in those days but he knew what it was to fight fires and to hear the scream of nature and then he gives us both from the latin omania mysterium and also from aggie's poem sure on this shining night beautiful thoughtful music for our advent prayers let's then say our prayers this morning and remember that we are praying in our anglican communion for the anglican church of canada for the primate our friend archbishop linda nichols and we send a greeting out to her and also to the many too many to name many many friends in canada and i know so many of you are members of the garden congregation so our prayers are for you this morning and then also in our own diocese we pray for archbishop justin and bishop rose of dover and bishop emma at lambeth and we remembered yesterday the parish of uh walmart and i said cornello now at the time i didn't have the names of the villages covered by that instead we have the name so many of these benefices are given names which the people understand but people viewing in will know the villages and not have a clue what the name of the benefits cornello means and so you won't know so i'm going to do it again and say this morning cornello covers beautiful churches and beautiful parishes which many of you may know by their village names and here they are we're thinking of the church and village of ringworld and of kingston and of ripple and of sutton and all of those have lovely ancient churches and communities around them and that was covered by that single word cornello and i confess to having not known that those were the villages covered so this morning i give it again and we pray once more for seth cooper carolyn wood stephen o'connor and john wynn in their ministry not only in walmart but in the villages i've just read out this morning so let's say this prayer a new prayer for today for the third sunday of advent o lord jesus christ who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready your way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just that at your second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in your sight for you are alive and reign with the father in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever and as always the advent collect 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 moment of reflection now for our own prayers oh sorry before that of course we say the our father together in whichever language we 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 amen it's a moment of reflection um [Music] kindness must watch [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] the lazy [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] fish [Music] and [Music] is [Music] [Music] the music of morton lorison to the words of james agui with that very moving piece sung by the choir of our cathedral school our king school canterbury at two or three years ago at the beginning of the festival of the arts which the school always put on for one week at the end of the academic year and it begins with a serenade in the cathedral cloisters as you see with the people packed in in a way that hasn't been able to happen uh recently and much of the festival was done virtually but usually the precincts are thronged for a festival of art and drama and exhibitions and concerts of all kinds and so much uh involvement with all ages at the school in creativity so we give thanks for that but we also give thanks for a time when uh fletcher and i with our director of development were in the united states in los angeles when the master karate la master chorale were celebrating their 50th anniversary in the walt disney hall and we would have to travel on before the concert that night so we were invited to the dress rehearsal so sitting right in the middle of an empty hall we listened to omania mysterium being sung and later on it was a great privilege to meet morton lorison himself but he had composed that piece for two of his dear friends and friends of ours too terry knowles and marshall rutter and so it was a wedding gift for them and we give thanks for that wedding gift because it's now become a favorite chris christmas handsome omania mysterium so let's say our prayers now and we've had the final blessing but i realized i'd forgotten one incident which has come in this morning and that was a collapse of an apartment block in ravenousa in sicily so we think of all those who at this moment are attempting to help and sift through the ruffle and and to to find any who might be surviving from that 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 this day and always amen [Music] me boys [Music] you