good morning and welcome to the garden of the deanery at canterbury cathedral on this morning of saturday the 14th of august it is the most beautiful morning with a clear blue sky and i'm standing up high and seeing all the trees around the city of canterbury with the cathedral behind me and i've come up high because of course today we're reading genesis 11 as part of our reading of the book of genesis having finished the story of noah and genesis 11 is the building of the tower of babel and in our reflection we shall think of its meaning and standing up here in a moment we will read that passage as well as our psalm but wherever you are in the world please feel welcome and bring your own prayers and intentions there are so many areas of huge concern if we start with the raging fires in so many parts of the world and we think of the eastern mediterranean and also different areas of the world the western parts of canada the united states but particularly algeria and we've received a heartfelt message from mulut who is one of our garden congregation in kabila in algeria asking for our desperate prayers our urgent prayers in this situation of fire and so much loss of life in these three days of mourning so mulut we are praying for you and for algeria this morning as we say our prayers as a garden congregation from right across the world as i say you all across the world will have different concerns please bring them to our prayers in the knowledge that although we are distance in in space and even in in time in the way that the day moves around we are at one in prayer and holding so many different situations in our hearts and in our minds and prayers let's start our prayers then on this day oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your light springs up for the righteous and all the peoples have seen your glory blessed are you sovereign god king of the nations to you be praise and glory forever from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is proclaimed in all the world as the son of righteousness dawns in our hearts anoint our lips with the seal of your spirit that we may witness to your gospel and sing your praise in all the earth 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 so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this 14th morning of the month is psalm 72 and one of our dates this morning is of the completion of cologne cathedral which is the largest cathedral in north gothic cathedral in northern europe huge cathedral with the largest facade of any church in the world and it's noted and was built to house the shrine of the relics of the three kings which a holy roman emperor frederick barbarossa had brought back and the archbishop of cologne then began the building of of cologne cathedral i say that because this psalm 72 is one that we tend to read at epiphany and it speaks of gifts being brought by the kings to the anointed one so psalm 72 give the king your judgment so god and your righteousness to the son of a king then shall he judge your people righteously and your poor with justice may the mountains bring forth peace and the little hills righteousness for the people may he defend the poor among the people deliver the children of the needy and crush the oppressor may he live as long as the sun and moon endure from one generation to another and may he come down like rain upon the moon grass like the showers that water the earth in his time shall righteousness flourish and abundance of peace till the moon shall be no more may his dominion extend from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth may his foes kneel before him and his enemies lick the dust the kings of tarshish and of the isles shall pay tribute the kings of sheba and siba shall bring gifts all kings shall fall down before him all nations shall do him service for he shall deliver the poor that cry out the needy and those who have no helper he shall have pity on the weak and poor he shall preserve the lives of the needy he shall redeem their lives from oppression and violence and dear shall their blood be in his sight long may he live unto him may be given gold from sheba may prayer be made for him continually and may they bless him all the day long may there be abundance of grain on the earth standing thick upon the hilltops may its fruit flourish like lebanon and its grain grow like the grass of the field may his name remain forever and be established as long as the sun endures may all nations be blessed in him and call him blessed blessed be the lord the god of israel who alone does wonderful things and blessed be his glorious name forever may all the earth be filled with his glory our men are men a wonderful psalm and we'll return to cologne cathedral when we're in our reflection but for the moment as i'm still standing up here i'm going to read our passage from genesis 11. it's just verses 1 to nine and it's the last of the stories in what is generally known as primeval history for on monday we shall in chapter 12 begin the course of the ancestral history of jesus's own people but here's chapter 11 verses 1 to 9. now the whole earth had one language and the same words and as people migrated from the east they found a plane in the land of china and settled there and they said to one another come let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly and they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar and then they said come let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth and the lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of humankind had built and the lord said behold they are one people and they have all one language and this is only the beginning of what they will do and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them come let us go down and there confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech so the lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city therefore its name was called babel because there the lord confused the language of all the earth and from there the lord dispersed the people over the face of all the earth there is nothing so disabling as being confronted with someone whose language you do not know and no part of it do you recognize it comes sometimes to us here and to our guides and welcomers in the cathedral but oftentimes there are bits and pieces of the language and sometimes we have interpreters ready but if we don't know the language then we feel ourselves to be in some way lost even though we're standing there amongst a group of other people and i'm reminded of the way in which we use words most of all to express ourselves and are confounded when there is no translator and we resort to basic body language and signs but sometimes those are so much better than the way in which we use language for as that famous quote from the fox to the little prince in santa exuber's story goes words are the source of many misunderstandings and we know how true that is but it's not just words it's the ordering of words and the inflections of words so that two nations which so say speak the same language but have developed differently can be using words in different ways and we find that quite often with people who speak english from different cultures and one remembers and i probably told this story before the story of uh taking off in the united states of america in an airplane and hearing the words momentarily which we generally pronounce momentarily here in england used by the pilot now here in england we would use that word for momentum do something momentarily and then it'll stop and in the united states the word momentarily is used much more for saying in a moment i'm going to do that so when the pilot over the loudspeaker system said we'll be taking off folks momentarily to me that meant we'll take off and come down with a bump almost immediately and it was alarming and i learned the way in which words are different in that way i can tell so many stories of that and so can all of you but it means that when we are pushed back onto something which isn't verbal then other kinds of communication have to come into play this story of babel has different kinds of elements one is and you come to the the sense of for example if we use the new testament image of herod building the temple and spending enormous amounts of money on it for his own glory and also to make himself popular with the people it didn't seem to work but it it certainly was for the glory of herod and jesus coming to the temple and finding that wonder of the ancient world in all its glory disappointing in so many different ways particularly because it was stamped all over by the pride of one person this is what babel is about so that if something is built to the glory of god and continues to be a place which is pointing to the infinite and giving a spiritual dimension by its very beauty and presence which so many towers and spires and buildings are then that's quite different than this tower of babel built for the pride simply of a section of humanity itself of course we can build high but high means absolutely nothing even in the realms of time and space and certainly in spiritual realms it means nothing at all but it is an offering which shows our intention to glorify god if built properly and with the right intention and when it's continuing in use in that way but at the same time that sense of communication and losing communication and distance and needing to be together is all part of the story of babel the languages become confused into a bubble of languages which makes no sense at all sometimes a babble of languages actually is a beautiful thing and i've said before that when seminarians and newly consecrated bishops come here it's our practice to say the our father in every language we know and we're doing that day by day across the world as a garden congregation and it comes together marvelously with the word our men there is intention in the words and also we all know which words other people are saying not by their sounds but by their meaning because it's something that we share together in knowledge and it's a sweet offering of our prayers and all the intentions we've been thinking of and also in obedience to the command of our savior to say that prayer when we meet together but at the same time it doesn't take away this shall we call it building block and foundation right back back back in primeval history as this story has been passed on of the question mark over confusion and separation all those things then become important with regard to the way in which we can communicate without words and i want to continue our reflection by thinking how we have come round that aspect but often mistake it and resort to words when physical language could do just as well or even sounds which don't contain words but are peaceful musical sounds but to do this i'm leaving my high tower and going down onto the ground and fletcher will leave his position on the ground where he's been showing the pictures to you and he will come up high and that will be a a swapping of places so i'm going to walk downstairs now and join you again so i've come downstairs on to the lawn it's a saturday morning and i'm here and the biblics are having their breakfast i've stayed outside the trees so that you can see me from on high you're the high ones now and i'm down here on the ground and i've done it deliberately because we were thinking of the way in which our body language is what we're thrown back on to the moment our words are not being understood but sometimes of course even though our words are being mentally understood our body language is giving a different signal and saying i don't really feel like this but i'm saying these words but for the moment i wanted just to do the the basic aspect of body language in which we can approach not just other human beings but other creatures alarmingly or peacefully i always remember a film where david attenborough is uh coming to an area of uh gorillas who live in in the the trees and he says i've i've not been near them before but if i go eating and he's eating some leaves as he goes that's peaceful because people generally aren't eating when they are hostile but nevertheless if you go too fast then fright takes over it's exactly the same with these guys that when someone comes through the gate here it would happen now if someone suddenly appeared just there they would scatter but if the person came gently towards me and towards them with no threat in their physical being then the sense of someone coming peacefully would mean that all that's going on now could continue if i suddenly shouted or clapped my hands or got up suddenly even creatures that we know really well and they know us will instantly run and at the same time if you get up gently or move towards them particularly if they're not quite sure about you then if you go carefully towards them and quite often outstretched hands become a sign especially if they're empty hands a sign of i'm coming in peace we've learned during these times of lockdown how to give a gesture of peace to each other and some do it by holding their hands together and a little bow across the cathedral because they're not allowed to leave their seats and go to shake hands or embrace as they would have done in the past if it was someone who was close to them all of that became something where distance was imposed but the resources were still there and at the same time there are gestures with hands on the heart and uh you you find yourself doing it almost automatically when you're meaning i really mean this and a handout stretched these are peaceful gestures there are other gestures uh which are dominant gestures like the finger in the air pointing to someone or else at worst the fist but at the same time you you don't know what's hidden inside the fist either and all these things are tell-tale signs we're so used to using words but when we were in training for the ministry i remember days when we spent time in groups week after week getting to know ourselves and trying to be honest with each other with guidance and at the same time on certain occasions we were filmed and you could see that there were gestures where someone had just turned off and the body language was was trying to look as though it was interested but in fact the physical being was turned off and so there are there are aspects of one's body which means oh yes my face is trying to show i'm interested but my body language is saying i'm not in the least bit interested in this i've become bored i'm switched off all those things gestures and gestures give confidence but they also communicate but david attenborough of course was doing the basic thing which i've done this morning to come to these but they're used to that and they came running along when i came downstairs with the bucket and i put myself this side of the fence so i can see you but here they all are absolutely peaceful and the best thing was i brought food and to bring food and to share that becomes really a sign of intimate friendship and the first time that one is invited to a meal in someone's house in whatever culture then that becomes a huge step forward and enjoying a meal in people's houses in completely different cultures but listening to them and watching them and showing how things are done and uh there there's a was a time when when i i always was taught that you finished what was on your plate but there are some cultures which if you finish what's on your plate that's a sign of i want some more please it's only when you leave a bit that the meal is satisfactorily closed and people are satisfied and if you if you don't know that one then your plate will constantly be filled up until really the meal becomes quite uncomfortable different customs different cultures but the other culture that i remember so well in so many areas of the world where i've stayed with families in a culture i hardly knew i was their guest i was the lone one i didn't understand their language in a great way they knew some of my language but i watched is when people came the first thing that was offered was water for the washing of hands it was something which said we are here to refresh you and even if a stranger came then water was produced someone would carry a bowl of water and if you think of the sacramental language that jesus has left us to remember him and the way that god was communicating the new covenant with jesus then the water and the bread and the lifeblood shown in the cup of wine all those things are basic communication in terms of how a message is given and that message comes with all the qualities of the kingdom of heaven i've said that this morning we are thinking of the the date in on which um cologne cathedral was finished it was completed on this day the 14th of august in 1880 and when it had when had it been begun it was begun 632 years before on the 15th of august that's tomorrow the feast of the blessed virgin mary in the year 1248 it took that long to build but it was a stop go process and in the end those two huge spires which are overarched the city and the cathedral was badly damaged by bombing but everything has been restored and at the same time there is a new window which has been put a stained glass window in a way but nothing like the stained glass here it's an amazing work in the south transept because that window was destroyed in the second world war and a new work created by the german artist gerhard richter made up of 11 500 identically sized different coloured pieces of glass resembling pixels are randomly chosen by computer not by a human mind but put together and the colors form a complete tapestry of diversity we're back with the rainbow from yesterday but we're also back with the scattering of nations and the way in which physically we can make contact with each other every cathedral is a place of music and music is another way in which we communicate with each other where words don't matter so that when seminarians come or newly consecrated bishops or people from other lands come and they sing their music then the enjoyment is one of breaking barriers down and very often the cathedral choir is singing music in different languages it it doesn't matter we know the sense and the offering is a sweet offering of all of us in prayer with music like the story of noise flood with the animals uh going into the ark in britain's little opera singing kyrie elias on lord have mercy but when they leave the ark to the new beginning alleluia all those words not of our own language but understanding what we're doing and breaking down the barriers and i remember on pentecost day in i think 1980 because yes it must have been because we were on our way to oberamagao on that sunday morning going just as the cathedral was opened and going to find the magnificent shrine of the relics of the three kings and uh whatever those relics represented they've come from from frederick barbarossa they've been brought across the sense of kneeling in adoration in that holy place emulating the story in saint matthew of the the the the magi the wise the kings even names were given to them later on um emulating them kneeling in silence and giving precious offering and the most of course the most precious offering we're back with christina rosetti is and hand here meaning i give you of my the depth of my being my heart is is usually something that we say in our our english language but there are different cultures who who offer that in different ways but the very depth of our being said that body mind and spirit are giving the same message i wanted to mention also that on this day samuel sebastian wesley great composer for the english church and the grandson of the hymn writer charles wesley samuel sebastian wesley was born his father samuel wesley was a composer too and he named his son samuel sebastian after joanne sebastian bach because music was such a precious gift and wesley is best known for his large repertoire of anthems and hymn tunes also two hymn tunes particularly aurelia which we generally sing here to the words of the churches one foundation is jesus christ her lord and then the other hymn which is called hereford which goes to his grandfather charles wesley's words oh thou who came is from above the pure celestial fire to impart kindle a flame of sacred love on the mean altar of my heart much body language there but wesley had a gift for fitting words to music what i wanted to say was his long anthems and some of his short ones pluck sentences like flowers from the scriptures in a way and he made his own texts in a way which might pluck a sprig from the new testament if i think of the anthem blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ which is an easter anthem composed for hereford cathedral when he was the organist of hereford he was appointed at the age of 22 very young and the manuscript is is still there but that ansem begins with the passage from the epistle to saint peter but then of course it goes on to that lovely passage love one another with a pure heart fervently and that lovely duet and then another passage from elsewhere but the word of the lord endures forever and all his long anthems pluck from the prophets or pluck a sprig from the psalms or pluck a sprig from the gospels or from the new testament epistles and make of them rather like the window in cologne cathedral a tapestry of scriptural sayings which complement each other and stay in the head because of the music so that when i'm reading one of those passages and i suddenly come across a sentence which wesley has said to music then i want to read it in the rhythm of the music that he's set and the translation i'm reading isn't always the same as his but these gifts of music and gesture and the speed with which we come and also our inner mindset of are we really coming in peace are we coming with an attempt to to to dominate the scene or to be the most important person in the room like the people building the tower for their own glory or are we coming gently to offer ourselves with hands is a good gesture in in uh tanzania to to put hands up in greeting but it means i always think they're like sort of arabella's son hands like this show themselves empty and loving and welcoming and then they'll turn around and and of course at a a particular time if you know someone well then there's a physical gesture which contacts the the two physical beings when a deeper language isn't known because we don't know each other's languages well we're back with the image of babel with the separation of peoples and distancing of peoples but we're very much with the image of the new covenant when we come to the fact that we come with bread or we come with water or we come with wine and share it in sacramental signs of all that the creator gives us and all peoples throughout the world in a new covenant of his own sharing of our human kind and the way in which jesus taught us to care for all those who trust us we've had no strangers entering this morning and no sudden noises and everyone is really very happy with what is going on here at breakfast time i'm on the ground and fletcher is up high but it doesn't matter because uh physically we can still contact each other but gestures are rather better than shouting into the morning air and we generally know what the other one is meaning and if i'm being told off for doing the wrong thing i i soon get what the physical gesture is saying so let's say our prayers on this particular day and give thanks for our ability to communicate in so many different ways heart and mind and spirit and physically in the creative gifts that god has given us so we are thinking of so many areas as i said at the beginning and i should mention afghanistan in a situation of terrible warfare and enormous fears of the the populations of the cities there and also our own city here at plymouth in england after the the awful atrocity which was committed there so we we pray for the citizens of plymouth and all those caught up in that and the repose of the cells of those killed um so let's say our own prayers bring your own prayers to the words that we shall say today our anglican communion prayer is for the diocese of dutsa in the church of nigeria in the kaduna province of the church of nigeria and here as we pray for archbishop justin and also for bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lambus were asked to pray for refugees but i think i'd like to pray for our huguenot congregation which worships in the crypt and has done since the middle of the 16th century in french on the uh temporary permission to give them to given to refugees fleeing from atrocities in france across the channel and the huguenots have worshipped here ever since so we pray for that huguenot congregation which worships in the crypt of canterbury cathedral each sunday afternoon in french combining our languages let's bring our own intentions then to the prayer for this week let your merciful ears oh lord be open to the prayers of your humble servants and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please you through jesus christ our lord amen so we pray each in our own language combining our languages across the world 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 are men moment of silence now uh punctuated by the satisfying noises of the previous breakfast as we say our own prayers so um so so so so [Applause] 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 well boys you've had your breakfast now that you're making quite a gentle meal of it and a peaceful time this morning everything is quiet peace you