good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this wednesday the 16th of june it really is the most beautiful morning here and we're told it's going to be the last one for a bit because there are storms on the way but let's enjoy this day wherever you are in the world feel welcome here i'm sitting under the little rose arbor here which is in full flower it's a lovely sheltered shady place to come in the garden and a time when one can enjoy not only the sight of the roses but the fragrance all around us and the sound of the bird's song so let's say our prayers together bringing your own concerns from across the world and reflecting together on the lessons and psalms that we shall read on this lovely morning in england oh god make speed to save us oh lord make haste to help us from the rising of the sun to its setting your glory is proclaimed in all the world blessed are you sovereign god our light and our salvation to you be glory and praise forever you gave your christ as a light to the nations and through the anointing of the spirit you established us as a royal priesthood as you call us into your marvelous light may our lives bear witness to your truth and our lips never cease to proclaim your praise blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night is past and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind does we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm this morning on this 16th morning of the month is psalm 80. hear o shepherd of israel you that led joseph like a flock shine forth you that are enthroned upon the cherubim before ephraim benjamin and manasseh stir up your mighty strengths and come to our salvation turn us again o god show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved oh lord god of hosts how long will you be angry at your people's prayer you feed them with the bread of tears you give them abundance of tears to drink you have made us the derision of our neighbors and our enemies laugh us to scorn turn us again o god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved you brought a vine out of egypt you drove out the nations and planted it you made room around it and when it had taken root it filled the land the hills were covered with its shadow and the cedars of god by its boughs it stretched out its branches to the sea and its tendrils to the river why then have you broken down its wall so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes the wild boar out of the wood tears it off and all the insects of the field devour it turn again o god of hosts look down from heaven and behold cherish this vine which your right hand has planted and the branch that you made so strong for yourself let those who burnt it with fire who cut it down perish at the rebuke of your countenance but let your hand be upon the man at your right hand the son of man whom you made so strong for yourself and so will we not go back from you give us life and we shall call upon your name turn us again o lord god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved we left the disciples with jesus yesterday at caesarea philippi caesarea philippi has nothing to do with the caesarea on the coast it's a town in the tetrarchy of philip and it's the farthest north we've found them well out of their own terrain but it was there that the voice of peter said to him having first said you are the christ the son of the living god and being called blessed by jesus because of the revelation that the creator has given to peter about the anointed one who has been sent with the good news which is to be handed on to them and then when jesus says and let me tell you what this means we're now going to jerusalem and this is what will happen and you remember how peter is the voice of those seeking the protection and welfare of them all and certainly of jesus himself it's rather like the the psalmist who is worried about the safety of the one at the right hand of the the uh the holy one and the son of man you've made so strong for yourself as the psalmist says so jesus turns on peter and he addresses the should we say satanic temptation because it's one of those temptations of the wilderness which say to jesus it doesn't need to be like this it can be easier than this and say jesus says to his chief disciple the rock on whom he's going to build his church get behind me satan but now he's brought them even further and they climb higher than they ever will in their life onto mount hermon with its snow-capped peaks and they like mountaineers jesus thins out the number of those he's taking with him peter and the two sons of zebedee james and john in a way you can think of them as uh james is the first of the twelve to be martyred and john the one who gives in gospel and epistle through the johannine tradition the sense of the eternal word and peter well he's the one who seems to speak for us for humanity in sensible and outraged ways and also in comforting ways the same thing is going to happen again here we are under the huge cascading flowering of the rambling rector you will remember this this site in the garden many times because through this time of year from passion tide through easter and on through to this time it changes in many ways at first it's all bare branches and then at easter tide after the bear branches have budded it becomes an opulent flowering pink cherry tree and we saw it in that mass of blossom as a cherry tree a big cherry tree but as the cherry flowers dropped then something else takes over for living in the cherry tree and growing not only to the top of the cherry tree but on on into the branches of the ash tree behind is a rambling rector rose which is probably the first thing we planted here in the garden in 2001 and it's now growing like this and it takes over from the cherry in a cascade of white flowers with golden centers and a real fragrance well if you like you can take that as a sign of the journey that those three peter and the two sons of zebedee james and john have been through think of them first having been taken by jesus as if you like spiritual mountaineers it's an experience they haven't had yet as we read the transfiguration this morning but they will and that's the way their destiny and vocation will take them but of course we did that at easter because the liturgical year carries us round think of them then on the mount of olives in the garden of gethsemane with jesus after the last supper and their foreboding of what is going to happen because of jesus's own sense of foreboding of the limitations of his humanity and the prayer to the father if i must drink this cup and i will be done the bare branches of passion tide and then the easter flowering of the cherry and finally today the huge cascading of the bright cloud one thinks of that poem by uh rs thomas the welsh poet the bright cloud which we've read from time to time and no better time to think of it than this morning for the bright cloud is hanging over us in the rambling lecture but here it is in our gospel with the three high mountaineers well up into the snow line where the air becomes thin and a bright cloud and unfolds over them and makes itself known and it's peter of course it's peter who speaks for them all lord this is a good place let me make three shelters one for you one for moses one for elijah let's stay here it's good here it's safe here and it is the place that we want to be but that's not the vocation or destiny for any of them and the voice speaking to their inner being just as the revelation of who christ is has spoken to peter's inner being before the temptation to say but it can be easier than this and jesus has to say get behind me satan that's the temptation and takes them higher and higher and higher just the three the symbols of those things the martyrdom the giving up of life the revelation of the eternal word and the humanity of the rock on which jesus will build his church peter here he is speaking again let's stay here but no the voice speaks to their inner being this is my beloved son with whom i am well pleased listen to him and the disciples with that sense of awe of the overarching presence of heaven and folding their earth and speaking to their inner being after their long climb up into the mountain with jesus higher than they've ever been and farther to the north than they've ever been with him and they fall on their faces and jesus comes to say to them very well known words he says it to them all the time don't be afraid have no fear and they lift up get up have no fear and they lift their eyes and this lovely sentence when they lifted their eyes they saw no one but only jesus alone and the sentence emphasizes the singularity of jesus now standing amongst them again in his humanity but having been revealed in the bright cloud to their inner being as the one that they have been waiting for the anointed one whom they worship and then they have to learn that that will take them down the mountain on the road to gethsemane the three of them again the advanced party of the mountaineers each one with a different vocation all of that we think of today and perhaps it's a a good time to think of temporary shelters but also of pilgrimage our own journeys i say that because yesterday we had a lovely occasion here at the cathedral when the via francis which is the name for the road from canterbury cathedral to rome was celebrated again now that has become very much part of my life over the last 20 years because the via francis is a route on which we set pilgrims off canterbury is a place where pilgrims come they come on the becket route that chaucer outlines in his canterbury tales and they come on various routes across england through green pilgrimage roots and the traditional pilgrim ways and we are then a destination and we receive pilgrims and say congratulations pilgrims but on the other hand we also set pilgrims off from this point sometimes on the camino which goes down through france and along northern spain to santiago and there's the memory of james the martyr one of those of the three pioneers up on the mountain with jesus or we set people off on the via francis which is a much much longer journey and it goes all the way across the channel across france through switzerland and down into italy on its way to rome well i've become used to it not only from setting people off but from the stories told in 2007 our cannon treasurer as he was then cannon ed condrey who became bishop of ramsbury in 2012 and retired from that position in 2018 but in 2006 he set off from here along the via franciscana with i don't remember how many about 35 cyclists of all ages and our administrator of the cathedral and his wife and and ed conrad's wife went with a back-up vehicle with provisions as the cyclists set off on that long long journey it took them three weeks on bicycles and on the way they stopped at many places that the original walker and maybe ryder on mules of the of the uh francis had stopped when that first journey took place i'm talking about someone before beckett i'm talking about archbishop cedric the sirius who set off in 990 to go and collect his pallium the sound of his archbishopric from the pope in rome and he decided to keep a diary a journal and the places that he stopped and what not what happened on the way really but but the locations of hospitality along the way we still have that and it's the marker for the various places along the french indiana so i've set people off walking i've set people off riding on horses i've set people off on bicycles and i've set many people off who say well we're going to do a fortnight now two weeks now and then when we have the time we'll come back to that point and do it again and so on and so forth but the stories that are told are many and varied some of them are about hospitality in those places which still exist the cathedral church at reims rung or the um abbey of saint morris in in switzerland and of course canterbury and rome themselves as holy places at both ends of this pilgrim's route a long and in those days when cedric made the journey with an accompaniment of friends a dangerous one well ed did it with bicycles and lots of photographs came back from the receiving of hospitality in those places in 2017 when he was a bishop of ramsbury he came back and gathered as many as would go with him of the originals who had gone 10 years before and did it again and then yesterday now in retirement he returned and joined those who want to mark the via francina as a pilgrim way still and we can't do it by crossing the channel at the moment but an imaginative scheme had been thought up by the via franchising pilgrimage association and those of the local group here came together and in the crypt first of all gave to ed a pilgrim staff which had been carved with the the logo of the franchise which is a pilgrim walking and there's a stone also which is the marker stone of where the pilgrims set off but first of all ed told in two or three minutes the story of the experiences he'd had and then blessed the staff and laid it on the altar of our lady undercroft and then we all went up to the campanile mound little high point in the cathedral precincts which has a green grass area with lovely trees and shrubs around it and there the journey of the staff was to begin it could be walked by the english section all the way down to the p o captain of the ferry that would take it across they weren't allowed to cross the channel he was so the staff yesterday was handed over the captain would take it to france and hand it over to the french contingent who would then go on to the swiss border and that's a long way so it's done in relays and from place to place it will be taken all the way to rome a long long way but that physicality of the staff is an earnest of intention that this pilgrimage route will soon be open again crossing europe diagonally and breaking down barriers is what pilgrimage does and there are many points i'm sure along the way when people will feel this is good to be here let's not move on let's stay just here but often their vocation says no the staying here has been a wonderful glimpse of what might be but you have to share that glimpse with others in your own life and the telling of the story becomes really important now pilgrimage is about movement and it's not necessarily physical movement it can be mental journeying and insights flashes of inspiration bright clouds can come in that mental journey about something and realization like the sharika of the greek philosopher and and mathematician when that that comes you feel this is a really bright moment i i get it and you think let's just stay here not or it can be a spiritual journey no physical movement or it can be a physical journey and the physicality and we're back with the rule of sin benedict where body mind bodies activity helps mind and spirit and minds activity helps spirit and body and spirits activity helps body and mind but also the receiving of hospitality and the learning how to receive is also and be grateful is also part of the pilgrimage and the many meetings which are put in the way of those who walk or ride or do it in stages i think of two people middle-aged people who had flown here from new zealand and come i didn't know them i was celebrating a communion and at the end they said we have come from new zealand we've we've lost our son and we can't seem to to take the fact that that he's been taken away from us by a dreadful disease and we thought we would come here so i i was getting ready to give them a special blessing because they'd been at the eucharist and been blessed with all the people in the chapel of the martyrdom and they said we're going to walk the villa francina together to take our time and see what god has for us on the way and ask and pray for acceptance that this was our vocation this loss and also his beautiful life was his gift to humanity and has been taken beyond and so i took them to the point where we set people off and took them out to the franchise stone and watched them walk off out of the gates of the precincts and occasionally in the next three months they'd send a postcard but eventually came the postcard from rome itself and it spoke of many blessings on the way but things that had then to be um shall we say assimilated into their life together from then on back in new zealand in the southern hemisphere for pilgrimage across his boundaries i've spoken before of guy stagg's book the crossway that's about the via french internet as well it's one of the best books on pilgrimage that i've read because he's set off with his life absolutely in pieces and the healing doesn't come all you know all in a a a a rush and there's falling back and all of that it's about the frailty of our humanity and the desire sometimes in receiving hospitality to think let's just stay here peter is the voice of all of us it's the voice that will need forgiveness in the end and the acceptance of its own frailty but it's the one who occasionally can voice the sense of the bright cloud you are the son of god or this is a a marvellous place let's stay here and build shelters up here on this high mountain but jesus comes to them in his humanity as he does day by day as we have the gospel here and as he speaks to them he says come on get up and don't have any fear the next time we'll see them on a mountain top in matthew's gospel will be chapter 28 and that's that the last verse of matthew's gospel and once again we have the i am with you always even to the end of time shall we translate it to the end of the age but when time stops and everything is opened by the bright cloud into eternity i shall still be there i am with you always and this little verse is a fantastic one and it will remind us that in gethsemane jesus is totally understanding of their sleeping because not only because they're weary but because they've been afraid and it's worn them ragged but now at the end come let us get up we must be on our way sensing what must happen to him and them in the scattering but then as the sign of the tree gives us the cherry blossom of easter and his presence again saying don't be afraid and the forgiveness of his rock and then the intimation of what will happen and the hint for john as well don't worry about him think of my call to you to peter and the call to go on and finally the bright clouds of ascension on the mountain or the end of matthew's gospel on the mountain fear not i am i am with you always even to the end of time it's a glorious thought on this beautiful morning here so feel welcome and able to bring your own prayers and concerns and hear the voice of jesus at the end of that saying don't be afraid get up and we look and see him in his humanity knowing what he suffered for us speaking to us and lifting us into our vocation forward but filled with the sense of the bright cloud of transfiguration as well which is possible for us who are made in the image of god well let's say our prayers on this particular day and we're praying today on the 16th of june for the diocese of chester in the church of england and all its people and also for in this diocese for archbishop justin and for bishop rose of dover for bishop tim at lambeth and today for the parish of all saints westbrook margate and dawn watson in her ministry there and give thanks for that community and that ministry so let's say the prayer for today lord you have taught us that all our doings without love are nothing worse send your holy spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love the true bond of peace and of all virtues without which whoever lives is counted dead before you grant this for your only son jesus christ's sake amen so we say each in our own language 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 for our own prayers now so [Music] oh [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