good morning and welcome on this saturday the 22nd of may to the dinery garden in canterbury cathedral for our morning prayers wherever you are in the world feel welcome we've come out into the front garden under the trees it's raining it's been raining quite hard i'm hopeful it may go off in a bit but for the moment the umbrella is a useful shelter and sitting under trees also some of the drips are quite big but we've come out as it's saturday morning to be here with clemmy and the piglets and they are having their breakfast as we say our prayers now the most important message for fletcher and me to give this morning is happy fourth birthday arabella all that long way away in spain so happy birthday on this particular day on little nissan arabella it doesn't seem one year since you were three and sadly through the whole of the time you've been three we've not able to be be together but maybe during this year when you're four it will be possible once again that travel opens up and we can share occasions together all of us so that reaching out with something that we long to do across the world with each other and that's a feeling which is beginning to grow and might be possible so long as we are careful with one another you will hear in the distance some pile driving going on as the contractors on this saturday morning can continue to build the the cathedral schools new science blog but take no notice of that we're at our work ourselves as we say our prayers together on this saturday morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise send your holy spirit upon us and clothe us with power from on high hallelujah blessed are you creator god to you be praise and glory forever as your spirit moved over the face of the waters bringing light and life to your creation pour out your spirit on us today that we may walk as children of light and by your grace reveal your presence blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this 22nd morning of the month is the magnificent psalm 107 and we won't read it all but i'll read some of the beginning and then uh continue from verse 23 oh give thanks to the lord for he is gracious for his steadfast love endures forever let the redeemed of the lord say this those he redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered out of the lands from the east and from the west from the north and from the south some went astray in desert wastes and found no path to a city to dwell in hungry and thirsty their soul was fainting within them so they cried to the lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress he set their feet on the right way till they came to a city to dwell in let them give thanks to the lord for his goodness and the wonders he does for his children for he satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with good those who go down to the sea in ships and ply their trade in great waters these have seen the works of the lord and his wonders in the deep for at his word the stormy wind arose and lifted up the waves of the sea they were carried up to the heavens and down again to the deep their soul melted away in their pedal they reeled and staggered staggered like a drunkard and were at their wit's end then they cried to the lord in their trouble and he brought them out of their distress he made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were count then were they glad because they were at rest and he brought them to the haven they desired let them give thanks to the lord for his goodness and the wonders he does for his children let them exalt him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the counsel of the elders the lord turns rivers into wilderness and water springs into thirsty ground a fruitful land he makes a salty waste because of the wickedness of those who dwell there he makes the wilderness a pool of water and water springs out of a thirsty land and there he settles the hungry and they build a city to dwell in they sow their fields and plant vineyards and bring in a fruitful harvest he blesses them so that they multiply greatly he does not let their herds of cattle decrease he pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes they are diminished and brought low through a stress of misfortune and sorrow but he raises the poor from their misery and multiplies their families like flocks of sheep the upright will see this and rejoice but all wickedness will shut its mouth whoever is wise will ponder these things and consider the loving kindness of the lord magnificent son both of pilgrimage and of journeying and following the way all sorts of imagery and one of the most powerful the way in which human behavior can turn beautiful fruitful land and springing rivers and streams and lakes and pools into a complete wilderness because of misuse and perhaps that's a lovely thing to think of that we can transform that on this day when so many are planning agreement between powerful nations to create a better climate of care for our planet well let's turn to our gospel of saint matthew and today we're beginning at chapter 11 we've ended chapter 10 yesterday that little commission given to the twelve and now we continue and first of all there's the phrase that matthew always uses when one of the five discourses finishes and activity begins again chapter 11 verse 1 when jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities now when john the baptist heard in prison about the deeds of the christ he sent word by his disciples and said to him are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another and jesus answered them go and tell john what you hear and see the blind receive their sight and the lame walk lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them and blessed is the one who is not offended by me and as the disciples of john went away jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning john what did you go out into the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind what then did you go out to sea a man dressed in soft clothing behind those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses what then did you go out to see a prophet yes i tell you and more than a prophet this is the one of whom it is written behold i send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you truly i say to you among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than john the baptist yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he from the days of john the baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force for all the prophets and the law prophesied until john and if you are willing to accept it he is elijah who is to come he who has ears to hear let him hear but to what shall i compare this generation it is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates we played the flute for you and you did not dance we sang a dirge and you did not mourn for john came neither eating nor drinking and they say he has a demon the son of man came eating and drinking and they say look at him a glutton and a drunkard a friend of tax collectors and sinners yet wisdom is justified by her deeds the passage takes a cue from saint mark but everything is quite different for instant mark's gospel this sequence of things as is told with the disciples going out is interrupted almost like a modern soap opera does with a scene about one thing and that because something has to be left to happen and your anticipation has to build up then you go on to something quite different for a bit and then you come back to the other scene because time has passed and you're waiting to see what has happened and in this mark doesn't let us down but he uses first of all the little commission to send out the 12 and then tells a story about john the baptist in the middle of all that so that so say in his fast-moving narrative the 12 are seen to have time to accomplish what jesus has sent them out to do and then he welcomes them back and you remember in st mark's gospel he then says come and rest a while knowing that they have been engaged in really hard work which was accompanied by anxiety as to whether they were up for the task all of that mark gives us in a sequence as we go through matthew doesn't do that at all matthew says really nothing about the coming back of the disciples we've gone on from the little commission in to a completely different scene and here it's not the story of the beheading of john the baptist it's about to be told it's the story of john the baptist himself now consigned by king herod to prison sending some of his disciples and remember that some of jesus's own disciples were disciples of john the baptist and jesus himself had been involved in that ministry when john baptized him some of john's disciples come to jesus with the message from john who in the depths of prison has doubts about whether he was right and the question is are you the christ are you the one who is to come or are we to expect another and jesus doesn't say i am the one he simply points to the activity with the crowds that the disciples of john are witnessing and then he infers the prophecies of isaiah about what will happen in the ministry of the anointed one when that one comes so the word is yes but it's a word that's proven by the witness of the prophet isaiah and then later on when he is talking to the crowds by the witness of other prophecies the herald who was to come and jesus says john was a shining light and also if you can accept it the new elijah who the prophet malachi says will come to prepare the way of the lord all those things conform to the fulfillment of prophecy which jesus is in every gospel keen to say he has come to fulfill the law and the prophets in unexpected ways and some ways that will partly offend people especially those who in authority are sticking to the old ways absolutely by the letter which jesus says that's not fulfilling the law in its spirit but here we have a little sentence about john and he looks round at the crowds and says what am i going to compare you to you're actually like children there's a group of children going past to their lessons at the moment you can hear them be on the wall um children playing in the marketplaces who knows maybe there were children playing in the marketplace when jesus actually told this story because he was always looking around at what's going on and saying look learn a lesson from this learn a lesson from that learn a lesson from the children playing in the marketplace they're playing weddings happy music and here's the bride here's the groom everyone is is playing weddings in a happy way and they say come and join us and there's a group of other children who say no i don't want to do that. that's not i don't want to do that and then instead they're playing funerals and so the music changes and everyone plays different roles their children playing copying what their their mothers and fathers are doing and they're doing it in the marketplace there come and play funerals with it oh no i don't want to do that it's as though the the crowds that deliberately or the authorities are deliberately being curmudgeonly with everyone who comes with the the the news that prophecy has been fulfilled john came first and they say no we we we can't actually um follow john he has a demon and then jesus comes and john was neither eating nor drinking nor celebrating he was actually on a mission which was very very ascetic and they wouldn't listen to him and then jesus comes and instead he's on a mission of celebration which he likens himself to a wedding feast and the bridegroom is is is there with the wedding guests and at that point they say oh no we can't do that he's a glutton a a drinker of wine and the inference also later will be and a mixture of people we'd rather not be mixed up with and so all of that we remember jesus saying to the crowds but most of all we remember him using natural things around him natural activities of people and their children to say look let this show you how it seems because here is the good news from your heavenly father set before you a fulfillment a blossoming of what the law and the prophets mean and yet you won't accept it many do but the ones who don't are likened to these children in the marketplaces well let me try taking the umbrella down i think this rain is light enough to do that at the moment we'll see how it goes i may put it up again if it gets a bit sort of drippy from the trees um today i'll put it over here actually because we know that it rather alarms the piglets and also that they are apt to chew on it and i don't really want to lose my shield for later mornings when it's it's it's um stormy i wanted to look at some dates because this will help us too um in 1859 on this particular day the 22nd of may sir arthur conan doyle was born and he of course he died in 1930 he of course is best known for the creation of one character sherlock holmes the detective and he's also in his stories of sherlock holmes given us a little recipe for how that detective will work and we get used to it so there's the detective highly intelligent and thinking things through and reflective with his violin and his pipe and he's also got there a companion a rather dimmer companion in dr watson and that means that dr watson becomes the narrator and is sharing with us the clues as they work forward and some of us are clever with these and others are not so clever i'm never very clever at getting the clues first but i'm i'm i'm toddling along with the narrator and dr watson is our narrator there's also generally a very dim member of the police force and we think of inspector lestrade who never gets it until the thing is oh yes that's it when sherlock holmes shows him and then someone who provides for the resources and needs that that dr watson and sherlock holmes need and let's fasten that on mrs hudson and you find then that little recipe for how the thing proceeds now and i brought out here my very first copy of sherlock holmes and it was given to me as a birthday present on my 13th birthday from my sister and it's may 1960 there and here it is the memoirs of sherlock holmes hardback and on the front the great detective in his dressing gown smoking his pipe and looking thoughtful but as it begins and i remember waiting for the bedroom light to be able to be put on in the morning because it was dark when i was waking on my birthday morning the first this is the memoirs of sherlock holmes so i'm beginning actually a bit back to front because the book ends of course with the the moriarty sherlock holmes tussle i should have said also the recipe always involves a villain and moriashi is the villain and that involves the the last for the final problem when so say sherlock holmes was killed off by conan doyle but the public outcry was so great that he had to bring him back with the return of sherlock holmes and i've got that book somewhere else on my shelves but this is the first sentence i i read silver blaze is the story and that was the name of a horse i'm afraid watson that i shall have to go said holmes as we sat down together to our breakfast one morning go where to to dartmoor to kings thailand i was not surprised indeed my only wonder was that he had not already been mixed up in this extraordinary case which was the one topic of conversation through the lengths and breadth of england well one could go on but there's the recipe that sherlock holmes is already well known as a detective and is being called into a case and it will involve railway journeys and traveling here and there and on the way holmes picks up the clues now so many people have played this role and said to the rather dimmer dr watson elementary my dear watson as though it's all very simple which it certainly isn't and watson is left gathering the things but also writing the story down for us we're on the side of the narrator and i remember the first films of basil rathbone and nigel bruce playing that and that was they were films made long before i was born but um they replayed themselves in black and white jeremy brett and edward hardwick playing it in the 1980s and early 90s and benedict cumberbatch and martin freeman playing it for us in sherlock 2010 to 2017 it's been actually a formula which has worked for all of us if we like sorting out clues one of the one of the uh books was called the sign of four i remember listening to that on the radio uh because from uh uh for a long time 1952 to 69 i i discovered carlton hobbs and norman shelley used to play that in radio programs as the series unfolded and one of them is called the sign of four and i wanted to use that title because of course we can do the same kind of detective we have been detective looking for clues with our four narrators of what's going on with the evangelists and mark um and and uh matthew we've done a little bit of of sifting through the clues this morning and also the answers aren't necessarily elementary even john the baptist who's come to jesus asking for clues is given plain clues as far as jesus is concerned from the prophet isaiah but then as the evangelists tell their story each in their own way and you could go through many other uh recipes of that sort because so many have the same kind of recipe with paul temple the radio detective it was steve his wife who was the companion and sir graham forbes who was not the dim policeman but uh the person who came in from scotland your yard regularly and you can find that through sometimes the detective is is one of the police force himself like inspector morse and with lewis beside him always a companion so that we can side with the companion hear the clues and try to work them out and we do exactly the same walking in companionship with matthew mark luke and john to unpick but the answers are found in our own lives as we work the clues out it's a wonderful way of approaching the gospels because they are full of clues which unfold at different times in life as the signs that jesus is using described by the evangelist and the signs that the evangelist is using actually become apparent to us and how often when i'm reading the scriptures or reading the psalms i think i've known that verse for 30 years and this the first time it's it's hit me like a shining light light has flooded onto it so we give thanks for that kind of activity in in lockdown last year we discovered the uh the the mysteries of frying fisher miss fisher and that's an australian series it's exactly the same and jack robinson is the detective and there's there's a little group of of of people uh as they go and at the moment we're enjoying because i didn't really um switch on to them at the time uh a cure with david sushe playing that and in the same way you've got uh captain hastings who's not very clever in picking up the clues and often gets it wrong and the inscrutable paro and then uh the inspector jack who comes in at the same time and can never quite get it and in the end they get it and as we watch those i'm always a bit slower at getting it but eventually we get that the best kind of of detective story is one that drops clues for you and the evangelists are always wanting to give you clues to the truth which has to be worked out body mind and spirit within your own compass and that will come open yourself daily to the gospels and let your heart spirit and mind and activity and interaction with others let you sift the clues and then one begins to find wonderful gifts and answers i could do so many things this morning because the dates are wonderful in 1813 richard wagner the composer the composer of german operas in all sorts was was born and the the kind of musical compass with old myths and legends right up to pacify itself with a huge spiritual exploration set at the most important time of the christian year but if i think of the way in which wagner's music and beautiful orchestral pieces in the middle of things giving you time for reflection as they unfold and realization as they unfold throughout your life then one can see how wagner became absolutely eaten up with this and how ludwig ii of bavaria fell under his spell and all those amazingly imaginative chateau which and castles which ludwig built have a sort of wagnerian feeling because he was overtaken by imagery of leon grin the swan knight and and all of that and tanhauser the pilgrim and the the rod budding and forgiveness and all of those things are there with wagner so i say to that we could go on and on on this morning we won't don't worry i wanted to say on may the 22nd 1907 lawrence olivier um uh was born and he was acclaimed in his lifetime of course as the greatest english speaking actor of the 20th century lord olivier the first member of his profession to be elevated to the peerage we remember his black and white films of hamlet henry v of richard iii and then of heathcliff in wuthering heights of max to winter in rebecca lord march main in the television series the wonderful long television series of of bride's head revisited he was able to play characters and open up to us the characters of others as we watch both to entertain and to develop on this day also in 1885 victor hugo the french novelist died who wrote of course les miserables where again there's a detective javert who's not in the least bit interested in political changes his only thing his lifelong quest is to hunt out jean valjean and to bring him to justice for to to javer the law is a higher agency than any political regime and also there's not a great deal of forgiveness in in java but we remember both in the musical i'm going to put the umbrella up again at this point um the the musical um les miserables and the way in which that is set out for us um that this kind of absolutely concentrating on the letter of the law generally ends in in unhappiness for the one doing it and there has to be an opening up and a fulfillment as jesus is saying to the disciples of john the baptist and the crowds around him uh on this day in 1907 erget was born the belgian cartoonist who gave us tintin and snowy the dog and also last and we can come all the way back round again to the beginning in 1972 day margaret rutherford died and while we remember her as miss prism in the importance of being earnest in the wonderful film in 1939 and the madame arcati in bligh's spirit the film the black and white film in 1945 all of which are replayed constantly and become absolutely iconic as films we remembered to her too in the 1960s playing miss marple in about four or five films and we've seen many play miss marple but let's remember her today and remember once again we've come back to that lovely thing of searching for clues wherever we are keep your mind sharp allow it to flow into your spirit and realize that your body in activity can with others release things which the mind at the moment finds sealed and that seems to be a human activity which said benedict was really keen on because he ordered the day said that body mind and spirit within community given to a hospitality which would bring us new relationships would give us and feed us to unlock that which is spiritual in our worship so great thanks today for all those dates and let's go to our prayers for this morning the absolute eve of the day of pentecost so today we're praying for the diocese of calcutta in the church of north india and that causes us to pray for the tremendous task that india has in beginning to protect its people with the medicines for the pandemic for which it needs so much help from the rest of the world at the moment because of the size of the actual problem there is a wonderful robin who's come to keep us company this morning and doesn't seem to be at all afraid of the piglets in the diocese we're still continuing to pray for the whole diocese as we approach the day of pentecost tomorrow giving thanks for the gift of the spirit some of you may be disappointed we're not mentioning villages i've had one or two messages like that and we'll go back to that next week back into the lovely villages of kent which some of you remember as we pray perish by parish but over these nine days the diocese have just given us a general prayer to to pray for so don't worry the villagers are coming back next week and the towns and and communities of this area so let's say our prayers for this morning praying for archbishop justin bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lambeth and for the last time this collect for this week leading up to pentecost oh god the king of glory you have exalted your only son jesus christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven we beseech you leave us not comfortless but send your holy spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to the place where our savior christ has gone before who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen as you bring your own prayers now to the prayer our savior taught us say it in whatever way you like to say it 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 of silence now on this rainy morning here in england and wherever you are bring your own concerns to that silence the spirit of truth lead you into all truth give you grace to confess that jesus christ is lord and strengthen you to proclaim the word and works of god 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 so have a good day wherever you are and don't forget to look for clues in any part of your life for that's where we're pointing to and then also um notice how the piglets are being very calm now as they're beginning to grow up actually we didn't find calmness in the lovely little uh video that uh arabella's mother and granny centers of arabella opening her presence this morning in spain and there was enormous excitement and dancing around and and wonderful things and so we're glad about that so may you have happy times today as well as thoughtful and powerful times there's my bell starting for matins [Music] so let's [Music] come across and see how you are [Music] before i go to the cathedral oopsie gently does it i'm a big character with an umbrella and here you are clemmy how are you this morning let's put this down and then you won't be afraid there we go hi hello hello you're being a bit braver now aren't you little piglets good to see you looking so well it's not long ago you were so shy you wouldn't come out and see the people and now here you all are [Music]