good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral to the dinery garden on this morning of monday the 28th of march welcome wherever you are in the world and bring your own concerns and your own prayers as we worship together lent moves on and by next week now we shall be in passion tied but for the moment we step by step are still going through lent and we pray for our world with all its problems and troubles those in great danger and still we're very much thinking of the people of ukraine and the resolution that we we want and reconciliation so that peace can return to that land peace with freedom and with justice at that time but we ask wisdom for those engaged in any kind of peace negotiations at the same time this morning if we're thinking of news well those of you who saw the academy awards last night will know that there was a sight incident and that's become very newsworthy um i think we thought we were talking this morning that it's incredible that a commentator a comedian can still make jokes about a woman in that way in the 21st century and she behaved with enormous dignity and we we sympathize with mrs finkett smith uh on this occasion and also the passion of her husband too because he was really defending his wife and uh so it's a difficult situation of course and fraught with great heat but it seemed to us that she in that position was behaving for the second time because this had happened before with the same comedian on a different occasion with great dignity and we remember that in the context of the giving out of academy awards so here we are uh saying our prayers together on this morning and we've come into this part of the garden which you'll recognize and we're here not because of the glories of the magnolia which is in the background here and all the the pigeons around it and the the lovely box hedges we're here because of the fruit cage which we'll talk about a little bit later on in our reflection let's say begin our morning prayers o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice o lord according to your faithful love according to your judgments give us life blessed are you god of compassion and mercy to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of our sin your light breaks forth like the dawn and your healing springs up for deliverance as we rejoice in the gift of your saving help sustain us with your bountiful spirit and open our lips to sing your 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 this morning on this 28th morning of the month is psalm 132. it's a song a song about the vocation of david king david who is always the overarching iconic figure of salmadi and this is very much about his desire to build a temple for the lord now he has a house for himself in jerusalem and he of course is later told that's not your vocation that belongs to your son solomon but here's psalm 132 lord remember for david all the hardships he endured how he swore an oath to the lord and vowed a vow to the mighty one of jacob i will not come within the shelter of my house nor climb up into my bed i will not allow my eyes to sleep nor my eyelids to slumber until i find a place for the lord a dwelling for the mighty one of jacob now we heard of the ark in ephrathah and found it in the fields of jar let us enter his dwelling place and fall low before his footstool arise o lord into your resting place you and the ark of your strengths let your priests be clothed with righteousness and your faithful ones sing with joy for your servant david's sake turn not away the face of your anointed the lord has sworn an oath to david a promise from which he will not shrink of the fruit of your body shall i set up on your throne if your children keep my covenant and my testimonies that i shall teach them their children also shall sit upon your throne forevermore for the lord has chosen zion for himself he has desired her for his habitation this shall be my resting place forever here will i dwell for i have longed for her i will abundantly bless her provision her poor will i satisfy with bread i will clothe her priests with salvation and her faithful ones shall rejoice and sing there will i make a horn to spring up for david i will keep a lantern burning for my anointed as for his enemies i will clothe them with shame but on him shall his crown be bright a worthy and honorable vocation which david believed he had but you will remember when we were dealing with the story of that in the old testament that the prophet nathan came and said god decides what your vocation will be and this one however worthy it seems to you is not yours this is left for solomon so rest easy in your house for your vocation as the anointed one and the founder of the royal line of david is very clear throughout all eternity we're reading today from the gospel of saint john and we are in chapter nine and you'll remember that chapter nine began with the healing of the man born blind and again because that happened on the sabbath day in jerusalem and he washed in the pool of siloam and returned seeing but because it happened on the sabbath day and jesus made mud out of the earth and his own spittle and and spread that on the anointed uh on that on the man's eyes that was considered work on the sabbath day and so the authorities are questioning the man deeply verse 18 we're beginning and i'm going to read to the end of the chapter the jewish authorities did not believe that the man had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them is this your son who you say was born blind how then does he now see the man's parents answered we know that this is our son and that he was born blind but how he now sees we do not know nor do we know who opened his eyes ask him he is of age he will speak for himself the man's parents said these things because they feared the jewish authorities for they had already agreed that if anyone should confess jesus to be the christ he wants to be put out of the synagogue therefore the parents of the man said he is of age ask him so for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him give glory to god we know that this man is a sinner the man answered whether he is a sinner i do not know one thing i do know that though i was blind now i see they said to him what did he do to you how did he open your eyes the man answered them i have told you already and you would not listen why do you want to hear it again do you also want to become his disciples and at this they reviled him saying you are his disciples but we are disciples of moses we know that god has spoken to moses but as for this man we do not know where he comes from the man answered why this is an amazing thing you do not know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes we know that god does not listen to sinners but if anyone is a worshiper of god and does his will god listens to him never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind if this man were not from god he could do nothing they answered the man you were born in utter sin and would you teach us and they cast him out jesus heard that they had cast the man out and having found him he said do you believe in the son of man man answered and who is he sir that i may believe in him jesus said to him you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you the man said lord i believe and he worshipped him jesus said for judgment i came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind some of the pharisees near him heard these things and said to him are we also blind jesus said to them if you were blind you would have no guilt but now that you say we see your guilt remains well never was there a passage more taking place on the two levels that we've been speaking about both in luke with the heavenly angels and the vocation of mary and now here in john with the two levels of that which is of the earth earthly and of the heavens eternal and we've seen over and over again how jesus uses earthly signs in order to teach lessons on the other planet that which is spiritual and eternal and opens the gate to everything that is beyond which our humanity is capable of perceiving and receiving as a gift at a spiritual level but this time it is played out in the person of the man who physically had been born blind and jesus first restores to him his earthly sight so that he is able to see all that is going on around him and perceive that for the very first time and he now becomes an explorer of human things in a very different way seeing in that mortal site for the very first time and so that the signs that jesus is talking about are his to perceive for the first time and for that he is feeling great thanksgiving and this man is of course much braver and more seeing than the man who was caused to walk again which we whom we met earlier in the gospel this is a very different kind of situation this man knows that something from god has happened to him that his mortal sight has been not restored but given to him for the first time as he was born blind but the authorities are still keen to show that jesus is actually not of god because he has broken the law of the sabbath so they call his parents the man's parents and they have threatened that anyone who believes in jesus will be cast out of the synagogue made a pariah from their own community and the parents know this and they come in fear and trembling before the jewish authorities in jerusalem and that's why this comment in the end is passed by then we can't say we know our this is our son yes we know he was born blind yes uh we are his parents we know those things but how he now sees and who caused him to see we don't know at all ask him pushing it over ask him he is of age ask him so they call the man again and the man himself is quite brave and courageous with them he is certainly not to be threatened and the conversation is one that is full of uh shall we say a courage from the man who now is seeing with his mortal sight and is feeling grateful to the one who calls that to happen and the pharisees who are wanting him to say that this man did this from a power not from god and is a sinner and the man won't and so in the end what happens they cast him out of the synagogue which probably he felt was quite a light thing compared with the great thing that he had received his sight and was now able to see all the wonders of the creator's world but jesus then hears that they have cast this man out and comes up to him and says do you believe in the son of man let's go back to that title the representative of our humanity jesus himself and the man answered who is he sir title of respect for a teacher who is he sir that i may believe in him jesus said to him you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you does that remind you of anything earlier in the gospel reminds me instantly of the woman at the well i who am speaking to you am he and the woman instantly shows her belief by running off from the well leaving the vessel that was the symbol of our old life by the world to go and tell the people come and see a man who told me everything i ever knew surely this can't be the messiah can it and yet her heart is stirring with that belief but here in this occasion on this occasion when jesus says you have seen him seen him with your earthly sight and it is he who is speaking to you and the man now not with earthly sight but with spiritual sight says lord i believe and he worshipped him jesus then says for judgment i came into the world for to give sight to those who cannot see to the blind and to those who say i see to convince them of their darkness for this is the judgment and this to me is another core passage of saint john's gospel dealing with the two levels i've said done before with the simplicity of all this response i've said before that one of my most influential books in my own life was this little book of austrian pharah lord i believe and it proved very formative for me very short book and it goes through the apostles creed and pharah gives lovely images he like jesus is very good at looking at earthly images but at the same time i had always thought just picking the book up i'm sorry picking the book up i had always thought that those words lord i believe came from the story instant mark of the father with the epileptic son whom when jesus and his disciples come down from the mountain of transfiguration and find the others uh there the other disciples because he's only got james and john and peter with him and the other disciples failing to heal the epileptic boy and there is the father of the epileptic boy and the when jesus says everything is possible to those who believe the man says i believe help my unbelief and i thought it came from there but he doesn't say lord i believe and suddenly i discovered quite far on that of course it's here it's here with the man who has received his earthly sight and goes part of the way not only in gratitude but in defending jesus and as he defends jesus i'm sorry let's have a sip of this you often believe i know that there's nothing in there there really is but it's only tea um and uh in defending jesus he's using his earthly sight but now when jesus says brother like he says to the the one at the well the one who is speaking to you is he then he says lord i believe and worships him as simple as that he moves from the earthly sign of his sight being restored for these things in physical terms into the realm of the spirit and is able to say lord i believe and at that time come on tanger off we go up you go so this to me um became quite a revelation and the simplicity of just everything in this passage is a wondrous thing because the man takes the steps for us from the earthly plane through seeing jesus himself and then a spiritual insight instantly dawns and another kind of seeing is set before us but this is the seeing with the spirit and it causes him to worship i'm going to come back in a while to uh austin farah's book but for the moment i wanted to deal with uh someone entirely other and that's someone whose date comes today who had a spiritual vision of the most intense power and i'm talking of saint teresa of avila a beautiful city in spain between the city of madrid and the city of balador baladorid and there in in spain she was of a noble family but she herself sensed uh what should we say of a very profound religious vocation not just to a a life in a community but at the same time a life of of spiritual and mental prayer and she said about contemplative prayer because of course saint teresa of avila is is well known for her mystic thinking and is often paired with saint john of the cross and some of that mystic thinking is absolute agony to her but it's an agony she wouldn't have traded for all the treasure in the world because in that she perceived and became united with the one whom she worshiped lord i believe and he worshipped and she says of contemplative prayer lest at the beginning we think this is far far too complicated for me she says something quite simple about it contemplative prayer in my opinion is nothing other than a close sharing between friends it means frequently taking time to be alone with him whom we know loves us a simple sentence and it's a really wonderful sentence because it calls us into an interior spiritual life of our own which is a gift from god and throughout her writings to raise teresa returns over and over again to the image of the spiritual life the interior life as a garden which needs constantly to be watered watered by our prayers by our thinking by our acts of devotion and our acts of compassion for others and our sharing of the gifts of the spirit but constantly watered in our quiet and private times in prayer and that companionship with jesus the one who said to the man born blind i am the one who is speaking to you he's had his earthly sight he's given gratitude for that and now in a huge revelation he receives a spiritual sight which allows him to worship a close companionship between friends which we enter in that inner garden which needs constant refreshment and we give thanks not only for the simplicity of what uh center razer is saying but also and inviting us to however simple an inner life of our own which we visit and that's why this little book lord i believe became so important to me because it gave me away with the simplicity of the apostles creed and the simplicity of the prayers as one went round the journeys and mysteries of the rosary all biblical scenes which won walks with the mother of the lord whom we were looking at so closely yesterday on our mothering sunday and on friday at the feast of the annunciation and this spanish mystic who was also a carmelite nun a religious reformer an author she wrote so much a theologian of the contemplative life and of mental prayer and more recently a doctor of the church capital d capital c this woman became an authorized doctor of the church and her desire when she entered the ordinary carmelite order and she found it lacks in its discipline and trivial in its conversation and too many guests coming in who were also trivial in their conversation and she longed for something simpler and she knew that that had to be lived out in a poverty and simplicity which actually gave her time for that inner life it caused deep ecclesiastical controversy well just so did the man who was born blind received his sight and then received spiritual sight and sensed himself absolutely impelled to worship and the books of saint teresa the interior castle the way of perfection are trying all the time to share this gift so that she became and still is an inspiration to philosophers to theologians to historians to neurologists to fiction writers to psychologists to artists and countless ordinary people who become interested in christian spirituality and mysticism so it's hardly a surprise that in 1622 she died in 1582 but in 1622 she was canonized by pope gregory the 15th having had her own way confirmed not only by philip ii of spain who gave her his protection but also by the pope of the day who gave her disgust uh carmelites the new order with great simplicity and a new kind of simple life of poverty but also a contemplation of the interior life together in community and individually all of those things are part of what went on but she actually received great a program hostility and also some of her especially the monks of the old because she her her vision causing john of the cross and anthony of jesus to to form monastic communities of the new carmelite order and that new order the disgust carmelites was then given a a proper authority a papal authority and in 1563 theresa moved to the new simpler smaller convent at first the citizens of avila were scandalized but gradually her own life and also the recognition by ecclesiastical authorities that this was a new way of spirituality caused her to be received in a very different way and the strict poverty and simplicity was accepted as a way of entering that mental prayer that spiritual life without things getting in the way from 1567 to 1571 she took physically many journeys and her journeys were about teaching teaching this new way and forming houses for the new carmelites and in the same way the monastic houses of the brothers were taught by her as well and then people began to to raise objections because in the scripture sin paul said no woman should teach it was brushed aside and she became a great teacher under the protection in spain of philip ii until she died in 1582 and her last words my lord it is time to move on well then may your will be done o my lord and my spouse the hour that i have longed for has come it is time to meet one another not that she hadn't met him over and over again in her interior life here on the earthly plane but just as the blind man who received first earthly sight and then spiritual sight reached out to the gift of the eternal in a spiritual life so had she and both then knew that a new home waited for them in an eternal dimension just in a sentence let me say that on this day um in 1134 stephen harding who was born in dorset and was a monk at sherban abbey born in 1050 and but he he left shaban abbey because the benedictine life there was not strict enough for him and simple enough for him and so he went to sito where the cistercian order was was becoming um prominent in a simpler way of life separated from human society but still given to hospitality and some of those wonderful cistercian monasteries in france were founded at the time of his own abbasi he became the abbot of of sito for 25 years and welcomed bernard of clairvaux and others who came with him into that too said that the cistercian order became really powerful the same thing they found orders which had become lacks in their discipline and went to a simpler way and founded the cistercian order so that too but i wanted to come back because i'm going back to the sense of the garden uh theresa saying that our inner life is a garden that we must water and we're doing that all the time of course but chapter three of lord i believe gives a little parable and it's in the chapter i believe in god almighty maker of heaven and earth sentence of the apostles creed and austin pharaoh uses an earthly image to start with and it's an image of my favorite bird the thrush now i say that quietly because of course the robin is our best friend in the garden but those of you who are watching i didn't see this because it happened behind my back uh but there's if you who are watching us by the marsh marigolds in the sunshine on saturday morning at morning prayer and the robin was there all over the the the ground and part of the whole setup but almost i should say two-thirds three-quarters of the way through and fletcher had to point this out to me on the film afterwards because it was behind my back a thrush suddenly made his appearance and stood absolutely silently as a witness to all that was going on well here's a parable about the thrush from austin farah i go down to my garden my work is behind the season the planting is urgent while the planting has lagged the weeds have grown and the hoe is needed everywhere where shall i begin the time i have this afternoon is so short i rather think ah there's a rustling in the net which is supposed to cover the currents that's why we came to the fruit cage here come out you little wretch look i have lifted the net for you what you won't then i must pretend to catch you here comes my hand no not that way foolish bird what's the use of pushing into the mesh oh i see you've wound yourself into the net what have you done to yourself you must have been struggling there for hours i can't see how the mesh goes it has cut so deep into under your feathers and how am i to tackle the knots round the wiry hooks of your claw anyhow there is nothing to be done until i have first freed your left wing don't struggle so and don't look at me with such an eye oh i see round your neck too the mesh quite buried in your feathers i strangle you when i pull on the twine to loosen your wing i sit down to the delicate puzzle laying the thrush and the border of the net in my lap my heart leaps as though my life will at stake i am terrified the sweat drips from my face after 20 minutes of agonized endeavor i remember my pruning knife i cut the net to pieces and let the bird go so there is my gardening nothing planted out and my nets rent by the time i have patched it up with string i shall have to go back and leave the garden well little bird i had no notion of caring for you and if i had turned my eyes half a side and knocked you on the head i should have thought it reasonable enough which is worth more a thrush is life or an afternoon's work where is the pair of scales in heaven or earth which will weigh them against each other a fragment of my world against the whole of yours for you two are a little world an entire creation when you fall to the earth something better than a star a life is quenched and you do not fall without the will of our father in heaven it's a parable a parable of the garden a parable of the life of the thrush and seeing that thrush on saturday morning when i watched the film of morning prayer later with the golden glory of the marsh marigolds and the activity of the robin but the still tranquility of the thrush the best song in the whole garden and the song that comes at winter time as well but also pharah's question how do you weigh one thing against another you have to do that by a life of prayer as well but oftentimes in human terms if we only trust in human judgment we get that wrong and sometimes we here get it wrong in the cathedral which is full of the ethos of the benedictine spirituality of valuing people in body mind and spirit living in a community which is always given to hospitality if we depart for a moment from that ethos we depart from the call of christ to this place and that's a call which has to be weighed in prayer not only in our daily offices but in our interior life also and that has to be kept burning bright so that our spiritual vision as well as our earthly sight may be profound and the spiritual vision will cause us like the man in the story who received his sight when jesus says it is i who i'm speaking to you says lord i believe and he worshiped a parable indeed so let's say our prayers on this morning and we are praying on this 28th of the month for the diocese of kobe in the anglican church of japan nippon seiko kai and here to in the diocese for archbishop justin and for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambus and today for the parish of saint michael and all angels maidstone our county town and the ministry of neil bryson there and we give thanks for that parish and for the two schools there st michael's church of england federation an infant school and st michael's church of england junior school give thanks for all children at this time our own school here have begun their easter holidays so we wish them well too so let's say the prayer for this day and it's a prayer for the week following the fourth sunday of lent bring your own intentions your own prayers your own concerns merciful lord absolve your people from their offenses that through your bountiful goodness we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins which by our frailty we have committed grant this heavenly father for jesus christ's sake our blessed lord and savior amen the colleague for lent almighty and everlasting god you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may receive from you the god of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own way and in our own language we say the prayer our savior taught us our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever are men time now to enter our own interior garden and reflect hmm [Music] let nothing trouble you let nothing frighten you [Music] everything passes away let nothing trouble you let nothing frighten you everything passes god never changes patience obtains all [Music] whoever has god wants for nothing whoever has gone has [Music] [Music] we've been listening through part of our our reflection to the uh egg song which the hens and the even the the guinea fowl uh make when they're laying their eggs in the morning and of course russell is there always to protect them and i think he would have been very approving of will smith standing for his wife in protection in that way however difficult and embarrassing the situation christ give you grace to grow in holiness to deny yourselves take up your cross daily and follow him 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 now and always are men so if i take the thrush mug refresh myself again from it and remind you to find that really lovely moment on saturday morning uh in our morning prayer look it look we'll type it back in um and uh find it on the internet because the thrush simply comes and stands there and it's a golden moment which will remind me always of that lovely parable which austin pharaoh gives us in his contemplation of the apostles creed i hope you enjoy your day tiger are we going to go inside i think perhaps you've not had a proper breakfast yet but you've been very much part of things this morning a bit sleepy i think still one thing is certain the thrush wouldn't be in danger with you i've never known you catch birds you