good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of tuesday the 12th of october as we come to say our morning prayers in the garden here wherever you are in the world please bring your own prayers and concerns as we join together in prayer i'm sitting here in front of a medler tree this morning and it's a different kind of fruitfulness yesterday we were thinking of the timeless nature and the i am of god in the present tense today we're thinking of how crucial the right timing is in our human and waiting and knowing that this is the moment well the meddler is a different kind of tree here that's spelled m-e-d-l-a-r and here we have the fruit i can reach one here and as i feel it here and that there are fruits all over this tree as the leaves began begin to turn brown for the autumn um then if i just take this one off here in my hand this is as hard as a stone at the moment absolutely hard and not ready we have to wait with the meddler the leaves will begin to go then they'll fall but the fruits hang and we allow them to blet blet it's a very old english word and it's used in this context of allowing the meddler to soften in maturity and grow into a sweetness when you think surely it's long time long past the age of fruiting but in fact it grows into a sweetness and at the right moment you come out and harvest the medler and the medler then makes the most delicious jelly and jam and it has the the loveliest kind of color if you set it on a table in a glass vars as part of a cold meat selection or using it in some way or another and put candlelight behind it it has the most beautiful amber color but here is the fruit of no use to us yet because the time is not right so we've come on to a damp autumn lawn and it's a cloudy sky this morning as a dampness in the air very different from yesterday when we were celebrating under a blue sky that act of thanksgiving so we're going to say our prayers this morning and we're thinking of times and seasons and right times and wrong times and god's times and our times and once again the the lawn in its dampness with the tasaki grass which we've allowed to grow this year is covered in mushrooms which come up of their own accord and uh they're just all around us let's say our prayers o 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 sun 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 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 son this morning on this 12th morning of the month is psalm 62 on god alone my soul in stillness waits him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall never be shaken how long will all of you assail me to destroy me as you would a tottering wall or a leaning fence they plot only to thrust me down from my place of honour lies are their chief delight they bless with their mouth but in their heart they curse wait on god alone in stillness o my soul for in him is my hope he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall not be shaken in god is my strength and my glory god is my strong rock in him is my refuge put your trust in him always my people pour out your hearts before him for god is our refuge the peoples are but a breath the whole human race a deceit on the scales they are altogether lighter than air put no trust in oppression in robbery take no empty pride though wealth increase set not your heart upon it god spoke once and twice have i heard the same that power belongs to god steadfast love belongs to you o lord for you repay everyone according to their deeds this is a psalm of strength but it's also a psalm of waiting for god's time perhaps the really important phrase is wait on god alone in stillness oh my soul we're turning to the book of exodus and we find ourselves in chapter four where we left moses yesterday confronted in the burning bush from which he's had to hide his eyes confronted by the vocation that god is putting before him in a detailed way having named him moses moses entrusted him with his own name i am who i am and now in detail a detailed journey of what moses must do an agenda for moses at this time we're starting now at chapter four in the middle of this conversation and it's a conversation which moses really isn't keen on having chapter four and i'm reading from verses 1 to 17 then moses answered but behold they will not believe me or listen to my voice for they will say the lord did not appear to you the lord said to him what is that in your hand he said a staff and god said throw it on the ground so moses threw his staff on the ground and it became a snake and moses ran from it but the lord said to moses put out your hand and catch it by the tail so moses put out his hand and caught it and it became a staff in his hand [Music] that they may believe that the lord the god of their fathers the god of abraham the god of isaac and the god of jacob has appeared to you again the lord said to him put your hand inside your cloak and moses put his hand inside his cloak and when he took it out behold his hand was the hand of a leper as white as snow then god said put your hand back inside your cloak so moses put his hand back inside his cloak and when he took it out behold it was restored like the rest of his flesh if they will not believe you god said or listen to the first sign they may believe the latter sign if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice you shall take some water from the nile and pour it on the dry ground and the water that you shall take from the nile will become blood on the dry ground but moses said to the lord oh my lord i am not eloquent either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant i am slow of speech and slow of tongue then the lord said to him who has made man's mouth who makes him mute or death or seeing or blind is it not i the lord now therefore go and i will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak but moses said o my lord please send someone else then the anger of the lord was kindled against moses and he said is there not aaron your brother the levite i know that he can speak well behold he is coming out to meet you and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth and i will be with your mouse and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do he shall speak for you to the people and aaron shall be your mouth and you shall be as god to him and take in your hand this staff with which you shall do many signs it's an extraordinary conversation and it's a conversation of resistance because moses first of all doesn't want to leave this life which he is now living it's a useful life it's a life he enjoys it's a life which he ran away from danger to find and there in as we said yesterday the old translation the very back side of the wilderness with his sheep trying to find pasture he is satisfied at home he has his wife zipper and his son gershom he has his father-in-law jethro the priest of midian who has nothing to do with the arguments between egypt and the hebrews he's managed to shut out of his mind all of that and any kind of responsibility he feels for his own people and now in the blazing bush in the white heat of his own vocation and duty confronting him he finds god setting before him once again the vocation that is for moses and moses alone it's a wonderful argument backwards and forwards it's not the right time i'm not the right person and even after the signs when moses runs from the snake and is horrified by his leprous hand and is being shown that all life and death and times and seasons are in god's hands but at the same time he's still resistant and resorts to another kind of argument i'm not a very good speaker and you're asking me to go and make an argument in front of the pharaoh to take all all his his slaves away the ones that are hebrews and put into slavery building his store cities and building his temples and everything else he wants how's he going to listen to me i'm hopeless at public speaking and the lord then begins to show a certain amount of impatience but relents and gives him someone else and we shall see how that unfolds tomorrow but he's named aaron and moses and aaron the two brothers then become absolutely crucial in the story together but apparently aaron is good at speaking and moses must know that and so he will be the mouthpiece and moses will tell him because it's the vocation given to moses exactly what he has to say in fact as we know as the story unfolds moses grows in confidence but at the end of this section of chapter four moses knows that this time there is no escape there's a a little kneeler in the cathedral in front of a lovely and new icon of jesus washing peter's feet and the kneeler has been carved beautifully and when you kneel in front of there to say a prayer or light a candle they're carved in vanilla are the words wait for the lord weight doesn't mean delay it means know in your heart and mind that this is the lord's time courage is still going to be needed and a sense of determination and purpose and in any vocation offered there's always the chance to say no and turn your back on it moses could have done that instead he chose to argue with god and at the end gave way because everything there was cogent and the lord was giving certain gifts to help him take your staff and take your brother and that will be enough for i will be with you this is the lord's time before here's the stony fruit of the meddler not time yet now with moses his vocation has come to maturity and we remember that all his arguments are as nothing think of that first chapter in the corinthians when uh saint paul says to the little christian congregation in corinth think of your own calling not many of you were wise not many of you were wealthy not many of you were noble not many of you were strong most unlikely people forgot to call but the resources are given by god and the time is god's and this is the right time the kairos in the greek word the right time a time of significance we all have those in our lives sometimes it's not yet sometimes it's now and we cease to claim it and then in god's good time the vocation is placed before us again in a different situation for if it's a true vocation god won't let it go his time will come but meanwhile those words wait for the lord become important to us this day i have three dates and there are three women of significance elizabeth fry edith cavill and edith stein all have significant anniversaries on this day let's begin with elizabeth frye she died in ramsgate in 1845 on this day and we remember her she's actually even named in our calendar she was a quaker a member of the society of friends born into that and in um 1845 when she was born she was brought up in that particular way and her faith was strong very strong she married another quaker in the year 1800 joseph fry now that to me because in the area where i was born uh between the cities of bristol and bath in south gloucestershire there was at uh somerville near the town of kanesham uh which is just over in the somerset border a chocolate factory called fry's chocolate factory and it's been set up by the quaker family the fries and the way in which as with the cadburys in birmingham the fries looked after their community of people and looked after their welfare was utterly according to the way in which the society of friends knew their duty to do that having been called by god then there was work to do for others in encouragement and in physical help and care well that was elizabeth fry she was the driving force behind legislation which led up to the jails act in 1823 to improve the treatment of prisoners in up jails and prisons of appalling conditions particularly for women inmates and she achieved in the jails act gender segregation so that women were in prisons of their own with women warders and in her diaries she and she kept a very very detailed diary of the dangers of sexual exploitation and rape described in in appalling detail for her which were the the common activity in prisons before said that this jails act in 1823 might seem just uh only a tiny step but it was a massive step because it taught other people that this kind of cow was necessary she was all part of a large family and she also formed a society of visitors who would not only visit prisons but visit port the the impoverished in their homes without resources and and help with that too in 1811 she became a minister of the society of friends and between 1811 and 1845 not only the jails act but also the the later and the early years of her reign and even before she became queen queen victoria was conscious of her and admired her greatly but not only that the the czar of russia both alexander the first and nicholas the first called her to go to russia and look at prisons there the king of prussia in the same way she was a beacon of good treatment for people and what she really focused on too was the treatment of those who were being kept in prison to put on slave ships and to be taken out in appalling conditions to australia she not only looked after the conditions in the ships she must have been a formidable force for the ship's captains she went on board and just set to rights what she thought should should be happening it was still an appalling journey to make but she also sent messages and wrote to people in australia so that a a a hostel was made in parramatta and also when the people came out to australia then they were safely taken there the women and their children and parameters is a name known to us because we have a a king school of parramatta linked with ours and have a long history of communication and connection with that well as you see there's an awful lot to say about elizabeth fry but she seized her moment and when her moment came she affected so much but inspired so much else so that many things grew from that thanks be to god for elizabeth's fry on this day she died in ramsgate here in in kent edith cavill comes next and edith cavill was shot on this day the 12th of october 1915 she had been a nurse through her life and a trainer of nurses and she had served again in kent she came to treat people at an outbreak of typhoid in maidstone and by the the town of maidstone which is the county county town of kent here she was given in 1897 a maidstone medal for the care that she she took of of people there during a typhoid epidemic with with no thought of her own safety in 1907 she was asked to go to belgium to help train nurses and there she found herself at the beginning of the war well i'm wrong when the war broke out she was in england on furlough as they called it and she went she chose to go back to belgium and then she found herself treating wounded soldiers without fear or favor of both sides but she also assisted french and uh british soldiers to find their way home and that was the way in which she was eventually taken and despite an international outcry was shot as a traitor by a german firing squad on this day the 12th of october 1915 she is buried in norwich cathedral and there is a wonderful statue of her just outside the national portrait gallery and very near the church of saint martin in the field in london a large statue showing her her eyes bright and looking forward as though she had seized god's moment at that time and her phrase which was written down by someone who was ministering to her just before she was killed is that patriotism is not enough i must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone thanks be to god for edith cavill and her fearless care of those and her attempt to get folk home in safety and finally edith stein a german jewish philosopher who converted to christianity and became a carmelite nun she was born on this day the 12th of october 1891 and her her writings on on mysticism her the inspiration given to her by people like saint teresa of avila and john of the cross and also the order of benedict and the the rule of sin benedict calls her to change her name to be sister theresa benedicto of the cross she found herself as a nun when the german nazi forces took over that part of europe and because everyone knew by that stage there was a huge danger for those who were jews they were being taken to uh concentration camps and it is it is what's called this uh at the moment but it's something with the guinness um it is stein was fearless in in her calling on the church constantly to speak against this racism of nazism and she had been moved to holland because it was thought to be safer there still a nun there in a community in holland and the dutch bishops in 1942 in july 1942 issued a letter to be read in all churches denouncing this kind of racism and the uh the the nazi authorities at the time took huge offense and went and and and arrested 200 jews who had been baptized into the catholic faith transported them to auschwitz and among them was edith stein and on this uh in august 1942 she died at auschwitz soon after being taken there poisoned with poison gas we remember her she also a nurse and we remember her courage in asking the church to speak out for she knew that there might be reprisals she was canonized as a christian martyr and so we say thanks be to god for the writings the theological writings the philosophical writings but also of the courage of edith stein on this day thanks be to god for elizabeth fry for edith cavill edith stein who waited for god and when his moment came were not found wanting in human courage and duty they might have argued in the same way that moses did but moses himself is now ready to embrace his vocation for the time of fruitfulness and maturity has come let's say our prayers and on this particular morning and on this day we are praying for the diocese of gippsland in the anglican church of australia the victoria province and playing with the area deanery of dover that's that parishes in the town of dover and also the parishes around dover we shall name them one by one as we go through the week but today we we we name all the parishes of the area deanery of dover and the area dean in his ministry there andy bautry and those who assist him in that task so let us say the prayer which we're getting to know now for this week of the year and bring your own intentions and your own concerns as we say this prayer oh god for as much as without you we are not able to please you mercifully grant that your holy spirit may direct and rule our hearts through jesus christ our lord amen and see our father which we are taught to say in whatever language we like to use our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen moment of silence now for our own prayers as we wait for the lord [Music] so [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 are men it will be some weeks yet before the meddler is ready to be fruitful but the day will come and then we shall know this has been a day of times and seasons and we pray that all of us will be ready when a particular time comes as we're waiting for the lord time to take action and embrace what he's asking from us you