good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of monday the 4th of april the monday in passion week holy week next week passion week we've got here leo who is actually making uh noises at the robin who's over there so their duel is carrying on but the robin is knowing that leo's not going to last very long because the weather here is pretty awful this morning so i'm expecting him to give up and uh go inside and be warm the robin certainly never gives up so he's hopping about here waiting to take his opportunity and be welcome wherever you are in the world as we say our prayers on this as i say rather grim morning there's there's a spotting rain around us i'm sitting under the bay tree here uh but the sky is gray and we're promised a rainy day um but that won't prevent us saying our prayers together this morning and reaching out to all those whom we want to pray for and those we want to pray with so bring your own intentions and concerns as we continue to pray for peace and justice for ukrainian people for their land and for them and their welfare wherever they are in their millions having fled from that land from the dangers of war and also for the millions still in severe lockdown because the pandemic is still very evident throughout the planet in different nations so let's begin our prayers on this monday morning as the breeze and the rain surround us oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon earth your saving power among all nations blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief your only son was lifted up that he might draw the whole world to himself may we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight declaring your love for all the world 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 so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this day of the month is psalm 19 the first of the psalms for the fourth morning of the month and the moment we read verse 1 we're reminded of joseph haydn that franz joseph haydn that we were thinking of just i think about a week ago with his wonderful oratorio creation and the first verse of course is set to music in that in a mighty chorus psalm 19 the heavens are telling the glory of god and the firmament proclaims his handiwork one day pours out its song to another and one night unfolds knowledge to another they have neither speech nor language and their voices are not heard yet their sound has gone out into all lands and their words to the ends of the world in them has he set a tabernacle for the sun that comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoices as a champion to run his course it goes forth from the end of the heavens and runs to the very end again and there is nothing hidden from its heat the law of the lord is perfect reviving the soul the testimony of the lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple the statutes of the lord are right and rejoice the heart the commandment of the lord is pure and gives light to the eyes the fear of the lord is clean and endures forever the judgments of the lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold even than much fine gold sweeter also than honey dripping from the honeycomb by them also is your servant taught and in keeping them there is great reward who can tell how often they offend oh cleanse me from my secret faults keep your servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get dominion over me so shall i be undefiled and innocent of great offence let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight o lord my strength and my redeemer a wonderful psalm in so many different ways it's a psalm which speaks of the absolute freshness of each new day and the distinction of that gift reminds me of a song that was in the school hymn book that we used to sing so here has been dawning another new day think work i'll let it slip useless away and that new dawn is giving us new life and more things are growing up and things are opening up but at the same time the psalmist thinks of each day singing a song one day pours out its song to another and one night unfolds knowledge to another notice that the night as always in the psalmist is the time when spiritual reflection and spiritual messages in often in the scriptures in dreams are given and each day is an opportunity not for just the day to sing its song metaphorically but for us to sing our individual song with our gifts again totally metaphorically we may not be singing it but our whole life is singing a song of praise to the lord day by day and then the wonderful meditation on the law of the lord which jesus came to fulfill and show in all its perfection and how it can be used to the glory of god the flexibility of that law and at the same time the psalmist links it with the most precious things he can think of gold and honey from the honeycomb things which are pure in their own right it's a psalm which bears much more reflection psalm 19 the heavens are telling the glory of god so let's go to our lesson today and we're back now with saint john having had our excursion yesterday into that wonderful song of the prophet isaiah about the wilderness flowering one of the most musical passages in the whole of the old testament not a psalm but really a song of isaiah a dream of isaiah and we can think about that a little later on in our reflection but for the moment we are back with john chapter 11. and let's shall we say recap jesus for love of lazarus and mary and martha has crossed the river jordan and at a cost to his own safety and the safety of his disciples he has come to embrace his vocation but he has come in answer to a call from friends the two sisters have written to him and the message was simply lord he whom you love is ill we'll talk about that word love in a moment because two different words are being used all the way through this chapter 11 but for the moment this word that they're using is the one from the verb filio which means a natural and emotional affection not from a reasoned decision about how we esteem someone and have a duty for their welfare and all of that that's a completely different verb we'll come across that in a moment but this one is the kind of affection that we feel for someone utterly naturally from our own devotion something that we ourselves hardly are in control of it's the way in which we make friendships and relationships in that way but the the greek in the new testament has several words of gradation which are all translated by this word in english love we come across the same kind of dialogue between those two words when we get onto the lakeside with jesus giving peter full forgiveness after the resurrection but we've plenty of time to do that for this morning we remember that it was that message lord he whom you love is ill and then in the next paragraph as we read on uh the mornings of last week at the next paragraph it begins now jesus loved martha and her sister and lazarus now this is the other verb which means to love someone out of esteem and duty because they deserve our respect and duty and we we want their good will that's a different kind of of uh it's not so much a feeling it's it's it's a mental decision which is followed by feeling and let's not get too deep into these words because uh all kinds of of arguments have been made round each of them but here we are saying jesus loved martha the other verb and her sister and lazarus so when he heard that lazarus was ill and then gradually we unfolded so that he came and we saw also martha coming to meet him on the way that i think we did on saturday morning and she went out to meet him on the path and confronted him with the quest with the statement lord if you had been here my brother would not have died and then she follows that up with the sense of but even now i know that whatever you ask from god god will give you remember jesus said to her your brother will rise again and martha says in a general statement of faith i know he'll rise again at the resurrection on the last day and then comes the great i am statement i am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me though they die yet shall they live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die and then the singular question to master asked of us through the gospel through the words of the evangelist and he makes it quite clear this is why it's being written down when he gets to the end of the book the question is then asked of us do you believe this and masa in that statement of faith says yes lord i believe that you are the christ the son of god who is coming into the world it's an eye-opening moment for martha and then on we go this morning verse 28 when martha had said this she went and called her sister mary saying privately the teacher is here and is calling for you and when mary had it she rose quickly and went to jesus now jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where martha had met him when the jews who were with mary in the house consoling her saw her rise quickly and go out they followed her supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep but when mary came to where jesus was and saw him she fell at his feet saying to him lord if you had been here my brother would not have died when jesus saw her weeping and the jews who had come with her also weeping he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled and he said where have you laid him they said to him lord come and see jesus wept so the jews said see how he loved him but some of them said could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying and then jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb it was a cave and a stone lay against it jesus said take away the stone martha the sister of the dead man said to him lord by this time there will be a stench for he has been dead four days jesus said to her did i not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of god so they took away the stone and jesus lifted up his eyes and said father i thank you that you have heard me i knew that you always hear me but i said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me when he had said these things he cried out with a loud voice lazarus come out the man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth jesus said to them unbind him and let him go it's one of the most powerful physical signs in st john's gospel and there are so many shall we say signs of what will happen at the tomb of jesus himself you can spot them as you go through and their meaning gradually unfolds but meanwhile let's go back to where our lesson began with masa going to say secretly the master has come and he's calling for you and mary mary of bethany goes out to meet him unless we've said the evangelist seems right at the beginning of this story to assume that you know the little pericope the little story in luke's gospel about mary and martha mary is seen there kneeling at the master's feet and drinking in all his teaching and martha the one of physical action is the one who complains that her sister is not helping her in the kitchen prepare a meal for jesus mary is giving jesus another kind of nourishment the sense of knowing exactly the deep meaning of what jesus is saying and she assumes her position once again she kneels at his feet and says what is on her heart of course which martha had said in a different way on the on the road mary says lord if you had been here my brother would not have died it's simply a human statement i wish you'd been here there's no other expectation there's nothing like martha who says to jesus but even now i know that whatever you ask of the father will come to pass mary is utterly an absolutely accepting in her devotion it's simply a human statement i wish you'd been here master if you'd been here my brother would not have died [Music] and when jesus sees her weeping something in his humanity is both moved and troubled with deep grief this comes from his sharing are human flesh and blood for grief is something that we all know especially at the parting of friends and the deaths of a loved one or seeing someone whom we love suffering deep grief and jesus is troubled in his spirit and deeply moved and he says to mary and to those with her where have you laid him and they say to him lord come and see and then verse 35 the shortest verse in all the bible jesus wept and yet the verse which says above all other things that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us the prelude to this whole gospel he shares our human condition he shares our grief he shares our sorrow absolutely physically in reality as tears well up in him and he begins to weep and the jews around seeing this of the lord weeping i'm sorry seeing this of the lord weeping says say to one another see how he loved him and we are back with the other verb that kind of affection we feel for someone absolutely emotionally and naturally not having to call it up not having to make decisions it's there it's part of us and that's this other word this filio word see how he loved him that emotional love which has called for these tears and then some of them standing around as always happens are should we say fairly nasty and judgmental couldn't this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying it's funny how they always go back to that miracle of the opening of the blind man's eyes and here they are mentioning it again the man who first says lord i believe when jesus says i am the one i whom speaking to you do you believe that lord i believe and here they're saying couldn't he have done the same thing here then jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb it was a cave all these things now are reminiscent because we have studied this gospel we know it well we know the synoptic gospels reminiscent of the mourning of resurrection and that's what's intended as this goes on lazarus says no words he is simple simply a human sign of resurrection the stone removed the grave clothes taken off and lazarus set free set free for life i am the resurrection and the life pointing forward to where jesus himself must go as will the next few paragraphs of this gospel so let's receive it as it's given in all those ways the deep grief of our humanity the limitations we know we have the impossibility of all that jesus is saying and yet suddenly the credibility when he says suddenly do you believe this and the response of faith enables everything the gates of that eternal world open up to our spirit and cause us to receive that gift in life for every new day so that we can in truth in body mind and spirit sing our song of creativity day by day but meanwhile there's a hard path to tread for the son of man who has taken our flesh and is now set on his own journey this is where we shall go in this gospel day by day from now on but for the moment let's uh continue our reflection i'm going to move my chair so that fletcher can move his camera and we get a slightly different scene and the duel between the robin and leo is continuing during this leo's not moved away but he's perfectly safe with the robin the robin is canny let me go down here i've moved the chair down here so that we get a different perspective just glimpses of resurrection which is opening these glimpses are opening up in this story of lazarus but there's still the hard and painful path for the son of man to tread during those chapters of saint john which are left to us until we get to resurrection mourning nevertheless this chapter 11 is full of signs of how the gift of each new day opens up and one of the dates i wanted to use this morning was the date of this day 4th of april 1968. on that day tragically the american baptist minister martin luther king jr was assassinated cruelly in memphis tennessee he had lived a life knowing he was in danger as the most visible spokesman and leader of the civil rights movement he advanced civil rights for people of color in the united states through non-violence and non-violent civil disobedience inspired by his very very deep christian beliefs but also by the non-violent activism of the figure of mahatma gandhi who of course was by that time himself dead after being assassinated in india earlier in 1963 martin luther king led a march to the capital washington dc and on the steps of the lincoln memorial made one of the great and memorable speeches which which are heard throughout history this one is very much something that stays in the mind he was used to preaching as a baptist minister and at the same time he is used to the way in which words can be used to make people feel the intention of the cause and these words were i have a dream no better words to use i have a dream and it ends with the statement i have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character i have a dream today that was in 1963 and five years later he was assassinated on this april the 4th but that dream is still still held up as a flame now the third monday i think the third monday in january becomes martin luther king day and many honors were offered to him uh or given to him posthumously he'd already had in his own life a nobel peace prize but nevertheless he was fearless in that and the sense of having a dream is something that we speak of when we wake in the morning i've had a dream but we also speak about a vision that we in our own lives want to share with others think of the way in which the prophet isaiah yesterday morning in our morning prayer gave us that wonderful dream of the wilderness flowering that could be in reality or it could be as we know it was meant to be a vision for a society which will blossom in years to come and as that dream continues through uh it wasn't part of the wilderness stream yesterday but his dream that there will be peace in the heavenly kingdom of which will come with those qualities on earth where the the the creatures will lie down together and a little child will lead them all those are part of isaiah's dream and the psalmist speaks of dreams uh which the minute you awake it's it's there and then begins gradually to leave you and unless you write the thing down even then the brightness of the colors of that dream are not are not as present as they were when you were dreaming it sometimes dreams are terrifying but when we say i have a dream and mean it's my vision of life well that's something quite different and it means that i have a dream which energizes me and that we're speaking of with martin luther king a dream rooted and grounded in his face in jesus christ and as he lived out that dream he did so not only in his prayers and in his preaching in his spiritual reflections but actually putting his life on the line and paying the full cost for that total sacrifice and that's why his flame burns bright today as we remember him on this anniversary of his assassination and hold to that dream that people will be judged not through the color of their skin but through their character and what they have to offer to human life and the ongoing life of this world in all its quality so that's our first intention today but the second is in the same way connected with people's dreams and visions now this is a man you may not know of his name hans richter who was one one of the great conductors of the late 19th century and early 20th century a musical conductor he was born on this day in 1843 and he was born in hungary in the austro-hungarian empire at the time and became not so much a composer as an interpreter through his conducting of the dreams and visions of composers the very best composers and they chose him again and again to conduct the premieres of their works and one thinks of his conducting of the first the premiere of wagner's whole ring cycle all four operas it by right wagner was happy to put that into the hands of hans richter because he knew that this conductor not only could conduct and beat time but actually had a vision like his for what this work meant and in the same way he did he he uh gave the works of composers like brahms who we were talking about yesterday and brookner and vorzak and tchaikovsky and even our own church composers here stanford and parry and elgar the same kind of sense of taking their music and making it come to life which is shall we say an interpreter of dreams rather like joseph in the old testament the interpreter of the the musical dreams of these great composers as he showed that through all the instruments of the orchestra and the voices of choruses and the voices of soloists he could make those dreams live and rise from the manuscript uh as something that was of the vision of the composers and they trusted him he grew to be too busy and again and again he would race across europe to conduct here and there one or other of the great works for one of the great composers and he was the guest conductor of the birmingham triennial music festival and was due in 1900 at birmingham town hall to conduct the first performance of a work by edward elgar he had conducted the premiere of elgar's enigma variations but now he was coming back and he'd grown too used to going to concert halls where the orchestra and the choir were already prepared and he could have a day's rehearsal and then the next day stand on the rostrum and create the fine music which was expected of him and he arrived with a day or two to spare and went to the rostrum and began to conduct the rehearsal of orchestra and choir and soloists and found that this work the dream of durontius was far beyond their understanding and there was no hope of having the kind of performance that elgar dreamed of because richter himself had misjudged the work he thought it was going to be two should we say regular a piece of composition and this was new these sounds were new and no one there in front of him could cope with it through the chorus master uh swinoden heap had died recently and it was given back to old mr stockley who was used to handles messiah and uh mendelssohn's elijah and the kind of works that were sung at the birmingham festival but here was richter with a brilliant score in front of him and a young composer whom he honored massively edward elgar and he knew that this performance was not going to interpret that dream elgar had written on the bottom of the score this is the best of me and then he had to sit through the most tragic disaster of a premier in the hands of a man that he knew he could trust but who had come too late to save the day and at the end elgar in in deep distress wrote to his best friend jaeger who is nimrod of the enigma variations and he said to him in in a tragic way i have allowed my heart to open once it is now shut against every religious feeling and every soft gentle impulse forever that was the wound that came to elgar on that first performance when his dream lay in tatters one thinks of that couplet of wb yates the poet the irish poet i have spread my dreams under your feet tread softly because you tread on my dreams richter knew what he had done and he promised elgar that he would take the work and make sure that the world had it he took it back to germany it was translated into german it became the absolute toast of germany because it is as we well know a work of complete genius and certainly the very best of elgar's choral writing but nevertheless the tragedy of that dream in tatters never really left elgar and he got round it by hiding his heart and becoming rather formal uh that we remember that when people have a dream we have as wba says to tread softly and we remember the emotion of our savior at the tomb of lazarus weeping sharing our humanity to the very depths of grief but his own not dream but vision of his vocation was still to be realized and it would be realized step by step towards calvary towards golgotha in the days following and those around him would not really be understanding but already we're seeing in the bethany household a sense a spark of understanding which will come and we'll come to that but let's go on for now with our prayers as we remember all these things the interpretation of the dream but also the one who has that dream and longs for it to be shared with the world we're using the prayer for this week the fifth sunday of lent passion sunday and we'll use that collect in a moment we are praying on this day the fourth of april for the diocese con takora in the church of nigeria the lakoja province and also for all those who who officiate as uh volunteer clergy and chaplains in the north down scenery we'll pray for the parishes of the deanery one by one as we go through the days ahead we pray for archbishop justin and for rose bishop of dover and for emma bishop atlantis and bring your own prayers and intentions as we use the collect for this week most merciful god who by the death and resurrection of your son jesus christ delivered and saved the world grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross we may triumph in the power of his victory through jesus christ our lord amen and the collect for lent itself 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 we say in our own words 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 amen moment now for your own reflections and to dream your own dreams [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that music was composed by matthias paxo who is fletcher got in touch with when researching music for the morning prayer and now uh he mathias has and his wife have become friends and uh so we give thanks for the music he is a hungarian composer hungarian like richter but he's also a pianist and during april 2020 when we were in the fiercest stage of lockdown he lives in the united kingdom now and in the first stage of lockdown he decided to compose a piece of music on the piano for every day of the month all 30 days of april a new album and it's called now in the way it's been produced april april in my mind and this morning you heard a piece called appropriately enough dreams lost which gives a sense of a sort of ethereal sense of the transient nature of dreams that we try to hold on to but we lose almost the moment we wake up christ crucified draw you to himself to find in him a sure ground for faith a firm support for hope and the assurance of sins forgiven 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 so i think you deserve the answers to uh the riddles from yesterday and uh i've got them here here's the book so i think yesterday we had i have no fingers but i can still point i have no arms but i can still strike i have no feet but i can still run well of course that was a clock and i can be used to build castles but i crumble in your hands i can help you to see and i am found all around the lands and that is of course sand uh sarah two more if you want today here's one i have many rings and get a brand new one every year but they're not worth much they will tell you how old i am and then i have a head and i have a tail but my eyes can never see my tail i'll leave you with those and here also this lovely book which is about lost words and we've got to number three of the acrostics and yesterday with the adder and today the jumble of words in the trees is b for bluebell they're not quite out yet the bluebells here it's become rather cold but the acrostic as it runs down runs blue flowers at the blue hour late day light in a bluebell wood under branch below leaf billows blue so deep sea deep each step is taken in an ocean blue flows at the blue hour color is current underflow enter the wood with care my love lest you are pulled down by the hue lost in the depths drowned in blue and if this is very much an english bluebell with its arching neck and if we turn the page we find the blue sea of a blue bell wood with a fox running in it and the beautiful barn owl flying across it so obviously it's towards the end of day as the owl comes out and the fox both out to hunt so let me say have a good day in passion tide but uh remind you of that little hymn so here has been dawning another new day think would you let it slip useless away out of eternity that new day was born into eternity at night will return so here has been dawning another new day think well now let it slip useless away don't forget to write your sentence at the end of the day you