good morning and welcome wherever you are in the world to the wild wood at the deanery at canterbury cathedral this morning we've come outside with the trees for a very special reason as we'll see as we go on with our reflection we're in the quiet period between christmas and not quite new year and most work has stopped and so there's a silence here around us and the trees like a greenwood are here spreading their branches in traditional ways throughout the centuries people have gone out to gather those branches and decorate their houses and thread them with herbs and other aspects of the countryside to make their houses good and welcoming at christmas time and we've come outside here and decorated some of the trees a little bit too so that we get that feeling of christmas here as we come to i think is it the sixth day of christmas today oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands blessed are you sovereign god creator of heaven and earth to you be praise and glory forever as your living word eternal in heaven assume the frailty of our mortal flesh may the light of your love be born in us to fill our hearts with joy as we sing 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 on this 30th morning of the month is psalm 144 blessed be the lord my rock who teaches my hands for war and my fingers for battle my steadfast help and my fortress my stronghold and my deliverer my shield in whom i trust who subdues the peoples under me oh lord what are mortals that you should consider them mere human beings that you should take thought for them they are like a breath of wind their days pass away like a shadow bow your heavens o lord and come down touch the mountains and they shall smoke cast down your lightnings and scatter them shoot out your arrows and let thunder roar reach down your hand from on high deliver me and take me out of the great waters from the hand of foreign enemies whose mouth speaks wickedness and their right hand is the hand of falsehood o god i will sing to you a new song i will play to you on a ten-stringed harp you that gives salvation to kings and have delivered david your servant save me from the peril of the sword and deliver me from the hand of foreign enemies whose mouth speaks wickedness and whose right hand is the hand of falsehood so that our sons in their youth may be like well nurtured plants and our daughters like pillars carve for the corners of the temple our barns be filled with all manner of store our flocks bearing thousands and ten thousands in our fields our cattle be heavy with young may there be no miscarriage or untimely birth no cry of distress in our streets happy are the people whose blessing this is happy are the people who have the lord for their god perhaps the line to remember in that psalm is oh god i will sing to you a new song for christmas is a time of singing a time when people throughout the centuries have made up songs to welcome the births of the christ child i'm going to read this morning not from one of the gospels but from one of saint paul's earliest letters it's a letter to the churches in galatia we normally refer to that as the epistle to the galatians i'm reading from chapter 4 and verse 1 and it's really paul's best reference to the birth of the christ child through whom a new covenant will be made between the lord of heaven and earth and humankind chapter four of the epistle to the galatians verses one to seven i mean that the heir so long as he is a child is no different from a servant though he is the owner of everything but he is under guardians and stewards until the date set by his father in the same way we also when we were children were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world but when the fullness of time had come god sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as children and because we are children god has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying abba father so we are no longer servants but children and if children then as as through god that chapter speaks very much of the event that we have been celebrating the birth of the christ child from the humanity of mary and that coming of the holy spirit to her that the child might be born and be called holy the son of god as the angel announced to her in luke's gospel and here is saint paul give us certain clues as to the way in which the early church embraced that event but he's going on because he's worried i'm not going to read the rest of the chapter but i do want to quote one verse at the end he's worried that his people in galatia whom he has taught that faith to that faith of a new promise a new covenant are slipping back by the influence of some into thinking that they must adhere to the customs of the old law and these people are not from the jewish community in all likelihood they are gentiles who have embraced the faith through the teaching of paul and he speaks to them as his little children and is upset that they are turning back to this so in verse 19 he says my little children for whom i am again in the anguish of childbirth until christ is born in you i wish i could be present with you now and change my tone for i am perplexed about you he's worried about them because he's not with them but notice that phrase until christ is born in you and it will begin to give us the flavor of the way in which saint paul felt that that new birth of the child in bethlehem from the human mother would be born in them and the new covenant would take effect only when that birth within them took place we'll come back to that in a moment in one of our christmas carols but for the moment let's also look at the fact that sin paul is saying that the birth happened yes but while the child was still growing up like all of us he would be under the care of guardians and teachers and of course that role fell first and foremost to mary and joseph and joseph we know was a righteous man we hear that in saint matthew's gospel in the very first chapter and we also know that when jesus begins his earthly ministry and luke places that in about his 30th year when he begins his earthly ministry he is well versed in scripture and well able to quote from memory so many things in the psalms in the law and especially in the prophets and particularly in the prophet isaiah when we hear him and see him teaching the people in his own community in nazareth they too will have had a hand in his growing up but those are hidden years there's one little story which later on not today we shall come to of jesus age 12 but apart from that these will be hidden years of formation of discovery of discovering about himself and what the father the creator wishes from him and all those things are set out in this sense of sin paul saying there will be a time when it's as though he is also a servant we read that when we hear that jesus goes back to nazareth with mary and joseph and is subject to them during the years of his growing up well we only have little glimpses of what might have happened during those years but we do know that saint paul anchored that coming of the anointed one the christ in that bethlehem fact of being born of a human mother born under the law and by the power of the holy spirit and one thinks of little texts that the early church church held on to from earlier writings i think of one in the wisdom of solomon for while all things were in quiet silence and that night was in the midst of her swift course thine almighty word leapt down from heaven out of thy royal throne the early church took that as a a reference to the leaping down of the power of god into that bethlehem manger and the eternal word being born and given human flesh that we ourselves might see behold and then have that same spirit born in us i said that this is a time when we sing so many things it's a time for singing christmas carols and i want to just mention one or two of those but i want also to just go back to the fact that a week or two ago we were talking about the american great american bishop of massachusetts bishop phillips brooks who was a great preacher but i said i would come back to him when we came to christmas time and i want to do that today for phillips brooks as a young man endured as the whole of the united states did the appointing bloodshed and division of the american civil war that took place between 1861 and 1860 and phillips brooks found himself as the rector of holy trinity church in philadelphia in pennsylvania and his brother george was killed in that bloodshed but he had distant relatives on both sides of the civil conflict and it absolutely tore him to pieces though he knew exactly where his own loyalties stood but at the end of all that and aged uh only 29 he he took a vacation and went across to europe and the holy land and found himself in jerusalem on christmas eve 1865 the civil war had ended in april and he wrote in his diary back after an early dinner we took our horses and rode to bethlehem it was only about two hours when we came to the town situated on an eastern ridge of a range of hills surrounded by its terraced gardens it is a good looking town better built than any other we have seen in palestine but before dark we rode out of the town of bethlehem to the field where they say the shepherds saw the star as we passed the shepherds were still keeping watch over their flocks there or leading them home to fold and from there he looked down on the lamps being lit in bethlehem and at that point clearly the memory was etched in his mind so that in 1868 when he was back at home in his parish and wanted to write a carol for his sunday school children to sing he wrote those words which have become one of the iconic new songs of christmas about that covenant that new promise made by god a little town of bethlehem how still we see thee lie above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by and he he gives that sense of the gift being given in total silence how silently how silently the wondrous gift is given so god imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven no ear may hear his coming but in this world of sin where meek cells will receive him still the dear christ enters in it is the most beautiful set of verses where children pure and happy pray to the holy child and misery cried cries out to the son of the mother mild originally phillips brooks wrote son of the undefiled but certain sections of the american church complained about that and so he changed it to son of the mother mild where charity stands waiting and faith hells wide the door the dark night breaks the morning breaks and christmas comes once more and then at the end that quotation from sin paul almost o holy child of bethlehem descend to us we pray cast out our sin and enter in be born in us today we hear the christmas angels the great glad tidings tell oh come to us abide with us our lord emmanuel be born in us today galatians for unless the christ child is born not only in the manger but in those who embrace that new promise then the birth is ineffective in that part of humankind and sin paul's little section of verses become really important as we sit here among the branches of christmas exalting and singing and i wanted to say that that carol when written was given a tune which is usually the one sung in the united states of america still by phillips brooks's organist at the time and here in england that tune has been overtaken by a tune called forest green and we're back in the wild wood now there was a time in the late 19th century and early 20th century when it was realized by certain composers who were forming a hymn book together called the english hymnal published first in 1906 that there were many songs of christmas particularly and the countryside which were being lost because they were simply in people's heads and in their minds and people like ralph form williams and cecil sharp went about collecting them and got people to sing them to them and wrote down the notes and one of those which was a tune called the plowman's dream was sung to ralph vaughan williams in a village in surrey and vaughan williams called it forest green and set it to a little town of bethlehem so it's the tune oh little town of berlin how still we see the lie [Music] yes [Music] so is [Music] foreign [Music] the one that normally is sung in england there's another by walford davis and there is of course the one as i said by uh louis redner who was the organist at uh phillips brooks's church in philadelphia at the time which is still quite common in the united states but to come back into the greenwood with vaughn williams that wasn't the only one of the christmas carols that was collected another one and this is jermaine to all that we're doing this morning is the tune and the words of the holy and the ivy when they are both full-grown of all the trees that are in the wood the holy bears the crown the rising of the sun and the running of the deer the playing of the merry organ sweet singing in the choir sing to god says the psalmist a new song and the new song is about the christ child being born in the manger from the blessed virgin mary and the operation of the holy spirit as our creeds say and at the same time the capacity of that birth to take place in us oh so silently uh with not a word spoken it's an action of the spirit and heaven and earth are united as the christmas blessing says in us be born in us today says phillips brooks in his carol and the holy and the ivy was copied down by cecil sharpe in gloucestershire we've moved now sorry for forrest green and our little town of bethlehem and the county of gloucestershire rural counties my own county in gloucestershire but this was this was collected in the the village of chipping camden in gloucestershire and a woman sat and sang the holly and the ivy and the notes were written down by cecil sharpe and now we know them very well [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] and uh lastly as an example uh ralph thorne williams copied down in sussex at the small town of horsham much bigger today but he copied down the tune for what is now known as the sussex carol which is on christmas night all christians sing to hear the news the angels bring and the singing is really part of christmas what would christmas be without the singing of the carols but by them especially in a carol like a little town of bethlehem which is full of a deep theology of phillips brooks but taught so gently and with the tunes of the wild wood in the tune forest green as we sing it what i wanted to do now was to go back to something i said yesterday and say that i left you yesterday when we finished our uh morning prayers together to go to the wild wood which is a a a center of breeding of uh creatures that are native to to england but have some some time ago died out and i went out to see because it was beckett day the chuffs which are uh birds looking a bit like a crow jet black birds but the english chuffs which have died out from breeding in kent and there are only small parts of this nation where you find them now have red bills and red legs and feet fletcher and i have seen the alpine ones high up on the mountains as we as we said uh when we were talking about them yesterday uh but they have yellow bills and yellow feet but they are of the the same family corax and uh the the the ones in in the alps are in in europe are just cousins of the ones here but wildwood and the people there very skilled at the breeding of creatures and releasing them once again the the water the waterville uh of of who we're used to as ratty in the in the wind in the willows has been re-released by them but at the same time um the harvest mice um who are just uh absolutely tiny a little colony of them there and the really massive bison to uh are there as as well so lots and lots of things that we might think about but we want to think particularly of the chuffs because i went to see them and the chefs were there waiting for me and we had cameramen there we can show you some of that this morning um there were four chuffs and very elegant bird they were birds they were i'd never seen them before with their red bills and their red red legs i sat amongst them one was called beckett and he was the brave one and came down and received the the meal worms from my hand another was called pyro from their latin name and then the two uh girls were called elena after queen elena the wife of henry ii and uh the other girl was called vera after vera lin the singer who sang about the white cliffs of dover and they'd been named from areas around here at first they were a bit shy and then they came down and gradually i was able to feed them and talk to them and also talk to the wonderful people who keep wildwood she's very elegant and beautiful oh here we go now come on beckett come down get one yeah [Applause] is anyway are they are they in flocks when they're not nesting do they death they learn from each other um yes so many of them yes well done oh hello [Applause] i yes did you want me to bring the target in and try a session with you guys in there let's do that yeah we'll at first they were a bit shy and then they came down and gradually i was able to feed them and talk to them and also talk to the wonderful people who keep wild wood and have these uh very imaginative ways of reintroducing the red squirrels back into england because they've been taken over by the the gray squirrels and so uh beavers and and all kinds of of creatures that have become either extinct or very rare are being brought back and when they are strong enough in numbers they will be re-released out into the woodlands which is their native home but they've simply uh died out in this part of our history so because of the beckett connection it was lovely to go there yesterday and mark beckett day not only with lots of services in the cathedral but also out in the greenwood no better place to be at christmas time when people would go out and get all the various uh branches from the the trees to decorate their houses and last night we had a catholic vespas in the uh crypt of the cathedral which i always enjoy it happened at eight o'clock and first the uh choir of st thomas's roman catholic church sang vespers there with the people from that communion and then we had a procession around the crypt and then up into the martyrdom and there's always the banging of a rhythmic drum which is really atmospheric as we go around singing a medieval tune about the the way in which uh beckett was uh really a new knight i mean a a certain type of knight for christ someone who was there as a warrior for christ and and the drum was beating as we went around in in a a way that i always enjoy the last service of the day on beckett day and the great thing is that i don't have to take it so we pray for father anthony and and his people as they as they came there so all those things come together as we sit here by the green trees and give thanks for the music of christmas and what it teaches us about the coming of the christ child and what it means for us but we give thanks for that little cameo from saint paul about the hidden years of christ under the guardianship of mary and joseph waiting for the hour the father has set for his coming and that's very much a theme in st john's gospel at the wedding of canaan in galilee we shall deal with all that in the epiphany when jesus turns to his mother and says what is that to me my hour's not yet come at the wedding in canaan of galilee and that timing of when he is made manifest becomes important all these things at this quiet time between christmas and the new year we're praying today in our calendar for the diocese of iran in the episcopal church in jerusalem and the middle east and in our own diocese of course for archbishop justin and bishop rose of dover and bishop emma but the diocese is actually today praying for us for canterbury cathedral it's uh the the calendar says canterbury cathedral and metro political church of christ and then we're all named and uh so thank you diocese for praying for us and we continue of course to pray for them so as the bell begins to chime for matins in the cathedral in 15 minutes time so i've still some time to be with you um we say our own prayers this morning bring your own intentions and your own concerns here is the collect for this week almighty god who wonderfully created us in your own image and yet more wonderfully restored us through your son jesus christ grant that is he came to share in our humanity so we may share the life of his divinity who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men so we say each in our own language the prayer our savior taught us our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever are men moment now of reflection as we muse on everything that saint paul has given us in that little cameo from his letter to the galatians so early in his ministry [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] may christ who by his coming at christmas time gathered into one the things of earth and of heaven fill you with peace and good will at this season and the blessing of god almighty the father and the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always thinking of those carols coming from the various counties and then saying my own country of gloucestershire we had a message from joan one of our own garden congregation from gloucestershire enclosing the the whole calendar of traditional things which are special to gloucestershire throughout the year to come and say we thank you for that but every area of the world will have special customs that they'll be looking forward to through the year and we pray that the pandemic will begin to recede and we can begin to enjoy them again in a more relaxed way you