[Applause] good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this saturday the 24th of july we woke to the sound of thunder rolling around the heavens and when dawn came it was a coppery colored sky over the dark clouds and the rain is still falling and the thunder is still rolling around but we've come here into the uh area of the of the trees in front of the deanery uh and we're thinking of the people of japan at this time of the olympics and and this fur tree comes from that area of the world and so we thought that was a good landscape for this morning but let's think that the um people of japan have worked so very hard in all sorts of ways to cheer our world with the olympics and they face supreme difficulties but let's not let's not let that dull our thanksgiving and our gratitude for every person all the technicians everyone involved in wonderful opening ceremonies because this really with the athletes will be the finest moment of their life and and they're giving all they can despite the fact that all the pandemic and everything else hangs around this in difficulties for them so let's hold japan in our prayers this morning and give thanks for the concept of the olympics which is something for the whole world to be involved in but this year has been such a trauma for the japanese people as one difficulty after another after another beset them with all of this so much gratitude to the people of japan and i think in in in japan the the thunder god is called regen and uh he is very much present present this morning here in canterbury as the thunder rolls around the heavens and the rain falls it's quite gentle rain and good rain one moment of one note of sadness shall we say before we go on that uh little tower the um orca that new zealand was trying so hard to keep alive but had lost his mother and the pod uh died sadly needing so much the natural care of the life of the orca with mother and the orca pod so we are sorry for fault for that but understand why that happens because of care being withdrawn and and the right kind of care can never really be replaced in in natural so in us should we say unnatural circumstances though people try so hard sometimes it's successful this time not so let's begin our reflection uh and our prayers and we've we've come here obviously because it's saturday morning so we're we're here with the the boys and and mostly the boys uh in the garden here and we are under the trees because our matthew reading takes us to the garden of gethsemane let's start our prayers on this day oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon earth your saving power among the nations blessed are you lord god of our salvation to 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 and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this 24th morning of the month is psalm 118 it's a a long sound but we'll read most of it oh give thanks to the lord for he is good his mercy endures forever let israel now proclaim his mercy and yours forever let the house of aaron now proclaim his mercy endures forever [Applause] let those who fear the lord proclaim his mercy and yours forever [Applause] the lord is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation joyful shouts of salvation sound from the tents of the righteous the right hand of the lord does mighty deeds the right hand of the lord raises up the right hand of the lord does mighty deeds i shall not die but live and declare the works of the lord the lord has punished me solely but he has not given me over to death open to me the gates of righteousness that i may enter and give thanks to the lord this is the gate of the lord the righteous shall enter through it i will give thanks to you for you have answered me and have become my salvation the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone this is the lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes this is the day that the lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it [Applause] so with that sentence of hope about every day being the day that the lord has made in which we will rejoice and be glad whatever that day brings and use every occasion to share the gift that we have been given we turn to the gospel of saint matthew and we find ourselves in chapter 26 at verse 36 then jesus went with them to a place called gethsemane and he said to his disciples sit here while i go over there and pray and taking with him peter and john at the two sons of zebedee he began to be sorrowful and troubled then he said to them my soul is very sorrowful even to death remain here and watch with me and going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed saying my father if it is possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as i will but as you will [Applause] and he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and he said to peter so could you not watch with me one hour watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak again for the second time he went away and prayed my father if this cannot pass unless i drink it your will be done and again he came and found them sleeping for their eyes were heavy so leaving them again he went away and prayed for the third time saying the same words again then he came to the disciples and said to them sleep and take your rest later on see the hour is at hand and the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners rise let us be going my betrayer is at hand it's a passage in which the three disciples peter and james and john they're named as the sons of zebedee peter and the sons of zebedee are once again taken further than the other disciples but they've all come out it's jesus and the eleven who have come and are there with him in the garden of gethsemane let's start there as we're under the trees these aren't olive trees but they are trees which give a sense of protection and shelter and here jesus has come and we know that this will be the very last time that jesus in his humanity in our humanity will be alone to pray and to excuse me to imagine what that vocation which he has set himself to be obedient to is going to mean for the limits of his human flesh even his mind is railing against this and every temptation that we've seen is there to just walk away go and be useful somewhere else go back to galilee all those temptations which he has said when peter tried to comfort him in that way were of the devil and uh it caused him to to say to peter um get thee behind me satan if you remember but on this occasion he himself is saying if it is at all possible father let this cup pass me by but nevertheless and here's a the other sentence lie will be done so simple sentences but this picture let's say first concentrate on the cup for remember how matthew has given us in the institution of the last supper simply the words when he took the bread take eat this is my body nothing else and then when he took the cup much more drink this all of you this is the cup of the covenant of his blood poured out for the forgiveness of the sins of many this is special to matthew in this way and here is the cup poured out for him which he has invited at the supper his followers to drink from as well and know that all this is pouring out of the blood of the anointed one is for the forgiveness of sins of the many but also that that drinking of the cup will be shared by so many of these who are around him in the garden of gethsemane and at the same time will be shared by many throughout history in drinking the cup of sacrifice themselves even to death with so many of the persecutions which will go on not too long after all this gethsemane seen but let's think first that jesus himself goes forward and the three are obviously in their wakeful moments hearing him pray aloud it's their witness and particularly peter's witness given through first of all the gospel of mark that we hear in this and at the same time it reminds us that so often jesus withdraws himself to pray sometimes it's early in the morning as in the very beginning of the gospel of saint mark uh very early in the morning after that really busy day he gets up alone and goes to find a lonely place probably not too far away where he can pray solitude and the prayer is not all in words it must pick up the imaginings of the whole of his life as it does with us when we come to the time of day when we find it best to reflect and pray and dream and think and plan and ask for grace for help and use the prayer our savior taught us and our own prayers but at the same time give ourselves space to do just that early in the morning here late at night and after the passover meal but it's a place that they know and so it's obviously been a place of prayer for jesus and this is part of the the rhythm of his life there amongst the olive trees giving a measure of tranquility normally he can set the time for these things and then at the end of that they would go on to spend a night's sleep before going back into jerusalem that must have happened so many times right across galilee and judea and even samaria and down into to to the areas up even across the river jordan it was part of the rhythm of his day i'm an early morning person and at night i find it very very difficult to to stay awake in that way so i would always choose myself to get up early in the morning others are late night owls you will know yourself exactly at what time of day it's best to do that but let's think for the moment on this occasion the time the kairos the significant time is not going to be set by the savior himself his prayer his reflection is going to be interrupted and he has a great sense of that and also as with any of us facing a challenge the doubts that rise about whether our humanity our human strength is up to this so let's take another another of the sentences which come in this massively important passage and that is the sentence the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and he is using that for his comforting of the disciples once again they are going to fail him they've failed him in understanding they've failed him in the brave statements they've made in in the good time after the party of a supper coming along and he knows their weakness and knows that they're really not ready yet to drink this cup but it will become theirs by others timing we've seen how the timing of the council and the timing of even jesus himself is not quite matching for jesus is lifting himself up with arms outstretched to give himself as the let's use the metaphor the sacrificial lamb at this passover time whereas the council want all this tied it away long before the passover well it won't be long before the passover but it will be just just there and so the next day is the day set whatever happens at any show trial or before the roman governor it's set for the crucifixion that they want but for the moment here we are in the quietness of the garden and we take strengths from that and if we think back to that day the the psalm phrase that we used would have been the prayer of jesus at the beginning of the day as always this is the day that the lord has made let us be gla rejoice and be glad in it because on this day the kairos the significant time has arrived and it's that significant time that jesus has been waiting for my time is not yet has been a hallmark of the evangelists on the way through the gospel but now the hour has come and this is little passage ends up with the uh the the injunction uh rise up my betrayer is at hand he wakes them and the danger will wake them all too soon from their sleepiness and uh here come the band with torches and clubs so jesus was a robber as he says and under the trees suddenly torch light appears and at that time um judas steps forward now in the discourses the disciples have been usually calling jesus kirye lord what is this what is that what is that in their discussions kyrie on two occasions uh here in matthew's gospel the word rabbi is used for him by one of the twelve and both times it's by judas rabbi is it i you have said so at the supper table and now here judas who would betray him answered is it i rabbi in the supper table that when judas arrives he will address jesus in that way not curier lord but rabbi teacher and matthew i think sees that as significant he's marking the various roles of the people but jesus's own prayer and reflection is preparation for what's going to happen the very last one he will have these snatched moments which he is sharing with the disciples but they're too sleepy to be there watching and praying watch and pray unless you enter into temptation he's almost saying it to himself but at the same time they remember snatches of the prayers that he is saying allowed and this to our great benefit with the grace of receiving what the lord is saying in the garden of gethsemane about the cup which he will drink and finds a hard vocation and the cup which at the supper he has asked them to share his blood poured out for the forgiveness of many when we look at this day we see four people um who were born on the 24th of july and i've just chosen them all of them were people who were able to to dream and imagine and set down things in all sorts of forms using our human capacity to think and then imagine and allow things to come into their minds from memories in the past or from situations around them and hand them on to us sometimes simply for our enjoyment and sometimes for our benefit and sometimes pointing us to areas and ways in which we ourselves might imagine in our prayers and let prayer go where it will for prayer as eliot reminds us it's not simply a form of words it is the whole intention to place ourselves in god's presence and instilling our bodies to allow our minds and our spirits free reign of course we have the pillars that we can use to re-establish our concentration like the prayer our savior taught us as an absolute pillar and marker but at the same time words become irrelevant sometimes in our prayers because our thoughts and our spirits range wildly and then at the end we realize we are where we are and ready either to start the day or to give thanks for the day that has happened or in the middle of work snatching something of that moment if one can find a quiet space here are the quartet they are um very different in 1802 24th of july alexandre dumas pere as we say the father because the son also wrote uh as well but this is the father who's the most famous or the more famous of the two he's well known for the counter monte cristo things like the black tulip uh the man in the iron mask but most of all i think for the three musketeers uh and for the great hero d'attanyan i remember being captivated by that book with its old dusty cover at home uh in i don't know early teenage years or something and and and reading that and finding myself as you do with books and as he's wanted and wanted me to finding myself absolutely i think i can put this down for it um absolutely in the history of france at that time he had the ability to quarry deep into historic situations use real facts to give us situations which would inspire us in all sorts of of feelings of sharing the courage or feeling the sadness or writers have that capacity and he wrote so many novels and books that he quarried into history to do it and that is a gift that we give thanks for because it makes us dream and think but also embrace the day for everything for our humanity is present tense in our activity though we can make plans forward and dream dreams from the past and give thanks for that well 1803 is the next one the very next year born on the 24th of july adolf adam who is a composer or was a composer a very famous composer of ballets gisele which has given pleasure to so many across the centuries and la corsaire many more but i'm just naming the most famous but it's strange how sometimes someone is known for simply one thing very well one as giselle is very popular but i think even more popular is a christmas carol that he wrote in 1844 and it is in english the carol o holy night o holy night the hem with stars are shining it is the hour of the dear savior's birth i hesitate to sing it because it's been sung by so many in such a beautiful way and inspired so many of that midnight hour as uh and it's it's it's it's called that uh the midnight for christians in the in the original french text but the english text takes us to that holy night and i don't know how long it took adolf adam to compose that uh a a parish priest whose organ had just been restored commissioned him to to write this and i can imagine it was probably just a sort of throwaway afternoon or something of that kind that he he came to that tune and then or then orchestrated it and so on but that to me sticks in the mind as adam's gift to us through his streaming uh and to hear juan diego flores sing that beautiful tune is something that is very much i'm sorry i frighten them all to death um very much of the of the time of christmas so thanks to god for his music which then inspires us in our creativity the third of these uh born in 1867 on this day is the writer ef benson son of the archbishop of canterbury uh edward white benson and this is uh ed edward frederick benson and he was a writer of stories in a wonderful way and an amusing way and if we again huge numbers of stories but what we remember him for most of all are the six novels of map and lucia he lived in the town of ryde beautiful town just into sussex and just into the diocese of chichester from here but a nice journey and a lovely place to go and near to the coast so the sea has receded a little bit and there in that beautiful picture postcard town of rye he not only lived in what's called lam house but he was the mayor of rai during his career as well but he wrote novels which used the people around him and those from his memories not only to sketch society in a small town but also to amuse people greatly by the foibles of those the little um petty quarrels that they have and and the the weaknesses of various people and the way that they play each other off against each other in the map and lucia novels they've been made really famous by two different television series and um the original ones in i think 1985 or so where geraldine mcewen played lucia she became much more famous for her her portrayals of miss marple brunella scales played map and nigel thunderball all people it's humphrey in in the political series but of course king george in the madness of king george nigel holstone played georgie it's a long time ago i i remember them being televised but the ones we really remember were put on on three days of new year 2014 or rather the the the end of of 2014 going into 2015 and they were put on consecutive nights and on this occasion beautifully done very amusing and shot actually in lamb house benson lived there but before that henry james had lived there so it was a house that clearly inspired writing and that house was used as the streets of braai were with all the countryside roundabout to give complete delight at that time when people are relaxing after christmas and in that one miranda richardson played map and a chancellor played lucia and steve pemberton played georgie and he was responsible for this new series as well so we give thanks for that the way in which we're inspired by the people around us and that writers can conjure scenes that we've never belonged to but we've become part of rather like dartanian and being brave in french history here is just amusement in a society and the amusement goes across the world with it so thanks be to god for that particular gift and finally on this day in uh 1895 robert graves the poet the novelist the thinker was born and perhaps his first most famous book was goodbye to all that derived from his experiences in the first world war he is one of the war poets listed in westminster abbey on the the the the stone which commemorates 16 of the poets of the great war and he of course knew so many of them and was in correspondence with them after i think he was the only one alive when on the 11th of november uh um 1985 that that stone was laid and by then also he had become well beyond understanding that this was going on but we remember him not only for giving the horrendous descriptions and uh all that happened in the trenches and he didn't spare anyone in that in goodbye to all that but we remember him most i think for his book i claudius which again was made into here in 1934 but it was made in the uh 1970s into a wonderfully popular television series with claudius played by derek jaffe jacoby which people watched and then robert graves became famous again in that way he also quarried into greek myths and tried to give explanations for these wonderful stories they i'm saying the japanese god of thunder is is rolling around in the heavens but all kinds of greek myths are told by robert graves and his pilgrimage not always a happy one certainly a diverse one through the long years of his life is charted by the books he wrote the poems he wrote the memoirs he gave so we give thanks for that quartet of gifts inspiring our own creativity but also sometimes giving us courage to drink the cup that has become our vocation whatever that be but also it gives us the joy to say that phrase in psalm 118 with gladness this is the day that the lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it put this down gently say that we don't frighten them again as we say our prayers on this day on this particular day we are uh thinking of the diocese of saint davids in the church of wales and no better place to think of is one of our favorite cathedrals right on the western tip of pembrokeshire as it was and uh that is a place we love to go to oddly from here canterbury to david's that's east to west is as far as going really from here to the scottish border it's england and wales are very very wide at that point but it's worth the journey and worth the pilgrimage to that beautiful cathedral there so we think of that cathedral and that diocese on this day and here in the diocese of canterbury we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth and this is uh listening and discerning on the way day for the diocese so um we are praying for all the schools across our diocese on this day for teachers for support staff and children and young people whom they they help to educate and nurture as this particular time of pandemic begins to open up but this is a time of holiday so everyone is enjoying holiday at this time from that and so we hope for refreshment for all those who teach and encourage others at this time of holiday so let's say our own prayers there are many places still in danger from fire and flood and pandemic and all sorts of other dangers which you will know about in your own areas of the world bring those now to our prayer as we use the prayer for this week to say our prayers lord of all power and might the author and giver of all good things graft in our hearts the love of your name increase in us through religion nourish us with all goodness and of your great mercy keep us in the same through jesus christ our lord amen moment now to say the prayer our savior taught us together and then we shall have some time of silence 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 they went now of silence for you and your prayers the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and if 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 well no boys you're rather wet this morning but i think you don't mind that really backing away we have a little group of three here and uh underneath the factory it was reminding us of the area of the world where japan and all those olympics are going on happy sound of breakfast being eaten