good morning and welcome to the uh garden of the dinery at canterbury cathedral on monday the 7th of june this is a very special day because last night some of you may have seen tiger was on the baftas as one of those who was able to make the nation's smile during lockdown and it was lovely to see him here's his little award which uh we've got here uh sent by a friend and uh so um we've really we're really proud of of of tiger this morning it was lovely to see him last night in the clip taken just here at the herbaceous border when i was reading prayers when he first put his paw into the milk jug and made people smile and that of course went viral right across the world uh not that he knew it it was the most natural thing in the world for him but the real heroism of this lovely cat who's so friendly and natural the real heroism that since that day when he did that he's had a front leg amputated because he had cancer in his poor and he's bounced back from that having been i think more puzzled than anything else why we'd done this to him uh and then got used to life and then actually started to act with three legs in exactly the same way as he did with with uh four legs uh and of course you remember him first of all going viral again when he stole the pancake on shave tuesday he is someone who lifts the heart of people and so many of you have said that your first introduction to the garden congregation was when you saw that particular clip and then tiger led you in to the morning prayers so this is a morning to say congratulations to tiger and also to give thanks for all creative availability in arts and film and theater and television and we'll come to that in our reflection but for the moment uh let's think of other things from this weekend because uh where in our prayers remembering all those in pakistan who have been killed and injured in the passenger train collision at sindh we're also remembering the activities yesterday of those who took part in the d-day landings we remembered d-day on june the 6th in our prayers yesterday but now we have the news reports and television reports of all that went on in normandy with the unveiling on what was called gold beach of a british war memorial and and versum 22 442 servicemen and women are named on that memorial and i have to say one of those uh is my uncle stanley whom i never met because he had been killed there before ever i was born and i remember aunt rose my godmother very well and later on she was able to marry someone whom i grew to love as my uncle frank but that sadness she carried in her heart and i still have the little bible she gave to her husband stanley in which she's inscribed in the front to give you courage it was small enough to go in his pocket there was an event also at the national arboretum yesterday and it was very moving to hear the memories of those who on that day landed in order to begin to free europe again from the horrors of nazism and so that brings me to my last little reflection before we say our prayers and that is the day death of david dushman the last surviving liberator of the horrific concentration camp at auschwitz where 1.1 million people were murdered and he died aged 98 having at the age of 21 driven his tank as a young soldier across the electric fence at auschwitz in order to break it down and begin to liberate the prisoners there so tales of heroism and all kinds of of tales from uh yesterday from the d-day landings so let's say our prayers on this very significant day lovely sunny morning here but wherever you are in the world bring your your own prayers and intentions as we say our prayers together o lord open our lips and our mouths shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you praise blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind 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 seventh morning of the month is psalm 36 sin whispers to the wicked in the depths of their heart there is no fear of god before their eyes they flatter themselves in their own eyes that their abominable sin will not be found out the words of their mouth are unrighteous and full of deceit they have ceased to act wisely and to do good they think how to mischief upon their beds and have set themselves in no good way nor do they abhor that which is evil your love o lord reaches to the heavens and your faithfulness to the clouds your righteousness stands like the strong mountains your justice like the great deep you lord shall save both man and beast how precious is your loving mercy o god all mortal flesh shall take refuge under the shadow of your wings they shall be satisfied with the abundance of your house they shall drink from the river of your delights for with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light o continue your loving kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to those who are true of heart let not the foot of pride come against me nor the hand of the ungodly thrust me away there are they fallen all who work wickedness they are cast down and shall not be able to stand so today we return to the reading of st matthew's gospel and we find we're taking up from where we left off on saturday the 14th chapter of the gospel of saint matthew and i'm beginning to read at verse 11 13 sorry now when jesus heard of the death of john the baptist he withdrew in a boat to a desolate place by himself but when the crowds heard it they followed him on foot from the towns when he went ashore he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick now when it was evening his disciples came to him and said this is a lonely place and the day is now over send the crowds away to go into the villages so that they can buy food for themselves but jesus said they need not go away you give them something to eat they said to him we have only five loaves and two fish here and jesus said bring them here to me then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds and they all at and were satisfied and they took up 12 baskets full of the broken pieces left over and those who at were about 5 000 men besides women and children it's told rather differently in matthew from the story that we get in st mark's gospel and in telling it differently matthew has a different intention first of all of course as we said before it was a time in sin mark's gospel when the disciples had come back from their mission and the story of john the baptist was put in as an interlude but the drawing them apart for quietness was something that was very real there but in matthew's gospel jesus goes away by himself and it's as though he is grieving for saint john the baptist to start with but there is no time for him to grieve because although in the boats they're they're going to a particular place in the uh on the lakeside the crowds have second-guessed them and when they go ashore they find that already there are crowds of people there and that means that jesus is surrounded by people who have brought folk for healing come to hear his words and it sounds as if this was the beginning of the day and all day long at that point he goes on with his healing and his teaching and his encouragement of people now what happens next is fairly different in its atmosphere to what happens in the markham feeding of the 5000 when we were dealing with the gospel of mark you remember we dealt with the feeling of the five thousand and the feeling of the four thousand and from the um from the the story there we have the the sense of a very different message being given from the twelve baskets of fragments from the five thousand meant for the apostles ministry to jesus his own people to the seven baskets of fragments from the four thousand it's not like that here and nor is it limited to 5 000. notice matthew says 5 000 men besides women and children the number is uncountable really and at the same time the disciples at the end of the day come to jesus and says okay the day's over it's getting late this is a lonely place and we'd honestly um rather you sent the crowds away now so that they can go and buy some food for themselves in the surrounding villages and look after themselves jesus's answer is really surprising and that answer is first of all it doesn't really matter that it seems as though work has ended for the day there are people who are in need here and time is not of the essence nor is it really very important in the way we look after people it goes actually to the sentence in the fifth chapter of st john's gospel i think it's in verse 17 my numbers might be wrong but i think it's 17 of chapter 5 where he says when they're saying it's wrong for you to heal on the sabbath and jesus says my father works unceasingly and so do i so if there is need then ministry and the vocation of the anointed one the good news given by the messiah in body mind and spirit is for any time that there is need and then they say well we haven't got you feed them he says we don't have anything we just have the loaves the five loaves and and a few fish and uh jesus then says bring that to me and make them sit down so they sit down on the grass and the disciples place their resources which to their eyes look really feeble into the hands of jesus and then in his hands as he breaks their resources into small pieces the hands of the one who is doing the creator's will nourishes the crowd but the actions are taken by the church nowadays to be shall we say eucharistic because he takes the small resources given willingly i was going to say grudgingly but willingly let's say and then he blesses them and looks up to heaven having done so having given thanks for these resources for that's what the blessing means and in another way offered them to god in the midst of the wonders of his creation there by the lakeside he breaks them people sitting down on the grass in mark we hear it's green grass rather like this this morning and at that point we have the giving of the bread and the fish to the disciples to distribute and it's not for us to explain miracles i've had so many explanations rather like explanations of the parables the lesson is clear that if someone is in need then our resources must be placed absolutely at the disposal of the creator in order perhaps to use them in the way that we least expect in the way that the hands of jesus breaks those resources and then gives them back to us in order to distribute and at the end they find that their resources to help and heal the people when the day was so say in their minds over and they had no intention of doing anything at all they wanted the crowd sent away jesus said my father works unceasingly lifting the story from john's gospel my father works unceasingly and so must i and the the inferences and same as you and they gather up 12 baskets full of fragments as a sign of the ministry of each one of them for that large crowd which in matthew is not only men but women and children as well they're on the grass well it really is the most wonderful retelling of the story its retelling is special matthew if you like the insight is different from mark there's much that's very special about mark's story and mark's story also in the feeding of the 4000 takes us out with the seven baskets for the seven deacons who go out to the world but this one is quite quite different and it also gives us a clue that the ministry of the body of christ happens as and when it's needed with the tiniest of resources willingly given and received back in order that we in our lives may distribute them sometimes it's our own lives that are broken and shared but that blessing that giving thanks for the resources and the breaking and the giving to the disciples to distribute coming back and finding their much more left over which they then have to gather themselves and it's as though they're taking those fragments of bread off for their own ministry it's good to read that story on this particular morning and i'm going now to go to a completely different set of dates we're sitting here um at this point where tiger who actually was more interested in um his food than in his uh golden mask but um he has gone to sit in the shade over there for a little bit and um i think that we remember fletcher and i in sitting here how often this place is used not only for hospitality the great lawn for thousands of people year by year or garden tours or or all kinds of enjoyment but also for performances so that this has so often become a stage for opera or for music as people sit on the grass or in little chairs that they've brought and maybe share a picnic and enjoy operas in front of this wall which is a good sounding board so we look forward to the time when all that can begin to happen again because performance and visual enjoyment which we ourselves are involved in are never really forgotten and i'm reminded of that by two dates today first of all james ivory the film director was born on the 7th of june in 1928 and the novelist e.m foster died on the 7th of june 1970 there is a connection because of course foster was simply a novelist and the last time i met him which was in 1967 i think when i was not quite 20 and he was 78. he was he was known his novels were known by those who read them but not known nearly as well as now simply because of the work of james ivory for merchant ivory took three of his novels the first of them being a room with a view in 1985 15 years after foster had died and then in 1987 his novel morris which wasn't even published when i last spoke to him and then his novel howard's end in 1992 and through those films with famous actors and the beauty of the merchant ivory magic people began to know those stories and to read the books so sometimes performances and also colorful stories can be helped by other art forms and it's a good day to do this because james ivory who is 93 today so we wish him a happy birthday received his first oscar his academy award as well as a bafta when he was 89 the oldest person ever to receive an award of that sort an oscar or bafta in competition honorary ones had been given to people who really served well but i don't know if anyone had received that over the age of 89 they may have done but this was actually fairly one in competition for the film of andre asimon's novel call me by your name in uh that was in 2017 that that uh he received that and it was given for the best adapted screenplay aged 89 but of course his his real his real vocation was played out over many many years in a 44 year partnership with ismail merchant hence merchant ivory and with ruth praha jabhwala and at the end of all of that and they had they had portrayed henry james novels the europeans and the bostonians and the golden ball bowl and also ishiguro's novel the remains of the day and people seeing it went then to read the books and if they didn't they still knew about them and images from them became important and the nice thing is that ismail merchant wrote this sentence about the three of them james ivory ismail merchant ruse power jabwala she was the screenwriter ismail merchant was the producer and james ivory the director and merchant wrote it is a strange marriage we have at merchant ivory i am an indian muslim ruth is a german jew and jim is an american protestant someone once described us as a three-headed god but maybe they should have called us a three-headed monster well certainly their trio produced beautiful films and also showed the way for others to produce and direct them to those films took time to set the scene like our reflection after the way in which matthew has towed the scene of the feeding of the five thousand this morning and the crowds sitting on the grass but reflecting on things by ourselves is the way in which we discover our resources as they're broken up for us in the creators hands in body mind and spirit and we're sent to feed his people in the world wherever we find them if our resources can in some way nourish and all of that the merchant ivory jabwala trio actually facilitated with their attention to detail the beauty of their sets and also the way in which they took time to allow an atmosphere to develop i knew the novel how its end very well before ever i saw the film but at the same time when i saw the film different images came into play and different aspects of my own creativity were triggered so on this day when we remember tiger and his gift of making people smile in the middle of lockdown on oh more than three occasions for those who who watch constantly but also his gifts of trusting friendliness and the fact that the loss of a front left leg in the end has made absolutely no difference to him day by day he's the old tiger whom we saw before that operation on the baftas last night so let's say our prayers on this particular day when uh we are here in the garden and we are thinking today on this 7th of june of the diocese of east carolina in the episcopal church of the united states pray for the life of that diocese and of province 4 of the episcopal church in which the diocese sits we also pray in this diocese for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and the clergy with permission to officiate that means all clergy who have a permission to help in the ministry of the parishes right across the area which is called sanet in kent later on as we go through the days ahead we shall look at the names of those communities but for the moment there's a long list of clergy i won't read them out there are many many of them who are giving their services free of charge long after they might have said well we've we've finished now these are the ones who are helping clergy with permission to officiate and breaking their own resources in order to feed the people of deanery with real nourishment of encouragement let's say our prayer then on this day which is the collect first time we've used this one for the first sunday after trinity oh god the strengths of all who put their trust in you mercifully accept our prayers and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you grant us the help of your grace that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language we use the prayer that our lord taught us to say when we meet together our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come i 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 so let's say our own prayers with our own intentions in a moment of silence 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 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 tiger's taking himself off into the shade it's rather hot for him today and he will i hope have a really nice day in his own part of the garden and we give thanks for his recovery and the grit he's shown in doing just everything that he used to despite a massive disability [Music] you