good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this monday the 20th of december these last few days before christmas day on saturday be welcome wherever you are and bring your own concerns and intentions we continue very much to pray for areas of the world facing danger through activity of the weather systems and climate change and at the same time we're thinking of the people of the philippines where the death toll continues to mount after the the enormous effect of typhoon ray uh a few days ago and we we showed pictures of that yesterday excuse me but we we actually um continue to pray for other areas of the world and you bring those that you know about to our prayers this morning we've come into the orchard and we've come by the stream which runs down through the orchard with its stones that we've been to many times a stream which pleasure created to run down giving water to the orchard itself and bringing many more birds and creatures here but at the same time i'm sitting by rather a still pond with a very intentionally muddy bottom for little creatures like newts and frogs and it's really incredible to think that at the moment in mid-winter just one day from the leo you waiting for breakfast sorry come here come on that's here um one one day now from the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere soon all too soon because the year seems to have flown by this will be full of frog spawn and new life growing up now this is going to help us in our reflection can you believe it today but we're going to start our prayers and go on from there one cheerful piece of news which we all enjoyed last night was the declara sports person of the year as emma radukanu the girl who in uh woman i should say uh uh who in uh the summer won the u.s open tennis championship at the age of 18 and she lives in bromley which is within the ancient borders of kent and we congratulate her it was a very cheerful winner last night and i think we all enjoyed that well let's go on then with our prayers on this particular morning and we begin with our advent sentences o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise reveal among us the light of your presence that we may behold your power and glory blessed are you sovereign god of all to you be praise and glory forever in your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night as we look for your coming among us this day 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 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 20th morning of the month is psalm 103. bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with faithful love and compassion who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagle's the lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed he made his ways known to moses and his works to the children of israel the lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness he will not always accuse us neither will he keep his anger forever he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our wickedness for as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his mercy upon those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so far has he set our sins from us as a father has compassion on his children so is the lord merciful towards those who fear him for he knows of what we are made he remembers that we are but dust our days our butters grass we flourish as a flower of the field for as soon as the wind goes over it it is gone and its place shall know it no more but the merciful goodness of the lord is from of old and endures forever on those who fear him and his righteousness on children's children on those who keep his covenant and remember his commandments to do them the lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom has dominion over all bless the lord you angels of his you mighty ones who do his bidding and hearken to the voice of his word bless the lord all you his hosts you ministers of his who do his will bless the lord all you works of his in all places of his dominion bless the lord o my soul great song of praise in that psalm 103 for this morning and it's a lovely psalm to sing on these days going up towards christmas well we're going to read not this week of course from the epistle to the hebrews but we're going to our old friend sint luke who saw us through all the weeks of spring as it went into summer and with luke and his second volume the acts of the apostles we read our way through last year and uh here we are again so there's a sense of coming back home to saint luke on this morning as we make our way step by step towards christmas i'm reading from chapter one the very beginning where luke sets out his agenda and then begins his story as our narrator as we were saying yesterday obviously matthew here it's luke in as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the world have delivered them to us it seemed good to me also having followed all things closely for some time past to write an orderly account for you most excellent theophilus that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught in the days of herod king of judea there was a priest named zechariah of the division of abijah and he had a wife from the daughters of aaron and her name was elizabeth and they were both righteous before god walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the lord but they had no child because elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years now while zechariah was serving as priest before god when his division was on duty according to the custom of the priesthood he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the lord and burn incense and the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense and there appeared to him an angel of the lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense zechariah was troubled when he saw him and fear fell upon him but the angel said to him do not be afraid zechariah for your prayer has been heard and your wife elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name john and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great before the lord and he must not drink wine or strong drink and he will be filled with the holy spirit even from his mother's womb and he will turn many of the children of israel to the lord their god and he will go before him in the spirit and power of elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just and to make ready for the lord are people prepared zechariah said to the angel how shall i know this for i am an old man and my wife is advanced in years and the angel answered him i am gabriel i stand in the presence of god and i was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news and behold you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their time now the people were waiting outside for zechariah and they were wondering at his delay in the temple but when he came out he was unable to speak to them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple he kept making signs to them but remained mute and when his time of service was ended he went home after these days his wife elizabeth conceived and for five months she kept herself hidden saying thus the lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people it's the beginning of a story the beginning as we were saying yesterday of a story set in a certain landscape and being told to us by a certain narrator luke who has taken trouble to learn the details of the story himself he gives us a time when all this is happening and he also gives us details about temple worship according to the old covenant in jerusalem and he says he's writing all these things down in an ordered way for a friend called theophilus now of course the word means lover of god and we don't know whether this is as so often happens with even 18th and 19th century novels an imaginary listener but it's meaning you and me it does that anyway or there was actually a person called theophilus of high standing who like luke didn't know the story at first and luke has collected together and tried to order all things luke was a compulsive writer and those two huge volumes taking up one third of the whole of the new testament are completely essential to us in our understanding of not only the story we're about to tell but also the life of the early church afterwards luke is a narrator luke's a writer luke we believe by tradition and by a sentence in saint paul's epistles about him was a physician a healer but in this good news he's wanting to become also a healer of souls and the giving of this gospel of good news for this life and the eternal life of the kingdom of heaven stretching from this life and beyond to eternity so he starts as where well right in the middle of the old covenant i mean the temple itself there in jerusalem and then he begins to introduce to us his characters and only two today and the crowd of people of their own people standing outside he introduces us first to zechariah who was according to the old covenant a priest and therefore was one of the divisions of the priests as they served in the temple they were on of the division of abijah luke gets all his facts in order he's learning it himself he's not a jew himself and so he's having to learn as we do that in the old covenant there were certain rules and regulations and it was no longer a traveling tent as in the wilderness but the great temple not the temple that solomon built that had been destroyed and the people taken into exile and then when they came back the temple was rebuilt and was now being rebuilt again in our lord's own time by head of the great who wanted to build a magnificent temple partly for his own glory but also partly to make him a popular king amongst his people well of course he will appear to us in the gospel of saint matthew later in the christmas story but for the moment let's just stay with zechariah what do we know about him and his wife elizabeth we know that they are old zechariah said it himself we know also that they have not had children and that was seen as a sadness by both of them and now they were advanced in years but zechariah faithful to his duties and probably proud of the occasion was chosen by lot to be the priest who on that particular morning greeted the day in jerusalem as the sun rose over the mount of olives and the shofars sounded the horns sounded to say the sun has risen and then instantly the incense is burned and here is an offering which the writer to the hebrews has been talking about and offering for the sins of the people an offering so that blessing will come to these people on this day and something much more marvelous happens for this old man faithful absolutely faithful as his wife is to the old covenant is burning the incense and allowing it to the smoke to rise up like the prayers of the people to heaven at the altar of incense and he sees the vision of the angel of the lord standing at the right side of the altar of incense who speaks to him and gives him a message of new life not of the coming of the anointed one but the coming of the herald of the anointed one and this herald will be the child of zechariah and elizabeth now for all his faithfulness zechariah logically cannot but show doubt in this news and his answer is doubtful how can this be and then the angel the archangel drawing himself up metaphorically to his full height says i am gabriel i stand in the presence of god and as a sign that you have not believed this you will be unable to speak until the moment that you see that all this is true and the child is born gabriel doesn't say all of that but it's because of the reticence and slowness of the old priest and who can wander in answering and the question that is asked how can this be i'm an old man and gabriel answers then the sign will be that you will not be able to speak and when the child is born and you show obedience which happens later in the story then your tongue will be loosed and you yourself will be able to proclaim the good news it is being sent with a new covenant strange to start with someone right at the end of their ministry as a priest elizabeth's not there she is at home but zechariah has to go home and no doubt on a writing tablet tell her what has happened but she does conceive together they conceive and bear a son and that story is to be told beyond but for the moment let's look at both of them and say here is the landscape and no doubt zechariah in going home for the priests didn't live in jerusalem they turned up for their duties according to their division and then would be resident in the temple at that time but then would go home and zechariah had to go home probably be taken home mute unable to speak after the vision making signs which he was unused to to the people and go home to elizabeth and she conceives in her womb and for five months she keeps herself in seclusion and tomorrow our sentence will be begin it because we're in a time scale here in the sixth month that means in the sixth month of elizabeth's pregnancy but that's for tomorrow for the moment we've taken our first step in the revelation of the good news of a new covenant as set out in this ordered way by our narrator in a particular landscape and when we come to tomorrow we find ourselves at nazareth in galilee and the journey eventually that will be made from there to the home of elizabeth and zechariah in the hill country shows that it's on the way to probably galilee but maybe nearer jerusalem we don't know it's not said just in the hill country but in their own home the two old people no doubt ponder and muse and zechariah remains unable to speak we said yesterday about drawing landscapes and also bringing in characters for those landscapes and describing them and the narrator has the task not only of telling us as luke says the absolute truth as he's found it but also putting his own interpretation onto it and we give thanks for all of that because no one is better able to draw pictures and bring music into their writing as in luke so we give thanks that this story starts with one in old age to prove god's power for as the angel says later in this story with god nothing is impossible and jesus says that himself when the disciples ask questions later on in his ministry with god nothing is impossible and now we are going to look at the the various responses of these characters in this landscape to to the call well now we have a date to think of today and i'm only using one date today because it's in a way a complicated story but it fits really well into to what we're doing and this is the date of the 20th of december 1968 when john steinbeck the writer died in new york city he'd been born on the 27th of february 1902 but not in new york and we don't really think of steinbeck's writings being associated much with new york cities but and not with cities themselves really we think of them being associated much more with his home ground where he was born in 1902 in the salinas valley in california and not too far really from the coast uh south of san francisco and really about i say i should say one third of the way to los angeles but that los angeles san francisco pacific coastline and the valleys uh back from that to to the the east of it are his country and when he begins to write it's all about that the context let's take that first is his own background not from a terribly rich family and matters became much much worse in the great depression and the dust bowl experience of that that area but for the moment let's think of him being brought up in an episcopal anglican family and and learning the bible so that all of those images and words are very much there in his writings so titles like the grapes of ross are very biblical in everything that is being uh spoken of and and and written about but he's writing of a particular people in 1962 when he was 60 and he received the nobel prize for literature the citation read this is given for his realistic and imaginative writings combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception and the landscape is the landscape of central california and the themes are of fate and injustice salinas valley was culturally very diverse with a rich migratory and immigrant history there but those people in working in the agriculture of that area had then to cope with both dust bowl and great depression and all of those things go into the picture which steinbeck wants to write he was a compulsive writer at all times he was writing in journals he writes travelogues he writes novels he writes short stories but he cannot stop writing and he writes also about politics and religion and history and mythology and also about ecology and marine biology why and the answer then comes with the second character to be introduced this morning and this is a person called ed ricketts and he became a a huge friend and encourager and a companion in all the works that earlier in his uh writing career and up really until the 1940s and and essentially until 1948 he became an encourager uh on all unwittingly of steinbach beck they made friends they were there in the same kind of place but ricketts was as as steinbeck was a compulsive writer ricketts was a compulsive marine biologist and loved the marine life on the shores of the pacific ocean there his one book which uh gained him him huge credibility was called between pacific tides so when the tide went out then was the time to search for marine life and the kind of marine life that was near to the shore and at the same time then to go and explore he was a philosopher he was someone also who loved music and they made great friends but they encouraged one another and so the ecological and philosophical strands in steinbeck's writing comes from the relationship with ed ricketts and it had happened because uh steinbeck's wife became a helper at ricketts uh small laboratory and that meant that she got to know him first and then ricketts and and steinbeck became friends and conversational partners and that fed into steinbeck's writing as people do they encourage you on the way through and steinbeck learned to trust ricketts judgment on so many different things and with his travelogues as well you keep getting essences of rickett's own thinking in that way in the end both of them were not only caught up with the life there of the mid california and the ocean there but also with the coming of the second world war when both one once again went back to military service because they had been drafted earlier in their lifetime military service but at the the same time here in uh the second world war back they went and although steinbeck by then had become very famous he'd by then written of mice and men and in that he was talking about the condition of those working in the harvest and the hard agriculture of those valleys the grapes of roth in 1939 with that very biblical title which is quite often seen to be his masterpiece and then in 1952 much later on east of eden another of his masterpieces but with a biblical title all over again putting out a landscape but then he was used to going down to the seashore and helping uh ricketts to collect his specimens getting uh muddy in in the shore wall the inshore waters and seeing the marine life of the pacific and it is rich there we've experienced it ourselves much lower down in san diego uh and traveling there across the the beaches down much nearer to los angeles but in in uh san diego itself and just a a way away from it to drive away from it the scripps oceanographic institute allows you to have a hands-on experience of the kind of thing that steinbeck was learning with ricketts as they went up and down this between pacific tides as uh rickett's little book is called well not a little book his his study is called and uh as as we did that with at the scripts uh we were introduced to oh wonderful creatures sea dragons beautiful sea dragons such as you you just your eyes just open wide to see and uh there they are looking like something that an artist had had actually created out and yet they are the natural specimens of the pacific of marine life and and then see horses and we see them being being born and and uh that too was a wonderful experience but the biggest and best experience of all was our introduction to a a a female great octopus and uh as nigella who was the the head of that institute at the time took us down to meet the octopus and i think neither of us were ready for the way in which an octopus which is a very very clever and aware species of marine life we were surprised by the way the octopus then began to relate to us and it reminded us of that uh that film which many of you will have seen my teacher the octopus which was shown as a documentary recently but what would happen if you put your hands near and nigella said just be warned as well because in the center of a giant octopus is the hard beak but the the the uh the tentacles would go around your hand in an amazing way and the eyes were knowing at all times knowing and there was a sense that she would come up and you were relating to her and it gave us a completely different view of the life of an octopus which before maybe we just just seen as drawings or paintings or or looked at them in in marine but here we were physically uh interacting with a a sea creature of great sensitivity and of immense almost knowledge beyond our imaginings and the the ability to relate with us well all those things actually then go in to steinbeck at that time and we give great thanks for the fact that he's given us a picture of his imaginary uh ed ricketts uh in a book which he wrote really at the end of the war and he was still not back in california but he was actually yearning for all of that to be there again and in 1945 he published a story called cannery row which is about monterrey and also in it there is a character called doc who is really ed ricketts and he talks of this this uh man dog he wears a beard and his face is half christ and half satire and his face tells the truth and if you look at the um pictures of rickets in middle age at that time and they'd known each other for 20 years or so by then um then you see that dimension and they were already they'd already written one book together uh about the marine life there but they were planning to go to alaska on one of the great travelogues and explore the ocean there but a week before they went sadly ricketts driving home in in monterey back to dinner in the evening from his lab and already he'd suffered with that lab burning down and losing all his notes and happily his book uh um what's his book called between pacific tithes had already gone to the publishers but he lost so much in that but he was driving home on that night and no doubt thinking of the the the next week when they they would go off on this new journey and the train which he'd gone past this many times struck his car and and three days later he died as a result staying back steinbeck rushed back home to be there but arrived too late and said there's this great tragedy of loss there and yet the character of ed ricketts is and his his love of that particular coastland and that life that landscape and that that um gift of the creator in all ways he had time to write about that and and also to influence the writing of that great writer john steinbeck who wrote east of eden after that but many believe that as ricketts went because in the the desperate periods of of steinbeck's life and he was attacked many times for being too true about america at the time if you're too true about societies then the ones that you're saying that these have got it out of balance and so on then attack you back and steinbeck became very depressed but he would always go back to ricketts and ricketts with music and conversation and philosophy of most of all splashing around on the shore and finding creatures would heal steinbeck that's why he calls him doc and of course luke is a doctor and a narrator of all that we're doing so we go to him for gospel and good news let me just say what steinbeck said when he was given the 1962 nobel prize for literature he said the writer is delegated to declare and celebrate humankind's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit for gallantry and defeat for courage compassion and love in the endless war against weakness and despair these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation i can't help but feeling that all those years later uh ricketts had had been killed in 1948 but here was 1962. i can't help the feeling that in this are characteristics of the one he knew who was the marine biologist who introduced the ecological strand in steinbeck's writings which joined then the biblical strand the literary strands and the compulsion to be a writer justice ricketts was compelled to be a marine biologist because of all the wonders of the pacific shore well we could go on and on about that but uh i hope that gives a a sense of two different landscapes one landscape in ancient galilee and judea with characters who would see themselves as totally unimportant and at the same time uh the landscape of california in desperate years of the despot dustville the great depression and the world war calling people away but two people with a vocation of communication of certain aspects of human life and the creator's gifts so let's say our prayers on this particular day and we're praying today for the diocese of ikuano in the church of nigeria in the abba province and we're praying in our own diocese for archbishop justin and bishop rose of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and the parish of canterbury all saints well now if you step outside one of the gates of the precincts here you find yourself in the parish of all saints and the priest there is phil greg and the assistant curate lucy five jemisin and we give thanks for their ministry and pray for the school there s in john's church of england primary school as well as the parish and we pray also for the jesus hospital for which we have particular care where people in uh the the um the area uh go to live uh in uh old age if they like to and have a certain amount of of care given by the warden there and it's in john's hospital also uh along in the north gate here too where my sister was was very well cared for for a while before she went into a film nursing home so i'm giving thanks for all that and praying for these little communities of canterbury all saints let's say the prayer for today which is remembering as we said yesterday the fourth sunday of advent calling remembering the vocation of the blessed virgin mary and afterwards we'll say the advent collect itself god are redeemer who prepared the blessed virgin mary to be the mother of your son grant that as she looked for his coming as our savior so we may be ready to greet him when he comes again as our judge who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen and the advent college and bring your own intentions and prayers almighty god give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life in which your son jesus christ came to us in great humility that on the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him 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 amen moment of reflection now for your own prayers [Music] [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] in delving back to the time when ed ricketts was exploring the coastline and and having conversations about it with steinbeck one has to remember that there were no submarines available to him to go down with cameras and uh lights which showed the depth of the ocean he was dealing with things which had been washed up onto the shore or creatures that perhaps lived at certain times in the shallow waters or on land itself he had apart from that to theorize and make suppositions about things and so often he got that right but we're looking at a completely different world from the world that is given to us on our screens today and that exploration between them was a very exciting thing but so often you need a friend of a completely different culture as steinbeck was to help you explore and that that's where luke was all the time i'm sure just looking at evidence and seeing things new and then thinking how can this be and let's set this in what order we can so the gratitude for those who in some ways set that down in words uh and whether it be marine biology or the the situation which the people working in the the great depression found themselves in which steinbeck did are all of those things we give gratitude for and take so many things for granted ourselves and yet we ourselves never must stop exploring because the depth of the gifts that the cree the creator has given us is beyond human concept comprehension and it's a journey for eternity too so let's end with our blessing on this day christ the son of righteousness shine upon you scatter the darkness from before your path and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory 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 sitting here in the orchard on a cold day in uh canterbury and thinking about california reminds us of the not only the very many friends that too many to name right up and down the coastline of california from from san diego up through los angeles right to san francisco and we we send greetings to them today but at the same time of those beautiful sunsets and uh you're looking right out uh in a way that the the ocean is giving you a sunset each evening and we've enjoyed those so many times but that cheers us in this winter weather the depths of winter here and so to all of you this morning um we say a greeting in california but a greeting to all of you across the world getting ready for christmas at this time [Music] so you