good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this tuesday the 18th of may it is the most beautiful may morning the sun has come up with great warmth yesterday we didn't do meadow monday shall we call it because of the rain and then we found ourselves amongst the lilacs and flowers of the the wildflowers of the orchard but today we've come back to see the progress of this walled garden and the the um wildflower meadow that we planted here uh with you a few weeks ago i'm sitting here under the wisteria and it has a very powerful and lovely scent but the blossoms hang like great bunches of grapes and it's absolutely at its height it's a very old and established wisteria growing along this flint wall so characteristic of this place and so it's an enjoyable place to sit here in the sunshine and to invite you to be welcome as you bring your prayers and concerns our hearts are still filled with those areas of the world that we need to make urgent prayer for perhaps chief amongst them the peoples of the holy land and all those with any kind of influence to bear for good and for reconciliation but also those suffering from the pandemic where medical resources are are few and far between because of the burgeoning of the pandemic we think of the people of india and continue to pray for the people of brazil and other places where the pandemic is strong but we also pray for one another and pray for the health of our own communities and give thanks for those who look after us so let's begin our morning prayers on this spring morning here oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise send your holy spirit upon us and clothe us with power from on high alleluia blessed are you creator god do you be praise and glory forever as your spirit moved over the face of the waters bringing light and life to your creation pour out your spirit on us today that we may walk as children of light and by your grace reveal your presence 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our son on this 18th morning of the month is psalm 91 whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high and abides under the shadow of the almighty shall say to the lord my refuge and my stronghold my god in whom i put my trust for he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence he shall cover you with his wings and you shall be safe under his feathers his faithfulness shall be your shield and buckler you shall not be afraid of any terror by night nor of the arrow that flies by day of the pestilence that stalks in darkness nor of the sickness that destroys at noonday there are a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand yet it shall not come near you your eyes have only to behold to see the reward of the wicked because you have made the lord your refuge and the most high your stronghold there shall no evil happen to you neither shall any plague come near your tent for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways they shall bear you in their hands lest you dash your foot against a stone you shall tread upon the lion and adder the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot because they have set their love upon me therefore will i deliver them i will lift them up because they know my name they will call upon me and i will answer them i am with them in trouble i will deliver them and bring them to honor with long life will i satisfy them and show them my salvation that psalm 91 is one that we're used to saying at complin the last service of the day when we say that it's one of the regular psalms for compline so it takes us to that evening hour as well as this morning hour on this 18th morning of the month but also you will recognize sentences in that psalm which take you straight to the wilderness as well and the temptations of jesus he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways they shall bear you in their hands lest you dash your foot against a stone one of the temptations put into the mind of jesus that there was no need for him to share our human limitations in delivering his message so that people would instantly accept it he could cast himself from the pinnacle of the temple and according to the psalmist angels would bear him up and he would not dash his foot against the stone and jesus returns that back to satan staying fast to his vocation to live with our human limitations in this particular journey and part of the journey some of these things in the psalm speak of those visions in the prophet isaiah of what the holy mountain will look like afterwards and the peaceful kingdom as it's called when the lion shall lie down with the lamb and all of those things but others speak of the dangers we face now and the way that we need to look after one another but we remember that those sentences were in the heart and mind of jesus for these psalms were his hymn book let's go then to the gospel of saint matthew for our daily reading from that and we are taking up where we left off yesterday from chapter nine today we're going to read from verse 18 to verse 38 which completes this second section of narrative before the second discourse which is normally called the little commission begins and that we shall begin tomorrow in chapter 10 for the moment let's take up from where we left off yesterday with jesus's sentence new wine is put into fresh wine skins and so both are preserved verse 18 while jesus was saying these things to them behold a ruler came in and knelt before him saying my daughter has just died but come and lay your hand on her and she will live and jesus rose and followed him with his disciples and behold a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment four she said to herself if i only touch his garment i will be made well jesus turned and seeing her he said take heart daughter your faith has made you well and instantly the woman was made well and when jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowds making a commotion he said go away for the girl is not dead but sleeping and they laughed at him but when the crowd had been put outside he went in and took her by the hand and the girl arose and the report of this went through all that district and as jesus passed on from there two blind men followed him crying aloud have mercy on a son of david when he entered the house the blind men came to him and jesus said to them do you believe that i am able to do this they said to him yes lord then jesus touched their eyes saying according to your faith be it done to you and their eyes were opened and jesus sternly warned them see that no one knows about it but they went away and spread his fame through all that district as they were going away behold a demon oppressed man who was mute was brought to him and when the demon had been cast out the mute man spoke and the crowds marveled saying never was anything like this seen in israel but the pharisees said he casts out demons by the prince of demons and jesus went throughout all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom healing every disease and every affliction when he saw the crowds he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd and he said to his disciples the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few therefore pray earnestly to the lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest there are many things that we can notice here about the way in which matthew collects together these stories and also tells them to us we can notice so many things that he's missed out and so many things that he himself has changed and some details that he himself probably from his own tradition has put in as seeming to be important for the community of christians that he is writing for many of these stories are well known to us from st mark's gospel and also from st luke's gospel because the mark source was shared by matthew and by luke but there is an alteration in the way these are collected together and told between the two discourses and so if we look at it and see how matthew is using this we have to be surprised that he's going so fast through stories remember his gospel is 28 chapters long and marx is 16. but if we go to the stories told today here and particularly let's start with the story between verse 18 and verse 26 then matthew has shortened that a great deal lots of human details are left out if you go back to mark you'll get it in all its fullness we know that the ruler's name is jairus from that story mark is a great one for naming people matthew just simply a ruler we know also that he's president of the synagogue matthew simply a ruler came in and knelt before jesus my little daughter is gravely sick is the martha marcan exercise here she is already dead and as the ruler kneels before jesus the faith of the ruler that jesus is able to give life where before there was no life is the thing that matthew is underlining in a very very heavy way and then he does exactly the same as mark does he intersperses the story of the lady with the hemorrhages who spent all her money on physicians but we're not told that by matthew we're simply told that behold a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years came up behind jesus and touched the fringe of his garment the story is clipped and pruned so all kinds of details are missed out there's no sense of the crowds pressing in there's nothing to follow about the disciples saying how can you say who touched me when all the crowds are pressing in on you all of that is missing this is a story of the faith of the woman and touching now here a detail is put in which we don't have in the other gospels the fringe of his garment that's a technical term fringe if you look in the book of numbers the law book of numbers chapter 15 and verse 38 there is a commandment in the law that the robes worn by the jewish people the robes worn and it may be just talking about nail robes but certainly the verses there as you can see um have to have a fringe and at the corner a blue cord or tassel and it's that fringe the technical greek word for that fringe that is being touched in matthew's not just the robe but the hem of his garment as the old hymn used to say the fringe and what matthew is saying is jesus was living his whole life according to the law but he was fulfilling it transforming it making it into a new law and yet there is faithfulness to the old customs no doubt inculcated by mary and joseph in those nazareth years and matthew thinks that's important for his jewish greek speaking christians there in syria in that troubled land at the moment she touches the fringe of his garment and says to herself if i only touch his garment i will be made well and jesus no conversation with the disciples here i know who touched me that's mark just turns and says take heart daughter lovely words take heart your faith has made you well that's enough for matthew the healing has taken place instantly the woman was made well jesus goes on comes to jairus's house we don't know that name from matthew i'm saying it because in my mind of course it's gyrus from mark and he's comes there now here again is a matthew detail he saw the flute players people who were hired to um become part of the morning remember in this story the girl is already dead when the ruler kneels before jesus and so here is something which is going to be immensely powerful as a sign for matthew's church and he adds that that detail of the flute players and says jesus says to them go away that the girl's not dead she's sleeping and they laugh and then there's there's no putting out of everybody and taking of the three disciples with the parents and there's nothing about speaking to the little girl in aramaic all of that is missing all that matthew wants you to to hear is that jesus brings life where there was death and there's no hostility being shown by pharisees at the moment this buildup of hostility and even violence towards jesus which is significant in mark is just not there for the moment as we'll see as this goes on as matthew collects the sentences and sayings he's keen to show that the power of jesus to heal is as great as the power of jesus to teach and the crowds are wondrous about his authority both to teach and to heal they've seen nothing like this before the report of this goes all around the district and there's not also the human statement give give her something to eat which appears in the other stories in in the different evangel and then again on we go and this time in matthew's gospel unnamed two blind men son of david son of david have mercy on us instantly you and i are taken to bartimaeus in mark's gospel shouting and shouting and being silenced by the crowds and then jesus stopping and calling all of that a named person matthew is collecting together healing which is automatic because of jesus's enormous power in order to give sight and light where before there was human darkness just as he gave life where there was death and healing where before the woman was absolutely at her last um feeling of hopefulness and came to jesus with the faith that he would cure matthew wants to sit in front of us that jesus is fulfilling a new covenant and bringing all the qualities of the kingdom of heaven there and then and he shows jesus doing that with ease read the mocking narrative of this too and get mark's take on this and then read the lucan narrative and see how zinn luke tells the story because it's a wonderful thing to hear how the good news all these years after the events when the evangelists are writing it down and taking from traditional sources that have been handed on by word of mouth but also from the writing of mark and clearly another written source with matthew and luke share together it's an interesting thing that this is how matthew wants to give it and then on to the man who was brought mute so that there is the ability to communicate when before there was none and notice it was taken as read that people with any kind of disability were in some way inhabited by a spirit which appears called a demon which makes them unable to function in a particular way that i think was common at that time in those worlds and jesus then makes the mute man speak and the crowds marveled never was anything like this seen in israel and finally an a catch-all paragraph jesus went throughout all the cities the villages teaching in the synagogues proclaiming the gospel of the of the kingdom healing every disease every affliction and matthew shows that happening shall we say with ease and with gladness all around him not swimming against the tide as was happening in mark's early chapters against those in authority who felt their authority being challenged by this we shall come to that but that's not matthew's message for the moment he wants the reward of faith to be seen clearly and jesus then uses two beautiful images of the crowds that he sees around them they're like sheep without a shepherd and in the end that of course will become the disciples task to be those shepherds bringing the good news of the gospel the commission to peter and john feed my sheep tend my sheep feed my lambs and then the other image and a good image when you see how quickly the grass is growing in this garden what you won't see quite so clearly are the little flower plants growing up in their thousands amongst the plants here because of the rain because of the sun under great mature flowers like the wisteria new life is springing up bountifully and plentifully and we shall watch that grow because jesus says to his disciples look around you and pointing to the harvest fields there the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few favorite image of the kingdom favorite image also in old testament and new testament of the judgment when the harvest will be tested the fruitfulness of the harvest be tested the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few therefore pray earnestly and here's another title to the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest this little band who haven't yet been named yet he matthew will come to the list of the twelve but clearly there are many more disciples and followers around that of all sorts and conditions they will be those who go out to make fruitful first the fruits of the spirit within the lord's harvest and here's a good image for us in the sunshine of this spring day here in this hemisphere to put our mind on as this part of matthew's gospel ends we give thanks for matthew's particular emphasis we give thanks for the gifts he has of collecting things together but we also give thanks for his particularity in speaking to his own community of christians at that time and we begin to get an image of them as we see how he addresses them and we also give thanks for the particularity of the stories as we know them from mark and from luke so that our own mind is adding details and pictures as we go through this so let's let's think what other things um happened on this particular day because there are some lovely things which have happened on this 18th of may on the 18th of may 1920 pope saint john paul ii was born in poland i think what that nation was going to have to go through between 1920 and the time in 1978 when he became pope so surprisingly at the concave it came together and announced that he was to be the new pope 1978 until 2005 that towering figure who had been through so much with his own people so much of violence so much of cruelty so much of oppression that towering figure traveled the world with an evangel of reconciliation and love and forgiveness and care showing our vocation to be for each other not just we who wear collars for each other shepherds at a time when someone seems to be lost going to go and find them and bring them back into a way where they begin to feel good about themselves and take their place and help them towards healing even help them towards the end of this journey also help them to counter the despair which comes from seeing images of so much violence which certainly john paul ii had seen in his polish nation during those years between 1920 and 1978 and then came as a strong and powerful voice and traveled more than any other pope has ever done that became a really important thing he he blessed the particularity of the nations by that familiar action of coming down the stairs from the aircraft kneeling on the floor generally on the tarmac of the airport and kissing the ground to say thank god for the particularity of this land this culture which i've now come to as a guest and god bless all who live here all of that we remember in the imagery of that time on this day also we have some lovely creative things which have happened and most of these that i now describe are either musicians and composers or poets or polymaths or or or in some way dancers uh writers of books and using the gifts and skills that god gave them so that the fruitfulness which is growing towards the harvest can be gleaned even now in the lives enjoyment and encouragement of others 1911 gustav mahler the austrian jewish composer died he is now really well known uh the composer of ten symphonies and many songs but for a long time first his music was was banned in the nazi years and also his music didn't really take the public imagination not so now very very popular influential on composers who came afterwards and i was first aware as so many were of uh the um music of mahler by hearing the adagietto from the fifth symphony played as a background to the journey to venice in thomas mann's novella which was made into a film i think by visconti uh death in venice and as the uh little vaporetto chugged along towards venice this was played so beautiful and if you feel you don't know any mahler music then um tap in the adagietto from symphony five and i warrant you'll say oh yes of course it's that and it it's it's music which which combines the romantic era but is sending it on to a different stage of creativity so much to give thanks for and also for the way in which he himself used the folk songs of his own nation quite often using voices as well in in his song of the earth and all of those things so we give thanks for gustav mahler we give thanks for omar khayam on this day the persian poet astronomer mathematician polymath born in 1048 and made famous by another an interpreter edward fitzgerald who in 1859 published his translation of omar khayyam's rubaiyat and if we know the name um omar khayam it's normally because we know something of the rubaiyat of and that poetry is stretching all the way out to us from 1048 from that amazing mind and and heart full of creative imagination um just a sort of side blow because this is this is someone who always at christmas is important to me uh leroy anderson died in 1975. he is he's actually the composer of so many melodies orchestral melodies that we know but always on christmas eve when we go out to the crib with the foresters and all the children of the city then i ask that the great organ plays sleigh ride and as it starts you feel leroy anderson's sleigh ride is causing christmas to begin such a simple almost a throwaway tune he wrote with ease but we give thanks for that in the way in which atmospheres can be created demarco fontaine was born on this day in 1919 we give thanks for her as the absolutely impeccable and imaginative dancer that she was the the um absolutely prima donna assaluta as she is of catherine garden but we also give thanks for a rebirth of her career and energy when the young rudolph nareth came to england and they began to dance together that gave us a second bout of energy to someone who already had given so much in her dancing and then uh finally i just wanted to mention two others dietrich fisher discount who is the the um baritone who is so much remembered for his impeccable singing of schubert songs and so many what we call leader songs the songs which have been set quite simply quite often to to poetry and give us the words and the atmosphere of that poem and he was he died on this day in 2012 and finally right back to 1799 the french author bomashe who had been quite influential in the court of louis the 15th throughout the 18th century but he's best known to us for two comic books that he wrote which influenced others to be creative and had a great influence themselves the first is the barber of seville and that was turned into an opera by rossini and the second the marriage of figaro turned into an opera by mozart all those things on this day when all creation in england here is burgeoning and showing the beginnings of what will be a fruitful harvest by the blossom but also the beauty of this day then we give thanks for others creativity and the particularity not just of matthew but of all cultures remembering pope john paul ii kneeling to kiss the ground of so many different nations with great courage but also great love let's say our prayers then on this day and pray for the diocese of budari in the anglican church of kenya and for archbishop justin for bishop rose of dover for bishop tim at lambeth and today we continue to pray with watching and waiting and much proud that the gifts of the spirit may be given to us daily the sign of which of course is our worship on the day of pentecost on this sunday coming here's today's prayer o god the king of glory you have exalted your only son jesus christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven we beseech you leave us not comfortless but send your holy spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to the place where our savior christ is gone before who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men prayer our savior taught us in whatever language you would like to say it in 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 of silence now as we say our own prayers on this day the spirit of truth lead you into all truth give you grace to proclaim that jesus christ is lord and strength to proclaim the word and works of god 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 amen you