good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of thursday the 16th of december a still and cloudy morning but uh not too cold and we're here in the garden together to say our prayers wherever you are in the world please feel welcome and bring your own concerns and intentions and prayers from your area of the world in your own consciousness we're thinking across the world once again of how the climate is affecting the weather really serious warnings across the united states for various reasons and more tornado warnings in an area which has already been ravaged by record tornadoes in terms of their fierceness but storms of all kinds and then at the same time one goes right to the other area of the world and find that little tragedy where the children um probably aged about 10 on bouncy castle in tasmania uh a a strong gust of wind lifted the whole bouncy castle uh 30 odd feet up into the air 32 feet up into the unturned it and the children fell and five were killed there may be more uh who have died and uh at this this is a terrible thing for their parents but it means that all the time one is watching for the way in which the climate is changing and whether conditions are suddenly what we would have called in the past freak conditions australia is suffering at the same time from severe heat at the moment so let's remember all those things together with things that we've been praying for all this week in different areas of the world as i say bring your own concerns your own prayers from things that you know about and join them with ours as we begin our prayers on this 16th of december a day in advent o lord open our lips and our mouth 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 awake 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 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 are men we've come to this part of the garden because yesterday we were thinking about the wild cherry and we've actually taken thought for the other cherry trees in the the garden and behind me is an autumnalis cherry which flowers at this time of year with its flowers um when they fall looking like snowflakes at this time of year but a strange time of flowering for a cherry and it takes its name from the latin for autumn but here it tends to flower december january so i'm sitting underneath it and we said the other day that there's no day in the year when we can't find a flower of some kind here behind me are lovely blue salvias still flowering you've got the green of the orca and also the gold of the leaves of the forsythia but the blue of the flowers of the salvia and the white of the autumnalis the you might call it a winter flowering cherry here as we gather to say our prayers on this still grey morning in december i'm reading this morning the psalm 80 one of the psalms for the 16th of the month here o shepherd of israel you that led joseph like a flock shine forth you that are enthroned upon the cherubim before ephraim benjamin and manasseh stir up your mighty strengths and come to our salvation turn us again o god show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved oh lord god of hosts how long will you be angry at your people's prayer you feed them with the bread of tears you give them abundance of tears to drink you have made us the derision of our neighbors and our enemies love us to scorn turn us again o god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved you brought a vine out of egypt you drove out the nations and planted it you made room around it and when it had taken root it filled the land the hills were covered with its shadow and the cedars of god by its boughs it stretched out its branches to the sea and its tendrils to the river why then have you broken down its wall so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes the wild boar out of the wood tears it off and the insects of the field devour it turn again oh god of hosts look down from heaven and behold cherish this vine which your right hand has planted and the branch that you made so strong for yourself let those who burnt it with fire who cut it down perish at the rebuke of your countenance let your hand be upon the man at your right hand the son of man you made so strong for yourself and so will we not go back from you give us life and we shall call upon your name turn us again o lord god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved this very much sounds like a psalm of exile and we're talking about the image of the people of israel being seen like a vine rooted and planted in the promised land you're looking actually through tendrils of a climber going up through the cherry tree there well think of that as the vine the vine in our garden is right down along the old wall and now of course it's leafless at this time of year but the vine beginning to um spread out its tendrils and the psalm is thinking of the vine when it was first in full glory and yet now the temple and everything about its worship and the holy people have been scattered in exile that's what it sounds like and so many of the psalms are written from in historic situations there's a plea to the lord that this may be restored well of course we know that it was after the babylonian exile and that the temple which was rebuilt had in jesus's time a golden vine in goes set in its stone walls all around its courts so that the image of the vine was a very strong one once again we're rooting ourselves in the psalms which jesus would have known well and this psalm 80 speaking of the lord as the shepherd of israel and his people as a choice vine which needs tending again and looking after after all that has happened songs of exile once again so let's go to the epistle to the hebrews where we left off yesterday in that catalogue of the faithful i'm starting today in chapter 11 just where we left off and you remember that we left at the faith of joseph and before that of jacob and before that of abraham so taking up in verse 23 and the the uh theme is that nothing can be accomplished without faith and the definition of that faith that concept of faith was given at the first verse of chapter 11 faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen so here is verse 23 and i shall read through to verse 2 of chapter 12. by faith moses when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict by faith moses when he was grown up refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of god than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin he considered the reproach of christ greater wealth than the treasures of egypt for he was looking to the reward by faith he left egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king for he endured as seeing him who is invisible by faith he kept the passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them by face the people crossed the red sea as on dry land but the egyptians when they attempted to do the same were drowned by faith the walls of jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days by faith rahab the harlot did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies and what more shall i say for time would fail me to tell of gideon barrack samson jeffer of david and samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms enforced justice obtained promises stopped the mouth of lions quenched the power of fire escaped the edge of the sword were made strong out of weakness became mighty in war put foreign armies to flight women received back their dead by resurrection some were tortured refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn in two they were killed with the sword they went about in skins of sheep and goats destitute afflicted mistreated of whom this world was not worthy wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth and all these though commended through their faith did not receive what was promised since god had provided something better for us that apart from us they should not be made perfect therefore since we are surrounded by so greater cloud of witnesses let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to jesus the founder and perfecter of our face who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of god once again our writer doesn't fail us with startling and magnificent imagery of the journey of faith but the writer is quarrying back into that story of the holy people with their vocation to give the good news in the person of the anointed one the good news to the whole world to be a light to lighten every nation and as the writer looks back then the catalogue of the faithful takes us through a journey it's a journey that we were following earlier when in uh weeks gone by now months gone by we've been looking at the books of genesis and exodus all those names have become familiar to us but at the same time he goes further and in the way in which uh there's that lovely sentence what more shall i say time would fail me to tell i can't go on and on and on uh because the story of the faithful is too long gideon and samson and jeff sir of david and samuel and the prophets all of these symbols of faithfulness but also of anointed kingship with the royal line of david solomon's not mentioned there but david certainly is and samuel the emblem of prophecy and of one who was ruling the holy people before the royal line of kings began even but then he comes farther forward and begins to talk about things which have happened much more recently for the holy people before the time of jesus certainly but at the time when antiochus and and the the greek kingdoms began to insist on foreign worship in the temples and submitted people to terrible tortures all of that can be found in the apocryphal books of the maccabees which are in some of our scriptures and as we we read those which we do from time to time according to the lectionary of the book of common prayer and also modern lectionaries we see what people endured for the faith and hear these stories about they were stoned they were sawn in two they were killed with the sword they went about in skins of sheep and hid in dens and caves so that they would not be forced to break the covenant break the law one thinks of matthias and his family uh with people like judas maccabeeus all of those it's that kind of area of time that we're talking about it that with with this these paragraphs but as jesus kept saying the hour was not yet not yet not yet but now the writer to the hebrews is saying the hour has come the anointed one has been lifted up so that he might draw all nations to himself and all those others are witnesses to that but since that crucifixion many others who've embraced the good news have also suffered terrible persecutions and then we get those sentences of encouragement sentences which really are written on our hearts and different words have been translated in different ways but each one of them shines with meaning therefore since we are surrounded by so greater cloud of witnesses let us also now it's talking about you and me let us also lay aside every weight and sin which cling so closely and let us run with endurance that's sometimes translated perseverance both words are good let us run with endurance the race that is set before us it's like the uh image that's in paul use of the the runner in a race preparing themselves to run that race with perseverance but here's the epistle to the hebrews saying exactly the same and how do we do it well we look to jesus and now here are two other words that have been translated in so many different ways the founder and perfecter i read in this translation the author and finisher the pioneer i've heard all sorts of words with this but it means that christ is there at the beginning the founder and at the end the perfecter or the author and the finisher or the pioneer and so on and so that journey of beginning and ending is something that we yesterday were talking about people knowing the um pilgrimage of of of faith and the writer to the revelation of the revelation to john talks about christ as the alpha the first letter of the alphabet and the omega the last letter of the alphabet the long o we've had quite a lot of stuff about that recently because people were pronouncing the new variant omicron and of course uh omicron is the short o in greek the last letter of the alphabet omega with the long o alpha at the beginning but the author the finisher the pioneer the perfecter we start with christ we walk with christ we end with christ the anointed one is there and so looking to jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross it's not as if we're suffering when he didn't despising the shame the stripping of his clothes the beating of him the nailing of his hands what kind of glory is there in that and yet the cross has become the sign of our glory that we carry in our pilgrimage and is seated at the right hand of the throne of god all that also was there in psalm 18 when we were thinking of the vine so on this morning we give thanks again for the imagery given to us by this wonderful epistle which has given us so many words for our worship and liturgy and thinking and prayer but so much reality of what the journey means in terms of mortal effort and pain and suffering and going on from there so let's begin to think now of other things which have happened on this day as we as we tend to we've been given a collection of stories and in our minds of the the the author of the letter to the hebrews has not gone in detail into any of them there's an assumption that you know them as the names are spoken well both the dates that i want to think of today are dates of people who enjoyed making a collection of stories but they did so in different ways and for different reasons we've been recently um just by chance mostly in the early 17th century and up to the time of the civil war when we were talking about john dunn and talking about nicolas ferrer and george herbert we're in a different place today but both dates are in the same period of history and they are at the beginning of the 19th century and at that time europe found itself plunged into a terrible and lengthy war normally called the napoleonic wars it was a time of of history when everything was thrown into the melting pot national boundaries and everything thrown into the melting pot by the armies of napoleon for napoleon wanted an empire right across europe and marched as far as moscow to try and achieve that of course in the end it collapsed he overreached but meanwhile he had destroyed many boundaries and settled areas and at the same time had caused war to be a constant factor in these islands and across the nations of europe by 1815 everyone was tired of war but we're talking before 1815 at the moment with our two dates i want to start by saying this the 16th of december in 1775 it's the birthday of jane austen the the writer who uh so many enjoy in her writings and yet she lived really a quiet life and her life has been made more in its detail anonymous and difficult to perceive because of the fact that her sister when she died cassandra thinking she was doing good by preserving a good record of the life of her sister burned most of her letters and cut out only little bits and later on more of her letters were destroyed so it's very difficult to quarry into the exact details of jane austen's life we have only certain facts and also the the six novels and the shall we call them say almost juvenile writings practicing for these wonderful novels she was born at steventon rectory in hampshire and as i say she was born in 1775 before these wars began her her father george was the uh rector of stevenson and that was a family living belonging to the family but by the time it had got down to to george at that time they were not a rich family and yet there were the eight children six boys edward james henry frank george and charles and then the two daughters cassandra and jane and one of the sons edward the third son was given to other members of the family uh thomas and catherine knight who lived near here at gomesham park and they were of of immense wealth uh and in in fact uh he thomas became the high sheriff of of kent and edward was adopted by them so that when the family of george that the director and they moved from stephenton rectory to bath and then george died suddenly the family fell on hard times and most of jane's imaginative writing had begun at steventon when things were settled and after that there was a time of of no writing really when they lived in bath which is where george um took them to but he died quite suddenly and then they were thrown onto the resources of their brother and the other brothers also chipped in so that the family would not be and particularly jane and her mother would not be in distress and when uh the the adopted mother of edward catherine um the father the the should we call the adopted father thomas knight died and the mother catherine moved herself into canterbury from montmartre then the estates of steventon and and uh chorten and gobmission all fell into the hands properly of of edward and he became the heir and jane used to come and stay we know that at goldmansham and her mother had the um edward's mother who was the the adopted mother was living in canterbury and there are all kinds of tales about jane coming we know she came to canterbury and there's a tale of her coming here to the deanery as well uh and also of her uh at a dance here with and and falling rather for the mp for canterbury at the time whose name was mr lashington and certain snippets of letters uh actually uh remain but cassandra made a fairly good job of making jane into almost a shining white but much more anonymous figure than she should have been because she was a constant constant letter writer and and we would so much love to have all those letters but so many of them were simply destroyed and so the stories which have been passed down but what we do have is the fact that she collected her stories uh when her father was the parish priest at stevenson from what was going on and later on with the later books she collected them from her own experience we actually learned jane austen from the autobiographical hints that are given of the situation she found herself in in parsonages and country houses and also in the rural communities of that time and even in the city of bath so what have we got we've got sense and sensibility published in 1811 anonymously story by a lady pride and prejudice now so world famous and has been made into wonderful films so many times uh and uh the the the black and white film with with uh lawrence olivier as mr darcy uh and or or you could go to the the television adaptation which became so popular with with colin firth and jennifer ely and that that probably is one of our favorite with the with the music of the time there as well pride and prejudice in 1813 with its very famous opening sentence mansfield park 1814 they're all knit together but most of the writing was done long before and corrected and sent forward emma in 1816 just after the battle of waterloo and jane died in 1817 and was buried because they were living at chalton buried in winchester cathedral nothing about her writing whatsoever on her stone the stone was written by one of her brothers and carved and there it is in winchester cathedral and after her death 1818 northanger abbey and persuasion both published so what we gain of that collection of stories is that jane wanted to set out her own experience from people that she knew experience of church and community experience of life in the midst of war experience of hardship and people trying to keep that end up but her irony about people whom she clearly didn't really approve of and is is given also to her characters elizabeth bennett or emma and both of them make you smile by the things they say but then they have their foils in mr darcy and mr nightly and of course you have the picture of the the country clergy person from the big house in henry tilney by the time you get to northanger abbey so you'll all have your own favorite stories but what we're doing is seeing a collection of stories about people who are encouraging one another or not serving their own ends or helping others and we we get all of that just as the writer to the hebrews gives us a catalogue of stories to encourage us on the way through the other people that i wanted to mention today i say people the only one has a 16th of december date but they were brothers for on the 16th of december 1859 wilhelm grimm died and his brother jacob and he had published in 1812 children's household tales now they've done so for a different reason from jane austen they'd done so because they wanted to identify the culture of there wasn't a single germany in those days it was the holy roman empire and napoleon had abolished the empire uh and so the french armies had taken over right across europe at that point and the brothers grimm wanted to protect something of the depths of the culture of those german-speaking areas at that time which later on in 1870 would become united but at the time they weren't and jacob and the wilhelm were born in one of the tiny little states at hanau which peopled the holy roman empire populated the holy roman empire archbishop bricks and merchants towns and guilds and and little principalities and land grabs and all sorts of things like a lecture of hanover they had different titles and different names it was all swept away by napoleon just as he burnt the golden book of venice and and tore it up and burnt the doge's barge he was determined to get rid of all of that because he was going to be the emperor but of course when that failed they had to rewrite the map of europe and by then the sense of national self-determination was coming in where a culture felt it ought to have it spoke the same language had the same culture its own boundaries very much a 19th century kind of philosophy but at this time when things were published 1812 things were in complete disarray still and what did they do they quarried into the stories cinderella red riding hood hansel and gretel the frog prince snow white rumplestiltskin rapunzel the sleeping beauty this is pantomime time in england i don't know what the theaters will be able to be doing at christmas time but at this time of year pantomimes tell those stories with music and with laughter and much fun but they were doing it for a different reason they wanted to root themselves in the culture of their people by telling the colorful stories and most of those when i say those stories you will know well and they've been illustrated by wonderful people arthur rackham illustrated many of the grimm's stories walter crane in a very different way edmund du lac in a very different way but they have become stories which even walt disney in his films told but let's think back they were published and collected at a time of war and the brothers grim were firm for the reunification of sorry the unification of germany and at the same time neither of them lived to see it because wilhelm died in 1859 and jacob died just before all this was achieved in 1870 well different reasons for collecting stories but all based on the author's experience and we're resting ourselves this morning on the collection of stories that the writer to the hebrew sends us back to but he's not doing it for that reason he's saying we are living in that time they were expecting when the anointed one has been lifted up as a sign for all nations of that good news and look around and be encouraged first by the story of the faith since then and by those who are being encouraging themselves today so let's remember that and take heart from the encouragement given by the writer to the hebrews let's say our prayers then on this day and give thanks for jane austen and the brothers grimm uh i am praying today let me find the the date the 16th for the diocese of icca in the church of nigeria and the niger delta province and i'm also praying for the area deanery of canterbury the villages around this city of canterbury which jane austen would have known well because of her mother sorry edward's new mothers living here uh and uh then we are praying today for the chaplains who work in those villages around us in prisons hospitals schools universities on the streets of the city or in any other kind of workplace and there's a whole list of them as with yesterday so we pray for them as they do their work and say their prayers with the people so let's uh say first of all the prayer for this third sunday of advent that's this week this third week of advent followed by the advent college bring your own prayers and intentions as we pray for archbishop justin bishop rose and bishop emma lamberth o lord jesus christ who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready your way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just that at your second coming to judge the world we may be found in acceptable people in your sight for you are alive and reign with the father in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen and the collect itself 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 amen let's send say the prayer our savior taught us in whatever language you like to use 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 now of reflection for your own prayers so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] uh [Music] i should say before the words of the blessing that even as we say our prayers at this moment the super typhoon rey rai is uh approaching the philippines and tens of thousands of people are being evacuated from their home and this will affect millions it is a a real typhoon of record proportion and so we we really pray for the people of the the philippines this morning [Music] 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 now and always are men you perhaps notice the coincidence that jane austen was buried in winchester cathedral and also isaac walton whom we were thinking of yesterday i was also buried in winchester cathedral quite by chance because jane was living at that time with her mother nearby and also isaac wharton had taken his last years of life with his friend the bishop of winchester at the farnham castle where the bishop lived and so he too was buried in winchester cathedral without too much connection with that place before at the same time we remember other connections here if we look at gomeshan park today there is a lovely retreat center there as well and the parish church there is one of our most beautiful little churches and has a lovely uh a lovely aspect when you enter it and recently our stained glass department has put some new stained glass into that church by the commission and it's a a lovely piece of stained glass which leone and her team at the stained glass department have put into government government and church there the um the family at gorman also in jane austen's time had great connection with the fitz walters at gunston who and that family are still there so all these things from history the present day but most of all the lesson of encouragement for one another as we run the race that is set before us looking unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith who walks with us every step of the way well now good morning how are you this morning you've been very good this morning i don't know where you came from but i think it's uh there's no wind there's no rustle because he's shut away our you found some biscuit as well so you probably would be quite content to stay here i think would you i've got a meeting to go and chat but i shall leave you here leo eating your biscuit so so [Music] [Music] so you