good morning and welcome to the general garden at canterbury cathedral on this friday morning the 9th of july after all the festivities of yesterday which we were sharing the story of before most of them happened it turned into the most beautiful day and we could not have wanted better sunny weather with blue skies and everyone celebrating and then after the noise and excitement of yesterday to wake up this morning and find the precincts really silent because the school has now gone for the summer holidays and we hope that that will be time for well-earned rest for pupils and also staff alike and gradually throughout the next week or two schools will begin to to celebrate the end of their academic year and their summer holidays and we wish them well wherever you are in the world bring your own prayers and intentions we are today celebrating the day of commemoration of the life of one of the archbishops in the past archbishop stephen langton best known for his part in the ceiling by king john of the magna carta in 1215 but known for many other things and we shall talk about him in our reflection but also there's another date in our reflection which we'll come to when we when we get to that and it's of the italian composer of the uh early 20th century otorino respigi and one of his most famous works is the birds and that is something that we're going to celebrate and we've come to this point the bird table is behind me we've even had a garden warbler who's a visitor at this time of year singing beautifully for us and using the table behind but there are many birds across the garden as you well know and some of the very big probably the biggest is darcy and they each make a different kind of sound and respigi in his work is is not only comically but but in a a wonderfully uh illustrative way with his music giving us the sounds that those birds make in the context of a morning like this so let's begin our prayers and bring your own intentions and concerns as we start our morning prayers today 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 blessed are you creator god to 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 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 ninth morning of the month is psalm 46 god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear though the earth be moved and though the mountains trembled in the heart of the sea though the waters rage and swell and though the mountains quake at the towering seas there is a river whose streams make glad the city of god the holy place of the dwelling of the most high god is in the midst of her therefore shall she not be removed god shall help her at the break of day the nations are in uproar and the kingdoms are shaken but god utters his voice and the earth shall melt away the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold come and behold the works of the lord what destruction he has wrought upon the earth he makes wars to cease in all the world he shatters the bow and snaps the spear and burns the chariots in the fire be still and know that i am god i will be exalted among the nations i will be exalted in the earth the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold well as i've said this is a morning for the song of birds and they're all around us and when we come to respigi we'll hear what he makes of all of that but for the moment let's go back to our reading from the gospel of saint matthew where we left off yesterday and begin to reflect on that we're in chapter 22 of st matthew and starting at verse 15 i'm just reading from verses 15 to 22 then the pharisees went and plotted how to entangle jesus in his words and they sent their disciples to him along with the herodians saying teacher we know that you are true and teach the way of god truthfully and you do not care about anyone's opinion for you are not swayed by appearances tell us then what you think is it lawful to pay taxes to caesar or not but jesus aware of their malice said why put me to the test you hypocrites show me the coin for the tax and they brought him a denarius and jesus said to them whose likeness is inscription and inscription is this and they said caesar's then he said to them therefore render to caesar the things that are caesars and to god the things that are gods when they heard it they marveled and left him and went away this is the beginning of a passage which goes up to the end of the chapter where there are four questions asked three questions are asked of jesus by different groups of people and the last question is asked of by jesus himself of all of them and the first of these questions we hear this morning we'll deal with the others tomorrow the first question is about whether it's lawful to pay taxes to the roman empire emperor now this is a a kind of trap question because they're wanting jesus to become political about what the jewish nation should be doing at that time with regards to the power of the roman empire then certainly not christian or jewish and so um jesus then pauses and says why do you test me bring me a coin and they would have done so with a degree of holding this this object which they had to use with um a distaste shall we say no coin of that sort was allowed to be used in the temple itself this was uh tainted money because the emperor was considered by the whole empire to be and that to the jews was anathema and then jesus holding the coin in perfect freedom for no object contained he said whose image and inscription is this and they say it's a simple question well it's caesar's and then jesus in the well-known statement says then render to caesar the things that belong to caesar have they got him at that point is that a political statement is he saying yes to all of that and he then opens the question up and surrounds them with an enormous question of of this world and and the next and the question is about what belongs to god and the answer is of course well everything so render to caesar and you might hear him saying the poultry things that belong to caesar and give to god what belongs to god it's an answer that we hear and embrace but it's in the context there of the outer temple courtyard if we if we take the mark chronology and i would i would want you again to to go and and look at the way mark describes these questions and answers as jesus gives them because matthew has ordered his work in a different way as we keep saying and special matthew isn't only the special material he has it's the way he's ordering things for his own people to answer certain questions and to get them to ask questions of themselves like what what does belong to god what gifts are we given and how do we repay that offer to god the things that are gods render to the emperor the things that are the emperors and to god the things that are god's that's a lifetime's meditation and reflection and it opens up everything in a particular way this is a political question and it brings us to the very thing which is troubling jesus so much about the temple which is found there it's full of violent controversy but as so so often happens in the affairs of state there are unlikely allies being made against him people who wouldn't get on at all politically or even in the terms of their own religion tomorrow we shall see not pharisees and herodians herodians are those who support the monarchy the tetrarchy of king herod who has galilean jurisdiction and the family had had in the days of herod the great the jurisdiction over judea which the romans have taken for themselves because it was such a troublesome area that they've now of course put a procurator in place and that procurator is pontius pilate whom day by day we name in our creeds and here are pharisees and herodians two political parties and on the pharisees part a way of interpreting the law in all its strictness according to them they asked the first question and there's a an alliance made against jesus not only by them but the ones we'll find tomorrow whom we will discuss tomorrow a completely different political and religious party the sadducees and those sadducees to which group the high priestly family belong will ask their question tomorrow and then the the next question comes from scribes and lawyers and matthew makes this also a hostile question in a way that that mark doesn't but that too you can get by comparison to see what matthew is trying to teach us and then finally the whole exercise of the tables being turned round and jesus asking them a question which silences them but for today the answer to their question is not a question back from jesus there must raise all kinds of questions in their hearts and minds and that is what does belong to god render to caesar to the emperor the things that belong to the emperor to god the things belong to god and the inference is are you doing that by all this conflict and controversy in the temple courtyards and all this violence and the political machinations which are trying he knows to put an end to his earthly life to eradicate him to just put their hand over it and say that's dealt with by the time the feast of the passover has come all of that is going on in this question it's undergirded by violence and it's also shall we say larded with flattery we know that you're a teacher who pays no attention to what anyone thinks in human terms because you regard the things of god not the thing all of that and jesus says why do you tempt me and then again he uses the word hypocrites that sense of putting on the mask in a greek play of comedy or tragedy of completely different things and uh he's saying to them show me your true face because uh you're not showing it at the moment all of those things as things lead up and we ourselves are thinking of someone who was very much in involved involved in the controversies of church and state in his time i'm meaning archbishop stephen langton and archbishop stephen langton who died on this day in 1228 is buried in the cathedral in the uh chapel of the buffs it's called the warriors chapel it's actually the chapel of st michael and his tomb there is an important one a very important one indeed but langtan is best known as i said for his part in the magna carta which laid the foundation for the laws of so many different nations and it's something we give thanks for it was a beginning it was revoked and changed and but let's think about langton himself for he was first and foremost a great a great scholar before ever he became archbishop of canterbury he had been at shall we say university with innocent iii the pope at the time of king john said they were good friends but already langton was known as a scholar let's think of his scholarship first because he is the author of the most wonderful latin hymn which is a hymn for pentecost which we sing in latin it begins veni sancte spiritus and in english there are different translations but quite often come now holy spirit come and from thy celestial home shed a ray of light divine it's a wonderful charter of the gifts of the spirit come thou father of the poor come now source of every store and at the same time there's a tenderness about it so you you get those lines what is rigid gently bend what is frozen warmly tend straighten what goes airingly it's gentle it's compassionate and it lists the gifts of the spirit look it up in your hymnbook and you'll see how in different translations it gives out those gifts of the spirit and pentecost good pentecost hymns are are few and far between in in their teaching and so we give thanks for that first of all we also give thanks in scholarship terms now where i'm talking for the fact that stephen langton was the one who set our chapters of the bible in place he divided things up so that we can look them up easily and i can say to you i'm the this morning reading in chapter 22 of saint matthew's gospel later verses were added but we give thanks for langtan's insight in how this book can be divided and how it's put into sections which we're so used to so gratitude for that but most of all gratitude for the way in which when pope innocent iii chose him as the new archbishop of canterbury and the king objected to such a degree that even when the cathedral chapter here said yes we accept that that nomination and will gladly receive him king john said by no means he's not my candidate i'm not having him and an enormous uh controversy more than that a complete division between the holy see and shall we say christendom and uh england as it at that time was and it came to the point where pope innocent the third one of the most powerful of medieval popes set england under interdict so that no sacraments could be celebrated he then went on to depose king john and in the end that was enough john suddenly became penitent knowing he he lost in this one and received langton back from where he had been in a sort of exile waiting at pontini and back stephen langton came from there and became archbishop of canterbury but certainly didn't give up the sense of being influential in affairs of state hence his leadership of the barons who were supporting this great charter the magna carta and we remember that when we remember stephen langton his holy charter vernier sancti spiritus of the gifts of the holy spirit and his political charter limiting the power of the king and king john with bad grace sealed that charter as we know in 1215 it's one of the dates that tends to stay in our head at runnymede and as that was done then a beginning was started in that way now in fact by this stage both into in 1216 both king john and pope anderson iii died and langton then became an acknowledged leader that the new king was only nine years old henry iii he became a very devout king in political terms not one of the most able but certainly uh someone whom lang langtan could help and guide and we remember perhaps next that it was stephen langton who arranged all the ceremonies for the consecration of the shrine of saint thomas when leaders of church and state from across europe gathered here at canterbury on july the 7th 20 remember that two days ago and it was langton who was overseeing that with the young king by then still henry iii only only 13 and being guided through so all those things we remember stephen langton for and uh this place as i say holds his tomb and uh we um give thanks for that today as remember that the many gifts he offered render to caesar the things that are caesar's render to the states those things which belong to the state but will always render to god the things that our god it takes us back to thomas more i die the king's good servant but god's first that was only a few days ago when we thought of that well then let's come to this day of the birds and you've had quite a lot of bad song already what i'm doing is talking about another anniversary and that is of the italian composer otorino respigi who was born in 1879 and died in 1936 and he was born on this day in 1879 now he's probably in orchestral terms one who is best known for his tone poems music that describes all the scenes which most moved him music of sunsets and music even of paintings music of the nativity sometimes coral but the tone poems very much orchestrally and if i'm to say which are the most famous i guess the ones about rome themselves are the most famous the pines of rome is the tone poem we most here played on on uh classical music programs and that's an important one but there are three tone poems about rome itself and the beauty of the the city of rome the fountains of rome roman festivals and the pines of rome but then my favorite piece of all of his and hence all of this this morning and the the birds reappearing not the little garden warbler giving us what our ears find very beautiful from the branches of the trees but lovely songs of the cockrell and the turkeys themselves and respigi went to pieces of music from the past mostly 17th and 18th century music and as he did so he was finding places where musicians and composers had imitated the sound of the birds and the birds were not the normal ones uh the the birds were written in 1928 a prelude starts it off i'll talk about the prelude in a moment but the first movement speaking about above itself was the dove and the second was the hen and the noise of the hens here um you've heard and the cockerels as well but also things like um darcy here and the turkeys yes generally generally speaking if we if we say to darcy gobble gobble gobble gobble gobble yeah there you see he he responds so so he's walking away but he heard me emulate his his sound and if you do that if you're looking for him in the evening or um lizzie and jane as well sometimes but mostly darcy uh and you do he'll gobble back in a in a great way and uh and at that time um the the amusement of this this little suite of orchestral noises i don't have even to tempt uh russell to sing because he he's so keen on giving his morning crow but the hens themselves in movement number two are are spoken of by the the references to ramo the composer and and so raspigi was having great fun with this piece the next one is the nightingale so beautiful sounds and the last one is the cuckoo um fletcher and i remember walking when we're visiting the monastery the retreat house of the monastery of the brothers of st john the society of saint john the evangelist uh in in massachusetts um we were walking through the woods around their retreat house and there was a particular bird we've never actually found out what bird it was but he sang quite a long tune quite often birds uh there's a there's a sun bittern in the the little uh zoo in in central park new york and we can always conjure him by just whistling two notes and repeating them and eventually the sun edition will respond with those two notes in the interval but uh this bird in the woods was singing us a whole phrase and we heard it so many times that when i got down i got back i copied it on on a stave i drew the five lines and copied that into my journal for the day and the birds have been given that kind of voice in this particular thing which which this particular piece which which uh um otorino respigue has written but the prelude this is what reminded me of him but then i saw that it was his ear's mind today the prelude was played the other afternoon and the prelude to the birds i think many of you will recognize it once if you if you google it and and play it on on youtube or something because uh if you if you simply put in raspigi the birds that piece the prelude was used for a long-running bbc tv series called going for a song which was the precursor in a way to the antiques roadshow and which was always i think a sunday night program and the minute that started um of course a theme tune will always take you back to that but in its own right it's a wonderful thing to think that composers can emulate a sunrise or a sunset or a great painting or a city in all its splendor and respigi gives that quality of the tone poem which richard strauss uses uh an italian lyricism which which you feel is of the warmth of the city of rome and the color of all those pictures and scenes that he's he's giving us from his own life and especially this one of the birds song in the garden here well sorry enough about raspigi um but it's a lovely thing to to think of him giving us all that he died too early from a blood poisoning which they couldn't control but his wife kept on uh announcing his music to people and it's made him very famous and i'm i'm glad of it so let's say our prayers on this particular day here in the garden bring your own prayers and let me see what we're praying for today on this 9th of july we're continuing to pray for the anglican communion this day the diocese of cuba which is in one of the provinces of the episcopal church and then here in this diocese as we pray for archbishop justin and for bishop rose of dover bishop tim at lambus we are still praying for the area deanery of westbridge that the parishes around the little um i call it a village a little town almost a bridge which is not very far away from here at all just a run along the road and uh there we are giving thanks today for clergy with permission to officiate in the whole area deanery i'll name them they're not many brian chalmers john hughes alan ramsey chris duncan garth barber linda shriver and dylan turner and they will be assisting ravi holy the royal dean there the area dean is in in the work of those parishes particularly in vacancies we give thanks for all of that and give thanks for the beautiful song of the bird and uh we will say first of all the prayer for today and then after that we will say the our father together in our different languages almighty and everlasting god by whose spirit the whole body of the church is governed and sanctified hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people that in their vocation and ministry each may serve you in holiness and truth to the glory of your name through our lord and savior jesus christ amen so together in whatever way we like to say it we say 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 it's a moment of of silence now with only the the song of the birds around us as we say our prayers thank you okay it's the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and if his son jesus christ our lord and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for now and always are men darcy [Laughter]