good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this thursday the 8th of july welcome for morning prayers wherever you are in the world i'm sitting in the dean's walk and there's a very strange acoustic it's a this is a horseshoe between the flint walls here and the ancient brick walls on this side and you it goes all the way around to to through the dean's walk up to the the queen's gate the queen engaged at the other end but you'll hear a funny acoustic and it's a bit like the whispering gallery at sin paul's cathedral because of the circular nature of this i'm getting the same strange acoustic as my voice bounces off the flint and between the walls we find ourselves here in a particular place but i just wanted to reflect a bit on yesterday because of course yesterday we were commemorating the translation on and consecration of the shrine of saint thomas of canterbury and that went on all through the day and into the evening with the catholic mass celebrated by the archbishop of southwark it was wonderful to have archbishop john here for that ecumenical occasion and uh it caused us to remember all the plans we'd had for the 800th anniversary last year of the consecration of that shrine this was the 801st but still we were limited in what we could do and none of our friends from rome could join us and they'd been so instrumental in planning so we think in our prayers of especially father robert mcculloch who was the inspiration for everything really and then also monsignor philip whitmore and the staff and and community at the venerable english college in rome for all the hospitality given and then thirdly ambassador sally axeworthy the british ambassador to the holy see all of those people were involved in the planning but for the moment there was nothing to be done last year and a limited amount this year so maybe next year we can play catch-up and maybe we shall be doing that a bit today because today is also a hugely important day for us it's commemoration day for our school and last year again nothing could happen because of the pandemic this year the tents are up and each of the boarding houses are making merry it's a festival day and so all the wildflowers of the dean's walker are on fetch they're full of festival i'm sitting in a place where i've got i'm in a triangle of boarding houses i'm looking across at a girls boarding house luxmore and then if i go over the wall in that direction a boy's boarding house maestro omers and if i go further on uh in the dean's walk around then lineker house another boys boarding house and those will at lunchtime be giving hospitality to their own little communities but meanwhile we are managing to gather levers in the cathedral so that we can have something of a service last year there was nothing this year something next year we hope many things and then after that the school leavers will gather with some parents on the green court and all the chairs have been set out with those distances in the open air with the cathedral as a backdrop it looks so lovely that fletcher and i were ruminating this morning on the fact that some of the things that we're doing now might continue on into the future because the fresh air and the sense of everything happening in this way um might be a good thing to carry on but for the moment we're going to enjoy this morning and first we're going to say our prayers all these things fit well with our reflection as you will see because jesus changes the image of his parable today his parable saying the kingdom of heaven is is like and we'll come to that when we read our reflections in matthew i always want i also wanted to make a mention of the funerals which are happening in florida uh at the moment from the collapse of the tower in miami and we we we think of the grieving of the people there and and hold them in our hearts you will have many concerns to bring as we say our prayers together but let's begin our morning prayers o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation and sustain us with your gracious spirit blessed are you sovereign god creator of all to you be glory and praise forever you founded the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands in the fullness of time you made us in your image and in these last days you have spoken to us in your son jesus christ the word made flesh as we rejoice in the gift of your presence among us let the light of your love always shine in our hearts your spirit ever renew our lives and your praises ever be on our lips 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 son this morning is psalm 40 i waited patiently for the lord he inclined to me and heard my cry he bought me out of the roaring pit out of the mire and clay he set my feet upon a rock and made my footing sure he has put a new song in my mouse a song of praise to our god many shall see and fear and put their trust in the lord blessed is the one who trusts in the lord who does not turn to the proud that follow a lie are the wonders you have done o lord my god how great your designs for us there is none that can be compared with you if i were to proclaim them and tell of them they would be more than i am able to express sacrifice and offering you do not desire but my ears you have opened burnt offering and sacrifice for sin you have not required then said i lo i come in the scroll of the book it is written of me that i should do your will o my god i delight to do it your law is within my heart i have declared your righteousness in the great congregation behold i did not restrain my lips and that o lord you know your righteousness i have not hidden in my heart i have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation i have not concealed your loving kindness and truth from the great congregation do not withhold your compassion from me o lord let your love and your faithfulness always preserve me for innumerable troubles have come about me my sins have ever taken me so that i cannot look up they are more in number than the hairs of my head and my heart fails me be pleased o lord to deliver me o lord make haste to help me let them be ashamed and altogether dismayed who seek after my life to destroy it let them be driven back and put to shame who wish me evil let those who keep insults upon me be desolate because of their shame that all who seek you rejoice and be glad that those who love your salvation say always the lord is great though i am poor and needy the lord cares for me you are my helper and my deliverer oh my god make no delay so we turn to our reading from the gospel of saint matthew and we're starting today at chapter 22 and verse 1 and again jesus spoke to them in parables saying the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast but they would not come again he sent other servants saying tell those who are invited see i have prepared my dinner my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready come to the wedding feast but they paid no attention and went off one to his farm another to his business while the rest seized his servants treated them shamefully and killed them the king was angry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city then he said to his servants the wedding feast is ready but those invited were not worthy go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find and those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found both bad and good so the wedding hall was filled with guests but when the king came in to look at the guests he saw that a man who had no wedding garment and he said to him friend how did you get in here without a wedding garment and the man was speechless then the king said to the attendants find him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called but few are chosen that's a story which isn't special matthew but many of the touches and orderings of it are peculiar to matthew and one wonders whether there are touches and this is only a surmise because we don't know exactly the date that matthew was writing his gospel but there is a sense of the destruction of the city of jerusalem by the romans in a.d 70 there and certainly our lord prophesied because of the violence he found in the city of jerusalem and the political and violent machinations going on between not only the political parties but zealots and all sorts of others our lord prophesied a dire end in violence in this situation and that came in ad70 with the destruction of everything the burning of the temple and a terrible fate it may be that the little bits and pieces about the king choosing to to burn the city and all of that come from that and also from the sense that matthew is feeling that the invitation given is being rejected by those to whom it is given and therefore um there's a sense of well they deserve what they get the invitation was given i don't know but certainly matthew's story is much stronger in that side of shall we call punishments which follow than the way in which it's told shall we say in luke for example but all of all of those uh things are special to the evangelist and he's trying to give a message to his people the most important thing to think here and that's what we want to concentrate on amidst all these lovely festive flowers let's look at them a moment these these white aquilia and the lovely valerian here with their lovely color and the the californian poppies in yellow and and red poppies and all of these things um these are showing a festive dress for this the image we want to concentrate on is the way in which jesus has changed the parable and the image of the community of the kingdom kingdom of heaven is like a vineyard where the owner of the vineyard goes out and calls in the uh people into the vineyard come and work in the vineyard come and work in the vineyard you remember how he goes out at the hours of the day and we said how like the canonical hours of prayer that i said through the day those hours were when he calls people in now though the image has changed the image has changed and this is good on a commemoration day for us to a great celebration a festive celebration with everyone as far as they are able to be in their best clothes you'll hear all kinds of noises going on in preparation of microphones on the green court and everything else and that is all part of the festivities which will happen but they are a shadow of what normally happens there are great ceremonies attached to this day here and we think of of that with a sense of well it's that's not happening what a pity but also how wonderful to be able to be together on the green court later on for those who are leaving this community after years here some of them and going off to embrace what life has in store for them it's like a wedding banquet and normally the the boys and girls of the school dress up in very special clothes today and present themselves in the cathedral and then to their parents and and for speeches in the afternoon and it goes on through the chairman of the governor's lunch without normally giving the tent and the headmaster's chief i guess all of those that's not happening but what is happening is a sense of coming together particularly for those who are leaving so we do get a physical chance to say goodbye and thank you and normally our breakfast is interrupted uh generally by a knock on the door and two of the the junior pupils are boring a girl carrying a silver bowl of red roses which go round to all the people of the precincts to where on this day that also is not happening but we look forward to that as we do to the celebrations of saint thomas in in festival and um there's a a a degree also a ceremony which is informal which began when uh one of the girls houses had some goldfish and they were leaving and they didn't know what to do with the goldfish and in the end we had a shy knock at the door and the girl was standing there with a goldfish saying could they go in your pond so we had a little procession to the orchard and there the goldfish joined our goldfish in the pond and the girls said a cheerful goodbye to the goldfish would have kept them company in this part of their life it's a time of endings it's a time of new beginnings but it's a time when jesus is using a parable of celebration and the essence of that is prophecy fulfilled the essence of that is that the invitation is given again and again to the kingdom of of of god as it's offered first to the chosen people and then their vocation was then to hand it to the whole world this is this is the essence of jesus i when i am lifted up will draw all nations to myself and the parable is telling that that those who refuse the invitation the free invitation lose it and it goes to others and if they want to go to their farm or their business instead of celebrating the banquet of festivity and pleasure and everything else that goes on music and dancing and one think of the prodigal son coming home and what the father gave for him uh when when the elder son came near the house he had music and dancing and all of this well this normally would be the the hallmark of this week and would have gone on in creativity a lot of that can be put online but not it's not the same as when you have audiences there and here now the invitation has been given by the servants to all and sundry and the hall is full and when the king enters he must be thrilled with the fact that his invitations have been accepted but somebody there is not accepting it well and i would see the robe as a completely uh metaphorical thing that the fact that the person is not wearing a wedding road is the the attitude in which they come to the banquet and how do we get that well this uh and one takes it from the word that's used for friend i said this a bit back and i don't remember two weeks ago we were looking at this three times only in the gospel of saint matthew is the word hetare used as friend instead of the normal word for friend the first occasion is at the person who grumbled at the fact that those who had not worked as hard as them were getting the same wages at the vineyard and the owner of the vineyard says to that person friend heitari i do you know wrong it's almost uh i don't know a tongue-in-cheek word for friend as matthew uses it you don't have the right attitude and and your attitude should be generous gladness that more and more however late in the day are being invited in to that image of the kingdom for generous hearts and qualities of the kingdom which you remember we read uh in the first paragraph of yesterday with the letter we read from from uh the first epistle of saint peter those qualities of generosity and shall we say encouragement of one another which are missing they are the wedding robe that we wear to go into the banquet of gladness and simple gratitude to the creator of heaven and earth for all that he has prepared for us in this life and the next all of that but at the same time let's just think of the other two occasions that that word is used on this occasion hitare friend tongue-in-cheek why are you here without a wedding robe and then thirdly and this the saddest of all but we've dealt with that not too long ago it's used to judas in the garden when he comes to kiss jesus to show the others where jesus was and who the person is they needed to arrest and jesus says to him friend haitare which again is showing that judas is is coming with the wrong attitude and we know that there is plentiful forgiveness as part of the the wedding festival and uh it's not for us to say that the invitation is too late for the lord of heaven as us is is is full of mercy and love but here it's told in a special matthew way and a bit of a warning to his people as well in the way that that's set out let's look then at other things which are happening today apart from our own festivities and the festival of flowers that you have in front of you which are all wild flowers which have grown up here and we have on this day um sadly the death of percy shelley the poet who was drowned on his boat in a storm in italy in 1822 aged only 29 and his body was lost for i think about 16 days or so before it was washed up onto a beach and recognized by the clothes that he was wearing he's he was he was cremated on the beach there but then his ashes were taken to the cemetery in rome and uh he one of the great romantic poets uh companion and friend to people like byron and keats and there's just two of his works i want to mention and and quote from the first is the short poem ozymandias you remember that tells it starts i met a traveller from an antique land and you remember it starts by the traveler telling a story of a pedestal and just the remains of two stone legs and on the floor half a face or half buried in the sand and nothing else left of it and the poem ends and on the pedestal these words appear my name is ozymandias king of kings look on my works ye mighty and despair nothing beside remains round the decay of that colossal wreck boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away how are the mighty fallen and what is left of their works all of us wayfarers through this life for a short time and that short time has given us to embrace the invitation to the kingdom of god and the heavenly vanquish and his other well a beautiful one his poem to a skylark you remember how vaughn williams in his music emulates the skylark with the violin climbing higher and higher and higher and here's uh just the first two verses because it's a long pairing of keats of shelley's to a skylark hail to thee blind spirit bird thou never worked that from heaven or near it poorest thy full heart in profuse strains of unpremeditated art higher still and higher from the earth thou springest like a cloud of fire the blue deep thou wingest and singing still just sore and soaring ever singest wonderful words of shelley whose year's mind falls today from his tragic death at the age of 29 1884 on this day the national society for the prevention of cruelty to children was founded in london and one can say alleluia to that beginning and for all the work of the nspcc since that time and then in 2006 this is an amusing one for those of us who were used to television programs in the 60s and 70s and 80s the voice artist peter hawkins one who did voice-overs for characters his face was never seen but on television he would do voice overs and become characters from bill and ben the flowerpot men very early on a children's program for those still at home in pre-school age really captain pugwash an amusing cartoon tintin and his adventures and perhaps best known of all the voice of the daleks and the cybermen peter hawkins giving his voice so often that happens now in animated films that a famous actor will become the character you never see uh him or her but you hear their voices as they do that and for that creativity we give thanks to this was the day on in 1621 when the french poet lafontaine was born and he is so well known for taking fables not just esops fables but stories from horus and from french folk tales and making them into beautiful french poetry but as you all know from the stories of esop they're all giving a bit of a lesson and giving us wonderful characters and so we give thanks for the poetry of lafontaine so very different from the poetry of shelly and finally this is the day on which percy granger the composer was born in 1882 he was best known some excitement going on from scholars he was best known for writing folk song music arrangements and he was born in australia he became an american citizen but travelled europe and collected british folk songs too and perhaps his most famous piece and it's good to do it on this morning is country gardens he wrote it his long hands were brilliant at the piano and his character was more and more and more exuberant and uh each of the pieces he he writes and some of them are wonderful to play on the piano we enjoy playing them but country gardens orchestrally and on the piano it is is something that's all in our hearts and minds and gave us a flavor of festive days in the garden when everything is flowering so thanks be to god for the music of percy granger as well friend of delius and grieg and quilter and others but also a quarrier of tunes which were sung in pubs and places in in england and across the world and his own land in australia and american songs and bringing them onto the piano and then into orchestral music to cheer our hearts and give us a flavour of different cultures across the world all that on this day of festivity when the image of the kingdom of heaven changes from workers in the vineyard to the kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a banquet for his son and gladly sent his servants to the guests to say come everything is invited and the type of guest grows and grows and grows so that it becomes an image of the whole world being invited to the celebratory banquet of the kingdom of heaven let's say our prayers then on this particular day we are praying today in the anglican communion on the 8th of july for the diocese of coventry in the canterbury province of the church of england pray for all there and in our own diocese we're praying for justin our archbishop and rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and today for the area deanery the villages of west bridge not far from here at all the area dean is ravi holy and we'll be praying for his own parishes as the days advance now but we remember ravi being here at evensong last sunday evening when we were giving thanks for the life of wendy white thompson because ravi uh is or was her parish priest and a great friend of hers as well and it was lovely to to have him here but today we're praying for his work as the area dean of the parishes enclosed in the westbridge deanery so bring your own prayers and your own intentions and concerns on this particular day and we are giving thanks also for the exuberance felt in england by the football result from last night because that too gave the nation joy as uh england are now in the the euro final of the the football on sunday so today um we are using the prayer for the fifth week after trinity 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 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 silence now on this morning for your own prayers [Music] [Music] oh [Music] the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and of his son jesus christ our lord 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 and to all our leaders today we wish them congratulations and good luck in the future [Music] you