good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of wednesday the 23rd of june it's the eve of the feast of john the baptist the 24th tomorrow which is generally traditionally called midsummer's day i don't know why it goes there instead of at the solstice but there it is and we look forward to that feast tomorrow when we shall have special lessons but today there is a commemoration in our calendar of uh the anglio saxon abbess of ely saint esseldrida who died on this day in 679 and we remember her vocation to that we'll think a little bit about it in our reflection but at the same time um as we give thanks for that we remember that this also is an ember day when we pray for and think about those who are sensing a vocation to the ministry in some way or another particularly the ordained ministry and those in training for that and those preparing for ordination around peter tide which is around the feast of saint peter which is the 29th of the month we're we're just about to approach several special days but today it's an ordinary day and thank goodness the rain has at last stopped so no dripping rain spots coming down today little bit of breeze and intermittent sunshine with woolly white clouds it's cool for um this time of the year but perhaps the weather will take a turn for the better and we've got some color for you today in the flowers around us i'm sitting here in the kitchen garden surrounded by the lovely green of the box hedges but also with vegetables and green beans growing up and poppies and and also roses in the background with the greenhouses behind us so let's say our prayers on this day this 23rd of june oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more 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 amen our son on this 23rd morning of the month is psalm 111 alleluia i will give thanks to the lord with my whole heart in the company of the faithful and in the congregation the works of the lord are great sought out by all who delight in them his work is full of majesty and honor and his righteousness endures forever he appointed a memorial for his marvelous deeds the lord is gracious and full of compassion he gave food to those who feared him he is ever mindful of his covenant he showed his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations the works of his hands are truth and justice all his commandments are sure they stand fast forever and ever they are done in truth and equity he sent redemption to his people he commanded his covenant forever holy and awesome is his name the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have those who live by it his praise endures forever and verse 10 reminds us of that sentence in the book of job actually which came in our matins reading the first lesson yesterday and as we read that the chapter ends the fear of the lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding reflected in the same wisdom tradition as the psalmist in that verse 10 the final verse of our psalm 4 this morning so we're going to turn now to our lesson from st matthew and we're in chapter 19 and this is stark and shall we say teaching born in controversy and so um we've got here uh the beginning of chapter 19 and i think i'm going to read up till verse let me see 12. we have a worried robin around us this morning because uh he thinks that tiger is a danger to him and his little family he's standing on the the pole that's um chattering at me uh you needn't worry mr robin tiger's not going to be any danger to your family uh at all he's he's more interested in sitting in the sunshine this morning in the shelter from the wind by the box hedges now when jesus had finished these sayings he went away from galilee and entered the region of judea beyond the jordan and large crowds followed him and he healed them there and pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause jesus answered have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so they are no longer two but one flesh what therefore god has joined together let no one separate they said to him why then did moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away jesus said to them because of your hardness of heart moses allowed you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so and i say to you whoever divorces his wife except for unchastity and marries another commits adultery the disciples said to him if such is the case of a man with his wife it is better not to marry but jesus said to them not everyone can receive this saying but only those to whom it is given for there are eunuchs who have been so from birth there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven let the one who is able to receive this receive it it's strange teaching and quite alarming teaching for the disciples it comes in the middle of the controversy with the pharisees they've left galilee and they are in judean territory it seems on their way to jerusalem they've crossed the jordan and since matthew is using a a general term for for judea for over the other side of the river jordan to the east of the river jordan was not generally politically considered to be judea but in a geographical general way it was seen to be more judea than galilee and so and and many many jewish people live there and so the pharisees would have been there and it's nearer to jerusalem and so here they are set to have controversial conversations about the law i'm sure matthew only gives us a little bit of it but he gives us particularly the question that they ask about god's intention in marriage and jesus well knows that that's a hot issue in his time at that very period for they are some of them very strict and some using strict points of the law so that they can write writs of divorce to be free from a marriage they don't want jesus is talking about purity of intention and as you'll see our whole reflection will depend today on the tension between moral integrity and absolute purity and the human situations that we and others find ourselves and themselves in and this is the heartland of all of that and when jesus says to the pharisees right let's go to the law and he accepts there are sentences where moses has given them permission for a writ of divorce but these writs are being used mostly to set wives women aside at the intention of the man because at the the the one extreme they're simply tired of the relationship and the little writ of divorce just just gets rid of the solemn bond jesus says that was never the intention not in the law and certainly not from the beginning and there he takes them back to genesis 2 with the sense of being one flesh but that is a council of perfection and at the same time when the disciples hear his counsel of perfection they begin to say to him but this is really hard teaching and surely it it's it's better not to marry at all and jesus then goes on to that particular question this is how matthew set it out and remember he's writing for his church to have an intention not to marry at all and not to bear children would have been directly counter to the jewish culture in which they lived it doesn't seem so strange to matthews christians because already for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and let's think of sin ethel reader today the abyss of ely who specifically felt a vocation to the celibate life and pleaded she was a princess and was intended for marriage and even um took those vows but pleaded with um bishop wilfred in the northern province where she'd gone that he she be released from this because she sensed that god was calling her for something else and her husband was excessively fierce a king in the north and so for the while wilfred protected her but just for a space and she was terrified that her husband was going to come and kidnap her and so she came back to the protection of ely where she'd grown up and there she founded the abbey well that vocation which she embraced would have been a strange one to the disciples it's not in the least bit strange to us because the history of the christian church goes all the way through with those who have given themselves totally someone in active service totally without other commitment to the kingdom of heaven which is bringing up a divine dimension into that which has moral undertones in the jewish society at that time the disciples when they're sitting in the house ask jesus about this surely it's if if this is the case it's better not to marry and jesus says for some that may be so but only for those to whom that vocation is given and then he sets out in that three-fold uh set of sentences there are some and remember that the whole intention of marriage was be fruitful and multiply go back to those same chapters genesis 1 genesis 2 and he sets out there are those who have been able to be through been unable to be fruitful and multiply from birth and there are others who for by by other people and by what has happened to them probably emotionally or physically are unable to be fruitful and multiply and then there are those who for the sake of the kingdom of heaven have renounced that possibility in order that they may give themselves totally to another vocation we're in a different territory for the disciples but looking around them then that that seed is sown so that the purity of intention at this end and the beauty of the companionship and creativity of marriage and the compassion allowed by that sense of being in that relationship forever if it's a a totally poisonous and violent one and all of that all of those things begin to be part of the the the uh shall we saw conversation prayerful conversation of the church on the way through that marriage in those days was often used as a political tool by one king to another or it was used as a a weapon or it was used as a way of of of dominating someone all of those things but at the same time there's a purity of intention on the other side which is just as difficult and the vocation which some embrace then later in life they find well perhaps that wasn't god's vocation for me for let's say that our humanity is complicated in its creativity and the church and individuals and communities have wrestled with this and if you you don't have to read far into the epistles and the life of the early church going into different cultures than the jewish culture to find the ground that jesus is actually rooting these sentences for the assistance of the disciples to realize that they're entering a new world well if we think of all that with the conflicting demands and expectations and the purity of vocation which is the ideal and it might be a vocation with the sacrament of marriage or the vocation to the priesthood or a vocation to be something that we know god wants us to be which is always under threat and also is plentifully in need daily of forgiveness and new intention there's only one person that i want to think about today it's not a christian saint ethel reader was a christian saint and we've we've mentioned her but i want to mention this morning because he was born on this day on the 23rd of june in 1910 and died in 1987 the french playwright jean henry now to us that name here in canterbury is completely linked to the story of beckett for if you think of drama connected with beckett well of course one would go to the t.s eliot drama murder in the cathedral which was produced here but also there's the drama which was written by zhong ong we and that became just as well known because of the actors particularly who were playing the parts of thomas beckett and henry ii see now with attention and you're back in that kind of controversy that the pharisees are engaging with jesus and the puzzled disciples in purity of intention and anui in writing his play brings the character of king henry the second who doesn't appear in t.s eliot's play at all but in in honorees beckett you've got both characters beckett and henry ii starting in friendship and ending in bitter bitter dispute because of the complications of what they're wanting and the uh subtitle of the anui play the the the becket is for the honor of god well of course that fixes onto thomas becket himself if one thinks of the characters who have played this when it opened on broadway it was laurence olivier and anthony quinn and the whole thing is in a conflicting dialogue of course there are other characters but really it's the the intentions of both and henry ii is trying to make decisions and he would be the first to admit that they are compromising pragmatic decisions for the sake of the political state of those lands that he is king of and they were a mixture of lands on both sides of the channel during his time and at the same time beckett who had been his best servant and best friend suddenly is a servant of god and that is played out in massive drama in that film until the assassination of beckett by the four knights perhaps the film is known better than the stage play these days the honoree film and in that of course it's richard burton and peter o'toole who play burton plays the king o'toole plays the archbishop but again two first-rate actors acting out total moral purity and how that clashes with political pragmatic albeit good intentions pragmatism which in the eye of the other sullies the purity of intention you could take that to so many human situations it happens to come in human relationships this morning in in uh marital companionship or else in the way that people themselves want to give themselves totally to a particular location and be the property of all you can think of many of those in christian history who have foresworn a particular relationship in order to be the property of all and be free to be that but there are temptations everywhere and it's the compromises are very often made with vocation itself and then in our prayers we have to be open to god showing us that sometimes in purity of vocation we've made a compromise and resisted fulfilling the law's other demands to parents to friends to communities all of those things this is a a deep and wide conversation and also on this ember day when we think of those who are wrestling with their vocations and wrestling maybe with a change of vocation in later life it becomes important usually in our king school our cathedral school in the last week of the summer term which is approaching but it will be quite different this year because of the lock down the tradition has always been in the mint yard and as fletcher pointed out this morning i can show you where the mint yard is because there is a large crane erected over it it's not there for me to point out where things are but the crane actually is building the um new science block which is on one side of the mint yard and that's that quadrangle of mint yard in the middle forms a wonderful amphitheater for plays and the drama is of the highest quality i can't speak highly enough of it usually almost invariably it's shakespeare and we enjoy it night after night as we sit around and the actors in perfect representation of the shakespearean part entertain us challenge us and give us shakespeare's tragedies and comedies uh and histories but in 2012 we were treated to an onui play and this was the story of joan of arc in french the lark it was called by anui and joan is someone who is the chief character on stage throughout annuities wrote it so we trade right through because the tension mounts and mounts and mounts and an interval is out of place but it's an enormous strain on the actors and the action takes place with joan captive and being persecuted by the french church for witchcraft so one one has there the character of the prosecutor and also the person who is the inquisitor there's the promoter the inquisitor but the two chief characters are joan and the bishop who is prosecuting and the conversation and he's not unsympathetic but he is someone who is at the service of the political church as well as the service of vocation and his task is to both discover what joan's intention was and where these voices that she's been receiving have come from but at the same time to serve the needs of the church as best he may and one remembers a startling performance by emily champion in 2012 of joan herself and then an equally powerful performance by ulawaterniola mobiliola who played the the prosecutor the bishop and bishop koshong and joan are in dialogue all the way through and it it's it's it's left at the end of those of you who know the play in a way which throws the whole thing back onto you the controversy is a human and divine one and it's in the middle of us all so that it's a case of can one attain moral purity well now anui sets that before us i just want to speak about the director of that graham sinclair who was in charge of our drama at that time and this was his triumph he was utterly wonderful at producing in this way i'm speaking about him because we are praying for him and his wife charlotte daily at the moment because he's nearing the end of his life as in palliative care at home and so we give huge thanks for all that he gave to this community and we pray for charlotte and graham with whom we're in touch on this particular day as a community but i would give thanks for the multitude of different ways in which he's touched us and by the courage and the way in which he has embraced a really serious illness for many years now and has heartened us all it's always been a wonderful thing to go and share the hospitality so we pray and give thanks for graham and charlotte and the boys at this particular time i think of on we because henry himself could do things which were powerful dramatically and set out those controversies for us in a way that matthew is trying to in just one brief section this morning and trying to do that for his church as well all the moral contradictions and the way in which we try to fool ourselves but at the same time on we would use characters to do that maybe his famous most famous uh play is the character of antigong antigone the esophagus play and the way in which her conversation with the uh pragmatic king crayon is uh is portrayed there's another of those sometimes he he grew more um comic and would give us lovely plays like the ring round the moon but nevertheless his sharp drawing of the two twins hugo and frederic frederick in the ring round the moon is is very much uh uh of the same temper as the way in which he can spot humanity for everyone has their own character don't they tiger and uh in having one's own character you have your own kind of temptations to what god is willing for you well if one thinks of anui himself i think that the the play which which uh by its title gives the best notion of his own character is a play that he he wrote in 1937 before the war everything i've spoken of since has been since the second world war but but this one is 1937. la voyager sombagage the person taking a journey without luggage well that's an impossibility in life as you well know that things that we possess and experiences that we have in our emotional and mental cupboard are always there but they are the tools that god wants us to use to take us forward in the changing vocation that he gives us day by day the gift of this new day as we say each morning and he uh at the end of the war a belgian critic now go back to the pharisees was picking at him his name was uber jinyou and uh in 1946 uh anu wrote back to him here's a sentence in english i do not have a biography and i am very happy happy about it the rest of my life as long as god wills it will remain my personal business and i will withhold details of it it it speaks of the frustration that jesus must be thinking of of the nitpicking pharisees and the way in which they pick to pieces bits and aspects of his life but at the same time i do not have a biography because a biography is very very limiting and honoui is is being picked up by this critic and yet at the same time we can read the details of his life in all of his dramas i would want to give huge thanks for the way in which he shows us beckett just as the way t.s eliot shows us beckett but also for the capacity of those who can give us drama like graeme sinclair and we're praying for that capacity to show us ourselves for that is always what we're asking from god that we may be shown ourselves none of us none of us can be a traveler in this life a wayfarer without baggage without luggage and even the intention to have a spiritual knapsack where there are pieces of luggage which help us not only see ourselves but interpret the temptations for our own vocation well a complicated morning but one that matthew gives us is a piece of special matthew and i'm praying now for the various parts of the anglican communion and so today on this 23rd of june we're praying for the diocese of christ church in the anglican church of aotearoa new zealand and polynesia and so we think of that diocese in new zealand on the south island of new zealand which has suffered so much from earthquake and uh the the sense of do rebuild as it was or do we go forward to something different all of those things our prayers are with christ church this morning and at the same time we're praying of course for archbishop justin and for bishop rose of dover and bishop tim at lambeth and today for the parish of saint philip northstand park in margate and for stuart gay in his ministry there and helen rogers the reader and all the people of that congregation praying also on this day for all those with any kind of vocation to ministry of a particular kind and praying that they will be given both help and definition of intention in their prayers and imaginings so let's say the prayer and i'm going to use the prayer for saint ethel judah which is in our book today bring your own intentions and your own prayers as we pray for each other's vocations and journeyings eternal god who bestowed such grace upon your servant esseldrida that she gave herself holy to the life of prayer and to the service of your true religion grant that we like her may so live our lives on earth seeking your kingdom that by your guiding we may be joined to the glorious fellowship of your saints through jesus christ our lord amen so as we say our own prayers we use the prayer first that our lord taught us in whichever language pray for those with whom we're in companionship those who support us by their love and pray for faithfulness one to another in so many different ways 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 for our own prayers 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 today and always amen well tiger this is a lovely day nice warm sun on your fur after all days of cold splashy rain perhaps the summer will come for mid-summer day tomorrow be nice to sit and play here with you all day but i fear there's work to be done