good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this tuesday the 12th of april the tuesday of holy week as we go in heart and mind towards our lord's destiny which on thursday we shall enact in the cathedral itself the sun has come up this morning and is shining through the trees onto the garden here and making wonderful patterns as it did yesterday through the tree of heaven and this morning it's shining and making patterns through the cherry tree here which is beginning to blossom but only in in in bud at present there are two huge cherry trees which you will remember from last year and the year before and they will very soon come into full bloom but for the moment there's this freshness of the buds hanging down towards the lawn the sun lit lawn with patterns of sunshine and we are surrounded by flowers just opening out on this lovely spring morning it couldn't be a better temperature for sitting here there's no chill in the air there's a lovely dew on the grass and around us are spring flowers beginning to open and here's tiger come to join us as well this morning so let's begin to say our prayers together and first of all before all things we continue to undergird the situation which we uh have seen on so many of our screens and read about in ukraine we pray for the people of ukraine whether in ukraine itself or in uh other places of hospitality to which they have fled but we also remember the tension of them expecting a warlike attack from the eastern and on to the eastern cities of ukraine all of that we hold in heart and mind throughout the hours of this holy week and we shall continue to pray as long as that situation is unresolved pray for world leaders too who are able in some way to help that situation so let's begin our prayers on this morning bring your own intentions and your own concerns as we pray together across the world o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise let your ways be known upon earth your saving power among the nations blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief your only son was lifted up that he might draw the whole world to himself may we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight declaring your love for all the world 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 are men our son this morning on this 12th morning of the month is psalm 62 on god alone my soul in stillness waits from him comes my salvation my stronghold say that i shall never be shaken how long will all of you assail me to destroy me as you would a tottering wall or a leaning fence they plot only to thrust me down from my place of honour lies are their chief delight they bless with their mouth but in their heart they curse wait on god alone in stillness oh my soul for in him is my hope he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall not be shaken in god is my strength and my glory god is my strong rock in him is my refuge put your trust in him always my people pour out your hearts before him for god is our refuge the peoples are but a breath the whole human race to deceit on the scales they are all together lighter than air put no trust in oppression in robbery take no empty pride though wealth increase set not your heart on it god spoke once and twice have i heard the same that power belongs to god steadfast love belongs to you o lord for you repay everyone according to their deeds find psalm with all his natural imagery of god as our rock and god is our refuge and all other things within humanity being lighter than air all these things of creation helping us to perceive what our lord step by step is going towards and we're returning now to the gospel of saint john the fourth gospel just where we stopped yesterday and still at the supper table and we'll talk about that supper table when we begin to reflect on this passage but for the moment let's start from where we stopped yesterday at verse 21 of chapter 13 of saint john's gospel after saying these things jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified truly truly i say to you one of you will betray me the disciples looked at one another uncertain of whom he spoke one of his disciples whom jesus loved was reclining at table at jesus's side so simon peter motioned to him to ask jesus of whom he was speaking so that disciple leaning back against jesus said to him lord who is it jesus answered it is he to whom i will give this morsel of bread when i have dipped it so when he had dipped the morsel he gave it to judas the son of simon iscariot then after he had taken the morsel satan entered into him jesus said to him what you are going to do do quickly now no one at the table knew why he said this to him some thought that because judas had the money bag jesus was telling him buy what we need for the feast or that he should give something to the poor but after receiving the most of the bread judas immediately went out and it was night excuse me when judas had gone out jesus said now is the son of man glorified and god is glorified in him if god is glorified in him god will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once my little children yet a little while i am with you you will seek me and just as i said to the jews so now i also say to you where i am going you cannot come a new commandment i give to you that you love one another just as i have loved you you also are to love one another by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another simon peter said to him lord where are you going jesus answered him where i am going you cannot follow me now but you will follow afterwards peter said to him lord why can i not follow you now i will lay down my life for you jesus answered will you lay down your life for me truly truly i say to you the will not crow till you have denied me three times it's a lesson telling us the story as the fourth evangelist tells it and that evangelist is giving us that story in a particular way full of signs which we've grown used to as we've gone together in this most profound of gospels let's uh point to one or two things here we said yesterday that the three synoptic gospels see this feast which this supper that they are having as the passover in john's gospel it is not it is the supper of the evening the eve before the day of preparation for the passover and on that friday of preparation as jesus hangs on the cross and the lamb of god is sacrificed it was the day when the passover lambs which people had brought were being sacrificed ritually in the temple within the walls of the city outside the city wall or as the hymn says without the city wall on that day the lamb of god was slain who takes away the sins of the world the one whom john the baptist had pointed out to those to two of those sitting around the table i believe there were philip and andrew and said look there is the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world all of that in this fourth gospel but let's go back to the supper table now because much of that we thought about yesterday we realized that they are still expecting the feast when jesus says to jesus to judas what you are going to do do quickly do it now jesus himself is is is troubled because of course by judas having to do what he's going to do jesus himself has started the step-by-step process which now will only be hours away of the lifting up as he opens his arms wide upon the cross for the sins of the whole world his humanity recoils from that as it will in the garden of gethsemane but for the moment jesus has shall we say cast the die and and uh has said to judas do what you have to do quickly and why i say that they're still expecting the passover feast is because of that verse which says verse 28. now no one at the table knew why he said this to him some thought that because judas had the money bag jesus was telling him by what we need for the feast well the feast will never happen for by then jesus himself will accomplish all things and been glorified but for the moment here he is in all his humanity and his flesh and blood is feeling the same kind of fear as we would fear of pain and death and not knowing how this will be yet nevertheless he is saying to the disciples that he will not be with them from now on so what happens here first of all he says that one of them will betray him and imagine them not sitting as i am now at the table but reclining in that way of the ancient world at supper so that as they they recline on an elbow they are actually lying beside each other at the table and when simon peter says to the beloved disciple whom we take to be john the son of zebedee amongst the twelve then uh he says ask him who it is and that beloved disciple leans over to jesus and says lord who is it and jesus then says to him it's the one to whom i will give this morsel of bread when i dipped it in what we might say the the source of the sapeh and when he dipped it he gives it to judas the son of simon iscariot and says to him do what you have to do quickly and then we hear that judas after receiving the morsel of bread immediately goes out and we're told it was night good morning mr robin hello um it was night now that could be one of those signs that judas has gone out into the darkness i don't think that's why the evangelist has put that there i think the evangelist is telling us that this day has now ended for a new day begins at sunset and the sun has now set it was night so that the day of preparation on which the lamb of god will be slain for the sins of the whole world has begun now the clock is ticking and when judas shuts the door only 11 sit at table with jesus and it's when he's gone out to fulfill his destiny and we've spoken about that so many times in uh on occasions as a garden congregation in the past then jesus says to all of them extraordinarily now is the son of man glorified and god is glorified in him if god is glorified in him god will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once there's almost a relief in this because he has had the courage to say this must now start and from then on his human flesh is still in fear but nevertheless his intention is absolutely secure but it means an intention of leaving these 11 before they're half prepared to face what they've got to face so what does he do he gives them a new commandment which more or less says in flesh and blood terms i will not be here with you anymore you've grown to rely on that but now you cannot do that anymore for where i'm going you cannot come he says nothing yet and he will say something uh at the supper table later on in the discourses in chapters 14 and 15 but for the moment he says nothing about the spirit he says for the moment rely on each other love one another this is a new commandment just as in the synoptic gospels the cup is lifted as a new covenant in his blood and i think the evangelist here assumes that we know that from the three accounts of the synoptic gospels but at the same time here is a new commandment and love one another in the same way that i have loved you even though you're so diverse and different that simon the zealot must love matthew the tax collector all of those things going on this isn't an immediate emotional love that we've spoken about this is a love which means a good intention towards those with whom we are working and for whom we bear responsibility we're back with the bowl of water from yesterday in our thinking then this means we are involved in each other and particularly so when we are trying to give the gift of the gospel to others for jesus says by this love that you have for one another this serious intention to care for each other everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another it's a profoundly important sentence but it's also a sentence of farewell in terms of the flesh and blood which the eternal word took and in that prelude to the gospel right at the beginning this gospel and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory well of course this particular glory is now to be revealed for the whole world as the cross will be lifted up and jesus will be lifted up and die for the sins of the whole world all of that is there and jesus's heart and soul and mind are now giving god glory as his body is about to give glory also the fulfillment of what he came for this is an ordinary supper for the disciples it's not a last supper as we tend to call it nor for them in this gospel is it the passover meal it's actually an ordinary supper they're about to do an ordinary thing they're going back as far as they're concerned to bethany and their root will take them there and they won't be surprised when jesus stops at the garden of gethsemane and says some prayers but they are they are nervous about what he's saying to them and that nervousness will continue as the next two chapters uh cause that caused them to have conversations with him around the supper table before they leave but at the moment they are unaware of the danger and jesus has delivered himself up from the moment he gives judas that commission and the door shuts behind him and that day begins with the sunset these are questions that the disciples are asking him who is to betray you where are you going there'll be more questions before this supper finishes and we'll look at some of them tomorrow on the wednesday of holy week but simon peter now makes that large promise even though i must die with you i'll lay down my life for you and jesus says in really a loving response will you lay down your life for me truly truly i say to you the will not crow till you have denied me three times the next day will not dawn it's already begun in the calendar as they keep it with the sunset but it's sunrise when the crows peter and here's russell crowing for us on cue the next day before the crows peter will have denied even knowing jesus three times and that is unthinkable to the courage of peter around the supper table but will become all too thinkable within the next couple of hours as they go out to gethsemane and the awful fulfillment of that dawn when the cop crows and he has denied even knowing jesus well this will continue of course as we go on through the story and we're in a sense out of kilter with the time by being here in the fourth gospel but was absolutely with the message that jesus is giving us to that by our love and care for one another as disciples of his being the body of jesus being the body of christ in the world today people will know that from our care for one another that's a holy vocation given to us in those sentences which jesus utters after he has fulfilled his own vocation and almost those two sentences of giving glory to god and god intending to glorify him as he is lifted up those two sentences are a gloria a hymn of praise to the fact that he has been given in his human life the power and strength physically as well as spiritually and mentally to affect that vocation so we give thanks for our lord's own gloria and then the new commission that he has given us and that stretches into the present tense today and every day with the gift of a new day on this day in 1945 president franklin delano roosevelt died he had been born in 1882 and was the 32nd president of the united states from 1933 until 1945 he won four consecutive elections every four years from 1933 right up to 1944 i think the last one was and then was president till until 45 well all of that meant that he himself was doing something that no president can any longer do because they're confined to the two consecutive terms he did four and died before the fourth was complete and he entered into the position of being president of the united states with two huge handicaps the first was his own physical handicap because in 1921 he had contracted polio and both his legs were paralyzed he was never able to stand from that moment onwards without the help of another human being and most of his working life was lived out in a wheelchair that's how we see him so often and uh he is if he's standing there are pictures of him standing next to winston churchill but there's always the arm through his arm of a supporting usually officer of the royal of the of the american navy the united states navy or someone else standing beside him simply to hold him up steady for his legs were fairly useless to him now with that handicap the first handicap he entered into office and the second handicap was the fact that when he entered into office it wasn't an easy united states that he took over it was the united states in the depths of the great depression and just as jesus says to those around the table at this time of immense trouble that he gives them a new commandment so that the welfare of each other was going to be cared for and people would see that so fdr as so many call him fdr's idea was the fact that there would be a new deal in response to the worst economic crisis in the history of the united states and that new deal was to define that part of american life in order to bring something like a a world where the economy had recovered he'd married eleanor roosevelt in 1905 she became later on a power in her own right after the death of her husband in 1945 um and after he had died on this day april the 12th 1945 she became an ambassador for all kinds of things in her own right and actually came to canterbury as a guest of my predecessor uh dean hewlett-johnson who was uh known as the red dean and uh to for him to receive her here in 1942 in the depths of the war uh was something absolutely wonderful our camera tour with mrs roosevelt starts at canterbury where civil defence workers so shortly to be retried by ariel blitzkrieg gave her a great reception at the cathedral mrs roosevelt is met by the dean who escorts her over the building she remarked how different it looks from when she first saw it several years ago within a matter of hours of her leaving 50 german fighter bombers came over in the dusk sowing death and destruction again among the homes of canterbury many of the homeless had seen mrs roosevelt viewing the evidence of other raids now there are more ugly ruins to add to canterbury's sufferings it is at the little kentish village of barum but rural england shows america's first lady how it is doing its bit at the village hall a bizarre displays with evident pride the products of an industrious community baby porker franklin hates the very idea of spam a brief chronicle of a day which meant a great deal to borrow man to the president's wife allows camera close up is of mrs roosevelt with her son elliot nice people both [Music] so eleanor roosevelt came here as a guest of my predecessor dean hewlett johnson julie johnson retired eventually at the age of 92 and had been deemed by then for 32 years i think so he welcomed eleanor roosevelt and they i think were kindred spirits maybe not politically but certainly in terms of the energy they gave to public life so if we go back to franklin d roosevelt then in 1932 he won this landslide victory in the great depression and as happens now he took up his post the next year in january in 1933 and created this program this new deal to produce relief recovery and reform through executive orders and federal legislation that was what was called the new deal and there was relief to the unemployed and relief to farmers now as in all things uh any kind of political decision will have people who said that was the wrong thing to do people who say it's the right thing to do and that continues through but for him this was a vision of a new deal just as our lord gave a vision of a new commandment and he managed to tell the american people this by a series of this was quite revolutionary too of radio chats fireside chats to the american people across the airwaves he did 30 of them and the economy improved rapidly in 1936 he won another landslide election and then of course by 1940 with the third election the war in europe had broken out and he himself was then a president when the world was at war but not yet the united states who had remained steadfastly neutral on the 7th of december 1941 of course pearl harbor happened and then the japanese having attacked the united states on what fdr called a date which will live in infamy the united states declared war on japan and germany and italy declared war on the united states making that a worldwide war and he became one of the great leaders at that time so that one sees him as the war is drawing to a close having shifted so much of the american uh capacity to wage war over to europe because he went on a policy of europe first let's finish it there first and then turn ourselves to the war in the pacific properly and by then of course he had died so we think of him today but mostly we think of him as a leader who was set to reshape europe and the three leaders at yalta uh roosevelt and churchill and stalin made an historic picture at that time and the world which opened up afterwards still had stalin there for a while it didn't have churchill there because he lost his election and they didn't have roosevelt there because of course he died on this day in 1945 before the war had ended even in europe so we think of of that and the the courage needed by so many and we give thanks that despite his physical handicap the strength in terms of mind and spirit to carry this through was there with fdr despite any kind of political opposition and the way in which people view him now let's uh then say our prayers on this day together and we'll use the prayer for this time there is back now so we've got a standoff between these two um if we look at today's date the 12th of april we're praying in the anglican communion for the diocese of kumasi in the church of the province of west africa in the ghana province and here in this diocese we pray for archbishop justin for bishop rose of dover and uh for emma bishop at lambeth and we're continuing to pray for the north downs team ministry today for the pilgrims way parishes i make those hollingborn boxley detling grove green hucking and surnum and we pray for rob tugwell in his ministry there now that's nice for us because until very recently rob was the chaplain of our junior kings school our cathedral school and the junior section of that down at sturry just a couple of miles down the road from here but now rob has gone on to a new ministry and we pray for that ministry today the pilgrims way parishes of the north towns team so let's say our prayers together with the collect for this day almighty and everlasting god who in your tender love towards the human race sent your son our savior jesus christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility and also be made partakers of his resurrection through jesus christ our lord amen so the prophet lent itself almighty and everlasting god you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may receive from you the god of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language 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 are men so time now for reflection i'm sorry it's accompanied by the guinea fowl noise because the guinea fowls are objecting to the fact that they're kept in at the moment and it's not helped by the fact that the robin is flying free and easy as a wild bird outside we pray that this bird flu incarceration of all the feathered foul here in the garden will end quite quickly oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] christians [Music] r [Music] no church oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] peace [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] is [Music] see [Music] is [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] times [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] christ crucified call you to himself to find in him a sure ground for faith a firm support for hope and the assurance of sins forgiven 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 are men well uh i must give you the answers to yesterday's riddles and maybe share your day a bit by asking two more and uh what we have here is i can be cracked made told and played what am i and the answer is of course a joke and then the other one was this was an easy one i begin with a t and end with a t t is also within me and i said there was a clue on the table because the answer is of course teapot uh today uh here's one there is one in every corner and two in every room what am i and then i am an ant that is good at maths what am i leave you with those and also with the pictures from this lovely book which tune in with the pictures from the garden but today uh we are actually with a bird that we don't have here and that is kingfisher beautiful beautiful birds we have them in england of course we do but not in the garden uh they're very small and they have beautiful colors and when you see them it's like a flash of jewels as they dive so quickly having been so patiently watching for their prey in the in the water so here's the acrostic as it goes down kingfisher is a long word so it's a much longer poem than ivy yesterday kingfisher the color giver firebringer flame flicker rivers quiver ink black bill orange throat and a quick blue back gleaming feather stream neat and still it sits on the snag of a stick until with gold flare wing fan whip crack the kingfisher zing fisher sing fisher flashes down too fast to follow quick and quicker carves its hollow in the water slings its arrows super swift to swallow stickleback or shrimp or minnow halcyon is its other name also ripple karma water nester evening angler weather teller rainbringer and rainbow bird that sets the stream a light with burn and glitter we give thanks for the beauty of the kingfisher and its speed and here's our picture set by water with a willow tree there hanging over the water and it looks as though the kingfisher is bringing a fish back so that the others can share in all it's there maybe they're the young fletcher was saying earlier that when he was younger at the lake in their garden with the little bridge they would watch the parent kingfishers teaching the young to catch the fish in that particular way so that all that flashing of the color in the sunshine with the water smashing and everything else was a beautiful thing to watch and also with the youngsters actually learning how to fish so with that thought we leave you for today and wish you a blessed tuesday of holy week