good morning and a warm welcome to the dinery garden on this wednesday the 9th of december as we come to say our morning prayers we have birds singing around us in a thrush somewhere on the top of the tree singing his heart out because it's sort of spotting with rain the rain is is going off but the water is pleasing to them it's a chilly uh autumn morning and almost a winter morning but nevertheless here i am under the bay tree but it's not for that reason i've come here this morning i've come here because our tree this morning in this uh sequence of trees is the field maple which is an indigenous english tree and is very much part of our hedgerow scene as a as a bush and a tree as it grows up and what one notices about these english trees which are at home here and have been always is that they keep their leaves seemingly longer than others so the maple still has leaves on it and the beach which we looked at on my other side it still has leaves on it and as i look along the hedge the horsehorn still has leaves on them and the hazel still has leaves on them all indigenous hedgerow trees and we give thanks for them this morning as we come to worship wherever you are across the world feel welcome bring your own concerns on this particular day we look at december the 9th in times past we notice that in 1608 the poet john milton was born and i shall dwell on him in the reflection um also in 1641 strantelli van dijk died the great portrait painter and here it is who gives us the the feeling of the court of charles the first at that time and then in 1934 dame judi dench was born we remember judy dench in so many so many different ways in the great series which was so comic as time goes by but as a shakespearean actress of enormous note and in the james bond films as m in seven of the james bond films and also uh in shakespeare in love where she played queen elizabeth the first and in other films like mrs brown where she played queen victoria but uh as we remember her this morning and we have fond memories of her at the hay festival just a few years ago being interviewed on stage and how she at a moment's notice and without warning could turn herself into one shakespearean character after another but also between times keep everyone amused things were sprung on her by the the audience um and uh they would say could you do so and she she had it the speech she was ophelia she was lady macbeth and so on and so forth uh amazing later in our reflection we'll come back to her passion for trees and uh i'll speak a bit more about that because of course it fits in so well with everything that we are doing during these days leading up to christmas with the trees here in the garden i also mentioned my favorite appearance of her is in tea with mussolini and then as we go on i i note also that in 1979 smallpox was declared eradicated from the earth's surface and certified as a virus which had been dealt with and eradicated well we're fighting a virus at the moment and then just lastly um apropos of of this place particularly in 1964 named edith sitwell died she was a critic a poet in her own right but i'm remembering her because on one of the last occasions that happened here on the lawns of the deanery before it was bombed in 1940 she came as a godmother to one of the then dean's daughters and uh the description of that party is given in in one of uh noel johnson's letters her written to her husband from wales when the war was was going on in lament for their house which had been really badly damaged at that time not destroyed but badly damaged let's say our prayers oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise reveal among us the light of your presence that we may behold your power and glory blessed are you sovereign god of all to you be praise and glory forever in your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night as we look for your coming among us this day open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you praise blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind does 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 tremble 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 so we turn again to our epistle for this week we're reading the first letter of saint paul to the thessalonians the earliest of his epistles which we have in our new testament i'm in chapter 2 and reading from verse 13. we also thank god constantly for this that when you receive the word of god which you heard from us you accepted it not as the word of men but it's what it really is the word of god which is at work in new believers for you brothers and sisters became imitators of the churches of god in christ jesus that are in judea for you suffered the same things from your own country folk as they did from the jews who killed both the lord jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased god and oppose all humanity by hindering us from speaking to the gentiles that they might be saved so as always to fill up the measure of their sins but roth has come upon them at last but since we were torn away from you brothers and sisters for a short time in person not in heart we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face because we wanted to come to you i paul again and again but satan hindered us for what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our lord jesus that is coming is it not you for you are our glory and our joy well a very heartfelt letter and in the middle if you like a real family row for paul absolutely loves his own people treasures his background at the feet of gamaliel treasures everything of the ancient scriptures and longs to share the gift and is exasperated by everything that he's put in his way and there's nothing more severe than a family spat and i think that's what we're hearing there in that little bit where halfway through that section everything gets the better of him and then one has to pause and go back to the letter that he's actually writing in love and faithfulness to his beloved thessalonians who he feels suffering the same kinds of persecutions and oppositions and he is so exasperated by all of that let's think of paul in that kind of passion that we all have and sometimes it gets the better of us and it makes the letter more real there he is in corinth separated from them as he says physically but not in spirit and he he turns the metaphor yesterday that he was using as a nurse or a mother with their children or a father looking after the children which he felt he was with the thessalonians because he had brought the good news of the gospel to them and his joy is that they are receiving it and that the reports that have come from silas and timothy show that that body of christians is growing despite opposition they may be having and that's really important to him but at the same time today he turns the thing round and said i feel orphaned so he himself becomes the child and perhaps it's the sort of passionate spat that he's just let out against his own people that is causing him to feel like a child i feel orphaned because i'm separated from you and he then begins to say so what is my hope what is my joy what is anything i can offer to our lord jesus when he comes well of course he's you my joy and my crown his beloved children or on this occasion he is mutually regarding the way in which they look after one another longing longing to be with them but having to wait patiently patience was one of those things which uh the the cannons in the afternoon are using as one of their advent calendar steps and patience here is what saint paul is advocating for his beloved people in thessalonica we remember in the epistle of james the brother of the lord in the new testament he writes in chapter five the farmer waits for the valuable fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it gets the early rain and the late rain well we're having some of the late rain this morning and the earth we need to be patient with as we do with all things for they grow in their season when he had left the young chute of the thessalonians he didn't know whether it would sprout and grow or whether it would wither and die and his nervousness about that is he travels alone and has the experience in athens the experience in corinth and then suddenly timothy and silas arrive and say it's wonderful it's growing wonderfully but he has to be patient which i don't think probably was one of the the qualities that were natural to the apostle paul and so we give thanks for the energy he gets from his exasperation but also he's advising patients for them and also telling them that one of the joys of their community is that they can think of themselves in spirit in heart they're not in physical presence encouraged by others who are going through the same thing in their own part of the world at that time well we can do that because there's much separation going on at the moment in the middle of this pandemic and for us to know in heart and mind that we are linking by what we're listening to and what we are bringing to this time together of reflection is being shared right across the world and i'm absolutely assured of that by all the wonderful messages that i receive all the time it's a mutual benefit this kind of reflection as we share our thoughts someone the other day in writing to me said i'm one of your garden congregation i thought that was a lovely expression and i have no idea in in my eyesight where the garden congregation is but i know in heart and mind that we are all together this morning right across the world or whenever you choose to be part of this reflection which can be at any time through the marvels of being online well let's go to another thought because as i said john milton was born on this day in 1608 he found himself absolutely on the wrong side of the political argument and civil war in england for a time of course he was on the winning side because the parliament took over but in 1660 when the king came back milton had to go into hiding for he an order was issued for his arrest later he was in prison for a short time but he was pardoned but by then in fact by 1652 long before 1660 when uh he had to go into hiding his sight had gone and so he had to dictate his poetry and that dictation in the 1660s when he was almost sort of exiled not physically but he had to lead a quiet life because he'd been on the wrong side and he had to dictate and he used various people to dictate the poetry that he wanted to to to give to the world and that resulted in one of the most famous epic poems in the english language paradise lost perhaps it's not read so much today because of its size and style but it remains one of the great epic poems of the english language and i remember um being heartened by i looked the lines up this morning being heartened by a verse in that when all the angels of lucifer are uh plotting their rebellion against the most high there's one voice the seraph abdeal who speaks out against it he was one of the ranks of those angels but could not actually um stomach faithlessness to the most high and milton writes so spake the seraph abdul faithful found among the faithless faithful only he among innumerable false unmoved unshaken unseduced unterrified his loyalty he kept his love his zeal nor number nor example with him wrought to swerve from truth or change his constant mind though single from amidst them forth he passed long way through hostile scorn which he sustained wonderful picture of the loyal seraph walking through the lamp that the ranks of his hissing comrades in order to go over to the other side milton had been someone who adored looking at the beauties of creation and that comes out in his memory in his blindness but uh he um if we go to his early poetry and to something like allegro here's a a wonderful thing it's not a it's not a thrush it's a lark that he's speaking about this this is a spring morning to hear the lark begin his flight and singing startle the dull night from his watchtower in the skies till the dapple dawn doth rise then to come in spite of sorrow and at my window bid good morrow through the sweet briar or the vine or the twisted eglentine while the with lively din scatters the rear of darkness thin and to the stack on the barn door stoutly struts his dames before off listening how the hounds and horn cheerily rouse the slumbering mourn from the side of some hill through the high wood echoing shrill sometimes walking not unseen by hedgerow elms on hilux green that's from allegro and it's such a wonderful poem it's worth reading the whole thing there's no time this morning but there is one poem i want to read the whole of because it fits in with our theme of saint paul's counselling patience it's a very famous sonnet by milton and probably the only other more famous that we could quote would be the hymn let us with a gladstone mind praise that the lord for he is kind but here is a sonnet sonnet 19 on his blindness when i consider how my light is spent half my days in this dark world and wide and that one talent which is death to hide lodged with me useless though my soul more bent to serve there with my maker and present my true account lest he returning chide does god exact day labor light denied i fondly ask but patience to prevent that murmur soon replies god does not need either man's work or his own gifts who bear his who best bear his mild yolk they serve him best his state is kingly thousands at his bidding speed and post or land an ocean without rest they also serve who only stand and wait well if we don't know the whole poem by heart that last line has passed into our culture they also serve who only stand and wait and one has the image of milton in his blindness still recalling the beauties of creation and using them in that massive epic poem paradise lost let's just go back to dame judi dench because i said at the beginning there was something else that we needed to think about with her in at christmas 2017 she put on the television that bbc filmed and it's still there so you can find it an hour-long programme called the passion for trees and in that program she said that she wanted to let me see if i can find her quote somewhere um yeah she wanted to show how trees feel how they communicate with each other and how they fight off invading armies and rough weather well she champions the trees magnificently as only she can and if you haven't seen that then do find it on the the um bbc iplayer or i'm sure it's still on there we'll try and put a link on for you because that gives everything that they were trying to say about being patient with creation as we have to be patient with one another while growth can happen and the future unfolds let's say our prayers on this morning when the rain is still spotting but the sky is becoming increasingly blue we are praying this morning on december the 9th for the dioceses in the anglican communion of sealcott in pakistan and alwyn john samuel the bishop there in his community and egba west in nigeria and samuel olu daily organ deiji the bishop there and his people and as we pray for our own diocese today we're praying for schools and young people across the diocese at this particular time learning being such a difficult thing to do with the pandemic on and some people in lockdown we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and you will have all kinds of folk that you will want to pray for as we say the advent collect together almighty god give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light now in the time of this mortal life in which your son jesus christ came to us in great humility that on the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so we say each in our own language the prayer our lord 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 little men of silence for our own prayers now christ the son of righteousness shine upon you scatter the darkness from before your path and make you ready to meet him when he comes in glory 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 you