good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of tuesday the 28th of december it's holy innocence day and so our color has changed once again from white to red and we shall be thinking of the theme of holy innocence day during our reflection and our readings but first i just wanted to just cast an eye across the world many of you will have in your mind things that you want to pray about and situations that you know about but in international news of course the the uh severe flooding in brazil with the loss of the two dams and the the loss of much life and those still trying to rescue folk and keep people out of danger and also the severe winter weather on the west coast of both the united states and canada with extreme low temperatures is causing real difficulty and power the threat of avalanches as well many things like that across the world which you will know more than i about and so bring your prayers and intentions as we worship together on this holy innocence day let's begin our prayers and then we'll begin to think about our theme oh lord open our lips and our mouths shall proclaim your praise you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands blessed are you sovereign god creator of heaven and death to you be praise and glory forever as your living word eternal in heaven assumed the frailty of our mortal flesh may the light of your love be born in us to fill our hearts with joy as we sing 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 well on this holy innocence day we've come into the turkey house to share a turkey christmas with darcy and lizzy and the four poults very gentle and quiet birds as we've seen before elegant and highly intelligent but we've brought them a little present from santa claus this morning from father christmas and uh on it it's saying with best wishes for a happy christmas to darcy and lizzy and the four poets from father christmas and we are having then this morning oh here's a present for you look at this this is fantastic you'll like this here we are look come on this is a special treat a christmas treat montpelts and darcy and lizzy and happy christmas to all of you we wanted you to see them in good health after the christmas festival and looking very good indeed here these are delicious mealworms for the dried mealworms there's no better treat for the turkeys this morning and their silence and elegance continues so i'll leave their lovely present on here as we begin our psalm this morning and this morning is a a lesson later on about saint joseph and he of course was of the royal line of david and our psalm on this 28th morning of the month is psalm 132 which is very much a psalm about the house of david lord remember for david all the hardships he endured how he swore an oath to the lord and vowed a vow to the mighty one of jacob i will not come within the shelter of my house nor climb up into my bed i will not allow my eyes to sleep nor let my eyelids slumber until i find a place for the lord a dwelling for the mighty one of jacob now we heard of the ark in ephrathah and found it in the fields of jail let us enter his dwelling place and fall low before his footstool arise o lord into your resting place you and the ark of your strengths let your priests be clothed with righteousness and your faithful ones sing with joy for your servant david's sake turn not away the face of your anointed the lord has sworn an oath to david a promise from which he will not shrink of the fruit of your body shall i set upon your throne if your children keep my covenant and my testimonies that i shall teach them their children also shall sit upon your throne forevermore for the lord has chosen zion for himself he has desired her for his habitation this shall be my resting place forever here will i dwell for i have longed for her i will abundantly bless her provision her poor when i satisfy with bread i will close her priests with salvation and her faithful ones shall rejoice and sing there will i make a horn to spring up for david i will keep a lantern burning for my anointed as for his enemies i will close them with shame but on him shall his crown be bright the royal line of david and we heard in the lesson we read at matins on sunday morning last that this particular house of david was the house which joseph belonged to and from that royal line of david the anointed one would be born [Music] so this morning on this holy innocence day we're coming back to the gospel of saint matthew but here let's uh let's say chronology fails us because there are times in the churches here when something is saved as being so big to think about that it's set aside and left for a later date and i feel that about the feast of the epiphany it's such an important feast when the magi come representing in the church's mind the different nations of the world and the signs of the epiphany not just the giving of the gold and frankincense in there and the kneeling of the wise before the manger of the tiny baby unable to speak a word to them and yet they kneel and adore and then adding to those signs the sign of water turned to wine at the wedding in cana of galilee and the sign of the baptism of jesus which we keep on the first sunday following the epiphany all those things rather like the feast of corpus christi when we give thanks for the holy communion long long after the passion tide and the remembering that that meal in the holy week because we want to explore its depths what i'm saying is that if we don't look at that then our chronology makes no sense because we have here a story which is taking place after the wise men have been to herod and in in a a way inadvertently tipped him off that there's a threat to his dominion with the birth of a baby who is to be king of the jews and it's that which causes the massacre of the holy innocents all the babies in bethlehem but because we want to tell the whole story of joseph within the 12 days of christmas and also we shall look at the circumcision of naming of jesus on new year's day before ever we have received the wise men in that sequence of the way in which the church's calendar is laid out then there's a dislocation in all of this so forget chronology and instead think we shall come back to the wise men arriving and give them their own special day on january the 6th but for the moment we are going ahead with the murder of the children of bethlehem by herod and what joseph does after that to continue his story so i'm chapter 2 of saint matthew and verse 13. now when the wise men had departed behold an angel of the lord appeared to joseph in a dream and said rise take the child and his mother and flee to egypt and remain there until i tell you for herod is about to search for the child to destroy him and joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to egypt and remained there until the death of herod this was to fulfill what the lord had spoken by the prophet out of egypt have i called my son then herod when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet jeremiah a voice was heard in rama weeping and loud lamentation rachel weeping for her children she refused to be comforted because they are no more but when herod died behold an angel of the lord appeared in a dream to joseph in egypt saying rise take the child and his mother and go to the land of israel for those who sought the child's life are dead and joseph rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of israel but when he heard that archelaus was reigning over judea in place of his father herod he was afraid to go there and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of galilee and he went and lived in a city called nazareth so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled that he would be called a nazarene it's the story of joseph's obedience and the story of another vision in the night when the angel of the lord warns joseph that the holy family are in great danger and that great danger is something that he must take account of and so at that point we get the story of the flight into egypt as it's called where joseph fulfilling his role as the guardian of the holy family takes mary and the baby back down into egypt so that he can make sure that uh they're kept quite safe let's give our turkeys some more of that lovely breakfast here we are lizzy come on come on pills and as they go down to egypt it's a a a lovely story which we looked at when we were dealing with berlioz's infancy of christ and the rest on the way that mary and joseph took with that lovely piece of music and um darcy you're missing out here um and as as they go down they're going to a completely different place and in berlioz's infancy of christ you'll remember he actually quarries into an old legend goes down and receives hospitality from a local family there from a man called ishmael who is a carpenter himself and you remember that from the day that we did berlioz not too long ago but for the moment of course we go back to bethlehem where herod has sent to kill all the male children and we're thinking of how power is sometimes frightened of something unknown and when the magi came to headed that sense of worry with the tyrant there and we know from history that he was someone who was totally tyrannical and careless of his own family's life if he was jealous of them or anyone who got in his way was instantly from herod just set aside and killed and here we have the murder of the little boys of bethlehem rachel calling for her children of course reminds us of when we were doing the story of jacob and his wife from whom he had the sons joseph and benjamin his beloved rachel died in bethlehem and was buried there in bethlehem so that the city of bethlehem the little town of bethlehem was often called the town of rachel as well as royal david city and here are the mothers of bethlehem rachel weeping for her children it's a cruel story so soon after christmas and once again we are faced with the red color because of the violence but we will come back on january the 6th to that visit of the magi of the wise because there is a juxtaposition there of the powerful and the wise and the innocent and that juxtaposition becomes part of the story of the first sign of the epiphany and that sign is enshrined in the meiji's gifts so we set that aside for now to go to january the sixth but today we remember the slaughter of the holy innocents and how fragile human life is particularly when we think of children and very young children too and what violence can happen to them and the gospel of saint matthew of course also contains that saying of jesus that woe to anyone who causes or is a stumbling block to one of these little ones would be better that they had a millstone tied around their neck and they were thrown into the depths of the sea that they should harm one of these little ones and then he says to his disciples for i tell you in heaven their angels always look on the face of my heavenly father it's a wonderful image of the connection between the innocence of the children and also the qualities of the kingdom of heaven and it goes back to that statement again in matthew's gospel in chapter 18 when he says to us all jesus says to us all unless you turn round and have the quality of children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven and that spiritual dimension between the innocent and the kingdom of heaven and those who are vulnerable and the kingdom of heaven is something the wise recognize when the wise men kneel before the baby which is terrifying to the powerful who orders the slaughter of that because of the threat well now if we look at the dates today there's only one date i want to mention because it's a date of huge importance and that is today is day maggie smith's 87th birthday so happy birthday to her she was born in 1934 and when i think back at how many times i have watched her on films or on television in stepping stones through life the very first time i remember recognizing her as something really special was sitting in an edinburgh cinema in 1969 watching the film the prime of miss jean brodie when she plays a school mistress in the marcia blaine school for girls in edinburgh in the 1930s and for that role she won an you will remember it yourself i'm sure many of you would have seen it was based on a muriel spark novel and it also had in the film uh in older age celia johnson as the headmistress miss mackay and celia johnson of course best known to us in brief encounter but this is later on in her life and maggie smith is making her film debut in an oscar-winning role and what we have from that is the picture of maggie smith uh flying away with the the curriculum and and going right off it and giving her own teaching to her own little set of girls the four of them miss brodie's girls sandy monica jenny and mary the four special girls and she says i am in the business of putting old heads on young shoulders all my pupils are the creme de la creme and then we come to her performance in the play peter schaefer's play lettuce and lovage which was first performed in the theatre royal bath and then went for a very successful run in the globe theater and then across to new york and there she played a guide in a country house a mythical country house where she began to make up stories to entertain the people as they went round with no real accuracy to the truth of the story and was set upon by an officer of what might be the national trust it was called in the play the present preservation trust and uh lovage who is the the one who comes she comes from architrave place in london to object to the way that maggie smith is expanding the story and really it's the kind of uh of tension you get here in any of the historic buildings where someone is trying to make the best of a story the most dramatic of the story and at the same time someone else is saying well that's not accurate that's not accurate and and if you get too much of that the story becomes too dull to and that play became immensely amusing but also important as it went through between the juxtaposition of maggie smith and margaret tyzak in lettuce and lovage the next thing i remember is bed among the lentils one of the alan bennett talking heads on the bbc television and i saw that first in 1988 when it was put on in may 1988 and those of you who have seen that and the talking heads each of them are very moving indeed but she did just one of them which was called bed among the lentils in which she plays the sad character of a vicar's wife and the vicar is being made a fossil by just about everyone in the parish and she's pushed on one side and begins to drink too much and then runs up debts in the local grocer's shop because she hasn't got the money to buy the sherry she needs and so she goes into the city of leeds and founds that an asian grocer in a corner shop called ramesh and it's the way really that her salvation comes through ramish but at the same time the way in which the uh story of she and her husband and her own cure from her alcoholism develop and there's a huge pathos about it and the way in which she she just speaks that story very very different from the maggie smith that we see in so many um of the the films that she does now next one was zepherella's tea with mussolini in 1999 you'll remember that she plays lady random the widow of a former british ambassador who once had t she with mussolini and knows that as the war gets nearer and nearer because they've had tea together mussolini will protect them and she's acting you'll remember with joan plowright and judy dench and cher and it is again an immensely moving film with the scorpione in in the city of florence uh and the way in which that works itself out and maggie smith in the end uh has to eat a humble pie with cher because she had she's read her wrong ladies in lavender we might mention again with judy dench and that lovely violin music that we were talking about the other day written by nigel hess that's set in cornwall with the two sisters judy dench and and maggie smith they're finding a polish musician washed up on on the beach and and the young man is taken to their house and then they get to know him in a particular way and the story goes on great uh role also for uh miriam margoy as dorcas the housekeeper now and then the two big series of course downton abbey as the dowager countess of grantham and in every episode that went from uh the historic uh location in british history in 1912 edwardian age right through to 1926 and was put on first in 2010 and has had six series at the moment a film in which she is is also taking a role is is set to be released in 2022 and the other of course the the other great series harry potter because she played the professor minerva mcgonagall in the whole of the harry potter films from 2001 to 2011 8 harry potter films all of those things that the you think in place things like the best exotic marigold hotel you will have your own special things but i also want to mention the lady in the van where is again an alan bennett uh script and it's a scene in alan bennett's life of someone who has been a concert pianist and then uh became uh an old lady living in her van in the road outside alan benny's house and he asked her into the drive and for 15 years she lived there in his drive and he tells the story with enormous sensitivity but at the same time maggie smith plays that woman in the van the lady in the van with enormous sensitivity so different as was the vicar's wife in talking heads from the roles we see her playing in things like the dowager countess of grandson or professor mcgonagall so thanks to maggie smith for opening our eyes to so many different aspects of humanity but also opening our eyes to the way in which we ourselves can be sensitive to people because of her fine acting of the various roles and i very much want to give thanks for her today on this her 87th birthday as we think of the scriptural stories associated with christmas on this day of the holy innocents let's then say our prayers on this particular day and we are saying prayers in our anglican communion on this 28th of december for the diocese of indianapolis today in the episcopal church yesterday it was indiana today is indianapolis and at the same time we're praying in this diocese for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for emma bishop at lambeth and the parishes of sturri saint nicholas with ford witch st mary the virgin and westby all saints with has done and at starry of course we have our junior section of our cathedral school junior kings canterbury they are in story the lovely village of starry not too far away so let's say the prayer first for holy innocence day bring your own intentions and then the college for christmas tide heavenly father whose children suffered at the hands of herod though they had done no wrong by the suffering of your son and by the innocence of our lives frustrate all evil designs and establish your reign of justice and peace through jesus christ our lord amen the colic for christmas almighty god you have given us your only begotten son to take our nature upon him and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin grant that we who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace may daily be renewed by your holy spirit through jesus christ our lord 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 the moment for reflection now on this day this fourth day of christmas [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] r [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] may christ who by his coming at christmas time gathered into one the things of heaven and the things of earth fill you with peace and good will at this season 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 we prayed in the diocese today for three very beautiful parishes i mentioned the junior king school at sturry but ford which itself is immensely important to this place and a very historic town in its own right with its own town hall and its own uh mare even though it's a tiny place because the stone from normandy has come across the channel and into ford which historically and of course normally at that time part of of england ruled in henry the second time very much very much part of the the same land the stone would come right up to fort witch and then be brought along the road to canterbury and we've done that recently when this stone was again taken from the quarry in kong it paused for a long time after the war while the the french used the stone to rebuild their own shattered cities and historic landscapes following the the normandy landings but then when we started again we sent an ox cart to ford which and then had a ceremonial drive of the first piece of corn stone coming up through west spirit ii a place of immense natural beauty looking over the lakes where the king school row down there but uh that's a lovely piece of countryside not very far away just a bicycle ride away so we remember these places of great beauty on this day