good morning and welcome on this tuesday the 20th of october this windy morning and we've come into the front of the deanery i'm sitting in front of this tower here this tower was extended by prior selling who in the 15th century was prior of the monastery here and he will appear in parts of our story today all around me are extensions that he made and originally this tower in his extension went right across to what is now the canon librarian's house and the the gateway there which you would have seen in the canon librarians even song often was the entry into the priory so it's called prior selling's gate and we refer to this four-story tower as prior sellings tower behind me was originally the dairy of the great kitchens which were here but above was the prior's study and then up and up it went to the four stories and you can still stand on the roof as we have done in some of the morning broadcasts and look out onto the cathedral itself but we're in danger of too much history on this day because there's another huge connection which will appear later on with many characters very well known to you um appearing this is the birthday of sir christopher wren in 1632 and we remember not only ren but rather a forgotten figure who assisted him in the building of many of the churches and many of his designs for country houses lady elizabeth wilbraham and if you look her up you will find that she was very much an architect a woman architect very rare in the middle of the 17th century this is a day quite amusing really on in 1720 october the 20th when john rackham the famous pirate who designed the jolly roger the skull and crossbones was captured in the caribbean by the royal navy and on board were found two women pirate members of his crew so we could go on that in 1946 again amusing uh muffin the mule appeared on television for the very first time he is the i remember him in my childhood because he continued through he's the very first puppet that was used to entertain children as annette mills the sister of john mills the actor sat at the grand piano and muffin and his friends danced about and taught children many things so we remember him as the precursor of so much educational television using animals as characters the day in 1818 when the border between canada and the united states was fixed and also we remember sin magdalene of nagasaki unusual have a japanese martyr but she was born in 1611 and martyred for her faith in 1634 so we give thanks for the church in japan today and on this day also in 1973 our queen elizabeth ii opened the sydney opera house we remember this too and this amuses me as international slow stay i mean the creatures not just being lazy and uh i uh uh will tell you a a short story when we were last in hong kong and walking around the the small zoological garden there we stopped with a crowd who were watching the slow slow movement of a sloth coming down from his perch to pick up a banana and go all the way back and then the crowd which was building up breathlessly watched this very slow creature peel the banana just as he was about to eat it he dropped it all the way back down onto the floor and the groan which went from the crowd was amazing they are beautiful creatures but they live in a different time scale of energy uh from humanity with all its busyness so we give thanks for them now we remember of course that the coronavirus is is growing again by leaps and bounds in various countries and we pray for all those combating that we also remember those fighting the wildfire in colorado at this time so many things to bring to our prayers uh this is also osteoporosis day so not just the coronavirus but all diseases which threaten humanity and those in our health services the world over trying to combat them bring your own concerns as we begin our prayers o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night blessed are you sovereign god creator of all to you be glory and praise forever you founded the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands in the fullness of time you made us in your image and in these last days you have spoken to us in your son jesus christ the word made flesh as we rejoice in the gift of your presence among us let the light of your love always shine in our hearts your spirit ever renew our lives and your praises ever be on our lips blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind 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 psalm on this 20th morning of the month is psalm 103 bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the lord and my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with faithful love and compassion who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagles the lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed he made his ways known to moses and his works to the children of israel the lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness he will not always accuse us neither will he keep his anger forever he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our wickedness for as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his mercy upon those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so far has he set our sins from us as a father has compassion on his children so is the lord merciful towards those who fear him for he knows of what we are made he remembers that we are but dust our days are but as grass we flourish as a flower of the field for as soon as the wind goes over it it is gone and its place shall know it no more but the merciful goodness of the lord is from of old and endures forever on those who fear him and his righteousness on children's children so we turn once again to saint paul's letter to the philippians and i'm reading today in chapter 1 from verses 12 to the end i want you to know brothers and sisters that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for christ and most of the believers having become confident in the lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear some indeed preach christ from envy and rivalry but others from goodwill the latter do it out of love knowing that i am put here for the defense of the gospel the former proclaimed christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment what then only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth christ is proclaimed and in that i rejoice yes and i will rejoice for i know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of jesus christ this will turn out for my deliverance as it is my eager expectation and hope that i will not be at all ashamed but that with full courage now as always christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by death for to me to live is christ and to die is gain if i am to live in the flesh that means fruitful labor for me yet which i shall choose i cannot tell i am hard-pressed between the two my desire is to depart and be with christ for that is far better but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account convinced of this i know that i will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in christ jesus because of my coming to you again only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of christ so that whether i come and see you or i am absent i may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents this is a clear sign to them of their destruction but of your salvation and that from god for it has been granted to you that for the sake of christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake engaged in the same conflict that you saw i had and now here that i still have paul continuing to write this wonderful letter of great rejoicing and of great love a letter he is sending to what seems to be his favorite church probably the corinthians might object to that but then controversy is uh known to them very well whereas the philippians seem to receive paul with enormous joy and as we said yesterday when he came into europe having crossed from cheras with luke and the others he had to start absolutely afresh in the very roman city of philippi there in greece and he did start afresh with the help of lydia lydia whom he found praying on that first sabbath morning that they were in philippi and who later was baptized and entertained them in her house which became the foundation of the church in philippi but now probably years later with paul imprisoned most probably as we said yesterday in rome and all the signs for that he is now physically static and his messengers have to come and go and the philippians have sent him young epaphroditus with a gift to encourage him in his imprisonment but he says it's not the riches of the gift that encourage him most and give him joy it's both the company of epiphroditus as he can tell the story of the philippian church to paul and also the sense that the gift represents so much affection for paul that they're determined to make his imprisonment as good as it can be and meanwhile chained to the soldier today we hear that the whole praetorian guard knows all about paul hardly surprising because of course the soldier will be listening to everything and paul is allowed visitors and friends to come and see him he sends off his messengers and he either dictates or writes the epistles and they go by the messengers to one church in another and we have only i'm sure a sample of what he wrote at that time for he was a person of great energy and now we find the mature paul much calmer and also sending messages always of encouragement almost saying whether those who contradict me are right or wrong as long as christ's name is proclaimed christ is proclaimed and people will see and this is how he phrases it to the church in philippi see in you all your good order and the greek word there not much used in the the gospel has at its beginning the word polis the order of a state or a city in greek consciousness which was the best kind of order where all are pulling together that's what he wants for his philippian church and he's written to the bishops and the deacons at the philippian church these words are beginning to develop as an order in the sacramental life of the church and we learn much about that in these epistles that are sent and very soon epiphanitis will be sent off again back to the philippians and he's feeling a bit homesick uh we're told later in the epistle that he becomes very ill but recovers and then is sent back to the philippians bearing this and notice there are instructions in this bit of the epistle as it opens up for good order in body mind and spirit all those words are used and paul then refers to his own body and says whether in life or in death i may proclaim christ jesus his theology shall we call it is now fully developed into what he believes in other letters early letters we see it developing but now here here is the mature paul writing in almost calmness and acceptance of god's will for he has arrived at the place that the heavenly vision gave him here he is in rome and he will appear to testify before christ at the emperor's tribunal the emperor nero at that time well let's think a little bit of how these letters are carried and read we've said once or twice about the way in which the greek language became a vehicle that all could understand i'm sure our lord himself understood that common greek which was spoken by all when you think of him working with the carpenter his father joseph in the carpenter's shop all that trading which was done in that way was done not through latin which the roman occupying forces would have used but greek was the official language and it was that common greek which they all spoken in which we find the new testament written and that made the messengers easy of language as they went around now let's think of the other contact that i mentioned this morning not just prior selling but someone whom selling who was a great scholar actually taught his name thomas lineker who was born in about 1460. now remember that in 1453 on may the 29th a catastrophic event for christendom happened constantinople fell to the ottoman forces and scholars had begun to evacuate that stricken city and they brought with them over to venice and particularly to the italian city-states so much of their greek learning to the latin west and that greek learning became the foundation the intellectual foundation stone of the creativity of the renaissance lineker came thomas leonica came to be educated here in our cathedral school now the king's school of the chapter which surrounds me here and he was educated by being taught by prior selling and then when selling was sent as an envoy to italy it's clear that lineker followed him there and there he was taught the greek language by the best teachers but also he was taught medicine and received in padua a doctorate of medicine and the two things came together because the great greek physician galen all his works in greek then can now began to translate into latin so that doctors here who spoke latin not greek as scholars could actually understand them as well as beginning to learn the greek language he learned his greek besides the uh the sons of lorenzo de medici in florence and at that time of course there was great creativity going on in florence you find people coming and going and indeed the the uh the statue kneeling at his prayers in marble of my first predecessor as dean who took over from the last prior is kneeling there in the east end in the trinity chapel of the cathedral and was carved from life his head in florence and on the side are the decorations in the school of de la robia and one remembers also that october the 20th was in 1435 check the date andrea de la robie's birth so all those pieces of creative culture are coming together but not only the greek language for lineker then taught erasmus who himself visited canterbury and paid a visit to the shrine of thomas beckett and also to the author of our lady undercroft which he found much more pleasing to him a habitation of the virgin fair afar he said of the lower altar of our lady rather than the rather glitzy shrine above at that time uh he taught thomas more he taught all kinds of folk prince arthur of england who sadly died and his brother henry became then henry viii and he also became the physician to henry viii to cardinal woolsey to archbishop of canterbury warren the the the last uh archbishop of canterbury before cranmer and at that time lineker was reckoned as the the great scholar of the greek language we give thanks for that as remember as we remember our own new testament written in greek and also the ability of of uh lineker accurately to translate we saw how fresh things become in their real languages as we read shakespeare we rejoice that all that is written in our language as we read other languages in translation we know that we're losing something of the poetry something of the meaning so we give thanks on this morning for thomas lineker who managed to translate so much and next door the boarding house just over my wall in the garden there is named after him the boys boarding house it's called lineker house and we remember that it's all very quiet today because of course they're all on half term holiday and have gone home but they are our near neighbours and good neighbors at that but we give thanks for thomas lineker and all those who translate and those of course who translated the scriptures right across the world so let's say our prayers this morning and we bring any of our own intentions to them as we use the prayer for this day oh god for as much as without you we are not able to please you mercifully grant that your holy spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts through jesus christ our lord amen [Music] so we say each in our own language the prayer that jesus has taught us to say whenever we come together 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 see a moment of silence on this day 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 of his son jesus christ our lord and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always amen you