good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of tuesday the 26th of april we're here in the garden a lovely morning and we welcome you wherever you are in the world bring your own prayers and concerns as we worship together i've got leo here behind me who's also enjoying the morning as we say our prayers first of course we remember as always the people of ukraine and pray for them in their own country in such great danger and longing for peace in the many areas of the world to which they have gone uh leaving their country for safety's sake and leaving members of their family behind and at the same time we pray for world leaders working we hope towards a peaceful and just settlement in the end but for the moment that seems far off and we pray for the ukrainian people also want to remember today but i'll do that more in our reflection the reverend cannon matthew corken who sadly a few days ago passed away in his late forties having suffered from lou gehrig's disease als you might know it better as which is at the slow destruction of the nervous system and we had watched that going on matthew has been a priest who has brought pilgrimages to canterbury ever since i came here 21 years ago i remember him as a young priest coming with full enthusiasm to canterbury and it see seems unthinkable that he should have died so young from this cruel disease but we remember him with thanksgiving on this day and i'll speak about him more when we come to the reflection later so let's begin our prayers on this tuesday in the second week of easter and we use the easter season in our um daily prayer oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice alleluia blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as once you ransomed your people from egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your risen son may we the firstfruits of your new creation rejoice in this new day you have made and praise you for your mighty acts 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 son this morning is part of the long psalm 119 and the sections of eight verses each split up across the uh mornings and evenings at this time of month so on this morning we're reading the section from verse 105 of the uh of the the psalm 119 and um i'm actually surrounded this morning as i sit here outside the french windows by the scent and lovely view of wisteria day lilies are also beginning to flower but the wisteria will go from strength to strength and is a wonderful aspect it's a very ancient plant here in terms of the the years it's been here and its stem is as attractive as its flowers but on this day it's beginning to look very lovely so 100 105 of psalm 119 your word is a lantern to my feet and a light upon my path i have sworn and will fulfill it to keep your righteous judgments i am troubled above measure give me life o lord according to your word accept the free will offering of my mouth so lord and teach me your judgments my soul is ever in my hand yet i do not forget your law the wicked have laid a snare for me but i have not strayed from your commandments your testimonies have i claimed as my heritage forever for they are the very joy of my heart i have applied my heart to fulfill your statutes always even to the end psalm 119 is a long long prayer of wonder at the perfection of god's law which as we know christ in his teaching told people again and again he came to fulfill and we give thanks for that fulfillment in jesus himself well um i uh i'm going now to turn back to the gospel of saint john and what we're doing is looking back now to the conversation around the supper table which jesus and his disciples have in that fourth gospel and we're told again and again in the fourth gospel that the disciples did not understand these things and that's is a constant theme but they would after his resurrection well here we are liturgically in the liturgical year giving thanks for resurrection so we go back to see what it is they were finding so hard to grasp and which they would for the rest of their lives like us be unfolding unwrapping in terms of new life and resurrection i'm starting at the beginning of chapter 14 and chapter 14 is simply what we call part of the farewell discourses around the supper table we've just had in chapter 13 since peter saying to him if though everybody else follows you though everyone else deserts you i will not and then jesus has said to him 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 and then we're into chapter 14 and that's where i'm starting this morning these are the words of jesus to the 11 disciples round the table let not your hearts be troubled believe in god believe also in me in my father's house are many rooms if it were not so would i have told you that i go to prepare a place for you and if i go and prepare a place for you i will come again and will take you to myself that where i am you may be also and you know the way to where i am going thomas said to him lord we do not know where you are going how can we know the way jesus said to him i am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me if you had known me you would have known my father also from now on you do know him and have seen him philip said to jesus lord show us the father and it is enough for us jesus said to him have you been so long with me and you'd still do not know me phillip whoever has seen me has seen the father how can you say show us the father do not believe that i am in the father and the father is in me the words that i say to you i do not speak on my own authority but the father who dwells in me does his works believe me that i am in the father and the father is in me or else believe on account of the works themselves truly truly i say to you whoever believes in me will also do the works that i do and greater works than these will they do because i am going to the father whatever you ask in my name this i will do that the father may be glorified in the son if you ask me for anything in my name i will do it if you love me you will keep my commandments and i will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you those words spoken before jesus was led out to die and was lifted up on the cross and drew all nations to himself these are fourth gospel words and before he rose from the dead on the first day of the week but the apostles remembered and what we have here is i think a collection of things that they remembered which have been built up from the private conversations of jesus teaching the 11 judas has gone out from them so around the supper table in this image are 11 disciples finding it hard to understand but what they do get is the sense of our lord's own distress it having to leave them and also a sense of fear at what happens next there's a a troubled feeling that's why he sets off with the words let not your hearts be troubled and so what do they have to do believe in god well of course they do the creator has always been part of their life as fishermen and tax collectors and all kinds of occupations in rural galilee and now here they are in jerusalem as jesus is speaking to them you believe in god the answer to that is yes of course they would say believe also in me and that's the easy next step but in what way in my father's house are many mansions it used to say rooms whatever there's space for you all there's space for the whole world because the spiritual dimension is not in time and space and so we go out of spatial concepts but nevertheless here is jesus uh talking in spatial concepts so that they can they can feel that there is in the eternal dimension a sense of home of coming home in my father's house this translation are many rooms and if that were not true how could i say i'm going to prepare a place for you if i go and prepare a place i'll come again and take you to myself that where i am you may be also here's the promise and it's thomas as we saw when we were looking at thomas's doubting at the end of the gospel doubting the resurrection and then his great cry my lord and my god which gave the first ending of this gospel before chapter 21 was added and now he's the one who asked the question lord we don't know where you're going how can we know the way and it prompts once again a sentence in the present tense so although it was spoken to them it's spoken to us now not only every time we read it but deep in our hearts in terms of belief for here is the creator's power being ministered to us in the offering of one human life the word made flesh it's the message of the fourth gospel above all others and the message of course of every gospel and of all the epistles when they're being written for that is what the the the 11 are opening onto and this is just the beginning it's this they're recalling they must have said to each other well jesus always said that um and uh we remember that now and now we're beginning to know what he meant so how can we know the way jesus says i am the way and the truth and the life the way is physical the truth is our mental side and the life is life now new life of resurrection life life which actually embraces that dimension which it falls well outside time and space and all the limitations of our mortality jesus says i am all those things for you no one comes to the creator the father except by that way which i am and that is a dimension which is really something lived out in our own creativity body mind and spirit and in our communities of faith from now on you do know the father and have seen him all of these things are living examples of that first prelude and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth and here is jesus i am the way and the truth and the life and then philip still because this is before realization show us the father it's enough jesus says have i been with you so long and you still do not know me he says philip's name at that point to emphasize the point whoever has seen me has seen the father in human flesh he doesn't say that has seen the creator in me how can you say show us the father do you not believe that i am in the father and the father is in me and then much more than that he begins to tell them that by believing in that and with the gift of the holy spirit which will be released they themselves will also reflect that divine life light for others to come to the way the truth the life in the life of those who believe and become a lantern go back to our psalm a lantern to the way to light the way of of those who go forward it's like that such a lovely hymn of william cooper whose year's mind it was yesterday who died on april the 25th 1800 and he wrote that in in severe mental distress himself and he wrote that lovely hymn oh for a closer walk with god a calm and heavenly frame a light to lead me on the road to lead me to the lamb i like to guide me on the road i think it says to lead me to the lamb and we all become lights for one another the moment we embrace that truth that i am the way and the truth and the life do you believe this and all of those things that become something they remember going on and widening things up but then at the same time he is saying to them you will be doing even greater works as a worldwide community through the centuries than i in one human life have accomplished because of the gifts of the spirit that i will release for you and each particular person in all their distinctiveness will be embracing that gift of life resurrection life well we give thanks this morning i said uh uh that our our friend cannon matthew corkin has died and as we here in this community we knew him so well because he was a pilgrim constantly and a leader of other pilgrims his desire always was to bring his friends to canterbury he felt this above all else to be a holy place and we we grieve with his family this morning as we remember him with thanksgiving i remember him as a young priest back in 2001 when i first came here bringing groups of americans usually from the parish he was in he was in junior ministry at that time but his his desire to bring them here as pilgrims never flagged and the energy he put into pilgrimage and every time he came uh it gave us the sense of someone who realized this holy place here and was an inveterate pilgrim with completely different groups now matthew became not too long ago the uh chair of our friends of canterbury cathedral in the united states f-o-c-c-u-s focus and he became that very much as someone who held the torch of pilgrimage sadly that wasn't to last very long because the signs of his illness began to appear and they were puzzling signs for all his friends and his family but now we remember him being enfolded deep into the heart of god in all the promises that he believed in from the creator and and from the one who said i am the way the truth and the life what we also remember of him is that interesting way that he had of gathering people and leading them to pilgrimage here very often from other pilgrim places massive energy in all of this and towards the end of his his illness when he was having enormous trouble in concentrating on things the one thing that he would constantly enjoy was looking at uh canterbury online and so fletcher had the idea of making a film especially for matthew and he went uh and and uh contacted the heads of departments here who all knew matthew very well from his pilgrimaging over those 21 years and they were really happy to say of course we'll do that and our friend gerardo from it went round and filmed many of them in their departments as they explained to matthew having greeted him online uh and they explained exactly what was going on in the departments at that time cressida in in archives was showing special things that were happening there and chris pascal in visits was showing special things that were happening there we had um vergers and all sorts of people being filmed by jorada uh and uh david nussema our director of music uh was was showing what was going on in the music department and all new new sorts of developments so that a long film was made of this and and fletcher himself filmed me in different parts of the garden reading passages about the history of canterbury and the pilgrimages coming to canterbury in ancient times and at the same time things that we might thought might interest him as we sat by the the um the the water in the orchard and various other parts of the garden and this we sent and uh it uh proved to be a world that he could enter and as he lay and his his physical powers declined nevertheless his eyes would still stay on that with pleasure and it was played over and over again and we give thanks for the power to be able to do that to awaken a dimension in virtual ways so as we think of matthew and and give thanks that he is now in that eternal dimension himself which is much more beautiful than this holy place and as we think of that we also give thanks for the fact that we ourselves can enter those dimensions for each other and in our own lives physically mentally and spiritually in our activity together so may god give matthew eternal rest and rising in glory in that new kingdom the eternal kingdom so let's also look this morning at another date the 26th of april 1798 when the artist eugene delacroix was born now delacroix is an artist that we know for huge paintings he was a great legend of the romantic era and 1798 saw him brought up first of all in the napoleonic period but then when he came to his maturity then he was in a different section of french history and he wanted really to encompass all his desire for um liberty and he did that in the 1830 painting which you will know probably and i know from my school textbooks for somehow delacroix with his painting liberty leading the people captured the imagination of what it meant to be france in those days and there's no painting which has done that in the same way it it really is a a painting which opens the should we say the whole legend and background of what it meant to be french in 1830 that thirsting for uh liberty and there is liberty on the barricades with the tricolor unfolding and perhaps it's a a good thing to show after the the recent uh election in in france because the identity of a nation is always kindled at the time of a an election and we saw all that at the weekend on sunday but the the legend that that delacroix was giving just opened out that concept right across the world uh and i used to wonder in my school but before i looked into the history of france and became interested in european history particularly in the 19th century what this what this painting meant but when you see it and the the color it has and the the humanity in it and the the desperate state of what's going on in what is really a battle there is violence there there is triumph there there is uh the the sense of that the towers of notre dame showing through the smoke of all of that but delacroix in his colors which are really colors like we're seeing all around us today i'm sitting beneath great cascades of yellow banksy eye roses and and and swags of beautiful flowers of wisteria and he went for great colors he opened up the uh classical world of painting into the fully romantic world of painting and was inspired by people like lord byron who'd gone out to help the greeks in their fight for liberty from the ottoman empire and he was inspired also by the forces of sublime nature and nature in violent action storms and and animals uh galloping at uh at at great speed and everything there he wanted to come to with the end of his brush stroke and the colors he was showing and then of course people took inspiration from that so you only have to look at a film like les miserables which was so very popular and we've been into that before but so much of the imagery in that is taken from that brush of delacroix and so many of the other paintings he he did great murals he painted the murals in the the chapel of the angels at the church of stencil peace rest jacob wrestling with the angel but at the same time we remember him for huge landscapes taken from the past there's one of dante and virgil going through hell and all of these things have enormous drama and enormous sense of what human emotions can give and at the same time this is opening up what our humanity can be for good or for ill passionately in love with passion but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible well that's quite quite a good thing to say in the sense that it was the passion that was driving him but his mental accuracy as to how those colors at the end of his brush and which colors to mix and the dimensions and the way in which he shaped the human figures were actually very ordered because creativity is a mixture of that kind of order and that kind of passion that emotion which says i must create this now how do i do it the way the truth the life and at the end the vision is a spiritual one which is handed on i mean a spiritual one of human creativity even here and now in this dimension where everything is finite there's also a wonderful lithographer and made lithographs of shakespeare's work and works of sir walter scott and works of goethe all of these things but was inspired by music and he himself says nothing can be compared with the emotion caused by music that it expresses incomparable shades of feeling and his favorite composer was chopper because chopin to him registered all those passions in a very romantic way so we remember his his passion for this the way in which he drove himself physically and also the little cottage in the countryside at champlain where he would retire to from time to time simply to charge his energies and also to attain new vision for what he wanted to communicate now we could say all this about the fourth gospel for that collecting of things and then allowing those buds to flower over the years in a piece of writing which was come back to which people came back to again and again from the johannine community all of those things in terms of allowing the emotion the passion of everything to be there and at the same time walking the way with with christ which was not an easy way and sometimes a violent way and ended in the death and the lifting up of of jesus for the sins of the whole world but at the same time there's an ordering of things which we're seeing now in those farewell discourses and there is the sense of giving that as a gift so that it can open and flower in our own lives in creativity so we give thanks on this day for the human capacity to do all of that and to remember that in matthew the pilgrim and in delacroix the the the person with great passion but also the the cold mental skill to put that passion on paper and we ask for the same kind of creative dimensions in our own lives as we read the scriptures and find the way the truth and the life in every aspect of our own distinctive creative activity activity as the body of christ in the church of today let's say our prayers then on this lovely day here in england it's the 26th of april and we're praying in the anglican communion for the diocese of lagos west in the church of nigeria the lagos province and in our own diocese we're praying for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and we're still in the sitting born deanery that's the parishes around the town of sittingbourne and praying with thanksgiving for all those clergy who with permission to officiate help the ministry in that area so let's say the collect for this week and bring your own intentions to that almighty father you have given your only son to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth through the merits of your son 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 amen moment of reflection now as we create in ourselves the image of our lord made flesh the way the truth and the life and his power within our own lives for a similar creativity in sharing the creator's gifts [Music] me [Music] [Music] me [Music] the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus that great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight 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 we've some riddles to solve and uh i think that i asked you what is my tail is long my coat is brown i like the country i like the tone i can live in a house or live in a shed and i come out to play when you are in bed what am i well of course it's a mouse and then i am the word that has three syllables and 26 letters what am i and the word is alphabet so today six legs two heads two hands one long nose yet i use only four legs wherever i go what am i and i'm not a bird but i can fly through the sky i'm not a river but i'm full of water what am i leave you those and maybe look at another esops fable on this lovely morning we ended with the wolf in sheep's clothing and this morning we're doing the vein jack door here we are this is the magnificent painting which has been done and here's the jackdaw with feathers on his head and the other bird looking on so the vein jackdaw jupiter king of the gods announced that he intended to appoint a king over the birds and he named a day on which they were to appear before his throne when he would select the most beautiful of them all to be their ruler wishing to look their best on the occasion the birds retired to the banks on a stream where they busied themselves in washing and preening their feathers the jackdaw was there along with the rest and realized that with his ugly plumage he would have no chance of being chosen as he was so he waited till they were all gone and then picked up the most gaudy of the feathers they had dropped and fastened them about his own body with the result that he looked gayer than any of them when the appointed day came the birds assembled before jupiter's throne and after passing them in review he was about to make the jackdaw king when all the rest of the birds set upon the king elect stripped him of his borrowed plumes and exposed him for the jackdaw that he was and the little moral at the end is fine feathers do not make fine birds well sadly we have no jack doors here uh usually we have on big buildings like ours jackdaws strutting around and they're quite comic birds in the way they they go we're used to seeing them in very many places but i think it's probably the peregrine falcons that have driven them away from here they don't suit the driven corny crow or um the magpies away or the jays but the jackdaws are absent from here for some reason and we miss them because they're cheeky and and uh quite fun birds to have around and they make nice noises so that's enough for today with esop and we wish you well on this tuesday of the second week of easter and uh your reflections and everything else that you will have to do today particularly with your friends and family and anything you're planning [Music] okay