good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral to the deanery garden as we say our prayers on this 24th of august since barcelona's day sin bartholomew mentioned in all the lists of the apostles certainly in luke's gospel and in the acts of the apostles at the beginning but apart from that he's not recorded as having said any words in those uh um gospels or in the acts of the apostles and everything we gain about him is from tradition save for the fact that there is one element that might link him with nathaniel and it's a strong enough element for us to have in our lectionary this morning the lesson about nathanael seen by jesus under the fig tree so naturally enough we've come here under the fig tree but we shall think about sin bartholomew a great deal in our reflection for there really is much to say about him and the traditions connected with him but for the moment let's say our prayers on this morning when we celebrate one of the twelve since bartholomew oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more 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 this morning on this 24th morning of the month is psalm 118 and i'm beginning at verse 14. the lord is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation joyful shouts of salvation sound from the tents of the righteous right hand of the lord does mighty deeds the right hand of the lord raises up the right hand of the lord does mighty deeds i shall not die but live and declare the works of the lord the lord has punished me solely but he has not given me over to death open to me the gates of righteousness that i may enter and give thanks to the lord this is the gate of the lord the righteous shall enter through it i will give thanks to you for you have answered me and have become my salvation the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone this is the lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes this is the day that the lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it come o lord and save us we pray come lord send us now prosperity blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord we bless you from the house of the lord the lord is god he has given us light link the pilgrims with cords right to the horns of the altar you are my god and i will thank you you are my god and i will exalt you oh give thanks to the lord for he is good his mercy endures forever today being a major saints day we have a special lesson we're not in the acts of the apostles we are in the gospel of saint john and as i said there is a tradition that bartholomew and nathanael might be the same person this is the story told in john 1 about nathanael [Music] the next day jesus decided to go to galilee he found philip and said to him follow me now philip was from beside her the city of andrew and peter philip found nathaniel and said to him we have found him of whom moses in the law and also the prophets wrote jesus of nazareth the son of joseph nathanael said to him can anything good come out of nazareth philip said to him come and see jesus saw nathanael coming towards him and said of him behold an israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit nathaniel said to him how do you know me jesus answered him before philip called you when you were under the fig tree i saw you nathanael answered him rabbi you are the son of god you are the king of israel jesus answered him because i said to you i saw you under the fig tree do you believe you will see greater things than these and he said to him truly truly i say to you you will see heaven opened and the angels of god ascending and descending on the son of man it's a marvelous cameo picture and it gives a sense of all those disciples as they are called and have conversations with others being around that the lakeside there in galilee and over the border just beyond the border when galilee ended and passed out of the realm of king herod but those borders meant very little at that time whether it was his brother or he that was ruling those areas luke lists them for us early in his gospel but these young men would have known each other and nazareth was not by the lakeside so it was very deep into galilee and when the name is mentioned by philip to his friend nathaniel nathaniel scoffs and says nazareth meaning that they're not lakeside people can anything good come out of nazareth and phillip phillip always just down to earth come and see and as nathanael is approaching jesus labels him israelite in whom there is no guile it's a wonderful thing to say and nathanael is struck and asks how do you know me and jesus said before philip asked you to come i saw you under the fig tree we have no idea about that encounter but the fact that jesus has seen nathanael under the fig tree is enough to convince nathanael that here is the one they were all expecting and jesus says to him just because i've said i saw you under the fig tree you say that you'll see much much greater than that and he uses one of his emphatic armin armin verily verily it used to say truly truly that means really this listen to this you will see much greater than this you will see heaven opened and the angel of god ascending and descending upon the son of man a marvelous vision reminiscent of jacob's vision of the heavenly ladder of the angels of god linking us with heaven nathaniel is never mentioned again and i for one um in a stage of the jury is very much out as to whether these were the same people i don't think it matters in the very least for this cameo is one of the pictures which help us in a wonderful way to see the development of that little community of those who would become the twelve jesus doesn't call nathanael but he gave he gives him this immense treasure of the promise that he will see heaven opened and the angels of god are sending and descending upon the son of man [Music] well let's go back to bartholomew and let's not forget the fig tree it's why we've come to sit here this morning for what this does do is locate the actual culture in which jesus lived i've read in some places that nathaniel could have been praying or doing something which caused jesus to know that he was a thoughtful expectant person how do we know we don't these are marvelous reflections that we can have what we do know about sin bartholomew is the long tradition of places of healing and medicine attached to him of shelter just as the fig tree gave nathaniel shelter for that intimate moment when jesus saw him it's one of the great stained glass windows from the 12th century in the cathedral church here the fig is even labeled in the latin ficus which is wonderful labeled with a name just like the apostles and jesus himself labeled and full of color that window but at the same time we remember exactly what that name saint bartholomew or saint bart's means in terms of healing in the hospital in london and we remember that all that was founded by rahir king henry the first and queen matilda's jester i think who when the princesses and prince of the royal family were drowned was so devastated he went on a pilgrimage to rome let's remember too that on the island in the middle of the tiber the church of san bartolomeo has an historic hospital attached to it well we needn't go that far to think of places of protection like that from canterbury we only need to go down the road to sandwich where today in the little hospital of sin bartholomew attached to a pilgrim's hospice which pilgrims used to stay in on their way to canterbury for in those days sandwich was a great port today a special event will happen it's an event for children but my companion here who grew up near sandwich remembers very well all that's going on on this very special day it was august it was holiday time but after the service in the little church of st bartholomew the children are asked to run a lap all the way around the church and are given a current bun it's called the bottle mass bun run and it's celebrating all that that place means in terms of hospitality now it provides homes for those elderly who have lived in sandwich and now need sheltered accommodation but it's an historic place bearing the name of bartholomew and people who go to the service adults are given a little sweet biscuit bearing the seal of the hospital a place of shelter and a place of thanksgiving for sin bartholomew today as we remember that we remember too that two really tragic events happened on st bartholomew's day in 1572 huguenots were massacred in their thousands across france seven thousand of them in paris itself their leader admiral de colini was murdered by the express wishes of really the queen mother catherine de medici a terrible massacre and from there huguenots fled they came here to canterbury and my predecessor dean godwin thomas godwin whose motto because of his name was win god win all thomas godwin gave shelter temporary permission to worship here in the crypt and shelter that temporary permission exists even to this day and the congregation of huguenots worship in the crypt every sunday afternoon in french still no written permission simply an ecumenical understanding in words and a promise given at that time of dreadful massacre but upstairs there's also another colony cardinal de collini who the year before had been over here asking for help for the huguenots in paris because he himself was a huguenot sympathizer but political agents were thought to have followed him and in the pilgrims hospice next to the deanery here meister omas which at this period in its history is one of the school houses but has been a multitude of different things but at that time was the great pilgrims hospice the colony was poisoned it's not a it's not a a thing which is unknown in these days for someone who's out of sympathy with someone in politics to poison another as we well know from the news at the moment but here in canterbury eating an apple uh the colony was poisoned and was given temporary permission to be buried here in the crypt and his tomb was i'm sorry upstairs uh from the crypt upstairs in the trinity chapel and his tomb was just temporarily plastered with hessian and plaster and no doubt the cardinal would have been taken back to france he never has been he's been given temporary shelter since 1571 here in canterbury cathedral a sign of shelter a sign of healing but in 1662 on st bartholomew's day all those clergy who could not sign up to every dot and comma of the book of common prayer as it was published by the officers of charles ii were evicted ejected from their livings and sent out without help so many of them were just without the means of living very different from dean turner who was here who had said at the end of the civil war no revenge on we go but here was something quite solid they had to go and among them was richard baxter baxter who is best known to us for writing a hymn in the year of his wife's death in 1581 ye holy angels bright who waited god's right hand and through the realms of light fly at your lord's command assist our song for else to seem to hide a seem for mortal tongue and so it goes on you bless themselves at rest of us you saints who toil below arrests arrest and a verse and then lastly the fourth verse my soul bear thou thy part triumph in god above and with a well-tuned heart sing thou the songs of love we give thanks for the shelter given on sin bartholomew's day but also we remember our intention that the church should be won throughout the world and the sign of healing for that might be a good one to pray for on this sin bartholomew's day so many themes but bartholomew very much a saint connected with healing for when rahir the jester came back from rome he had had a vision from sin bartholomew to found a hospital and the hospital were there as a sign of bartholomew's care so let's give thanks for healing on this day as we say our prayers today we happily are praying in this diocese let's start with that with the sandwich deanery and the villagers around that as we remember sandwiches festival day is no longer a port because the river star long ago silted up too much and sandwiches is a little bit back from the sea now but in those days it was a port pilgrims arriving there were given shelter and we give thanks for their celebration of the little hospital and the chapel of since bartholomew today pray today for all the clergy who help them in their parishes in the area deanery around sandwich in the anglican communion as we pray for justin our archbishop and remember in this diocese rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth we remember the diocese of kibbondo in tanzania and the bishop sauspita ndinza and the diocese of kagali in rwanda and the bishop nasan rusengo and all his people and the diocese of kagame also in rwanda and the bishop aseal musa miana and all his people remember in your hearts and minds though you those that you would want to pray for on this special saints day and we just think for a moment in a poem which will be sung as a hymn at the little service in sandwich today and i'm going to read verses two and three because it then links us back again with nathaniel here is john ellerton's hymn versus two and three in the role of thine apostles one there stands bartholomew he for whom today we offer year by year our praise is due how he toiled for thee and suffered none on earth can now record all his saintly life is hidden in the knowledge of his lord was it he beneath the fig tree scene of thee and gallus found he who saw the good he longed for rise from nazareth barren ground he who met his risen master on the shore of galilee he to whom the word was spoken greater things thou yet shall see and the question mark is answered in the next verse with the first three words none can know but today therefore we give thanks for the cameo picture of nathaniel and the angels ascending and descending on the son of man that he would see and at the same time we give thanks for bartholomew who gave shelter to the sick through the inspiration given and for our ability to give shelter and healing to each other here's the collect for sin bartholomew's day almighty and everlasting god who gave to your apostle bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach your word grant that your church may love that word which he believed and may faithfully preach and receive the same through jesus christ our lord amen so we say each in our own language the prayer our lord taught us to say when 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 amen moment of silence on this feast day for you to say your own prayers [Music] 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 you would pray for today and always amen uh