good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this friday the 3rd of december we are thinking of people across the world in some desperate situations we think of the terrible drought in the horn of africa and the pictures that are coming on the news of giraffes and cattle dying in protected areas this is a lack of water and the the constant drought there but because of the the walls and tensions of that area it has been quite quite a lot masked by what's going on but we do see enormous need there for the resources which will begin to feed and bring water to that area and we think of them this morning 70 percent of the cattle have died at this time and most of the the work of the people who live there is connected with the livestock so our prayers for them our prayers also for the citizens of tokyo following the earthquake outside tokyo and those who are attempting to bring relief and help to those affected by the earthquake bring your own prayers and intentions from across the world on this friday morning as we come to the friday and the first week of advent but as we said yesterday with your advent calendars which maybe you're opening or burning down if it's a candle with the children this is the the third of those windows to open or sections to burn down on what we might call a countdown to the festival of our lord's nativity at christmas so let's say our prayers then on this uh friday morning of advent o 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 and 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 as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this third morning of the month is psalm 16 preserve me o god for in you have i taken refuge i have said to the lord you are my lord all my good depends on you all my delight is upon the godly that are in the land upon those who are noble in heart though the idols are legion that many run after their drink offerings of blood i will not offer neither make mention of their names upon my lips for the lord himself is my portion and my cup in your hands alone is my fortune my share has fallen in a fair land indeed i have a goodly heritage i will bless the lord who has given me counsel and in the night watches instructs my heart i have set the lord always before me he is at my right hand i shall not fall wherefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices my flesh also shall rest secure for you will not abandon my soul to death nor suffer your faithful one to see the pit you will show me the path of life in your presence is the fullness of joy and in your right hand our pleasures forevermore [Music] we were reading yesterday from the letter to the hebrews and read chapter 3 which made much mention of psalm 95 chapter 4 continues that theme of entering into god's rest and as we read it he once again or whoever the writer is once again quotes psalm 95 which we tend to know as the nightie from the first word of that particular psalm in latin and that canticle which was sung always at the beginning beginning of morning prayer as an opening to morning prayer is at the heart again of this passage i'm reading from verses 1 to 13 of chapter 4 of the epistle to the hebrews therefore while the promise of entering god's rest still stands let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it for good news came to us just as to them but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were united by faith with those who listened for we have what i'm sorry did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened for we who have believed enter that rest as god has said as i swore in my roth they shall not enter my rest although his works were finished from the foundation of the world for he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way and god rested on the seventh day from all his works and again in this passage he says they shall not enter into my rest since therefore it remains for some to enter it and those who formally received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience again he appoints a certain day today saying through david so long afterwards in the words already quoted today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts for if joshua had given them rest god would not have spoken of another day later on so then there remains a sabbath rest for the people of god for whoever has entered god's rest has also rested from their works as god did from his let ourselves or strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience for the word of god is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart and no creature is hidden from his sight but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account we stop there in chapter four since the next few verses seem to be a prelude to chapter five but let's think once again of that psalm 95 which we read in full yesterday and it begins with versus twice inviting us inviting us to come and worship come let us sing to the lord it's an invitation as we said yesterday not a command an invitation to begin the day with songs in our heart even if our voices are not singing music is reminding us of all kinds of words of praise and metaphorically we sing a song of thanksgiving with that psalm 95 now come let us sing to the lord let us heartily rejoice in the god of our salvation let us come before his face with singing and the psalms are particularly noted as what is being sung and we remember again that they are psalms well known to jesus in the culture of galilee in which he grew up and through which he learned the words of the books of the old covenant which we have been looking at in genesis in exodus in the psalms daily and now in this epistle to the hebrews going back and giving us a foundation of those psalms and that covenant and a point is being made here the first invitation was oh come let us sing to the lord and then we have the second invitation of psalm 95 later on in verse 5 oh come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker for he is the lord our god and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand all of that in psalm 95 invitations but also there is the warning it's very easy to reject the invitation and to close the gate closing the gate is seen as hardening the heart it's all metaphorical our heart continues to pump in a fleshly way so that hardening of the heart is something about intention it comes with the rejection of the invitation and the invitation is one that not only invites to worship but goes back to that original intention of bringing the people to a promised land of rest as we've said rest can mean some way someone simply saying to you go and have a rest and by that they mean stop what you're doing go and let your body sit down and if possible let your mind become inactive with the tensions of what you've been doing and go and spend time on something which takes that tension away and we're creative beings all of us have different things that we like to do as our creator is one who creates so we too have unique gifts every one of us and they're all totally different sometimes in as i have this morning coming back from matins in the cathedral i pass people in our cathedral community going off to their work and they pass and we greet each other and anyone not knowing them might see someone perfectly unremarkable going to their work and i know that this person or that person is a consummate expert in some field of creative activity connected with the life of this community whether it be in restoration of things which need very very skilled hands indeed to restore so that the creation of christians in the past can still give inspiration in stone glass in stained glass or the beauty of the carved stones of this place or the the fitting together of things in the right way so that they're not damaged by materials all of that and it's embodied in the skills and imagination and desire to do this of those who are part of this community and i'm speaking of people right across the world one thinks of those who are skilled in tending creatures and the heartache of places like the horn of africa where they see the creatures dying for lack of water all of these things come to the point where the invitation is to join our creator in the day the gift of this new day but at the same time in heart and in mind in spirit and in in our our soul and intention to enter also into his rest and it's not only the psalms that are quoted this morning because our writer to the hebrews looks right back to the first chapters of the book genesis and talks about god resting from his own work on the seventh day that's the image of god's own rest the creator taking rest so that further creativity will be more effective enjoyable returning after rest not just sitting down but body mind and spirit and see how that last paragraph of our lesson today sees the humanity of anyone as intricately composed of body mind and spirit fused together so much that it cannot be separated except by god's own activity and that that paragraph is is so good it's worth quoting again let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same spirit of disobedience for the word of god is living and active and you can take that word of god as in john's gospel does as the eternal word as perceived in humankind by the life of jesus of nazareth christ our lord in humanity and in his divinity the word of god is living and active through the work of the spirit sharper than any two-edged sword it's a metaphor piercing to the division of soul and spirit another metaphor of joints and of marrow another metaphor and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart the whole of our individual unique each of us unique humanity made up of those divisions which are inseparable to one another but to the word of god piercing to the very shall we say another mess of what marrow of our being in order that we might join our creator in creativity but also join him in rest and that rest is a rest of body mind and spirit which only comes through entering into that invitation and a day is given for that invitation and which day is it according to the um writer of the hebrews and according to psalm 95 today and today is always today because when we get to tomorrow it will be today when we get to the next day it will be today and that today is a daily invitation to enjoy in creativity but also in the entering into the invitation to the heart of god and then living out that day in thanksgiving whatever it brings for the word of god is living and active and present tense and everything that we experience or see others experiencing which we can sometimes help with becomes part of that living out of the today the invitation and the hardening of the heart represents a refusal to respond to that invitation today there's no better beginning than the one we do each day the gift of this new day and what do we do then we read a little bit of sound and we take a lesson from the written word whether it be the epistle to the hebrews or exodus or genesis from a few weeks ago and at that time we're entering into that stilling of the storm and receiving the invitation of god to rest for a while sometimes for whole days at a time but in that rest and finding a place to enjoy that rest one then goes on let's think for a moment of some of the people that are connected in uh heart and mind by the date of this day the third of december first of all though i wanted to mention that it was on this day in 1984 that a terrible thing happened and it was by human shall we say error or not taking care enough of things which were very dangerous for in 1984 on december the third at bhopal in india at the union carbine plant and horrific gas leak occurred which caused 15 to 20 000 deaths and upward of a million chronic medical ailments amongst the population there who had no defense against this totally invisible danger that not in any way the accidental work of climate change but of human let's call it error and it shows the fragility of life and what we can do to one another we remember that day with sorrow in 1984. the same time we get back let's go right back to 1552 when on this day sin francis xavier which um different translations of i'm sorry different pronunciations of that name uh in spanish chabye and two sorts of that in the basque country and then in france xavier and in america very often xavier and in england usually xavier so we know who we're talking about one of the the first of the seven members of the society of jesus who made their oaths and their vows with sint ignatius loyola but sin francis servier went east people look east he traveled east and this saint who is deeply honored and loved a great deal and has churches dedicated in his name across the world went to give the good news to india to goa particularly to the portuguese empire as it was at that time in the the early 16th century out there and he went with the blessing of the portuguese king and then went everywhere both preaching he was apparently the most amazing preacher but also the builder of churches in so many different areas in asia to japan he went went to china and so many other areas in that area of the world before he died of fever on this day in 1552 off the coast of china so we remember the life and dedication dedication to his vows and responding to that invitation today to take that vocation which he embraced and then left the other six to go and take that to the east we remember um in paris both of us the most lovely church of saint francoise and the the quite near the up by the arc de triomphe and uh as you you go there you enter the church at any time of the day and find a liveliness there of of worship so that i use simply as a symbol of the churches right across the world in both hemispheres and the other side of the atlantic and also particularly in the east where he went and then this is a day two uh and one can and i'm doing it date by date now uh on december the 3rd 1838 octavia hill was born and she died in august 1912 and her date in the calendar is given as august the 13th 1912 and when we remember her name but let's remember her this morning because it fits in with what was was saying about the rest that were being invited to participate in for her vision and it was a wonderful vision she was a teacher but she had a wonderful vision a person of enormous energy so even she at one stage was advised by her friends to take a three-month rest and then come back to her work we remember her as a pioneer of social housing in terrible areas of london particularly and it wasn't just social housing given it was it was an attempt to help with those living there with self-reliance as well but let's remember her too as one who had a vision for green spaces in urban communities for people she felt needed green spaces the availability of open spaces for those who didn't have gardens didn't own areas which they could go and rest in so she was looking for places is it these are her words places to sit in places to play in places to stroll in places to spend a day in and her energy and campaigning saved places like hampstead heath from developers building all over it and save places like parliament hill fields from developers building all over it so that people who lived in close enough conditions anyway had places to sit in places to play in places to stroll in places to spend a day in enter into my rest says the psalmist of the lord god and at the same time she was one of the three members with the imagination to create the national trust and particularly to give this nation natural spaces where people could go and be and enjoy and spaces that were protected in their beauty but she's someone who holds the torch up for any district authority or local government to keep green spaces where those who are in crowded conditions and surrounded by the noise of traffic can feel well quite near there are green fields and green trees where we may go it's so clear in canterbury it may be in your own places right across the world that places like that are under threat but the vision of octavia hill is something which is godly in its intention in order to give people places as we've said to sit in to play in to stroll in to spend a day in and the national trust then began to go further than that and and by whole historic parks and houses that people could then go and enjoy the beauty of laid out gardens and the beauty of the architecture of those particular places from different generations uh across the centuries so we give thanks for octavia hill and people took up the cause including the ecclesiastical commissioners at the time in the social housing in london and lastly on this day on december the 3rd 1919 the french artist pierre auguste renoir died an impressionist painter but he's good to remember today although it's his year's mind we need to remember him but he's good to remember because so many of his paintings are showing people actually taking rest in lovely places the dejana de canottier the luncheon of the boating party and there they are having the most wonderful time on their day off in an area where they can make merry or baldu mulan de la galette two sisters on the terrace girls at the piano and the dancing at the baldur mulan is replicated by figures in so many of his his paintings where they're dancing and playing and enjoying boating on the sen or um relaxing on the paul north in the sunshine in 1872 only two years after the desperate conflagration uh in paris at the end of the franco-prussian war and the burning of the tuileries in the hotel de ville in the commune so we give thanks for the brightness and impressionism of renoir portraying people enjoying life mostly not at their work but enjoying life the two sisters on the terrace just one odin and they're much older than the other and the two girls at the piano just having a happy time so let's give thanks for the fact that legislation since the really difficult years of the early industrial revolution makes it clear that people must have a day of rest whatever that day be and that there are legislations given for families to have annual holidays and things of that kind all this is enfolded in that invitation let's then say our prayer this morning and bring your own prayers from across the world it's a very chilly day here and so uh we are taking shelter under the leaves of this rose bush 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 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 in our own language in our own way we join together in 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 silence now and reflection on this day when we hear god's invitation oh come let us sing to the lord oh come let us worship and bow down and the invitation to enter into his rest [Music] all these rules [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] tell me [Music] [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] is [Music] my gosh [Music] hey [Music] [Music] [Music] 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 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