good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of tuesday the 8th of march welcome wherever you are in the world to a morning of a stiff frost but nevertheless now a beautiful blue sky and we've come out to the blue sky and the golden yellow of the mimosa as the winter sun climbs higher and higher and shines from the blue sky onto the yellow of the mimosa and we've come here partly because it's so beautiful here this morning despite the chilly frost but at the same time because blue and yellow blue above and yellow below are the colors of ukraine and we see in our news bulletins brave citizens risking everything in cities of ukraine which have already been taken over still waving that flag in the streets and holding it high in the struggle for their freedom which they are proving so resilient in despite the appalling dangers so we honor them on this day when president zielenski will address the parliament here in the united kingdom at five o'clock our time this afternoon and we give thanks for his courage coming from a very different life uh as a comedian and a narrator all sorts of of different things in public performance but now suddenly becoming the image of that resistance to the shall we say bullying of his nation and we see the letter zed now everywhere being put onto russian armor and being worn almost as a symbol of victory over the ukrainians well the letter z is the last letter of our alphabet and to us let it mean the courage of president zielenski let's take back the zed because the way to deal with the bully however frightened or fearsome we are with them is always to use their own symbols their own weapons and wave them back so let's take back that zed and give thanks for it for it means to us the courage of the ukrainians just as the blue of the sky and the yellow of the mimosa does that for us this morning let's begin our prayers and undergird them with prayer for ukraine and all the nations like romania and hungary and and poland around that are giving hospitality to the people fleeing in their thousands from ukraine o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise hear our voice o lord according to your faithful love according to your judgment give us life blessed are you god of compassion and mercy to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of our sin your light breaks forth like the dawn and your healing springs up for deliverance as we rejoice in the gift of your saving help sustain us with your bountiful spirit and open our lips to sing your 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 and 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 as you see the tigers come out to join me but the frost was so stiff on these sloping cold frames that when he first came out he began to slide down the frames and they bravely then landed up in one of the pots below but has come back here and we put up a better covering here for him so he's not sliding on the frost but it is a very very cold morning uh and uh there's blankets around here which i'll put on here also for him so that he's got a better footing on all this frost and cold there you are little boy so you can be part of all this because you're a brave boy too in everything you've faced in your life so it's time to read our psalm and our son this morning on eighth morning of the month is psalm 40. i waited patiently for the lord he inclined to me and heard my cry he brought me out of the roaring pit out of the mire and clay he set my feet upon a rock and made my footing sure he has put a new song in my mouth a song of praise to our god many shall see and fear and put their trust in the lord blessed is the one who trusts in the lord who does not turn to the proud that follow a lie great are the wonders you have done no lord my god how great your designs for us there is none that can be compared with you if i were to proclaim them and tell of them they would be more than i am able to express sacrifice and offering you do not desire but my ears you have opened burnt offering and sacrifice for sin you have not required then said i lo i come in this scroll of the book it is written of me that i should do your will oh my god i delight to do it your law is within my heart i have declared your righteousness in the great congregation behold i did not restrain my lips and that o lord you know your righteousness i have not hidden in my heart i have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation i have not concealed your loving kindness and truth from the great congregation do not withhold your compassion from me o lord let your love and your faithfulness always preserve me for innumerable troubles have come about me my sins have ever taken me so that i cannot look up they are more in number than the hairs of my head and my heart fails me be pleased o lord to deliver me o lord make haste to help me let them be ashamed and altogether dismayed who seek after my life to destroy it let them be driven back and put to shame who wish me evil let those who heap insults upon me be desolate because of their shame but let all who seek you rejoice in you and be glad that those who love your salvation say always the lord is great though i am poor and needy the lord cares for me you are my helper and my deliverer oh my god make no delay us a psalm about the delight of someone to to do the will of god and that will become very much part of our theme as we continue to read what i called yesterday the angry chapter of saint john's gospel i'm talking about chapter five and this morning we're picking up where we left off at verse 19 of chapter five so jesus said to the jewish authorities truly truly i say to you the son can do nothing of his own accord but only what he sees the father doing for whatever the father does that the son does likewise for the father loves the son and shows him all that he himself is doing and greater works than these will he will show him so that you may marvel for as the father raises the dead and gives them life so also the son gives life to whom he will for the father judges no one but has given all judgment to the son that all may honor the son just as they honor the father whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him truly truly i say to you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life they do not come into judgment but they have passed from death to life truly truly i say to you an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the son of god and those who here will live for as the father has life in himself so he has granted the son also to have life in himself and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tomb will hear his voice and come out those who have done good to the resurrection of life those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment i can do nothing on my own as i hear i judge and my judgment is just because i seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me i seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me that is the great statement of jesus today the son of man he's using that title and remember we've said this many times before this is a general title in terms of his humanity it means the representative of our humanity in the widest possible sense he has come to share our human condition and in that human life to demonstrate and share and give others the possibility also of sharing the aspects of the quality of the kingdom of heaven and those qualities are the ones that he is offering to people and the most obvious quality is that quality of i have come that they may have life in all its fullness that comes later in st john's gospel but it's one of the great sentences and the gift is of life and there are no limits to that it's hard to imagine but i go back to that favorite uh sentence of mine from psalm 139 if i go down into hell thou art there also you are there as well there is nowhere where the power of god cannot reach but we only claim it when we say that uh like that last sentence i do not do my own will i do the will of god and try to perceive it and sometimes fall short the son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the father do and there are in this little passage three verses where jesus does a triple underlining really of what he's saying meaning listen to this this is firm and standing up to the controversy of the jewish authorities i said this is an angry chapter and he's speaking with a great definition with those words uh amen amen lego soy verily verily i say unto you and this translation truly truly uh sometimes it's very truly whatever your translation is saying it's underlining what he's saying by giving it a prelude of definite intention just listen carefully he's saying because this is the truth it's an eternal truth as well as a a worldly truth and the son can know that because he only gives you what he knows the one the creator whom he's taught us to call father is giving him he never does anything of his own authority but it's the will of the father and we shall come across that again and again right up to gethsemane and the lifting up of our lord on the cross and the three times it happens in verse 19 in verse 24 in verse 25 the first time the son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the father do and then the second time truly truly verily verily i say to you the one who hears and believes on the one who sent me has everlasting life here's that statement belief which is so prevalent in most of the healing miracles it's your faith that has caused your healing that has actually affected your healing and then later on he will say instant john's gospel to someone he's healed do you do you believe and that the belief in the one who is receiving is crucial uh the royal official going back home from having gone to seek jesus in cana of galilee from his own home which was probably in capernaum and on the way back the servants meet him and we're told that they say your son is recovering and he asks the hour and they say and he realizes it's exactly the same hour on which jesus says your son will live and at that point we hear that he himself believed and then all his household he became an agent of the good news an evangelist of the evangel and that gospel gift which is possible for all of us to give the moment we get a glimmering of faith glimmering of belief and hold on to that and that is of course received as a gift of god it's a gift of grace so the uh second time that's used then in verse 24 who the one who hears and believes on the one who sent me has everlasting life that belief is not actually confined to this world it's not confined to time either past or future it is actually a gift received from heaven's treasury and then uh finally um we get in verse 25 truly truly i tell you the hour is coming when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of god and that voice is of resurrection and new life insofar as we receive it and as far as that goes right through the time and eternity and eternity stretches as far as our human concept can even begin to understand before and now and in the future these and we've not talked about this really because i said on sunday that sunday was a day when the gospel at the eucharist the first sunday in lent concentrates on the temptations let's just think about them for a moment of jesus in the wilderness it's hard to think of a wilderness a natural wilderness uh in this garden on this lovely morning but the wilderness was not a desert simply of sand it was just a place where there was no human habitation and there were plants there and were told there were also wild creatures and that gave jesus almost a a companionship he was there with the wild creatures and angels ministered to him insights of his vocation but at the same time temptations terrible temptations came and three of them rather like the three times he says this morning verily verily truly truly i say to you and in the temptations the temptations are always to be more than human to use more than the capacity of our human resources and those resources are a body mind and spirit but he has embraced those limitations and everything that he is handing on becomes a gift which those who receive the gift can themselves pass on but for the moment in the wilderness he has that threefold struggle as it's presented in st matthew and saint luke in st mark it simply says after his baptism the spirit drove him into the wilderness drove him into the wilderness and there he was tempted by the devil and was with the wild creatures and angels ministered to him just the short sentences but matthew and luke give us the three temptations and they are all temptations to be more than human to affect more than our humanity could so reach out if you're the son of god and be divine and instantly god's eternal plan of sharing our humanity and sharing heaven's gifts in our humanity and through our humanity would have been destroyed the first there is no need to feel hunger if you are the son of god command these stones and they will become bread and you needn't ever hunger again you could do that wherever you like and then the second and the different order in matthew and luke but the second shall we say uh is that he is led up not in the wilderness but to a pinnacle of the temple either in imagination or in reality and if you stand on the top of belle harry well my goodness you see all around for a very long way in kent and on a morning like this it'd be wonderful to stand up there because there's hardly a breath of wind and the atmosphere is very clear and frosty throw yourself down onto the hard surface below and a human being would be absolutely killed at once but you son of god it is written he will send his angels and they will bear you up so that you hurt not your foot against a stone and there's that psalm 91 being quoted the devil quoting scripture and then the third temptation is to make this so much easier kneel down and worship me says the devil he took him to a high place we don't know which mountain that was jesus went to a high place and saw other kingdoms all around because many borders began to crisscross as jesus wandered in those 40 days and 40 nights the long time and he the devil says i will give you power over all of these if you kneel down and worship me and jesus quotes scripture back get behind me satan for it is written you shall worship the lord your god and him alone shall you serve he says nothing that we are not able to say in each case he quotes scripture back humanity will not live on bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of god we remember how when the disciples come back to the well with the woman at the well it's in john's gospel and they say have some eat some food to eat now we bought it and jesus having been talking to the woman and giving the word of god to her says i have food to eat which you do not know of he could say yet because they will but they'll learn the hard way because they're the ones who have been called to follow him the devil quotes scripture but we can quote it back and we can reinterpret those words that the devil is actually using and at that point um let's go back to using uh the the zed of the bully in a different way and reclaiming the zed and saying but to us it means a complete uh a complete owning of the zed to show freedom for the people of ukraine as president zielinski addresses our democratically elected parliament here this afternoon we own the zed and here we own the scriptures jesus owned the scriptures that the devil was was quoting he quoted different ones back but he could have quoted the same ones back and given a bible study to the temptation for he knew that he was here to do the will of his father in a human life and also to show us the wonderful dimensions not only of our physicality or of our mental learning and the ability to stretch out in so many ways discover so many things for the encouragement and help of others and demonstrate the qualities of the kingdom of heaven in those but also in spirit to reach out into eternity and claim life and own it well these are wonderful things and as we keep saying about the gospel of john then uh it's a gospel which we said at the beginning is shallow enough for a child to paddle in but deep enough at the same time for an elephant to swim in well that makes no logical sense but it does make sense when you begin to see how the depths of the gospel of saint john in simple images simple human stories begin to open up for us and that becomes really really important today is the day on which uh in 1859 the 8th of march 1859 the writer as we know him kenneth graham was born in edinburgh and of course uh kenneth graham was was is rather best known for his writing of the book the wind in the willows which was published in 1908 but that hadn't been his life and that hadn't been his career first of all he was born in edinburgh but his mother died at the age of when he was five and his father whom we're told was a heavy drinker decided that he could not look after four little children kenneth and willie and helen and baby roland and so they were sent to their grandmother who lived in a marvellous massive slightly dilapidated manor house surrounded by lovely gardens at cookham deen in berkshire and that's where they grew up and where their uncle who was called david inglis and he was the reverend david english he was the curator at the church in cookham dean in berkshire but he was a wonderful uh person on the river with a boat and he took the children on the river there and as they were on the river the the boating excursions became absolutely marvelous until then uh kenneth was sent to cindy edwards school oxford and also enjoyed the scholarship there and enjoyed walking in the streets of the city of oxford and learning that area too and long to go to oxford but his father insisted that he take a job in the bank of england and that's what he did faithfully in the bank of england working through until he became secretary of the bank and in the bank sadly and this is a sad story he he was said to have at the time by the bank retired in 1908 uh through ill health in fact it seems the story was somewhat different there was a man in the higher ranks of the bank of england who took against him and uh i think that in many ways kenneth graham did not respect this man and he found himself harassed and shall we say almost bullied by him but was overheard saying that the man was not a gentleman and that was enough for this man to take against him so much that he engineered his dismissal the bully kenneth graham had already begun to write he did leave the bank of england and never went back there from 1908 but he'd already begun to write 1908 he published the wind in the willows and that was very much his memory of kukum dean and when he retired from the bank the family went back to cookham dean but at the same time in 1898 he had written another story and that's the one i want to deal with today i'd love to go back to mole and rat and toad and uh and the badger but you can find those we read the whole story last year and they're still on our youtube if you if you tap them in but um the story i'm talking about this morning which he published in 1898 is a story called the reluctant dragon and it fits very well with our theme of jesus standing up to the authorities and confronting them with the word of god and the truth of what he as the son of man the representative of our humanity which is what that means is actually saying to them it took all his courage to stand up against them for these were the authorities of his state the authorities which had power over him but he did and he faced them down with those statements verily verily i say to verily verily i say to you this is an angry chapter but he is actually confronting them with the word of god as he confronted satan in the wilderness with the word of god standing up to the bully satan and saying no this is what this means and the reluctant dragon is a story set on the berkshire downs we're just in the area that he remembered as a child and a boy goes up onto the berkshire downs and discovers a dragon and this is a children's story so he discovers a dragon and the dragon is not at all fire breathing and and fierce and warlike he's erudite and poetry loving and living in the downs above the boy's home but just as the boy discovers him so too the townsfolk here that there's a dragon there and their instant reaction is that the dragon must be slain and so they send forcing george who then with sword and armor comes up and it's the boy who says no no this is quite different come and meet the dragon and he introduces very civilized word and one remembers kenneth graham saying of his adversary at the bank he's not a gentleman he he introduces the dragon to sent george and saint george to the dragon and george himself then realizes that this dragon is not at all a fire-breathing bringer of of of chaos and death he is in fact someone with qualities of a completely different kind and they begin to converse chivalry talking to a very civilized dragon and with the boy's help they fix on a plan you'll know this story it's been done many times it's even been made into a little operetta by john rutter and as he as said george talks with the dragon they hit on a plan that they will have a battle and since george will be seen to mortally slay or almost slay the dragon the dragon says actually if you strike me here this this flesh is not really very necessary to me just put the lance in here and they fight a real battle with the townsfolk watching on and some of them laying bets that and some betting that the dragon as being huge will slay saint george and they'll make lots of money because the townsfolk mostly are on the side of george and the dragon falls and then since george goes to find him in the townsfolk approach and that george says now um the dragon is is really badly injured but he will recover but he has given his word that from now on he will not be any danger to you so this story of the reluctant dragon is a story which kenneth graham loved to tell and it's a phone just as a chapter in a book of all his stories but for this morning it's a lovely one for us to think of as we once again i say own the letter z and use it as a symbol of president zielenski talking to our elected parliament and think of that wherever you are in the world that it is necessary as jesus did to stand up to the one who seems most powerful and use weapons that are of a different kind but you place yourself in huge danger and the blue and yellow flag is being waved in situations of immense danger and we know what is happening to the um citizens of ukraine at the moment we think of them fleeing from their homes we think of them being received happily into lands which give them uh shelter and hospitality and it might be a time wherever you are in the world for you to be writing to those who represent you to say make sure that our nation is hospitable to these people who are coming that visas are easy for them to receive and they're received with open arms as they are being by all those um charitable agencies we showed you on sunday morning at great length and you can always click back to that and as i've said we will give you updates about what is happening with the the ministry of of that comfort and food and drink and help from those agencies but for the moment we think of them also in bunkers and perhaps many of you will have seen the lovely story which is on the news at the moment of the little girl amelia standing in the bunker and singing a song of freedom and people just quieting down to to listen to her she's she's not very old but she says that she wants to be a singer and one day to sing to a worldwide audience well she already has because in the bunker that sweet song of the girls singing about freedom and that song is one that is echoed around the world from a deep bunker in kiev sung by an infant and remember how jesus says to the authorities when they say when he's entering the temple and the children are singing songs of welcome and he's they say quiet in these children this is a holy place and he says i tell you if i quieten the children even the stones themselves would shout out in praise to god and the children's song is something that is beautiful in the ears of the divine creator and here's little amelia singing in the bunker and heartening the citizens with her song of freedom in kiev all these images are ones that we can take to heart and kenneth graham saw the two sides of this as two sides of his own personality the reluctance of the dragon who was poetry loving and liking good and and polite unhappy conversations but on the other hand knowing that sometimes he had to be the warrior the dragon who was fighting against the ogres of of of greed and power and everything else and so we know situations in our own lives when we ourselves have been called on to stand up for that which is right and this angry chapter is all about that remember the emphasis of jesus three times saying listen to this carefully because i am only here to do the will of my father and that was the answer to satan in the wilderness it will be the answer to the same temptations in gethsemane certainly the answer to peter when he said you needn't be doing this you could be safe and jesus turns around and says get behind me satan he's not talking to peter he's talking to the intention within peter which actually is driving him from his own vocation let's then say our prayers on this very significant day and we are going to use the prayer for today and then the prayer for lent and as we do so in the anglican communion on this 8th of march we're praying for the diocese of kigesi in the church of the province of uganda and we're praying for justin archbishop of canterbury for rose bishop of dover for emma bishop at lambeth and in the diocese for all clergy with permission to officiate that means take services and many of them are retired or they're on different kinds of ministries but have time also to help in the parish churches and we're talking about all those with permission to officiate within the maidstone deanery that if you think of the town of maidstone which is the county town of kent and where the the county offices and everything else are civic offices but all the villages around that town uh that have the churches and and there's a long list i won't read them all but we pray for all those who are helping out in those churches around maidstone today bring your own intentions and continue to pray throughout the day and own the zed and pray for ukraine here is the colic for this week almighty god whose son jesus christ fasted 40 days in the wilderness and was tempted as we are yet without sin give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your spirit and as you know our weakness so may we know your power to save through jesus christ our lord amen and the colic for lent itself almighty and everlasting god you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness may receive from you the god of all mercy perfect remission and forgiveness through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language and in our own way we say the prayer that jesus 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 time now for your own prayers and reflections so so [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] christ give you grace to grow in holiness to deny yourself take up your cross daily and follow him 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 are men perhaps i should say and i'm well informed by my much more musical in these terms friend here fletcher that this song which amelia is singing in the bunker the little girl who can't be much older than our little niece arabella whom you saw going off as a witch on the broom in in one of our recent morning prayers the song comes from the musical frozen and the song is called let it go and it's a cry for freedom from negativity and bad things which are inside ourselves and let that melt let it not be frozen within us but it let it let it then um be released into a better thing so cry for freedom from negativity in oneself despite what's being thrown at her in the musical it's two sisters and the one won't give in it's like jesus in the wilderness uh it just won't give in to use the the awful things that are actually being shown to has another way forward and perhaps the the most telling words in that song which the little girl is singing is here i stand here i stay whatever you throw at me i'm not moving these are the principles that i live by here i stand here i stay and the ukrainians are at the moment saying here we stand here we stay and we ourselves in our prayers and by claiming the zed and owning it stand beside president zielenski as he addresses parliament this afternoon but the little girl is standing there singing the same message deep in a bunker in kiev where president zielenski himself is somewhere in that city so let's then continue to pray throughout the day but may you have a good day as well on this tuesday morning in lent you