good morning and welcome to the dinery garden on this last day of april friday april the 30th as we meet for morning prayers i wanted first to say a word of immense sympathy to a family who've lost one of their members police community support officer julia james walking her dog in quiet woodlands very near here in a a an ordinary village environment was murdered inexplicably and all of us are in shock about this and the kent police are of course starting their work on this case but we want to extend our sympathy to the family and to pray for the repose of julia's soul this morning in our morning prayers here also the fragility of an individual human life is matched by the fragility of community exercises when we pray with sympathy again for those who have lost members of their own family in the stampede killing 44 people at a religious festival in north israel so all of these things show us our fragility in human life and the intense need to encourage and support each other and keep each others safe from pandemic and from the kind of things which threaten human life i want to give congratulations also this morning to one of our garden congregation in canada the very reverend ken gray of kamloops in british columbia dean of the territory of the people of the diocese in central british columbia and rector of saint paul's cathedral kamloops ken is retiring tomorrow so this is his last day in his present position ken we wish you congratulations on your long ministry and many years of fruitful ministry of a different kind ahead and we're so glad you join us morning by morning as a member of the garden congregation from so far away so let's begin our morning prayers on this sunny morning where on the city wall and of course the wall of the january garden as well high up on the walls the door which goes high up on the dean's walk which is being restored at the moment behind me but i'm sitting high above the orchard on my left your right and you can see some apple blossom here and there's even some early lilac beginning to bloom but you'll see why we're near city walls today as we reflect both on our gospel passage and some of the events of today 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 first fruits 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 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 so our morning psalm on this last day of the month is psalm 146 [Music] alleluia praise the lord o my soul while i live will i praise the lord as long as i have any being i will sing praises to my god put not your trust in princes nor in any human power for there is no help in them when their breath goes forth they return to the earth on that day all their thoughts perish happy are those who have the god of jacob for their help whose hope is in the lord their god who made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them who keeps his promise forever who gives justice to those that suffer wrong and bread to those who hunger the lord looses those that are bound the lord opens the eyes of the blind the lord lifts up those who are bowed down the lord loves the righteous the lord watches over the stranger in the land he upholds the orphan and widow but the way of the wicked he turns upside down the lord shall reign forever your god o zion throughout all generations alleluia so we've turned to the gospel of saint matthew and you will remember that we began chapter four yesterday with matthew setting out the temptations in the wilderness and now we go on at verse 12 of chapter four now when jesus heard that john the baptist had been arrested he withdrew into galilee and leaving nazareth he went and lived in capernaum by the sea in the territory of zebulun and naphtali so that what was spoken by the prophet isaiah might be fulfilled the land of zebulun the land of naphtali the way of the sea beyond the jordan galilee of the gentiles the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death on them a light has dawned from that time jesus began to preach saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand while walking by the sea of galilee jesus saw two brothers simon who is called peter and andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen and he said to them follow me and i will make you fishers of people immediately they left their nets and followed him and going on from there he saw two other brothers james the son of zebedee and john his brother in the boat with zebedee their father mending their nets and he called them immediately they left the boat and their father and followed jesus and jesus went throughout all galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people so his fame spread throughout all syria and they brought him all the sick those afflicted with various diseases and pains those oppressed by demons those having seizures and paralytics and he healed them and great crowds followed him from galilee and the decapolis and from jerusalem and judea and from beyond the jordan we've said that some things both matthew and luke take from the gospel of saint mark and other things they take from a source which they both share but we don't have a copy of now and can only put together from the things they share and some things are what we call special matthew or special luke coming from the tradition or otherwise of their own community and we remind ourselves that matthews was clearly a community of jewish christians greek speaking but jewish christians probably somewhere in syria and here we've got a good example of all that's going on because some of this is taken from mark if one looks at verse 18 to 22 that is straightforwardly from mark and matthew and luke share that from mark but matthew makes little changes and it's good for you let's act as detectives again and i'll leave it to you to do to look at that short passage in mark and see the tiny differences and think now why mark is someone who is going fast the gospel is short and the fact that uh the gospel itself is is just speeding on means that there's not too much detail but some of the detail that mark uses has a sort of eyewitness quality about it and matthew chooses to leave that little bit out here's a bit where we find the brothers james and john the sons of zebedee with their father in the boat mending their nets yes all mark and mark then says they left their father with the hired hands giving us a sense of the almost professional company that zebedee ran with the fish from galilee because here were hired servants as well matthew chooses to leave that out probably thinks it's irrelevant to the story going on to us it's a piece of interesting detail and you find that in mark from time to time and we'll look at the way that develops through but for the moment let's remember that matthew is trying to tell a story to a particular community but he's also trying to write a gospel for us too everything in the present tense shall we say yes and here is jesus beginning his ministry and john the baptist has been arrested jesus goes back to galilee from the jordan and he leaves nazareth where he's grown up and comes down to capernaum by the sea so that this takes place to fulfill the prophecy of isaiah matthew keen to show that prophecy is always being fulfilled going back to the old testament here to isaiah 9 and finding that we have a prophecy fulfilled and jesus beginning to preach and walking by the sea well city walls as i said will become important in another bit of our reflection later on but also we could this morning have gone to that part of the garden which causes us to remember the beach we're about eight miles from the sea from here about uh perhaps a little bit more from winstable but fletcher said this morning if it was the coast here and jesus was meeting fishermen um he'd be on the sea wall as the boats came in and they'd be mending their nets on places of protection from the sea because we have quite often an eroding coast along there so let the sea the the wall remind you of the dangers of the sea if it's a tidal sea like this the sea of galilee jesus simply walking on the beach but at the same time we've got the call of the disciples already jesus sees that he needs companions in this mission and here are the beginnings of the 12 being built up at capernaum by the sea the home of jesus here at the beginning he's moved from nazareth and went to live in capernaum by the sea and we give thanks for that it's a phrase i'm always using because here the ministry begins and friends are immediately needed already he's been preaching and speaking and i've no doubt that peter and andrew and james and john had heard some of his teaching and in that it becomes very important that they leave their nets and follow him and obviously zebedee the father and the family of zebedee is supportive of this going on and in the next bit well this is very matthew not mark in mark jesus goes from one little community to another and the crowds they were crowds but but not these huge crowds from everywhere that matthew is describing in verses 23 24 25 the ministry explodes and the amount of people coming matthew is taking a bit of a shortcut so that he can begin his first set of teaching remember we're in five blocks in matthew his version of the pentateuch the five books which begin the old testament here are his five blocks of story and teaching which begin his explanation of the good news according to matthew and we're just coming to an end there of the narrative before we begin the discourse which will begin tomorrow but notice that the places from which jesus is drawing the crowd the whole of syria the decapital is way outside the regions of his own people and people coming to him and bringing the sick to be healed in great numbers well as we remember all of that in jesus's healing ministry and look forward to the teaching that will be given in the first discourse which is probably the most famous discourse of all as we'll see we remember certain things that happened today and this will give point to the city wall because first of all not the city war 1789 on this day the moment of thanksgiving george washington was inaugurated as the first president of the united states of america in the federal hall in new york city so we give thanks for the united states of america and their particular values that they have brought to the world as every culture brings its own values and some of those enrich the life of the whole world and at the moment we've seen how much encouragement is needed you're right here in the sunshine here um on this day also uh we have and this is again nothing to do with what i'm about to say but it's worth remembering that on this day in 1945 adolf hitler committed suicide in his bunker in berlin ending the dream of a thousand-year reich so we remember that too on this day but what i wanted to say is that on this day in 1952 a book was published in uh great britain which was called the diary of a young girl we know it better as the diary of anne frank and it has remained popular and most read books a young girl with her family hiding from the nazis in the netherlands during the war from 1942 to 1944 the frank family managed to keep safe in their cramped lockdown conditions behind the secret bookcase and the young girl wrote a diary and if you haven't read it then that is compulsive reading it speaks of the trust they had in those who kept them safe and kept their secret until one awful day in august 1944 they were discovered and the family was taken off to concentration camps and and was taken off to bergen-belsen and died there the following february march from we think typhus but uh someone kept the diary and when otto frank the one member of the family who survived went back he found that the diary was there and that diary was published so we have that story of courage and also loyalty and faithfulness in the context of desperate cruelty and ending in appalling conditions but the character van frank speaks to us in that way the other thing that i wanted to mention and this is one of my absolute favorite books and so i can't resist reading a little bit uh from it it's a book by charles dickens and it was published on this day well in weekly episodes which is the very novels tended to be published then in 1859 and it was published in the magazine all year round and in weekly installments and it's called a tale of two cities yes the city wall and uh it's to me one of dickens finest novels it's full almost of sacramental images and you can search for them as you go through images of of sacrifice images of courage from the most unexpected people images of the restoration of people whose life had been thoughtfully destroyed by cruelty and when released a resurrection takes place in the loving care of others all of those things but also images of um shall we say signs in ordinary things which are going to point forward i'll just mention one do you remember how outside the wine shop of the de farges long before the revolution that great barrel of wine rolls off the cart and smashes in the road sending blood red wine all over the road and how the hungry people race forward and and soak rags and bits of cloths and handkerchiefs in it to soak up the wine later it will be the tumbrils that are rolling through the city as the body politic is smashed to pieces and that society is not protected by the city walls of paris nor the strong walls of the bastille but is destroyed because of the feelings of those that they were meant to have in their welfare um simply running completely out of control and the cruelty which happens uh is astonishing but in the middle of all that acts of courage acts of self-sacrifice acts of constant love from people like lucy manette waiting outside the prison and giving a sign of her presence to her husband charles dani inside it's a book where someone like miss pross suddenly gets the courage to be the heroine of the peace and facing enormous strength of the people and the images that dickens gives us are second to none but let's read the first paragraph because it's so good and uh i can't resist reading it to you chapter one is within a context of the first section of the book and that section is called recalled to life and here is the description of the period that's the title of chapter one the period it was the best of times it was the worst of times it was the age of wisdom it was the age of foolishness it was the epoch of belief it was the epoch of incredulity it was the season of light it was the season of darkness it was the spring of hope it was the winter of despair we had everything before us we had nothing before us we were all going direct to heaven we were all going direct the other way in short the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received for good or for evil in the superlative degree of comparison only one reads that book with many comparisons all the way through right to the final sacrifice of sydney carton and i give thanks for this book i can never tire of it and finding signs in it well as we sit on the city walls here today giving a little protection from the wind but um it's a nice morning so we're happy sitting up here aren't we leo we are praying today for the diocese of bristol in the church of england and pray for that it was my home diocese when i was being ordained and through growing up of course um and we pray for justin our archbishop and for in this diocese rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and the parish very near to us down the road here are the parish of sturry saint nicholas with ford witch saint mary the virgin and west beer all saints with hurston beautiful area and we're asked to pray for our friend the the parish priest there peter cornish and also the story church of england primary school and its life there and our own um junior kings our cathedral school down there the junior section of our cathedral school is located in sturry and we pray for the headmistress there at julia kings and pray also for the staff there and all the pupils and community support who keep the life of that lovely place going so uh as we do that we find and bring your own intentions to this the prayer for today which is the fourth week of easter almighty god whose son jesus christ is the resurrection and the life raise us who trust him from the death of sin to the life of righteousness that we may seek those things which are above where he reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men and we bring our own prayers and continue to pray for areas of the world so badly affected by the pandemic the peoples of india peoples of brazil peoples where medical resources are so much badly needed and pray and give thanks for a sharing of those resources across the world as we say together 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 for your own prayers on this last day of april [Music] the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus christ 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 i'll leave you sat here quietly through all our prayers which is very nice on the wall a little bit of breakfast left for you there okay little boy have a happy day well we began this morning with some happy congratulations to our friend ken gray um watching us this morning and let's give another happy um greeting to our very good friend carys arwin jones in wales on this her birthday she watches every day and so carius have a very happy birthday today [Music]