good morning and welcome to the dinery garden on wednesday the 9th of february another beautiful morning and not at all uh wintry no wind absolutely still beautiful blue sky and having our reading and reflections in mind we stepped out into the garden and thought now where shall we where shall we do this and when we came along here past the the little box hedges and uh in the herb garden and with the vegetable garden behind me with some um green kale still showing which we're using and provides lovely ground cover for the uh the the birds below we found tiger here full of excitement and so we thought well it's a beautiful spot and we're here in the sunshine so we'll just settle down here and say our morning prayers here so no reason other than that then we brought you to this spot this morning and our friend is here full of excitement to be with us uh we are going to go back to our reflection in one samuel and return to the story of david and king saul and prince jonathan but at the same time i wanted to say of course we're thinking of all those areas of the world that we mentioned yesterday which are being so badly affected by climate conditions and people in danger from fire and flood and you will have many of those concerns on your minds but i also wanted to say that we've we heard yesterday of the the death of bamba gascoigne aged 87 and i i he he was such a well-known character in the 25 years that he was the quiz master at university challenge and uh those of us who remember those days remember his his um very confident uh and uh uh he he set the questions himself in the beginning for the first two series but uh someone said once said he's the only quiz master we know you feel would have been able to answer all the questions at once and his urbanity and the way in which he he questioned so politely but at the same time would be quite definite and firm in in what he said we remember that but we've lots to say about him uh during our reflection so we obviously pray for the repose of his soul and think of his wife christina but at the same time we will remember that at the end of our reflection so for the moment let's go to our morning prayers on a lovely sunny morning here with our friend tiger in the herb garden oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise send your holy spirit upon us and clothe us with power from on high blessed are you creator god to you be praise and glory forever as your spirit moved over the face of the waters bringing light and life to your creation pour out your spirit on us today that we may walk as children of light and by your grace reveal your presence 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 say may the light of your presence oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our son this morning is psalm 46. god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear though the earth be moved and though the mountains tremble in the heart of the sea though the waters rage and swell and though the mountains quake at the towering seas there is a river whose streams make glad the city of god the holy place of the dwelling of the most high god is in the midst of her therefore shall she not be removed god shall help her at the break of day the nations are in uproar and the kingdoms are shaken but god utters his voice and the earth shall melt away the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold come and behold the works of the lord what destruction he has wrought upon the earth he makes wars to cease in all the world he shatters the bow and snaps the spear and burns the chariots in the fire be still and know that i am god i will be exalted among the nations i will be exalted in the earth the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold it's a wonderful psalm for a morning like this a psalm of confidence but also the advice to be still and know that god is god and with those words we go back to the relationship between david and king saul and prince jonathan and i'm reading today from 1 samuel chapter 18 and verses 1 to 24. [Music] as soon as david had finished speaking to king saul the soul of jonathan was knit to the soul of david and jonathan loved him as his own soul and saul took him that day and would not let david return to his father's house then jonathan made a covenant with david because he loved him as his own soul and jonathan stripped himself of the robe that she that was on him and gave it to david and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt and david went out and was successful wherever saul sent him so that king saul set him over the men of war and this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of saul's servants but as they were coming home when david returned from striking down the philistines women came out of all the cities of israel singing and dancing to meet king saul with tambourines with songs of joy with musical instruments the women sang to one another as they celebrated saul has struck down his thousands but david his ten thousands and saul was very angry and this saying displeased him he said they have ascribed to david ten thousands and to me they have ascribed thousands and what more can he have but the kingdom and saul kept an eye on david from that day on the next day a harmful spirit from god rushed upon saul and he raved within his house while david was playing the liar as he did day by day saul had his spear in his hand and saul hurled the spear for he thought i will pin david to the wall but twice david evaded him saul was afraid of david because the lord was with him but had departed from saul so saul removed david from his presence and made him instead a commander of a thousand and david went out and came in before the people and david had success in all his undertakings for the lord was with him and when saul saw that he had great success he stood in fearful awe of him but all israel and judah loved david for he went out and came in before them then the king said to david here is my elder daughter mirab i will give her to you for a wife only be valiant for me and fight the lord's battles for saul thought let not my hand be against him but let the hand of the philistines be against him and david said to saul who am i and who are my relatives my father's clan in israel that i should be son-in-law to the king but at the time when mirab saul's daughter should have been given to david she was given to adriel the maholocite for a wife but saul's daughter michael loved david and they told saul and the thing pleased him saul thought let me give her to him that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the philistines may be against him therefore saul said to david a second time you shall now be my son-in-law and saul commanded his servant speak to david in private and say behold the king has delight in you and all his servants love you now then become the king's son-in-law and saul's servants spoke those words in the ears of david and david said does it seem to you a little thing to become the king's son-in-law since i am a poor man and have no reputation but the servants of saul told him thus and so did david speak well we leave that just there for this morning and we look at what themes were being given in this lesson we're back with that triangle of the king and jonathan his heir and david and to begin with this love of jonathan for david which is reciprocated reminds us almost of naomi and ruth that beautiful sense of mutual support and in all ways generosity towards one another and notice how jonathan as a prince is wanting to give david the things he most treasures and possesses and that little paragraph sets the scene in the court for the jealousy first of all let's say that the jealousy of king saul at that time and his hatred of david begins to burn it's so often the case when people see something in another's relationship of which they are jealous that jealousy is followed by anger and anger especially with a character like saul who it suffers as we well know that's why david originally was brought in to play the liar suffers as we know from dark moods and here this violence comes over him as david is playing and he flings his spear at the wall to kill david but david fleet of foot twice evades that whether it was a surprise to him that suddenly the enmity of the king came but he knew of those dark moves because that was why he was playing his liar so we returned yesterday we were looking how the shepherd motif was there david the shepherd king and now we're looking at david the psalmist the musician king these aspects of david which we think of but at the same time these gifts together with his skill in military things and his skills in leadership that cause him to be loved by the people of israel and judah and also followed by the the men of valor at that time and sung about by the musicians when women coming out into the streets and singing and dancing all of that causes a mighty jealousy with the king and the jealousy turns violent when someone does something well then there is always a propensity for another to feel jealous and become violent and evil enters in at that point it's a facet of human nature and one of the the great temptations and only grace can really resist that but here we have violence and darkness coming over king saul and the attempt to kill david we shall see over the next uh few days as we read the story on the swinging of those moods which are set there and this becomes a very human but also a tragic story and we place the love of david and jonathan there because that also will end with great sadness for david later on in the story and for saul well his moods continue and they swing one way and the other as so often happens on these occasions but if we stay with david we see the gifts of kingship beginning to develop the son of jesse that we were talking of there shall come forth a sprig out of the house of jesse and here this royal line of david is beginning with the grace and giftedness and the way in which david himself all almost inadvertently pleases the lord and samuel will enter into the story again as we go on so we give thanks for the humanity of that story in both light and darkness and our um sympathy and sorrow goes out to saul but also to david not really understanding what's happening here and constantly repeating the fact that i'm not worthy of any of this i'm from a really lowly background why this to me well now let's remember let's go to some some dates at this point um on this day in 1881 in petersburg the novelist and more than a novelist he was a philosopher and a theologian uh all inadvertently theodore dostoevsky who is seen to be one of the the great novelists internationally of the literary world and an influence to so many who wrote after him and an influence on so many thinkers and theologians as well and i would mention our former archbishop rowan williams's delight in dostoevsky uh and and fixing on his writings well let's think about him for a moment for here is a very human figure with all kinds of limitations born in moscow in 1821 so he lived out the whole of his life from 1821 to 1881 uh in the empire of the tsars at that time and was trained by his father's wish as a military engineer his uh mother died of tuberculosis quite early in his life but the father had him trained uh with his brother also in st petersburg sent him from moscow to the military academy and he was trained as a military engineer and it it wasn't to his taste but that was his training and he he affected that role to begin with but by the mid-1840s born in 1821 he couldn't stop writing and he he wrote a novel called poor folk in the translation and entered the st petersburg sort of literary forum and that always had the eyes of the tsar's secret police on it and the fact that they were having free discussions and free thinking suddenly caused them in 1849 to have the police break up their number and arrest them and dostoevsky at that point was sent for four years to a siberian prison camp at omsk and was given hard labor and was shackled he was seen to be a dangerous prisoner in political terms and following that six years of compulsory military service 10 years of his life spent like that but the experiences which ruined his health but fed in to all that he was writing about the humanity around him as he entered as he was traveling to the siberian prison camp a woman gave him a new testament which was the only book he was allowed to keep and for so many of those years the only book he was allowed to read and so the fixing onto the parables and the life of jesus that the human storyteller became absolutely ingrained in dostoevsky right to the very end and the way in which he thought of those parables and the way that human situations and stories in creation could could actually uh give not only comfort but insight to all the situations he was in afterwards after those years the ten years he was allowed once again to to to become the holder of a journal and and uh would would uh be a journalist for a while he even traveled in western europe but the new testament never left him and the new testament as his prison companion became the the lifeblood of all that he was writing within the context of mixing that with human situations of great desperation and also of surprising heroes for he would go to the ones who were least hero like and put the lens on them and all their feelings and issues making him a philosopher a theologian and at all times having great sympathy with humanity let's think of his books in 1866 crime and punishment in 1868 the idiot with the most extraordinary um hero in that and then uh he published a book called demons well he knew enough about those in his own life and a writer's diary which later on with the more liberal tsar alexander ii was taken as a book that he wanted to give to his own sons but alexander the second of course was it at uh a stage in his life assassinated and and that brought down once again that the the clamp of people not being allowed the kind of freedom that in their conversations and their writing that dostoevsky was wanted he wrote a novel called the adolescent which was about the relationship between father and son which became a frequent theme of his we could go back to king saul and prince jonathan and the jealousy the father felt for the relationship with david that jonathan had and which he couldn't enter into and the violence which ensued and as his breathing got worse and worse and he suffered from emphysema which in the end killed him uh in 1881 dostoyevsky began to dwell again on the new testament and on his tombstone is carved from john 12 verse 24 use it in the old text it's of course carved in their language verily verily i say unto you except a corn of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains a single grain but if it dies it brings forth much fruit and at that time also he ordered that the parable of the prodigal son be read to his family that new testament in the depths of the lice-ridden prison where they were kept a room of 200 with only a basic lavatory and the smell of that throughout it and the the chains he wore all of those things but the new testament was his lifeblood and the figure of jesus of nazareth in the middle of all that became something really precious and someone he could relate to well he's his most famous book and it was published in 1880 say the last and published as 12 books he called it but as one book really is the story of three brothers the novice aliyosha karamazov the non-believer ivan karamansov and the soldier dmitry karamansov and the main plot of course becomes the death of their father theodore but other parts you have philosophical and religious arguments being given by father zosima to alyosha the novice novice and the parable of the grand inquisitor is probably the most famous part of that book well all those things we give thanks for in dostoevsky's life and that fixing on the new testament and particularly on the gospels we are really grateful for in the way that dostoevsky writes and the influence he has on others philosophy on other novelists and on others theology well i said we would talk today about bamba gascoigne after his death at the age of 87 yesterday and i'd want to give enormous thanks for him first of all for the pleasure he gave in his uh his 25 years as the quiz master of university challenge from 1962 to 1987 and honestly in my mind i see him there in black and white television let me stress in those days was all we had um and his really should we say suave manner not in the least bit patronizing but surely uh the complete master of all the facts and questions he was asking about and oh so polite firm but polite at all times and there were little catchphrases which caught on in those days your starter for ten no conferring was one of his and then fingers on buzzers and then i'll have to hurry you all those things come back but also he would help people and very often if somebody got a wrong answer he was over the question at once and said no yeah i'm sorry that is the wrong answer but i think you're thinking of and then he would go and you'd see that students say of course i was yes he was over it it wasn't just a question and answer it was also an intellectual conversation going on for 25 years and we remember that and the way in which he related with so many different young people and that was conveyed to us at that time so in 1962 i would have been 15 when he started and it became a regular part of of life watching that university challenge with the way he did it so absolutely skillfully and he was over the whole program in that way but at the same time during those years he uh was the commentator and and really the the the person who shaped a 13-hour television documentary which came out in the episodes an hour by hour called the christians and it was a history of christianity which granada television in those days put on with him as the commentator and he published also a companion book which was revised in 2003 and published again with photographs from uh taken by his wife christina his wife of 57 years christina so remember that and remember in 1987 six programs on victorian history with again the consummate knowledge and enjoyment of bamboo gascoigne going on he seemed never to change somehow and then we come to almost the the last episode of of of his creativity which happened all by chance when in 2014 his great-aunt the duchess of roxbur left him the magnificent but rather dilapidated country house 500 years old in its foundation of west horsely place in surrey which was full of treasures which had belonged to the duchess many of the books had been given to universities all those things and wonderful books but at the same time much was left and bamboo gascoigne had to sell so many of those heirlooms to to pay the crippling death duties which have been at the basis of the breakup of so many collections in that way and and uh country houses uh so those crippling death duties had to be paid and the uh selling of the duchess's heirlooms left to him so surprisingly he was her godson as well her great nephew uh him 8.8 million pounds was made which could do that but also give him the chance with christina to say we're going to restore the house we're going to give it a go sounds very much like him and what he did was not only begin to restore the house but in its grounds which he began to recover the gardens and the grounds around he determined to build right from scratch an opera house [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] me [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] they [Music] oh oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh no oh [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] and so he did a theater in the woods he called it and it became the new grange park opera and we had the pleasure and privilege in july uh 2012 of sorry i'm 2017 uh of going there i'm giving being reminded by fletcher of my dates which are wrong we went there one july evening and by invitation to see the opera house was wasn't finished all sorts of things were still going on the gardens were were being recreated but they were still quite rough and there were patches of brambles and nettles and things around on that that evening but nevertheless there was the the sense of something really new and wonderful happening and we were there with creative friends bruno wang one remembers an american friend who was there with us and and many others but we've gone to see our friend stephen barlow whose wife was the patron of the of the the grange park opera there and he was going to conduct conduct the valkyrie now we have to say that until that night fletcher had been not a fan of wagner and i remember in the the car on the way there he was saying why are we going to see wagner you know i i really am not really um a fan of wagner the conversion was like the damascus road when we went in to the valkyrie and the production started and stephen barlow took up the baton and we saw him there conducting the three acts of the valkyrie and it was the most amazing production and it took everyone by storm but cetera most of all because he was converted overnight and wagner then began to be uh a favorite among so many others of course but we give thanks for that night but i give thanks most of all lester stretcher for that being the last time we saw bamba and he was looking so uh like himself always uh on a project full of pleasure at the guests who were there full of pleasure at the way they were enjoying themselves full of pleasure at the restoration of this house but more than that the building of the opera house which has gone from strength to strength and uh as you looked into his face it was the same face that i knew in 1962 taking pleasure in in in the the art of of all kinds and also all kinds of intellectual learning and progress and conversations with young students at that time with the same face and the same pleasure and uh we give huge thanks for him today as we remember that and remember those years where he could be creative i'm delighted that in 2018 he was given a cbe in the queen's birthday honours for services to the arts nobody more deserving so god rest him on this particular day so let's save our prayers and on this day we are thinking in the anglican communion of the diocese of north carolina in the church of the province of uganda yesterday we prayed for the diocese of karamoja itself but we're back in uganda and at the same time we're praying in this diocese for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover emma bishop at lambeth and they are all at the moment at the general synod which is meeting in london um and then we're praying in in the diocese for the the parish of saint peter in sanet and for jan duran's in her ministry there and the cure at alice bates and the chaplain that margaret paterson and the schools in georgia's church of england foundation school and st peter in sanet church of england junior school so we are going to say the connect for this week bring your prayers wherever you are in the world of thanksgiving and also of intention for those that you have concerned about oh god you know us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright grant us such strength and protection as may support us in all dangers and carry us through all temptations through jesus christ our lord amen so we say each in our own language 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 are men moment now of reflection and our music this morning is provided by the choir of the duke of york's royal military school in dover and the uh conductor is their conduct their director of music ben priests whom you probably might recognize because he also conducts the choir caritas which sings for us very often when the choir the cathedral choir is on holiday and so ben is conducting the lovely little almost pilgrimage anthem lead me lord and the music is by samuel sebastian wesley [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] righteousness [Music] is [Music] [Music] r [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] so i think this is the first time uh this year that we've seen tiger sitting and enjoying warm sunshine and it is warm the sun has come up over the wall and it's an extraordinary day for early february but he's obviously enjoying himself just relaxing in the sunshine and i'd like to thank ben for that music with the the young choir of the duke of york's uh royal military school it's normally called dukis in an affectionate way and they're singing in their own beautiful chapel there and so we say prayers for that school this morning and for the head alex foreman and all the staff and community of the school there and thank them for their 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 whom you would pray for today and always amen well we are going to enjoy the day tiger aren't we and uh we hope the sunshine and the warmth might continue actually your fur is quite warm so it's good to have him here