good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this thursday the 17th of december as we come to say our morning prayers it's the most beautiful early winter morning with a blue sky a few white clouds and the sun just coming up and not a breath of wind but we've come this morning to say our prayers in front of the deanery in this part of the garden where about 10 years ago we planted some trees to protect the chickens from the peregrine falcons who live up in the tower of belle harry and this morning we are thinking of the alder as our tree and the order is a native english tree but i'm sitting by a cut leaf order very tall cut leaf alder here and that is a cultivar of the native english alder but we planted these trees to remind us of friends and this one reminds us of margaret lady fitzwater who uh was a great friend of ours she she died a few years ago and she was a terrific gardener and would give good advice sound advice and quite often fierce advice about the plants one was keeping but also she was a brilliant pianist and we remember her with thanksgiving in front here also is a tree called pride of india between you and me and a meta sequoia with the bird seed hanging on it and then also behind me uh first of all a magnolia stellata and the incense tree the tall incense tree and beyond a very important magnolia called picture which is one of the collection the pickard collection and actually the the mother tree of the whole of that collection but when we do magnolias we'll say much more about that this morning we are on december the 17th which is a turning point in advent and it's the day and this we will think about in great detail in our reflection it's the day on which the antivons the special sentences begin step by step by step to go towards christmas and the first of those antiphons is a wisdom coming forth from the mouth of the most high reaching from one end to the other mightily and sweetly ordering all things come and teach us the way of prudence that's uh normally known because the antiphons were originally in latin and sung on each side of the magnificat even song but nowadays also pushing the the new catholic calendar at the alleluia of the mass and this is normally known as o sapientia o wisdom a stepping stone like advent calendars and advent candles towards christmas so let's begin our prayers on this special day the turning point which leads us onwards towards christmas oh 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 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 men our psalm on this morning is psalm 87 her foundation is on the holy mountains the lord loves the gates of zion more than all the dwellings of jacob glorious things are spoken of you zion city of our god i record egypt and babylon as those who know me behold philistia tyre and ethiopia in zion were they born and of zion it shall be said each one was born in her and the most high himself has established her the lord will record as he writes up the peoples this one also was born there and as they dance they shall sing all my fresh springs are in you it's a beautiful psalm and speaking of the heavenly jerusalem whom uh saint paul labels the the mother of us all and that is a heavenly vision of our earthly pilgrimage so we are reading this morning the puzzling chapter of two thessalonians the second letter of paul to the thessalonians we went into something of that puzzle yesterday and i i left the puzzle with you because no one has properly solved it but but this becomes the bit which central gaston of hippo simply gave up on in in terms of trying to find a solution because unless we know what the writer knows and he's trying to tell the thessalonians we seem never to get there but there are lessons we can learn from it so hold on tight this is chapter 2. now concerning the coming of our lord jesus christ and our being gathered together to him we ask you brothers and sisters not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the lord has come let no one deceive you in any way for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of god proclaiming himself to be god do you not remember that when i was still with you i told you these things and you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way and then the lawless one will be revealed whom the lord jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved therefore god sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness but we ought always to give thanks to god for you brothers and sisters beloved by the lord because god chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth to this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our lord jesus christ so then brothers and sisters stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us either by our spoken word or by our letter now may our lord jesus christ himself and god our father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word well there is chapter two and there are parts of it which rely very heavily on the beautiful first letter to the thessalonians which we enjoyed going through all of last week and on monday and tuesday of this week but there's that block in the middle which is shall we say opaque and is very very difficult to fathom of course it has lessons in it it has the sort of lessons that we find in our lord's parable of the wheat and the tares where good and bad together mix and human life is left amongst them it's all these temptations but everything about the temple itself becomes puzzling and one has to keep reminding oneself that paul is writing to a gentile congregation and these things would have been puzzling but the writer of this epistle actually knows that the people he's writing to will know what he's talking about and so we are short of facts and at the same time very full of fact because the one fact is that the day of the lord has not yet come and that life must be lived out in that way that council was given in the first letter to the thessalonians of how they should behave within their own societies waiting patiently for the day of the lord well that's what the advent season is all about and from verse 13 onwards again there are passages which could have been taken straight from the first letter to the thessalonians so i'm leaving you with a puzzle and i would advise again reading the two letters side by side and wondering about this puzzle but not too long because advent is a time of expectation of the coming of the lord at the end of time and that's what the great antiphons speak of and at the same time step by step to the happy remembrance of the coming of our lord jesus christ at christmas time so let's think for a moment about those great advent o's and they are set out if if you've got a book of of daily prayer or even a hymn book they're generally set out for you in this common worship book which i tend to use with you every morning daily prayer they're on page 211 and they're dated through 17th of december right through to the 23rd of december and they go in the latin titles oh sapientia oh wisdom oh adonai an ancient hebrew word for god oh radix yes a a root of jesse o clavis david o key of david o oriens oh morning star o rex gentium o king of the nations o emmanuel our king and our law giver they are all titles of the one who is coming and it's certainly not strange for these titles to be given as acts of expectation but also of wonder think of the hymn how sweet the name of jesus sounds in a believer's ear and we do it ourselves title after title all of the metaphors for how we actually think of something which is so wonderful to be unthinkable in human words but think of that verse jesus my shepherd brother friend my prophet priest and king my lord my life my way my end accept the praise i bring title after title and here are titles after titles there is attached to them either accidentally or on purpose if you take them in the reverse order an acrostic i mean the first letter of each title spells words and if you think of them the first letters emmanuel e rex gentium r oriens o clavis david c radix yes a r adonai and the two words spell arrow cross in latin i will be there tomorrow it's like an advent acrostic and whether that was intended or not i have no notion these date back to the early years of the church and uh latin was the language of the the western church at that time so it's a nice way of remembering them but you have to read them in the other order but aerocrass i will be there tomorrow and every day as a little window of an advent calendar or a section of an advent candle burns down or we say antiphon after antiphon the excitement building up now the whole thing about the second letter to the thessalonians as with the first is of the christian exciting quality of anticipation there's nothing better than anticipation i was saying on sunday morning in the sermon at the eucharist which some of you would have seen seen on the the uh youtube it was live streamed at that time um that there was always a temptation as a child to look for christmas presents when you shouldn't be and when you look for christmas presents it spoiled half the fun because on christmas morning the anticipation is suddenly fulfilled with all the presence given and received so step by step at this time is a glorious way of anticipating but anticipation is part of the christian journey day by day and everything within those epistles to the thessalonians speaks of that anticipation and how we should be as the body of christ while that anticipation and that journey is taking place i wanted to mention two dates today the first one uh is 1843 and in 1843 on this day the 17th of december charles dickens signed copies of his new novel a christmas carol to give to friends as christmas presents we at the moment have been reading another of his christmas stories the cricket in the hearth which we'll put online at some stage and then possibly follow it up with a christmas carol but what would christmas be like without the story of the christmas carol because that has become so much part of our christmas but remember it was 1843 that he wrote it 6 000 were published on the 19th of december and by the 24th of december they had all been sold it was a red-hot success from the very beginning and those friends who received the signed copies must have been very glad of those lovely copies like an early christmas present and christmas card from charles dickens and then at the same time this day also commemorates a journey for on this day the 17th of december 1967 alec rose later sir alec rose in his 36 foot cutter which he turned into a yawl if your sailors by adding another mast it was called lively lady had sailed single-handed around the world and came on this day to melbourne in australia to cheering crowds receiving him and there was the rest of the journey still to go he wouldn't arrive back here until the 16th of uh of uh july or rather sorry the 4th of july in 1968 he'd set off on the 16th of july from portsmouth and he'd return the next year on the 4th of july what a journey i mentioned him because he's a canterbury person he went to school here at simon langton grammar school and uh he described himself at the time as rather a quiet or almost shy person he became a nursery man and grew plants and then uh kept a a a vegetable and and fruit uh stall a greengrocer's shop and his wife dorothy all that time in portsmouth through that year was thinking of her husband in the middle of huge stormy waters and only his skill and energy in the journey and his vision and imagination and the company of sky and sea kept him going and he then came to melbourne on this day and later cheering crowds would receive him in july in portsmouth in south sea on july the 4th 1968 will remember that and remember our own journey which sometimes is in currencies and sometimes in horrendous difficult water but whatever it be then we know constantly and these advent titles speak of it the presence of the lord whom we call by so many different titles but know that none of them fits the bill properly because each is just a sign of what the coming christ at christmas time and at the end of time means to us as those who have been called so here again the first advent antiphon for the 17th of december o sapientia o wisdom coming forth from the mouth of the most high reaching from one end to the other mightily and sweetly ordering all things come and teach us the way of prudence let's say our prayers on this day and on this 17th of december this turning point day as we look now towards christmas we pray for the diocese of south dakota in the episcopal church of the united states and for the bishop there john tarant and the diocese of elobade in sudan and ismail gabriel abu digin the bishop there and all his people we think of both those dioceses in their communities and pray for those whom we know and love and and worship with and also in our own diocese we pray for justin on archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and today the dialysis and intention gives us a joy postponed talking about unanswered prayer as yet well that's all about anticipation and keeping hope burning bright at this time so let's say the prayer for this week and bring your own intentions to that prayer o lord jesus christ who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready your way by turning the hearts of the disobedience to the wisdom of the just that at your second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in your sight for you are alive and reign with the father in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen and the advent collect itself to be used daily through advent 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 visit us in great humility that in the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead we may rise to the life immortal through him who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so we say together in each in our own language the prayer our lord 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 it's a moment of silence now for your own prayers [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 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 [Music]