Morning Prayer – Tuesday 9th February 2021 | Canterbury Cathedral

good morning and welcome to the orchard in the dinery garden on this morning of tuesday the 9th of february there's a childish pleasure coming out into the snow for the landscape looks quite different the snow has at last stopped falling it fell throughout the night i could tell that because my footsteps coming back from even song last night to the deanery front door were completely covered to a little depth as i went out this morning to say matins in the cathedral and now we've come into the garden but any snow that you see flying around me is being blown off the trees for the snow has stopped and the sky is even it's cloudy but a little lighter wherever you are in the world please uh bring your own prayers and intentions and feel welcome as we say our morning prayers together on this tuesday morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the true the only light banish all darkness from our hearts and minds i think once again it's a morning for the benedicti bless the lord all you works of the lord sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord you heavens sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord you angels of the lord bless the lord all you his hosts bless the lord you waters above the heavens sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord son and moon bless the lord you stars of heaven bless the lord all rain and dew sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord all winds that blow bless the lord you fire and heat bless the lord scorching wind and bitter cold sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord dews and falling snows bless the lord your nights and days bless the lord light and darkness sing his praise and exalt him forever bless the lord frost and cold bless the lord you ice and snow sing his praise and exalt him forever 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 does 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 son on this ninth morning of the month 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 there the waters rage and swell and there 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 so we turn this morning back to the gospel of saint mark and come to the beginning of chapter seven we've come together through all the excitement and the drama of chapter six in the way that mark has told it to us and ended with that little gathering together of scenes in geneseot of the people coming to jesus even as the woman did earlier in the chapter to touch the hem of his clothes and seeking from him healing and wholeness of body mind and spirit and peace and light in their darkness and all of that we saw yesterday but today we are back to controversy we're still very much in galilee in a place where he would know the beginning of chapter seven now when the pharisees gathered to jesus with some of the scribes who had come from jerusalem they saw that some of his disciples act with hands that were defiled that is unwashed for the pharisees and all the jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly holding to the tradition of the elders and when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash and there are many other traditions that they observe such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches and the pharisees and the scribes asked jesus why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands and he said to them well did isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of human beings you leave the commandment of god and hold to the human tradition and he said to them you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of god in order to establish your tradition for moses said honor your father and your mother and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die but you say if a man tells his father or his mother whatever you would have gained from me is koban that is given to god then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother thus making void the word of god by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do it's quite clear that jesus is irritated more than that verging on anger once again at the hardness of heart these pharisees of a particular tradition have probably come locally to shall we say pick holes in his teaching and in the behavior of his followers whom they would see as untrained and ill principled these fishermen these tax collectors amongst the 12 who are following him around and teaching here in the streets and using all their hours at this time but they also have with them and this is far more dangerous scribe lawyers who've come up sent from jerusalem the capital city they've traveled there specifically to make the case against this itinerant and possibly revolutionary and certainly politically difficult preacher and teacher and worker of miracles but most of all someone whom the people have in awe and someone who clearly could command armies as we saw with the feeding of the 5000 with the men sitting in hundreds and 50s in ranks and listening to the words of jesus and obeying his command and all of that they've come to spy on and jesus only interest as he's trying to teach the twelve is the fulfillment of his own anointed ministry and how that should be perceived and received by the people that they might receive wholeness and healing and peace and see how he goes to the prophet isaiah once again as he did in the synagogue in nazareth in st luke's gospel where he finds the roots of that vocation we might see in a moment how he finds it in the sounds too when we're in the middle of our reflection on other dates today but for the moment let's just think how really irritating it is that what is so totally important in their perception of god is being nitpicked as we might say by these people both local and national grand lawyers in the people of galilee's eyes as they gather around jesus he goes for them let no one say and how could we possibly say we who have walked with him through galilee in sin mark's gospel that jesus didn't think every cooking vessel every seat used and couch laid on in the the uh eating of a meal every sharing of the meal wasn't hugely fruitful in people's perception of god and every object and human piece of work every mixing and needing of a piece of of dough was something that could teach a lesson like a parable all of that but on this occasion they are seeing perhaps one or two of his disciples grabbing some food as they went along in that in their constant energy and their need for sustenance and he says can you possibly set that as doctrine it's a human tradition and of course he doesn't say this we would observe that if we were actually eating and drinking in the formal way but here we are with a really dramatic mission which needs speed it doesn't say any of this he does say how can you put human traditions above people's perception of god be still then and know that i am god says the psalm which he would again have known by heart it was part of his shall we say his hymn book at the time every verse known to him and here he throws back at them the fact that he's found uh situations where in the the great commandment in the ten commandments honor your father and your mother has been set aside because someone has said oh well this that i could use for your benefit and welfare is given to god and then they excuse themselves from honoring their father and mother by sharing their resources with with perhaps a needy father or mother jesus says how can you set that human tradition over the great commandment for is not god perceived and honored in giving the resources equally to your father or mother and seeing to their needs rather than to the temple usually it's a boat and land but jesus says one is a human tradition the other is god's commandment and in keeping of that commandment god may be perceived well we think of all that on this particular morning but there are one or two instances that i want to draw out from the 9th of february of course there are some ordinary dates that we remember some of them with sadness um if i think of three here in 1996 the ira detonated an enormous bomb in london stocklands ending the ceasefire which had existed and starting a new bombing campaign on the british mainland that largely ceased later with the good friday agreement and all that followed it but we will remember those days of danger because of the threat of explosions and the threat to human life in our cities at that time and we remember also with sadness that in 1971 the great earthquake hit greater los angeles and killed 64 people injuring 2000 a natural disaster showing the fragility once again of human life remember in 2002 that the queen's beloved sister princess margaret died and the nation mourned the death of the princess who also was so much loved by their father king george vi he and his wife the queen and our present queen and princess margaret especially in those years of the second world world war the king used to call them us for us for a family we'd say today wouldn't we a family bubble together as we are in lockdown that we've grown used to those new words well also we can remember that in 1986 at this time halley's comet appeared it appears every 75 or 76 years within our own solar system and becomes apparent here and throughout history it has been traced back in those times i think in the past it must have been brighter with a brighter tail it's shown on the bio tapestry which we believe was created here but is now of course in normandy which for a long time was was part of the realms of the king of england um and there it is as a bright star with its tail in 1066 it was seen always as a portent for political change and people were afraid of comments with their tales in that way remember reading a book called the the strange death of liberal england which showed in 1910 the prime minister mr asquith on a yacht in the on holiday in the mediterranean looking up at halley's comet with its bright tail and wandered wondering in 1910 what it would mean for the years ahead well we now know what happened in those years ahead but comets were seen as signs i have to admit myself disappointed in 1986 because the comet is beginning i think to fade year by year and so i needed my strongest telescope to see it properly from the steps of my rectory in tisbury and wiltshire at that time but i remember it halley's comet and now it's left again for the 75-year journey from 1986 to the next time it appears well let's remember all of those things signs in the sky happenings on earth happenings of sadness of celebration happiness happenings of great joy and of also nervousness and worry and all this is happening in this pandemic at the moment on a snowy day in 1649 king charles the first who was beheaded uh a little while earlier in on on january the 30th he was buried on this day at windsor in a snowstorm and there's a great oil painting of that in the city museum in bristol which i used to look at of the cavalier gentleman carrying the coffin of their king and the bishop of london jackson who had been on the scaffold with charles and received that word remember as he held the the the book in his hands of the prayers that he and charles had been saying and here he was conducting a funeral which the governor at windsor refused to have any words said from that criminal book the book of common prayer which was a sign of the king's own faithfulness now we're going to say that charles the first had gained more popularity by his behavior his dignified and silent behavior during his trial than at any time really in the civil war and there was a sense of quietness and sadness about this burial of the king but it happened in saint george's windsor on this day and we remember also how our own way of worshiping a strand of the holy catholic church the anglican episcopal strand was made a criminal activity during those years which followed until 1660. how we treat one another and no one is blameless in this and in a moment we'll go to another reflection which will really give point to all of this for on this day in 1881 dostoevsky the great russian writer died he died early at the age of 59. he'd been born in 1821 and lived in czarist russia through that period he was a child of aristocratic parents but was brought out by very god-fearing parents his mother and his father whom he respected greatly his father a doctor so young dostoevsky saw all kinds of sights of people coming to the father and and his father sometimes asking for help with them but also he was someone who was taught the scriptures by both his god-fearing parents and knew again rather like ruskin yesterday so much of the gospels by heart well it would take all morning and it would need i think dr rowan williams to give you a proper lecture on dostoyevsky but i do want to say one or two things about him his life was an extraordinary one and he found himself early on first of all in prison with a capital charge hanging over him and a group of thinkers that he had been with made a charge because of the things they were reading for his mind would explore in literature he had with him always his new testament but they were led out to die and strapped to the rose to be their shot in the snow and then just as this was about to happen a cart drew up with a letter from the tsar commuting the sentence so they were cut down and then bundled back to prison and eventually taken to siberia and the scriptures went with him a lot of them were in his head the copy of the scriptures he took of the new testament that he took of the gospels that he read still exists in its tattered form and that he tried to live out the life of christ as he would have done he thought in those circumstances he was hugely respected by the other prisoners and eventually was released and came back and began to write and all of that passion is in his writing i'm remembering that when he was dying he called his uh children around the bed and had the parable of the goods of the prodigal son red and one of the great commentators on on on dostoevsky said it was this parable of transgression repentance and forgiveness that dostoevsky wished to leave as a last heritage to his children and it may well be seen as his own ultimate understanding of his life and the message of his work it was always the words of christ of jesus the human jesus on his lips and he wanted so much to express that in his novels who is representing christ someone in the most unlikely circumstances but somewhere someone is being jesus for another if you read the idiot or crime and punishment or above all else the brothers karamazov that long long novel you will find that again and again and it took me to one of the other psalms i could have read this morning which jesus would have known by heart but dostoevsky would also have known and his image of this psalm would go to jesus here it is it's psalm 45 the middle sound for the morning of the night of the month my heart is a stir with gracious words as i make my song for the king my tongue is the pen of a ready writer you are the fairest of men full of grace are your lips for god has blessed you forever your throne is god's throne forever the scepter of your kingdom is the scepter of righteousness you love righteousness and hate iniquity therefore god your god has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows all your garments are fragrant the psalmist for dostoevsky would have been talking about jesus and it's how he attempted so much to live out his life this parable which he gave in his works and in his life of the capacity of a human being to transgress even if you think of that parable he had read to his children parable of the prodigal son transgressed so much that they found themselves the prodigal son in the pigsty and suddenly realizing the father's love and then transgress repent and receive forgiveness it's an article of our faith and our belief and our creed i believe in the forgiveness of sins and dostoevsky's great stories of humanity and the spiritual depths but we remember again the other psalm if i go down into hell thou art there also you can always find aspects of jesus everywhere on his grave is written on the tombstone unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it abides alone but if it dies it brings forth much fruit how precious that idea is to us as we study together the gospels and the moment at the moment of course the gospel of saint mark with all the images he gives us well let's say our prayers together on this day and we bring our own intentions and those whom we would pray for we give thanks for those who have shown us jesus by their lives by their actions by their own ability to receive forgiveness or to give us the forgiveness we so much need and those who see into the heart of jesus message and don't fuss around the boundaries and nitpickers the people in jesus's story were doing simply to create controversy the church has known an awful lot about that throughout the ages but gradually the path through has always come through treading in the footsteps of jesus himself here's the collect for today almighty god you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your likeness in all your children through jesus christ your son our lord who with you in the holy spirit reigns supreme over all things now and forever amen on this day the 9th of february as we pray for our communion we pray for the anglican missionary district in the episcopal anglican church of brazil and we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and today for the church at sissinghas trinity church and also with frittenden saint mary pray for peter dives in his ministry there at sittinghurst bring your own intentions and your own thanksgivings as we say together the prayer our lord taught us and all his disciples to say 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 of silence now for you to make your own prayers on this day 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 are men it's wonderful to see how the snow is cuddling the daffodils it'll do them no harm it's covered them with a soft blanket so that their growth won't be interrupted but the the one who's most active this morning and i've seen him in the trees all around in the orchard here as i've been speaking to you is our friend the robin who is always around when we come into the garden at this time and there's another one in the front garden for this is the time of year for them to find their territories and the snow is no obstacle to them

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Keywords: Worship, faith, pray, prayer, church, holy, eucharist, Christian, Anglican, Episcopal, cathedral, Canterbury, England, mother, communion, archbishop, saint, service, online, leo, cat, cats, black prince, becket, tiger, st paul, durham, Lincoln, notre dame

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Length: 29min 49sec (1789 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 09 2021