大象传媒

大象传媒 RADIO 4 OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT:
听鈥淎 horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!鈥澨� It鈥檚 10 past 8 and time to go live to Leicester Cathedral for Sunday Worship, which marks the beginning of a historic week for the city. The service is led by the Dean of Leicester, The Very Revd David Monteith and begins with a chorus from Handel鈥檚 鈥楳essiah鈥�.

CHOIR INTROIT:听
听Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in 听Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

from The Messiah by GF Handel (1685-1759) 1 Corinthians 15:21-22听

THE DEAN:听
Welcome to our Lenten morning worship from the Cathedral Church of St Martin. Later today we will receive into this cathedral the mortal remains of King Richard III who died in this county at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 鈥揻amously unhorsed as he was certainly by Shakespeare. His remains were discovered in what has become known as 鈥榯he Leicester car-park鈥� but in fact these were the remains of the Greyfriars Friary where he was hurriedly buried.

English cathedrals convey a sense of history and an anointed king like all God鈥檚 children deserves burial with dignity and honour. But what does all this mean today?听 Why here? And why now?

Prior to public announcements two years ago the University of Leicester carefully explained their findings and showed me the many marks of battle on the King鈥檚 bones.听 That day I returned to the cathedral moved by my proximity to history yet disturbed by the evidence of the sheer brutality of medieval war.
As I parked my car a man in a wheelchair asked me directions. We chatted a little.听 He had lost a leg. He told me that he was a returnee from Afghanistan.

Suddenly the 500 year old experience of a medieval warrior king and the life of our battle scarred contemporary community came face to face. Facing death and injury, might talk of hope be credible?

Our first hymn speaks of the flesh and blood which fails in Adam yet which prevails through the presence of God鈥檚 very self in the life and death of Jesus.

HYMN:听听Praise to the Holiest in the height

听

DEAN:听Let us pray:

Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
ALL:听Amen

DEAN:听
In making ready the grave for King Richard we have discovered that every day we walk over many human burials in our medieval building.听 We are about to receive more human remains into the heart of our community life. They will be memorialised by a beautiful stone tomb which will be revealed on Friday.

This stone records a life (a man who was husband, brother, father and king) yet it marks a death and the end of a dynasty. Christians from earliest days understood death to be part of life. So they brought their dead into the midst of their churches. Death was part of the reality of being Adam鈥檚 descendants, created yet vulnerable, destined for eternity yet subject to decay.听
Professor Sarah Hainsworth from the Engineering Department at Leicester University helped us to understand much more about King Richard鈥檚 battle wounds.听 She now reads from St Paul鈥檚 Letter to the Romans chapter 5.听

SARAH HAINSWORTH:听
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned鈥� 13 sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14 Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man鈥檚 trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.
18 Therefore just as one man鈥檚 trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man鈥檚 act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as by the one man鈥檚 disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man鈥檚 obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification[f] leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

CHOIR: 听听Thou wilt keep him听听

Isaiah 26:3a, Psalm 119:11, 1 John 1:5b, Psalm 119:175a, Matthew 6:13
听S.S. Wesley (1810-1876)

DEAN:听
SS Wesley鈥檚 anthem that we have just heard included these words from the psalms 鈥� 鈥榯he darkness is no darkness with thee鈥�. Death is our ultimate darkness. Tim Stevens, the Bishop of Leicester now reflects on the death and reburial of King Richard III.

SERMON - PART 1听- THE BISHOP:
Terry Pratchett, who died last week, made Death into a comic creation in his Disc World novels.听 Death wears a black cloak, carries a scythe, and at the end of a day鈥檚 work loves to murder a curry!听 Pratchett was realistic about his own mortality as he came to terms with early onset Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.听 He looked Death in the eye and invited his readers to do the same.

Today鈥檚 journey to retrace the last hours of King Richard鈥檚 life, will remind us constantly of the nearness of death.听 In the villages where many of the fallen in the Battle of Bosworth are buried, we will be remembering the hundreds of young men who lost their lives that day.听

At the Battlefield we will be painfully alert to the cruelty and savagery of hand to hand combat in which limbs and bones were severed and mutilated.听 Five hundred years later, murderous beheadings and tragic downward spiral into civil war remain all too familiar on our TV screens.

St Paul was uncomfortably realistic about death.听 He sees sin and death as built into our nature: an essential feature of what makes us human.听 Whereas the archaeologists who discovered Richard鈥檚 remains traced his descendants forward seventeen generations to establish his identity, Paul traces ours back to the beginnings of the human story.听 Adam is the example of all human beings and the ancestor of all of us 鈥� predisposed to self interest, the neglect of others and ultimately the neglect of God which goes with it.听 These built-in instincts lead to death 鈥� to rejection of the abundant life for which God made us.

When King Richard鈥檚 remains are carried into this Cathedral this evening we shall be powerfully reminded of that.听 The Service of Compline begins with the words 鈥淭he Lord Almighty grant us a quiet night and a perfect end鈥�.听 Whether we are kings and queens, whether powerful, wealthy, famous or (like the great majority of humankind) unknown, uncelebrated and unremarkable, our destination is precisely the same.听 To pray the Service of Compline (as I did by the bedside of a dying loved one recently) is to acknowledge the utter and complete vulnerability of each of us in the face of death.听 The words spoken on Ash Wednesday, at the beginning of this Season of Lent: 鈥淩emember you are dust, and to dust you shall return鈥�, apply as much to fallen kings as they do to you and me.

The King will lie in repose in our Cathedral for three days by the font 鈥� as a reminder of his status as a baptised Christian.听 Some have questioned whether this is appropriate for a controversial figure upon whom suspicion falls, not least for the deaths of the Princes in the Tower.听 The fact is that baptism is not a badge of superiority or even of special virtue.听 Rather it is a sign of dying to self in order to become open to other people and the life of Jesus Christ.听 As Rowan Williams has written: 鈥淭he gathering of the baptised is not a convocation of those who are privileged, elite and separate, but of those who have accepted what it means to be in the heart of a needy, contaminated, messy world.听 To put it another way, you don鈥檛 go down into the waters of the Jordan without stirring up a great deal of mud!鈥�

The words of Psalm 23 remind us now of the reality of death, but point us also towards an unshakeable hope in God to which we shall turn after the hymn.

HYMN: 听The Lord鈥檚 my Shepherd, I鈥檒l not want
Words: Psalm 23, Scottish Psalter, 1650听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Music: Brother James鈥檚 Air, James Leith Macbeth Bain
SERMON - PART 2 鈥� THE BISHOP:
When Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury鈥檚 Envoy, was held hostage in Beirut in the 1980s, he received one postcard during his five year鈥檚 of solitary confinement.听 It showed a picture of John Bunyan, the seventeenth century writer and prisoner of conscience, with a quotation from St Paul鈥檚 Letter to the Corinthians: 鈥淢y Grace is all you need, power is most fully seen in weakness.鈥澨� The reminder of the Grace of God sustained the solitary hostage for years.

King Richard鈥檚 path to the throne involved conflict and the removal of competitors, just as his desire to protect the Crown led him to battle and death.听 It is natural for us to imagine that God鈥檚 power is like human power only in a greatly magnified version: as if God behaves as we would do if we were running the universe.
This is the greatest mistake religious people can make about God.听 It is a widespread, tragic and sometimes deadly error.听 Indeed Rowan Williams again has written: 鈥淭he death of Jesus is the price paid to abolish and uproot that fantasy.鈥澨� In this season of Passiontide we keep returning to a troubling, even devastating picture of Jesus鈥檚 kingship 鈥� riding on a donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and eventually nailed to a cross wearing a crown of thorns.听 This image recalls us again and again to what Christians believe is the heart of God鈥檚 nature 鈥� declaring himself to us in the dying, failed and abandoned Jesus.

The words sung by the choir at the start of our service: 鈥淔or as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive鈥� lie at the heart of Paul鈥檚 understanding of death and resurrection.听 In the Letter to the Romans he contrasts human sinfulness, focussed in Adam, with God鈥檚 grace focussed in Jesus Christ.听 Paul is saying that the gift of Jesus is God鈥檚 answer to all the accumulated sins and guilt of all the ages.
This means that it is not just the Battle of Bosworth, nor the bombing of Dresden, nor the rape and abuse of innocent people in Syria, nor the savage deaths of Christians at worship in Pakistan, nor any other human wickedness that shall ultimately be answered by judgement rather than God鈥檚 grace.听 Miracle of miracles, God鈥檚 grace is infinitely more effective than human sin.

Paul goes on to say that the unspeakable generosity of divine grace will not just end the reign of death, but it will actually make those who receive its riches to become kings themselves, to live the truly kingly life planned by God for all of us.

As the dead King鈥檚 coffin lies at the place of baptism in this Cathedral during this week, we hope that those who come to pay respects will reflect on this.听 All through history God has tended to choose people who were spectacularly unholy, even weak, for His purposes.听 Abraham, Moses, King David were all flawed characters.听 In the New Testament we find Jesus eating and drinking with prostitutes and tax collectors with a reputation for being a friend of sinners.

It has therefore never been, nor will it ever be through merit that we are chosen to share God鈥檚 life, but simply, purely and breathtakingly through God鈥檚 grace.听 It is all gift, unmerited, unlimited and extravagant.听 As Paul puts it 鈥淥ne man鈥檚 act of righteousness, leads to justification and life for all.鈥�

Our life鈥檚 work is the daily conversion to the acceptance of this truth.听 As we pray for King Richard鈥檚 soul today and commend him to God鈥檚 mercy this week, it is in that faith and in that faith alone that we do so.

CHOIR ANTHEM: God so loved the world
听God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoso believeth in 听him 听should not perish but have everlasting life.
Bob Chilcott (b.1955)听 John 3.16

DEAN:听
God so loved the world - familiar words from John鈥檚 Gospel set to music by Bob Chilcott.
Vera Britten wrote an account of her young life. Her memoire - Testament of Youth is now a film. We meet a beautiful young woman full of promise.听 But then we meet a life completely turned upside down by the First World War.
She volunteered as a nurse and saw the brutal effects of battle. She lost her lover, her brother and those dearest to her.听 Like many who survived the War to end all wars she had no illusions about it and so became a pacifist as more conflict loomed in the 1930鈥檚.听 One hundred years after the start of World War 1 and five hundred years since the Battle of Bosworth we still have not learnt the cost of war.
King Richard III died at Bosworth but so did countless of his Yorkist men as did so many of Henry Tudor鈥檚 Lancastrians.听 All now lie in the dust of the earth as Richard will do again.听听 In our prayers we remember the pain of war and our suffering world. Listeners are following Desmond Tutu鈥檚 Lent book 鈥� and you can find resources for individuals and groups complementing the broadcasts on the 鈥楽unday Worship鈥� web page.
And so we use a South African Xhosa chorus which means 鈥榶our will be done鈥�:听
Let us place our concerns 鈥業n God鈥檚 hands鈥�:

DIANA BELTON:听
God of our story, we give thanks for our history; the good and the bad that has shaped our national life. Help us to learn and grow as we understand it better. We pray for your blessing on all who will gather here as we rebury Richard, Duke of Gloucester and former king. Guide Her Majesty the Queen and all who govern us today. We pray for God鈥檚 grace:

CHOIR:听听Mayenziwe 鈥檔tando yakho

ANNE REDDECLIFFE:听
God of our suffering, we pray for all who are physically or emotionally scarred from battle and for those who have lost loved ones in active service and modern day conflicts (including鈥�.).听 We pray for reconciliation between people, faiths, cultures and traditions that the rivalries and bitterness of the past might be healed. We pray for God鈥檚 grace:

CHOIR: 听听听Mayenziwe 鈥檔tando yakho

鈥�
DIANA BELTON:听
God of our future, we entrust our lives to your compassionate heart. We pray that we might live more in the light of your Son鈥檚 mercy than in the shadows of our own failures. When our strength wearies, meet us through your Spirit and help us to trust the loyalty which binds all together, Jesus Christ, the one who makes grace available freely to us all.听听

ANN REDDECLIFFE:
So as the friends of Jesus throughout time have said, we pray:

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,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

鈥�
DEAN:听
In the middle of the 20th century, Canon WH Vanstone ministered on housing estates in the North West of England.听 He sought to find a faith and a way of speaking about it which connected with people desperate for community and hope. He wanted to speak of a suffering God who was alongside his people rather than sitting far from them; a God who knew the pain of Adam yet who could promise grace and redemption.
Vanstone summed up this passionate God in a hymn, by speaking of one who was not enthroned in easy state to reign but instead with aching arms of love reached out in embrace. As we bury a monarch here we sing of Christ the suffering King.

HYMN听 Morning Glory, starlit sky

Words: WH Vanstone (1923-1999)
Music: Song 13 Melody and bass by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)

DEAN:听
King Richard will be buried here with dignity and honour, just across the road from where he has lain silently for centuries.听 His story now speaks again. We are re-examining his and our past. But this propels us to the present 鈥� not just to his remarkable discovery and identification but to the brutality of war, the need for reconciliation and to trustworthy hope to carry us all to life eternal.

+ May all who died in the Wars of the Roses and all the faithful departed through the love and mercy of God rest in peace

ALL:听and rise in glory. Amen.
BISHOP: 听听The Lord be with you.
ALL:听听听And also with you.

BISHOP: 听
God who from the death of sin raised you to new life in Christ, keep you from falling and set you in the presence of his glory; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit rest upon you this day and always.听
ALL:听听听Amen

ORGAN: 听听Song 13听听 Percy Whitlock (1903-46)