good evening as we come to say our prayers on this evening of friday the 19th of june welcome to canterbury cathedral be welcome wherever you are in the world as we commend ourselves those whom we love those who we know need our prayers into the hands and care of almighty god oh lord open thou our lips and our mouth shall show forth thy praise oh god make speed to save us o lord make haste to help us glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen praise he the lord the lord's name be praised our son this afternoon on this 19th evening of the month is psalm 98. oh sing unto the lord a new song for he has done marvelous things with his own right hand and with his holy arm has he gotten himself the victory the lord declared his salvation his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen he has remembered his mercy and truth toward the house of israel and all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our god show yourselves joyful unto the lord all your lands sing rejoice and give thanks praise the lord upon the harp sing to the harp with a song of thanksgiving with trumpets also and shawms oh show yourselves joyful before the lord the king let the sea make a noise and all that therein is the round world and they that dwell therein let the floods clap their hands and let the hills be joyful together before the lord for he has come to judge the earth with righteousness shall he judge the world and the people with equity glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen sing unto the lord a new song the song says and i'm surrounded by birds singing we have a duet going on between the black bird up here and the missile thrush behind me missile thrushes are new to this garden they've come this year plenty of song thrashes but this is a missile trash so we read our first lesson which comes from the book of job in the old testament the 17th chapter beginning at the third verse job is complaining against god for all he is suffering and cannot understand why god is treating him thus lay down a pledge for me with you who is there who will put up security for me since you have closed their hearts to understanding therefore you you will not let them triumph he who informs against his friends to get a share of their property the eyes of his children will fail he has made me a byword of the peoples and i am one before whom men spit my eye has grown dim from vexation and all my members are like a shadow the upright are appalled at this and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless yet the righteous holds to his way and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger but you come on again all of you and i shall not find a wise man among you days are past my plans are broken off the desires of my heart they make night in today the light they say is near to the darkness if i hope for hades as my house if i make my bed in darkness if i say to the pit you are my father to the worm my mother or my sister where then is my hope who will see my hope will it go down to the bars of shio shall we descend together into the dust job at the lowest form of his desolation and complaining against god so we turn to the more cheerful song of mary the magnificat my soul does magnify the lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in god my savior for he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed for he that is mighty hath magnified me and holy is his name and his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations he has showed strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts he has put down the mighty from their seat and has exalted the humble and meek he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away he remembering his mercy has opened his servant israel as he promised to our forefathers abraham and his seed forever glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen our new testament lesson from sin paul's epistle to the romans beginning at the 18th verse of chapter eight for i consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us for creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of god for the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of god likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of god and we know that for those who love god all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters and those whom he predestined he also called and those whom he called he also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified [Music] lord now let us now thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou has prepared before the face of all people to be a light to lighten the gentiles and to be the glory of thy people israel glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen let us pray [Music] lord have mercy upon us christ have mercy upon us lord have mercy upon 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 that trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil amen o lord share thy mercy upon us and grant us thy salvation o lord save the queen and mercifully hear us when we call upon thee endure thy ministers with righteousness and make thy chosen people joyful o lord save thy people and bless thine inheritance give peace in our time o lord because there is none other that fighteth for us but only thou o god oh god make clean our hearts within us and take not thy holy spirit from us oh god the strength of all them that put their trust in thee mercifully accept our prayers and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without thee grant us the help of thy grace that in keeping of thy commandments we may please thee both in will and deed through jesus christ our lord amen oh god from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all just works do proceed give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give that our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness through the merits of jesus christ our savior amen lighten our darkness we beseech thee o lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy only son our savior jesus christ amen [Music] lewis once wrote of prayer the prayer which must come before all other prayers is oh god let the god that i am praying to be the real you and i be the real i who am speaking what he meant was let's have no pretense or no imaginings of a god as he is not and therefore when we are feeling as as job was feeling the real prayer is to tip all that into god's lap for he sees us as we are and wants us to be praying as we are how else can he help us and if it is a god of our own making we are praying to how can we be helped i remember being told when i was working in salisbury as one of the staff of the cathedral there in the early 1970s about william golding the novelist whose year's mind is today he died on this day in 1993 but he had been in the late 40s and early 50s a master at bishop wordsworth grammar school in salisbury cathedral close and there by watching the procession of choristers going daily to even song across the close he had conceived the idea first of lord of the flies which is probably his most famous book but also he'd conceived the idea looking at that magnificent spire of the novel simply called the spire and that is the story of a troubled man well let me admit it a troubled dean for jocelyn is the dean of a cathedral without a spire who conceives the idea that it is god's will that he jocelyn build that spire to the glory of the city of the cathedral and of god and all the way through as you see what that particular idea is doing to him and he's clinging on to the sense that this is the will of god for him while terrible things happen to those around him and while advice given about the instability of such a structure and also the advice given about what it is doing to his daily life leading the rhythm of the life of a cathedral and yet on he goes on he goes and those of you who have read that book know what terrible consequences all the way through for people and the cathedral itself come from that sense of having about the need to a force god which he has created for himself maybe not at the beginning but gradually as he becomes ossified in that belief that this is for him and he ends in a poor way so that for job to take all that and throw it in the lap of god early is good prayer even though as we read his complaint through the book it seems rather miserable a loud cry to god an honest cry to god and also a willing ear to listen mr macron yesterday when he was making his speech giving the letter of honor to london said that the best gift that london and britain has given the free french voice with the microphone the microphone of the bbc in those days so that the voice could be loud and clear for freedom despite the odds and in the same way we have an ability to raise our voice for others a real voice when we see injustice and cruelty but also to raise our voice to god when we believe somehow he is not treating us fairly it's a natural enough feeling but that loud voice of humanity that cry of humanity is something that goes right through the scriptures and right through history and the honest cry to the honest god that we have perceived the true image of the creator of heaven and earth who gives himself to us we believe in jesus christ and in the holy spirit that odyss cry is a real voice and we have to know how to raise that voice day by day the prayer before all other prayers that god be the real god and not a creature of our imagination and that i be the real i who in praying warts and all this morning we were talking about the clear voice of virulen and today someone suggested that because i mentioned the charities that she so much supported there were many of them but one of her absolute favorites was the war widows association so i put the link for that below in case you wanted to click on that on this day when we've been remembering her so from william golding through emmanuel macron for the clear voice and also to violin we remember all those things but we remember all those around us who cry to us for help and we say our evening prayers together let's hold silence for a moment while we think of those we'd want to pray for and also pray for ourselves that we may hold fast to what we believe is god's will for us [Music] almighty god who has given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee and us promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy name thou wilt grant their requests fulfill now o lord the desires and petitions of thy servants as may be most expedient for them granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting amen 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 tonight and always amen so [Applause]