good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this 30th of june the last day of the month and we've come up onto the roof for reasons you'll see later but also we want to remember this day as the anniversary of the birthday of one army one of our most important botanists joseph hooker who was born on this day in 1817 and died so many years later in 1911 having for 20 years been the director of the royal botanical gardens at queue and one of our most important geographical botanists he took over queue from his father and both of them had been explorers for plants across the world so very important people in the ecology of our earth and the understanding of plants and all their properties we remember the life of the royal botanical gardens at queue today but we for the moment say our morning prayers before our reflection oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation and sustain us with your gracious spirit blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep 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 and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen on this last day of the month our morning psalm is psalm 146 alleluia praise the lord o my soul while i live will i praise the lord as long as i have any being i will sing praises to my god put not your trust in princes nor in any human power for there is no help in them when their breath goes forth they return to the earth on that day all their thoughts perish happy are those who have the god of jacob for their help whose hope is in the lord their god who made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them who keeps his promise forever who gives justice to those that suffer wrong and bread to those who hunger the lord looses those that are bound the lord opens the eyes of the blind the lord lifts up those who are bowed down the lord loves the righteous the lord watches over the stranger in the land he upholds the orphan and widow but the way of the wicked he turns upside down and the lord shall reign forever your god desires throughout all generations alleluia so we turn to our reading and we're in the 15th chapter of the gospel of saint luke yesterday we had to miss out on the beginning because of the keeping of the feast of saint peter and saint paul so we had special readings for that day so i'm intending to do the two sections of chapter 15 because they are so important in the parables of jesus today and tomorrow cheating a little bit with the lectionary so today we're reading from verse 1 to verse 10 and we covered two little parables now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear jesus and the pharisees and scribes grumbled saying this man receives sinners and eats with them so jesus told them this parable what man of you having a hundred sheep if he has lost one of them does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it and when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing and when he comes home he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them rejoice with me for i have found my sheep that was lost just so i tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance or what woman having ten silver coins if she loses one coin does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it and when she has found it she calls together her friends and neighbors saying rejoice with me for i have found the coin that i had lost just so i tell you there is joy before the angels of god over one sinner who repents two lovely little lost and found stories and the first about one of god's creatures who had gone astray jesus is obliquely speaking of his whole ministry we have watched it unfold in st luke's gospel of course his vision as our messiah is set toward the task in jerusalem the hard task and he is struggling with that struggling with his care of the twelve but at the same time his eyes never fail to notice the one in the crowd who needs him the one like zacchaeus in the tree who's gone up to see him and thinks he's unnoticed and jesus spots him we're forever looking for creatures in the garden in the sense of now where is leo gone and how can we find him and in the back of our minds there's always the sense of danger around for when night falls foxes are around in great numbers at this time of of lockdown when not so many human beings have been around in the woody parts of this precinct so searching and taking care becomes a natural thing how much more so when it's one of your own one of your own children one of your own friends one of god's children searching for the lost is something that jesus is always putting in the eyes of those who are questioning him criticizing him what is your ministry the writers who believe themselves not to need anyone looking for them that's the first aspect of that parable the care of every living thing which is in our charge or simply which comes upon our path and certainly the care of one another at this time the second parable is different and it's why we've come up onto the roof i'm standing at the uh this the uh south side of the the deanery on the tower on this side of the dealer and behind me is the cathedral and when it was the monastery that the house swept all the way around with hospitality down here in the priors hall and round to what behind me was the exchequer of the monastery and beyond that and still is the cloister and always in something like this this landscape which has had a community living in it for over 1400 years the minute you put a a spade into the ground something turns up sometimes it's of value in giving perspective sometimes it's of value in helping us understand the community that came before and being faithful to its ideals and its own faithfulness and sometimes it's something precious that someone has lost and here's the woman who having lost just one of her 10 silver coins sweeps the house lights a lamp and tries to find it well i have in my hand something which is a copy of something rather precious which was discovered here here it is it's a little anglo-saxon timepiece it's 10th century or the object it was copied from which is in our collections is 10th century and was discovered here in the cloister in 1938 it's a pocket sundial and you use it by holding it up to the sun and putting the little pointed cursor into one of the three holes and aligning it with the month which is written three letters in latin all 12 of them written somewhere on the silver piece at the top and as you put it in so it gives you a particular time of day now you would think it was a timepiece to say oh it's uh such and such a time in fact it's not for that it's for times of day when those who were away from the monastery in the fields were not to be called back to prayer but would say their prayers where they were it tells them when to pray the offices of the day some of them they joined together in morning and evening and all of that but sometimes they were by themselves and even where the bells couldn't reach them and at that time the little cursor went in to show when it was time to say the various offices of the day and morning at nine in the morning at 12 noon at three in the afternoon and so on and the the middle of the day offices were really when the sun was up what this was for it gives us perspective into the rhythm of their prayer life just as all that we're doing is a perspective in the rhythm of our prayer life the community here goes on as you can see all around and prayer still marks the hours of the day on sunday we shall say the some of our prayers in the cathedral itself and at the the the hours of prayer we shall also be saying our prayers outside to stream them across the world but the time is made holy by those hours of prayer just as the woman swept for the coin and found something precious there's always a celebration when things lost are found and the loveliest thing about this and jesus i think is aware of it all the time whenever someone comes to him and he is able to heal them send them back to their homes rejoicing he extends that rejoicing even to the angels of heaven the most wonderful image on this morning the last day of june as we come together to say our prayers so we have the usual prayers for the anglican communion and today we pray for the northeast india diocese of north india and for michael harrens the bishop there and all his people also the episcopal church of the united states diocese of atlanta and pray for robert wright the bishop there and his people and finally the diocese of khabar in nigeria and pray for stephen akobe the bishop there and his people we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambus and today for the parish of benindon st george and sandhurst saint nicholas pray for also for the life of ben and school and our friend the headmistress sir sam price so we also pray for the the clergy of the diocese of benindon and sandhurst and pray by name for david commander and the life of ben and church of england primary school and its community we give thanks for the church the world over and wherever you are say your prayers for the community that you know as we use first the connect for the day and then a psalm collect almighty god you have broken the tyranny of sin and have sent the spirit of your son into our hearts whereby we call you father give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service that we and all creation may be brought to the glorious liberty of the children of god through christ our lord amen the psalm collect king of the universe you show the bright glory of your reign in acts of mercy and enduring love raise the spirits of the downcast and restore those who have fallen away that we may sing forever of your love through jesus christ our lord amen so in our own way at this hour of prayer we say the our father in whatever language and whichever way you would like to say it 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 amen a moment of silence for your own prayers as this month ends through 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 would pray for today and always amen if you want to learn more about the saxon sundial and all the anglo-saxon things here then click on the the uh website below the the marker below and you can explore that area of our life and give you a new perspective in this place