good morning and welcome to the orchard here in the deanery of canterbury cathedral as we say our morning prayers on this friday the 4th of september wherever you are in the world please feel welcome and bring your own concerns to our prayers as we say them as always we look back on this date september the 4th and what it's meant in history in terms of destruction and creation of joy and of sadness we remember probably first the 1781 date when spanish settlers founded the city of what has become los angeles that enormous city and we remember all our canterbury friends there in california uh particularly at the getty foundations because they have taken an uh great interest in our staying glass and we've worked with them over the last uh more than a decade now we remember brian keane who's taken such a great interest here who's just beginning new work we also remember those at the huntington museum there and so as we think of los angeles this morning we pray for that community in california we also remember that on this day on the other side of the united states in 1609 henry hudson arrived at manhattan island and then sailed up the river which now bears his name the hudson river so let's pray for all our friends in the united states but we remember too in 1800 that the maltese people invited in british troops in the middle of the napoleonic wars to help them against the french and the connection with malta has really remained ever since it's a place that we hold very dear in our hearts after that long time there morta and gozo the islands there in the mediterranean in 2010 a huge earthquake destroyed the uh cathedral church of christ christ church cathedral our cathedral here is also christchurch in the city of christchurch in new zealand it was a magnitude of 7.1 this canterbury earthquake six months later in february 2011 at the christchurch earthquake because it was centered much more in the city of christchurch a 6.3 magnitude earthquake killed 185 people and much more destruction all of that is still being reckoned with and we keep the people of christchurch and the congregation of the cathedral church of christ there in our hearts on this very particular day i remember myself being there in 1992 for two months at a a conference partnership in world mission it was called as we helped plan the next years and the whole conference ended with the delegates in the evening by candlelight walking around in that lovely cathedral church now destroyed singing brother sister let me serve you let me be as christ to you very powerful moment this is the day on which pope francis canonized mother teresa in the vatican and we give thanks for her works of the sisters of charity in calcutta across the world and remember that in rome their house is next door to the monastery of saint gregory that we were talking about in our prayers yesterday we remember pope john paul's visit to lithuania in 1993 as the first time that the pope had gone beyond what had been the iron curtain and went to greet the people there we think actually of the author mary reno being born in 1904 so many of us read her novels fictional biographies of theseus socrates plato three volumes of alexander the great she brought alive the world of ancient greece in that way i remember reading the king must die with great excitement when i was at school and um we also remember that this is national fish and chip day it's a friday and so tonight we shall be eating our fish and chips as is traditional in england yesterday we kept uh national welsh rabbit day and had our cheese on toast at lunch time it's quite useful having these national days because you don't have to choose what to eat it's done for you so as we remember all those things and some more in our reflection we begin our prayers on this friday morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night oh come let us sing to the lord let us heartily rejoice in the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving and be glad in him with psalms for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand 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 does 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 our son this morning is psalm 19 the heavens are telling the glory of god and the firmament proclaims his handiwork one day pours out its song to another and one night unfolds knowledge to another they have neither speech nor language and their voices are not heard yet their sound has gone out into all lands and their words to the ends of the world in them has he set a tabernacle for the sun that comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoices as a champion to run his course it goes forth from the end of the heavens and runs to the very end again and there is nothing hidden from its heat the law of the lord is perfect reviving the soul the testimony of the lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple the statutes of the lord are right and rejoice the heart the commandment of the lord is pure and gives light to the eyes the fear of the lord is clean and endures forever the judgments of the lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold more than much fine gold sweeter also than honey dripping from the honeycomb by them also is your servant taught and in keeping of them there is great reward who can tell how often they offend oh cleanse me from my secret faults keep your servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get dominion over me so shall i be undefiled and innocent of great offense let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight o lord my strength and my redeemer so we turn to our reading from the acts of the apostles and we're beginning chapter 10 it is a crucial chapter in luke's plan for luke's plan is to show how the followers of the way took the good news across boundaries and across the mediterranean to other nations of the world so that the good news would be a gift to all and the holy spirit a gift to all this is the story of cornelius and it's a story of 43 verses 48 verses which were dividing as we did the story of jonah day by day so we'll recap each day but for the moment let's begin it and it's a story about peter not about saul we've left him for a moment let's concentrate on peter and we begin chapter 10 of the acts of the apostles at caesarea there was a man named cornelius a centurion of what was known as the italian cohort a devout man who feared god with all his household gave arms generously to the people and prayed continually to god about the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of god come in and say to him cornelius and he stared at him in terror and said what is it lord and he said to him your prayers and your arms have ascended as a memorial before god and now send men to joppa and bring one simon who is called peter he is lodging with one simon a tanner whose house is by the seaside when the angel who spoke to him had departed cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him and having related everything to them he sent them to joppa the next day as they were on their journey and approaching the city peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray and he became hungry and wanted something to eat but while they were preparing it he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending being let down by its four corners upon the earth in it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air and there came a voice to him rise peter kill and eat but peter said by no means lord for i have never eaten anything that is common or unclean and the voice came to him again a second time what god has made clean do not call common this happened three times and the thing was taken up at once to heaven now while peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean behold the men who were sent by cornelius having made inquiry for simon's house stood at the gate and called out to ask whether simon who was called peter was lodging there and while peter was pondering the vision the spirit said to him behold three men are looking for you rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation for i have sent them we paused that in that story yesterday we found who peter was staying with as he went out into completely different territory already he's come through samaria where there was a sense of always hostility between judea galilee samaria and now he's come all the way to joppa to the seaside makes me wonder that as he's staying with simon the tanner and he peter a fisherman looking out on the great mediterranean sea rather than on the sea of galilee when paul stayed with people he worked his trade as a tent maker and we know that later in the acts of the apostles i wonder very much whether peter earned his keep by mending nets when he came to joppa and was staying with with simon the tanner certainly he was by the seaside and meanwhile in caesarea farther up the coast but still on the mediterranean sea an italian member of the italian cohort cornelius a roman legion a centurion and the italian cohort based there at that time but he is clearly faithful and is following the jewish method of prayer and called a devout man and he does those things necessary to show righteousness the giving of arms and the saying of prayers and luke shows us that he's praying at the ninth hour that's three o'clock in the afternoon just as peter and john earlier on went up to the temple in the ninth hour three o'clock in the afternoon peter himself is in joppa and has a different message but meanwhile cornelius in his prayers is told to send to get simon who is called peter so he sends two men with a soldier's escort in luke it's always uh that evangelists so to speak people with messages angels go in pairs and these two are going to peter with a very special message but they come as three men with the soldiers escort down to the house and they arrive when peter is on the roof of the house waiting for his meal to be prepared clearly tired and hungry and resting on the roof again one can imagine there is only an imagination that there was some kind of shelter from the sunshine but it would have been hot on the roof there and my guess is that uh they'd have spread up a tent or sale to help him uh shelter and rest and in his trance it seems almost as though the sail is taken up and comes down to him and when it's opened it's full of creatures no no cats are named but uh um every creatures of all kinds and um also birds of the air and at that point um peter hears a voice saying rise kill a deed and peter says but these are clean and unclean animals i've never eaten anything unclean or common and then the voice says that which god calls clean you must not call common so this happens three times as if to underline the message and peter is pondering what it means when the three men arrive and the spirit said to peter there are people downstairs knocking at the door i want you to rise and go and meet them for i have sent them this is the precursor to peter's journeying which causes him in the end to be in rome and it also is a preface to paul's work because it's actually saying that the good news that they have is for all nations and there were two rules that the jerusalem church were at that time insisting on uh and uh one was the keeping of the law in so far as as not eating with gentiles so that you were almost making proselytes as they were called and the other one was that circumcision was necessary for any who became a christian and that is something that the church was wrestling with certainly something that it would continue to wrestle with as we shall see for a little bit now and was causing very deep divisions what was peter the rock to do well here's an answer about to happen and when the gospel does begin to spread then maybe we should look to another anniversary which happened today on september 4th 476 the western roman empire finished as the last emperor was pushed from his throne and the senate of western uh re the western roman empire sent the insignia to the eastern empire with its base in constantinople for rome and europe had fallen to the northern huns and vandals and goths who had come down so 476 marks the end of the western roman empire but in this story that we are engaged in peter is depending on the strength of that empire all those years earlier more than 400 years earlier because he is going to travel with relative safety across the mediterranean world so let's give thanks first of all for the means whereby he was able to travel and the protection that the legions of which cornelius was a member gave to those who were going to be the people taking the gospel and the gift of the holy spirit across the mediterranean but also the language that they were able to share for peter had no problem talking to cornelius because they both spoke as a second language probably the common greek of the mediterranean region so that as we've said before that common group that koine greek as it was called became the vehicle whereby the church gave its message very importantly so because a language is everything when you are trying to communicate and so at this time we give thanks first of all for the way in which things went forward and uh that was by the safety of the empire of rome at that time and that very often remember there's a centurion with paul guarding him as he goes across the sea to roam itself in the end but also the ability and ease with which the church spoke across the languages because of that common greech language in which all the new testament is written and also the old testament which the early christians used was the greek translation the septuagint as it was called and so that common language and that safe way of traveling is something to give thanks for the eastern roman empire would actually survive for many many more years yet 1453 is when constantinople fell and that was an empire of almost 1500 years from 26 bc or something like that when the roman empire was founded as an empire with rome at its center and then ending in 1453 when the ottomans took over constantinople it's a very long imperial strand but in the end things come to an end times of destruction times of creation here is a time of creation for this vision is going to take the church far let's uh say our prayers this morning as we remember the beginning of peter's work which came even to the lands that we are in ourselves in the end because barriers were broken down and the gift was realized to be a gift for all so we look at the places in the world that we're praying for this morning on this 4th of september and the 4th of september gives us the diocese of oregon in the episcopal church and michael hanley the bishop there and his people and the diocese of california nice coincidence of with mark andrus our friend mark andres and the episcopal church in the diocese of california we pray actually for grace cathedral in san francisco's because california is so big that there are three dioceses there so there's a completely different diocese down in the south at los angeles but let's pray for mark and his space in san francisco and then we pray here for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth we're continuing also in the diocese to pray for the parishes in the city and in the villages around the city of canterbury and today we pray for all those who act as chaplains in communities around there particularly we think of schools because the children are starting this week and next week in school again at a difficult time for them and for members of staff let's say our prayers almighty and everlasting god you are always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than either we desire or deserve pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy for giving us those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask but through the merits of mediation of jesus christ your son our lord says we bring our own concerns and say the prayer our savior taught us in our own languages we give thanks for any language which crosses barriers but we also remember with special intention the diocese of christchurch new zealand this morning on this anniversary of the earthquake so in whichever language you use we say together 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 moment of silence now for your own intentions and prayers 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 amen good boy