good morning and welcome on this wednesday the 4th of november at last here in the deanery garden it's canterbury we have a morning with no wind a morning with no clouds and the morning sunshine shining across the garden on this autumn morning there's been a first frost on the great lawn and so a very very different kind of morning from the windy rainy mornings we've had recently so on this particular day we remember uh in the past on november the 4th the birth of james james who was a harpist who wrote the tune of the welsh national anthem land of my father's and his father evan james wrote the words of course in welsh i'm giving it to you in english my welsh is not good enough to give it to you uh we remember in 1884 the birth of harry ferguson an irish engineer best known for the development of the ferguson agricultural tractor and we also remember in 1890 that edward the prince of wales who became edward vii traveled for the first time on an electric underground railway rather than a a smoky solid fuel type of railway and that was on the what is now the city branch of the northern line in london was the day in 1922 when lord carnavan and howard carter discovered the tomb of tutankhamun in the valley of kings undisturbed since 1337 bc or bce at luxor in egypt and we remember also that this in 1942 was the end of the battle of el alamein in north africa a turning point of the second world war and in 1956 that soviet troops smashed the hungarian revolution and thousands were killed and about a quarter of a million people left hungary at that time it would be a long time before the iron curtain came down and in 1966 huge floods in italy flooded florence and venice had its highest ever accra ulta so many works of art are damaged and destroyed in florence in this year also 1924 gabriel forrest died the french composer whose requiem mass of course we used the other night and in 1946 the united nations educational scientific and cultural organization was established unesco all those things but in a world which today has its focus on the united states of america as the results of the presidential election come in and at the same time we continue to pray for all those combating the pandemic and of course this is the day when england itself goes into lockdown and at 12 midnight tonight that will happen later i'll give a new message on the website about our cathedral expectations of how that will look but certainly online worship will continue as this goes forward so let's begin our prayers on this lovely morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more 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 as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen so our psalm aptly enough on this fourth morning of the month 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 all together 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 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 offence 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 come now to the third reading from the revelation to john and we're in the middle of the letters which john has sent to the churches the courier if you like has reached the third church in pergamum and i'm beginning from verse 12 of chapter two and some of the pictures alarm but we have later to set them into context to the angel of the church in pergamum write the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword i know where you dwell where satan's throne is yet you hold fast by my name and you did not deny my faith even in the days of antipas my faithful witness who was killed among you where satan dwells but i have a few things against you you have some there who hold the teaching of balaam who taught balak to put a stumbling block before the children of israel so that they might eat food sacrifice to idols and practice fornication so also you have some who hold the teaching of the nicolaitans therefore repent if not i will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth whoever has an ear let them hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers i will give some of the hidden manner and i will give them a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it and to the angel of the church in thyatira right the words of the son of god who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze i know your works your love and your faith and your service and your patient endurance and that your latter works exceed the first but i have this against you that you tolerate that woman jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice fornication and eat food sacrifice to idols i gave her time to repent but she refuses to repent of her immorality behold i will throw her onto a sick bed and those who commit adultery with her i will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works and i will strike her children dead and all the churches will know that i am the one who searches mind and heart and i will give to each of you according to your works but to the rest of you in fiatira who do not hold this teaching who have not learned what some call the deep things of satan to you i say i do not lay on you any other burden only hold fast what you have until i come the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end to that one i will give authority over the nations and they will rule them with a rod of iron as when earth and pots are broken in pieces even as i myself have received authority from my father and i will give them the morning star whoever has an ear let them hear what the spirit says to the churches world fierce letters to pergamum and siatara but first let's remember that the illustration of fornication which keeps coming again and again which suggests sexual immorality but was something that was applied to those who worshipped idols and engaged in the practices of other religions and shared food at those ceremonies so what we are seeing here is the fear of faithlessness through too much involvement in the pagan practices around in pergamum and thyatira and of course they were there pergamum was the chief seat of roman government in asia minor and many there must have wanted to make some kind of accommodation with the society around them and it's that that this writer is telling them to beware of yesterday we had aware of too much strictness today we have a beware of too much latitude and we generally call that kind of accommodation between cults and faiths syncretism and that's what this writer is so afraid of we remember how at pergamum and also in uh thyatira but also in ephesus there were huge cults which had been of greek pagan origin and now had a roman overlay and then the one thing that frightened this person most of all the worship of the emperor himself a divine cult i doubt there were many educated romans who thought that the series of emperors were gods but it was something that was very deep in that culture and worshiping the emperor was something that christians could not do let's let's lay right across the top of the revelation to john our lord's words render unto caesar the things that are caesar's and unto god the things that are gods give to the emperor the things that belong to the emperor and unto god the things that belong to god and let's remember thomas words thomas more's words on the scaffold i die the king's good servant but god's first well here in pergamum there would have been much of that and the temple of zeus became the temple of jupiter and the temple of other gods and that kind of accommodation well it doesn't matter if i do was something that this man feared so much there's much compliment to the people in pergamum to the church in pergamum but there are these dire warnings and again to the nicolaitans and probably that particular teaching was of the same kind and then we come to sayatyra methaotyra not a great port or a great fortress but a very great trading place and what was best known in thiatara was their skill and there were craftspeople's guilds all over the city their skill with with purple cloth and with works in bronze but their coins had on them the image of the sun god taking the hand of the roman emperor as if again in an accommodation which this person feared and there was obviously someone a prophetess teaching there that that accommodation could be good and fruitful which was horrendous to the person writing this at this time we have to transport ourselves into that time and into what they saw christians saw as the excesses of pagan worship and how they had to keep themselves pure and clean he uses images on this occasion in thyatira of from psalm 2 but let's think first of someone from zyatira that we know very well from the acts of the apostles someone perhaps who was a a trading person a representative from thyatira in philippi i'm talking about lydia lydia who welcomed saint paul when he came to philippi for the first time nervously and believed and opened her home as a center of true worship lydia is an image here of that city of syatyra someone who kept the faith and was an ambassador not only for her own cities trading with the purple cloth but also also for what she believed in and the one who was the true symbol of the rising sun jesus christ himself and so back again to give to the emperor the things that are the emperors but to god the true god the things of god and if we go to psalm 2 you remember that we get the ascription of you're my son but at the same time we get something which is we're reminded of here right at the end for here the gift to the one who conquers is something which is uh a real promise from the past in the tradition there was in the ark of the covenant in the temple which was destroyed in 586 bc a golden pot of mana preserved and tradition also said that jeremiah the prophet when the temple was destroyed took that part and the manna disappeared but would be made evident again at the beginning of the age of the christ the messiah and here the promise to the one who overcomes is to be given of the hidden manner the bread of heaven and access to the the the banquet of the heavenly kingdom we have two gifts one the white stone and maybe with the name uh of of a new name given that the the name of the the great i am who is is also the lord of lords and king of kings but also very often a stone was used as an access to like a booking ticket going in and this gives the flavour of someone being given access to the kingdom of heaven at the beginning of the messianic age and at the same time we had the gift of the morning star given to the one who conquered and that gift also is reminiscent of the day star from on high which we read in the canticle in the gospel of saint luke all are signs of christ of the new good news and we remember the reign of christ and that psalm 2 speaks of that too but remember also the music of handel's messiah thou shalt break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel talking of the nations of the world who rely only on earthly powers and don't look towards god himself render unto caesar the things that are caesar and to god the things that are gods these are old testament images coming very powerfully into this book to the new testament church and to us today in our own situation and from it as with all scripture we take these hidden gems and use the images to help us in our own faith as we go forward there's been warning of too much strictness and the loss of the gift of love in ephesus now there's warning of not enough strictness well we can only find the way forward in our own prayers and reflections and that's what we try to do in the morning sunshine this morning let's say our prayers and as we do so we pray this morning in the anglican communion for the diocese of rokhan in south sudan and for francis mori the bishop there and his people and the diocese of derby in england and bishop libby lane and her people and here in this diocese we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and today for the westbridge area deanery now that area of our diocese under its area dean ravi holy with the laid chair caroline spencer who's a member of our own chapter here at the cathedral comprises the villages of borton aleph brook trolloc chartum chilum crandale elmstead gomesham hastingly hinks hill moulash petam stelling upper hearts wool them and why beautiful areas of kent very near to this cathedral we give thanks for their life on this day as we pray for them and we use the prayer for this week the week as it happens following all saints and so bring your own prayers as we use the collect almighty and eternal god you have kindled the flame of love in the hearts of the saints grant us the same faith and power of love that as we rejoice in their triumphs we may be sustained by their example and fellowship through jesus christ our lord amen so in our own language we say the prayer our savior taught 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 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 our 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 if 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