good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this morning of tuesday the 7th of july and this of course is the 800th anniversary date of the consecration of the shrine of saint thomas of canterbury in 1220 this was a day when we had planned an enormous ecumenical festival and the forecourt of the deanery would not have been looking like this but of course the pandemic meant that everything had to be for the while postponed and perhaps next year on this date we can do what we had intended to do this year with all our friends from across the world replicating in a way the gathering here on that date in 1220 but for the moment we're saying our prayers with you and we welcome you from wherever you are in the world on this lovely morning as we celebrate the consecration of the shrine and its focus still for thousands of pilgrims year by year as they come to this holy place and receive blessings to take back to their own lives and their own homes so let's say our morning prayers together 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this seventh morning of the month is psalm 36 sin whispers to the wicked in the depths of their heart there is no fear of god before their eyes they flatter themselves in their own eyes that their abominable sin will not be found out the words of their mouth are unrighteous and full of deceit they have ceased to act wisely and to do good they think out mischief upon their beds and have set themselves in no good way and nor do they abhor that which is evil but your love o lord reaches to the heavens and your faithfulness to the clouds your righteousness stands like the strong mountains your justice like the great deep you lord shall save both man and beast how precious is your loving mercy oh god all mortal flesh shall take refuge under the shadow of your wings they shall be satisfied with the abundance of your house they shall drink from the river of your delights for with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to those who are true of heart let not the foot of pride come against me nor the hand of the ungodly thrust me away there are they fallen all who work wickedness they are cast down and shall not be able to stand so we continue our regular reading of the gospel of saint luke and this morning we begin chapter 18. it begins with two parables so often as i've said in the past weeks these are only found in the gospel of saint luke jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart he said in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared god nor respected man and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying give me justice against my adversary for a while he refused but afterwards he said to himself though i neither fear god nor respect any human being yet because this widow keeps bothering me i will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her persistent coming and the lord said hear what the unrighteous judge says and will not god give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night will he delay long over them i tell you he will give justice to them speedily nevertheless when the son of man comes will he find faith on earth jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt two men went up into the temple to pray one a pharisee and the other a tax collector the pharisee standing by himself prayed thus god i thank you that i am not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector i fast twice a week i give tithes of all that i get but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying god be merciful to me a sinner i tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled but the one who humbles himself will be exalted nothing in those parables should surprise us when we think back on the way that luke emphasizes the teaching of jesus about humility but also the teaching of jesus in our prayers for persistence patience and coming before god with our real concerns remember how when the disciples asked him lord teach us to pray he gave them first the prayer that we always say together our father who art in heaven and then he gave them advice about never losing heart in prayers and being the real you before the real and one and only living god who created all things he said ask seek knock and the lesson is persistence and he tells and i think must have had a smile on his face the story of a judge who cared about nobody but himself but the persistence of the widow asking for justice against her adversary caused the unjust judge to say i'm fed up with this persistence for my own peace i will give her what she wants will not god therefore recognize the persistence of those asking and give them the gifts which he desires above all else to give humility and persistence and perhaps those are good parables to hear on this particular feast of st thomas we could tell all kinds of stories about his martyrdom for that is well accounted but we have put online today a little special service which will be shown throughout the day around the shrine were the description from the medieval prayer books written soon after thomas was killed and the shrine was then consecrated 50 years later soon after that event in 1220 and it described the glory of this day and the thousands who came filling the villages around and then seeking to be near the holy place and the lovely thing is that the stained glass windows the 12th century stained glass windows which have survived through thick and thin over hundreds of years all around the shrine as the morning sun shone through them this morning but we've had the blessing of going to say an early morning prayer in the cathedral itself which is now open to us for services quietly done and it's social distancing but the sunshine as it came up from the right direction in the east here shone through those windows and they weren't windows of great saints they are windows of people who've come to the shrine with needs none of them much named we tend to know by tradition the names of some of them but there are a multitude of faces there who've traveled to be near the shrine hundreds of years ago with their needs and they're also are pictures of blessings being given to them many many stories which we can look at and in the color imagine well we don't have to imagine real stories and we don't have to imagine real creativity our psalm talks about thou lord will save both man and beast creatures as well as humanity and the color of creation is all around us this morning and that can also be affected by us here is a beautiful rose it's red and it's called the thomas beckett rose it was created first by the vision and then the determination of my companion fletcher banner who then went to old david austin senior the rose grower and david himself now sadly gone to glory and we miss his letters because they were full of encouragement with his skill he created the thomas beckett rose and i remember him sitting in his kitchen with us at the place where all those roses are grown and developed and saying in my school days we were taught to call him thomas arbekit that customers died rather but it stayed with us with this particular beautiful rose and many of you will now have it in your gardens it grows well and david said be patient with roses for when they're first created they need time to have strength and now it really does have that strength and see how beautiful it is fragrant and speaking of thomas the martyr but speaking also of all those pilgrims in the colorful stained glass which our workshops still restore and create in many colors just as all our living departments which you can find if you explore our websites are being creative all the time with vision and with patience look at the roses around us on a morning like this and see how creation responds to patience and tender care but everything has to be done with humility and with patient persistence that's the lesson of saint luke i always feel that sin luke himself is our companion because he was a stranger to all of this he discovered it as he went along and he places the stories as the stained glass and as the roses have been placed by staying glass workers and gardeners and people of imagination with beautiful patterns and as he does that he gives us a picture of the jesus himself that he came to love and know and in him to find the perfect image of god in human form we give so much thanks for that in the acts of the apostles he's not a stranger because the later chapters he was part of the story but he never names himself simply the third person plural appears we did this we did that there's a humility the tax collector feeling himself unworthy the hated tax collector because he wrote worked for the roman army of occupation was standing right at the back in the holy place simply saying one prayer lord have mercy on me a sinner and the pharisee sure of his own righteousness at the front caricatures yes but caricatures which actually speak a message which is there right through luke's gospel and is there through this feast today no one no one is rejected but when they come when we come we come together and in humility and our prayer at any service begins lord have mercy on me a sinner and the lord raises us up to be creative with the precious gifts he's given us and which we must use with vision and patient persistence to bring into effect let's say our prayers on this day we remember the 7th of july in the anglican communion the diocese of northwest australia and gary nelson the bishop there and his people the diocese of orka in nigeria and alexander ebays him the bishop there and his people and also in nigeria the diocese of kafanchan and marcus dogo the bishop there and all his people in this diocese on this day we remember archbishop justin and remember also all who bear episcopal authority with him rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth we give thanks for the role of this cathedral church where the throne of saint augustine is placed as the mother church of a worldwide communion and on this day in this diocese we pray for the parish of sissinghurst trinity church with frittendens and mary and we pray for peter deeves in his ministry and the reader tony staples and the schools there frittenden primary school and sissinghurst church of england primary school so we also bring our own prayers on this day humbly and with persistence praying for those whom we love and those for whom we would pray because we have some imagination of their need so as we say our prayers on this day we say first the prayer of saint thomas beckett saint thomas abekit to remember the voice of lovely david austin lord god who gave grace to your servant thomas beckett to put aside all earthly fear and be faithful even to death grant that we disregarding worldly esteem may fight all wrong uphold your rule and serve you to our life's end through jesus christ our lord amen we say the psalm collect of psalm 36 o god the well of life make us bright with wisdom that we may be lightened with the knowledge of your glory in the face of jesus christ our lord amen so together we say the prayer that our lord taught us to say in whatever language and in whichever way you 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 are men moment of silence this morning as we make our own prayers god give you grace to follow sin thomas of canterbury and all his saints in faith and love and steadfastness and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and upon those whom you love and would pray for this day and always amen