good morning and welcome on this tuesday morning the 4th of august the 4th of august is a date which is important in so many different ways as we come into the garden of the deanery at canterbury cathedral and welcome you from all over the world we remember it as the day on which world war one began and changed the face of europe over the next four years for forever really and we also remember this in terms of human suffering as the day in 1944 when an informer in holland gave away the hiding place of anne frank and her family and the gestapo arrived to arrest them but more hopefully we remember that this is the 150th anniversary of the founding of the british red cross now a worldwide organization committed to compassion to neutrality and for total inclusivity in all that it does in companionship with the red crescent and we pray for its work through this day this festival day of anniversary of its beginnings as we come to say our morning prayers oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the true the only light banish all darkness from our hearts and minds 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 and 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 morning psalm on this fourth morning of the month is very appropriately as the sun shines down on us on this summer morning 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 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 turn to our reading from st luke's gospel and we have arrived at chapter 23 and beginning at verse 26 pilate has delivered jesus over to the will of the people and sentenced that he must be crucified and as they led jesus away they seized one simon of cyrene who was coming in from the country and they laid on him the cross to carry it behind jesus and there followed him a great multitude of the people and of the women who were mourning and lamenting for him but turning to them jesus said daughters of jerusalem do not weep for me but weep for yourselves and for your children for behold the days are coming when they will say blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed then they will begin to say to the mountains fall on us and to the hills cover us for if they do these things when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry to others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him and when they came to the place that is called the skull there they crucified jesus and the criminals one on his right and one on his left and jesus said father forgive them for they know not what they do and they cast lots to divide his garments and the people stood by watching but the rulers scoffed at him saying he saved others let him save himself if he is the christ of god his chosen one the soldiers also mocked him coming up and offering him sour wine and saying if you are the king of the jews save yourself there was also an inscription over him this is the king of the jews one of the criminals who were hanged railed at him saying are you not the christ save yourself and us but the other rebuked him saying do you not fear god since you are under the same sentence of condemnation and we indeed justly for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds but this man has done nothing wrong and he said jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom and jesus said to him truly i say to you today you will be with me in paradise it's a story we know well and in our minds we tend to make a harmony of all the details given to us by the four evangelists but let's this morning as i stand in front of this great ash tree towering above me let's think how luke chooses to tell this story as he has collected the information and put it together for our benefit for him someone who had never witnessed any of these things and had gone there in order to collect those stories told from the people still there for him this was all new and wonderful having joined saint paul in his mission and come later to the holy land when they got there and then back to rome but here he is telling the story of jesus being handed over and he points to certain things which help us on this day first and foremost the first thing that happens is that they lay the cross on the back of simon of cyrene and in st luke's gospel we are told he followed behind jesus the first person to do what jesus has said a true disciple does earlier in saint luke's gospel take up his cross and follow him simon is following behind if we are to conflate and borrow from other stories we know that simon was known to the early church because of his sons alexander and rufus who probably were known to the church in rome for rufus is listed there but for the moment we can imagine that simon was simply a stranger coming in from the country looking strong the cross is laid on his back secondly luke points out the group of women he's done that all the way through and will continue to do so but here they are showing signs of total grief yet they follow and around them are women from jerusalem no doubt with their children and jesus says in prophetic terms don't weep for me weep for yourselves and for your children luke probably knows that the babies carried by those women in that year would only be in middle age before the terrible things which jesus prophesied would happen to jerusalem and it would lie as a a city completely destroyed by the violence of the imperial army which had grown completely fed up with one insurrection after another and decided to rid themselves of this trouble in this outpost of the empire terrible things jesus quotes the prophecies from hosea calling on the mountains to fall on them because such terrible things would happen this will be the result if people do not accept another way which he has tried to put in front of them and he uses a proverb from the carpenter shop they do this when the wood is green what will happen when it's seasoned and dry dry timber burns well [Applause] and so we go on and sentences in this account are in luke's gospel but nowhere else the first and important one is the comprehensive forgiveness for those who don't realize what they're doing father forgive them for they know not what they do as they are nailing him to the cross the inscription above the king of the jews a mocking one and yet the vocation of the holy nation will embrace with god's own truth in christ's own ministry death and resurrection a gift for the whole world and those of his family and those of his friends are standing around watching this notably the women who have followed him and then words of a different kind of forgiveness to the criminal beside him this is extraordinary for jesus turns to him after he said jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom maybe they were kindly words meant for one he saw no guilt in whatever jesus gives kindly words back and he uses a word he only uses once the word paradise it was probably a common word for whatever was beyond and full of enjoyments but it's used only three times in the new testament once is in the second letter of paul to the corinthians when he's describing the marvelous vision when he's caught up into heaven caught up into paradise and heard words that it's impossible to repeat and says how he was given a thorn in his flesh which was going to be there always to keep him humble because he had received such a vision and secondly in the book of revelation the second chapter when the church in ephesus is given the picture of those who endure being able to eat the fruits of the tree of life which is in the paradise of god just those three times but here i think jesus is giving the thief a concept that he can understand in the middle of all his distress his loneliness the thoughts of the denial and betrayal of friends jesus turns to this man and admits him into the paradise but he prefaces those words with words that we are used to from other gospels truly i say to you amen lego soy truly i say to you you so often in john's gospel when jesus is wanting to make a point verily verily i say to you amen i mean lego sorry here he says it to the thief he's only used that form twice in the gospel of saint luke when he's wanted to emphasize either his grief at his own town of nazareth who will not accept his ministry truly i say to you a prophet is not without honor except in his own place and secondly when he wants to emphasize the fact that for the faithful servant truly i tell you the master will come and finding him watching and waiting finding him or her watching or waiting will serve them truly i say to you he will fasten his belt and serve them three times and here to the penitent thief enter into the joy of your lord it means but these words are spoken in the extremity of the cross as the gift of paradise and the tree of life is given to a repentant sinner even though the man didn't know what the gift was and was probably speaking the words in compassion to jesus himself humoring him perhaps it doesn't matter compassion is the sign of the worldwide red cross inclusivity is the sign of the world wide red cross the gift of healing as far as they can make it is the sign of the world wide red cross to all who lead them red cross red crescent they are for our healing in compassion we give thanks on this day for the insights of saint luke for the ability of being embraced into the kingdom for the image of a paradise which contains the tree of life with the fruits that we are able to enjoy even here and now in insights from heaven as the word the eternal word speaks those words from the cross let's say our prayers and today we think in the anglican communion of the diocese of ogbaru in nigeria pray for prosper amer the bishop there and his people the diocese of bondo in kenya and david kodia the bishop there and his people and also the diocese of kasai mbujimayi in the congo that diocese is vacant at present so we pray for those who are choosing a bishop but pray for all the people there in this diocese as we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth we remember today the parish of chariton with newington and pray for joe robertson in the ministry there and the people who support her and all of those people who are in that community [Music] so we say the prayer for this week as we bring our own prayers on this day almighty lord and everlasting god we beseech you to direct sanctify and govern both our hearts and bodies in the ways of your laws and the works of your commandments that through your most mighty protection both here and ever we may be preserved in body and soul through our lord and savior jesus christ amen the prayer at the end of psalm 19 christ the son of righteousness rise in our hearts this day and fold us in the brightness of your love and bear us at the last to heaven's horizon for your love's sake amen [Applause] so we pray each in our own language the prayer that our lord taught us to say when we come 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 for your own prayers on this day so 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