good morning and welcome to the dinery garden in canterbury cathedral and this is wednesday the 16th of uh september as we join together in our morning prayer on a lovely morning so wherever you are in the world feel welcome bring your prayers and concerns as we say our prayers together this is a day when we are thinking of the preservation of our ecology and life in all forms across the world prompted by the fact that this is save the koala month in australia but we can leave all that for our reflection also the dates that we think of today give us a chance to reflect on the performing arts and the difficulties they are facing during the pandemic but of course we are praying for each other in all our difficulties and situations as we say our prayers let's begin morning prayer oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the daystar dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night blessed are you sovereign god creator of all to you be glory and praise forever you founded the earth from the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands in the fullness of time you made us in your image and in these last days you have spoken to us in your son jesus christ the word made flesh as we rejoice in the gift of your presence among us let the light of your love always shine in our hearts your spirit ever renew our lives and your praises ever be on our lips 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 say may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our morning psalm on this 16th day of the months is psalm 80. [Music] hear o shepherd of israel you that led joseph like a flock shine forth you that are enthroned upon the cherubim before ephraim benjamin and manasseh stir up your mighty strengths and come to our turn salvation again o god show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved o lord god of hosts how long will you be angry at your people's prayer you feed them with the bread of tears you give them abundance of tears to drink you have made us the derision of our neighbors and our enemies laugh us to scorn turn us again o god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved you brought a vine out of egypt you drove out the nations and planted it you made room around it and when it had taken root it filled the land the hills were covered with its shadow and the cedars of god by its boughs it stretched out its branches to the sea and its tendrils to the river why then have you broken down its wall so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes the wild boar out of the wood tears it off and all the insects of the field devour it turn again oh god of hosts look down from heaven and behold cherish this vine which your right hand has planted and the branch that you made so strong for yourself let those who burnt it with fire who cut it down perish at the rebuke of your countenance and let your hand be upon the man at your right hand the son of man you made so strong for yourself and so will we not go back from you give us life and we shall call upon your name turn us again o lord god of hosts show the light of your countenance and we shall be saved [Music] we turn again to the acts of the apostles and follow luke's narrative as the first missionary journey comes to an end we're in chapter 14 and beginning at verse 8. now at lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet he was crippled from birth and had never walked he listened to paul speaking and paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well said in a loud voice stand upright on your feet and he sprang up and began walking and when the crowd saw what paul had done they lifted up their voices saying in their native la like ionian the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men barnabas they called zeus and paul they called hermes because he was the chief speaker and the priest of zeus whose temple was at the entrance to the city brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds but when the apostles barnabas and paul heard of it they tore their garments rushed out into the crowd crying out why are you doing these things we also are men of like nature with you and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living god who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them in past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own way yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons satisfying your hearts with food and with gladness but even with these words they scarcely restrain the people from offering sacrifice to them but jews came from antioch and iconium and having persuaded the crowds they stoned paul and dragged him out of the city supposing that he was dead but when the disciples gathered about him he got up and entered the city and on the next day he went on with barnabas to derby when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples they returned to lystra and to iconium and to antioch strengthening the souls of the disciples encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many persecutions we must enter the kingdom of god and when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting they committed them to the lord in whom they had believed then they passed through paisidia and came to pamphilia and when they had spoken the word in perga they went down to atelier and from there they sailed back to antioch where they had been commended to the grace of god for the work that they had fulfilled when they arrived there and gathered the church together they declared all that god had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the gentiles and they remained no little time with the disciples the first missionary journey luke was not part of that one so all we have is hearsay but it's very important hearsay on this morning as they arrive back to antioch in syria from where they had set off they've been at antioch in paisidia so there's a confusion of the two names but here they are arriving home i remember how with pilgrimages setting off from here when they've come back usually from rome across the via francis taking if they've gone on bicycles if i think of our former uh cannon treasure cannon country as he went off with bicycles all the way across to rome and came back with photographs of the 30 odd pilgrims who had been of all ages standing with their bicycles held above their heads in front of saint peter's basilica great happiness on their face and then came back and told their story as one does at the end of a journey and someone asked the question so how did you feel at that moment when you put your bikes down and he answered very honestly or a bit disappointed really because that journey was over but what one knows is that every end of a journey is the beginning of the next one and it is in the journeying that all these things happen but then the telling of the story recreates the journey for others and gives inspiration as it does this morning but let's think of paul and barnabas first of all in lystra because here something really extraordinary happens and that is the fact that they are not seen to be bringers of simple good news and a new form of faith in god they are seen by the lycaonian people there as gods themselves because of their healing of the crippled man the man who could not use his feet who had sat there always and was well known to the lyconian people there it was a greek city but were told the people were speaking in their own native language which paul and barnabas wouldn't have understood neither came from that area and the the greek which was the official language was not being used by the people but the cult shall we say at the overlaying cult of the lycaonians had become greek so they call barnabas zeus which tend to suggest that he had a fairly imposing figure but at the same time paul who was the best speaker was called hermes messenger of the gods and there the two of them are shocked horrified at this blasphemy at calling them gods but because they can't make themselves understood there is confusion though paul begins to speak no doubt in the greek they would have understood as well for the priest of zeus has come with the creatures that are going to be offered in sacrifice to the two apostles and what does paul say because this is different until now they have begun with the synagogue and the sermon has started with the story of the build-up of the faith of the jewish people which is now being shared with the new development of the good news of jesus but now there is no synagogue here that they're talking to they're talking to the lyconian people so where do they begin this is a short sermon and we'll have a much longer one from paul when he gets to athens where the same thing is in play he has somehow to begin where they will understand the beginning and he chooses creation god has not left himself without witnesses to any nation he says the living god who created gave life to all things and he talks about the reigns from heaven and fruitful seasons and the quality of the crops to give food all those things but also the quality of life to give gladness and fulfillment these are qualities which all humanity understand and on which they depend but for that dependence they must make themselves partners in creation with god but even with all of that it was difficult for them to make themselves understood but it's interesting to see where paul begins in the midst of this journey something new is happening and then one has the same round of those who arrive from the other cities and stir up the crowds against paul and stone him leaving him for dead and persecution follows the good news but this becomes shall we say a stocking trade for the two apostles what they do do when they've picked paul up and and and healed his wounds a bit and and dusted him down is settle those who do begin to receive the good news and then they go back through those communities where disciples have been found and they begin to form the rudiments of the organization of a church with prayer and fasting they create elders in those churches later on an epistle will be written by paul to the galatians in this region but for the moment they have to go on they're going home and they crossed the sea from atelia and land and come to antioch and it was in antioch they themselves had been commissioned with the laying on of hands and prayer and fasting to go out and paul has fulfilled that message fulfilled it with his own faith notice how he uses when he looks at the the man luke describes the story almost like the one he he did with peter and john with the the the man who sat begging who couldn't walk at the the gate beautiful in in the early chapters but he uses the sentence in the prophet ezekiel chapter 2 verse 1 where the angel speaking to ezekiel says stand up on your feet it's a command to a human being to take responsibility you have the faith to do so stand up on your feet straight from paul's own faith and the scriptures but then he has to make a gospel out of new material because the background of law and profits is not there that has to come later well we give thanks for all that but we also give thanks for paul's insistence in god's gift in creation and our responsibility in humanity for those gifts and we think on this day as australia is having its save the koala month we think of the enormous damage done by 45 million acres destroyed in the fires and the habitat of the koalas being destroyed we're 230 000 that maybe many many more have have died and and there is a threat of the extinction of that beautiful creature let's make that a sign of this morning of our necessity to protect not only the creature but also the habitat for we know that koala bears eat in that shall we call it that their little bubbles we use these days of a community of of people then they eat a particular type of gum tree of eucalyptus not all the same ones so when the fires reach kangaroo island that was the only place that had evolved the eucalyptus the gum tree that that particular kind of koala bear the destruction of the habitat is as important as our our sense of creatures being destroyed the protection of the habitat is also as important we have a king school canterbury just outside the borders of hong kong in shenzhen and when we've gone to hong kong we've longed to see in the mouth of the pearl river the white dolphins they're bubble gum pink but we never saw one because the conditions had caused them to leave that area but now we are told that with the cessation of the ferries which have stopped working and the clearing of the atmosphere the white dolphins are back in great measure and easily seen again for the first time for years creation has a way of healing itself but it needs our help because much of the things which have happened have been at the hands of humanity and we think of all that this morning but we also think then let's remember that psalms because that beautiful sound that we read this morning which likened god's people to a vine spreading out the tendrils but needing root room and care and at the end of the psalm so often the last few verses cause us to break into song i will sing to the lord to the tune of the harp well this morning there are two significant dates which we might remember of the performing arts in 1966 the huge new metropolitan opera house in new york was opened replacing the very beautiful old one but with an enormous stage and at the moment of course that kind of performing art is very very difficult to perform and we think of all those who would normally be singing there and listen to by thousands and thousands of people across the year and at the same time we remember on this day in 1977 that the great um greek but american-born singer soprano maria callas died my goodness her voice when we hear it now is really second to none bernstein called her the bible of opera and she was not just a diva she was known as la devina and all of that we remember at this time with gladness but we remember also the huge dangers that that art form is facing at this time last night for the first time in the cathedral the full choir of our boy choristers sang evensong for the first time all of them there since march the 16th and so it was a really joyful moment there is nothing like the sound of real human voices singing and i look forward to the day when we also can join in with the hymns because that's still prohibited to us but online now day by day we sing sections of the choir and all those things are part of god's creation and our response but the real response is the real care of vegetation plant life atmospheres oceans beaches all the things which form the habitat of creatures and that carries part of our world for we are god's creatures too but with a very special vocation of care of this beautiful world let's give thanks for paul's message to the lycaonians of lystra and recognizing god's gifts in our lives and our responsibility for them here's the prayer for today and before that we remember the life of our anglican communion worldwide and pray today for the diocese of oahu in nigeria and pray for bishop stephen facbamy there and his people and the diocese of central florida in the episcopal church and gregory brewer the bishop there and his people there and really nicely this morning we've been praying for the area surround canterbury the various villages and communities and today our whole diocese is praying for us canterbury cathedral so we would ask you to pray for us and our community life here at this time pray for our diocesan bishop justin welby who also happens to be archbishop of canterbury and for rose bishop of dover and also for tim bishop at lambeth and as we think of the community of the cathedral we think of all those across the world that this forms a mother church for but also all those for whom this is a point of pilgrimage and unity so let's say the prayer for this day almighty god whose only son has opened for us a new and living way into your presence give us pure hearts and steadfast wills to worship you in spirit and in truth through jesus christ our lord amen so in whatever way you like to say it in and in whichever language we say together 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 are men moment of silence now as we say our own prayers wherever we are in the world the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds and the knowledge and love of god and of his son jesus christ our lord 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