good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this morning of saturday the 4th of september as we come to say our morning prayers a little bit of excitement because we're going to let clemmy and winnie out of the dean's walk where they've been helping with the control of the wildflowers and into the orchard and there we'll say our morning prayers and they can begin to help clear some of the aspects of the orchard too come on girls come on they may be a bit shy but we'll see how they are come on come on woody come on kenny come on [Applause] come on come on hey come here winnie come on come on they're more keen on apples than they are on their breakfast this is all very exciting for them kill me winnie come on come on we're going to try and coax them over here so you can see them but they're very very keen on the apples come on hey get me i don't think we're having much luck so i'm going to sit down and begin our prayers and they can enjoy the orchard and then we'll catch up with him a bit later on this is very much a morning when we shall be talking about shared resources which fits very well with our reflection on jacob and laban and esau this morning but i wanted just to have a review across the world of things which are happening in terms of the planet's resources we well know that in new york there is still a situation of grave emergency and in that area of the united states 49 people have been killed by the water brought by hurricane ida and the remains of that tropical storm which which uh landed on the coast and then became a difficulty because of flooding in major cities so many thousands without electricity and those living in high-rise buildings of course that means that water doesn't get pumped up and elevators or lifts won't work all of those things have to be taken into account when people are being cared for but across the world there are so many other things which are happening in syria there's a great oil spill leaking into the mediterranean and going across to cyprus and that too is a matter of grave emergency ecologically in the mediterranean region puerto rica has declared a state of ecological emergency because of the rise of stony coral tissue lost disease so that the precious corals of puerto rica which have been being treated before kovids stopped that work are now diminishing at an alarming rate and this state of ecological emergency has now been declared in our other areas we can tell good stories as in malawi where a young malawi man in his village went off to train to be an electrician the village had no electricity and he coming back by simple means and the flow of the river which went through the village has now given the village free of charge clean electricity with the movement of the river on the wheels that he's put in it and the the simplest of technologies and yet light is now given to a village so that the children don't have to do their homework by candlelight and so much more can be provided by way of power quite simply in kenya there's a 12 rise in the elephant rhino lions giraffes zebra antelope population simply because of the tough line that the kenyan government has taken on poaching of wild game and all of that is a sign of hope in our planet with its finite resources those things we shall come to in our reflection too and in australia this quite amusing really a sheep farmer who here we are here's your breakfast uh winnie um a sheep farmer who feeds his sheep by hand and wanted to send a a message to a funeral of of love and support put down the the food in a shape of an enormous love heart and then that was filmed from above with one of the crop planes and uh then that image sent imaginative ways of giving people encouragement when due to lockdown and other things people can't be together just mentioning all those things on a day when we're thinking about earth's resources but let's begin our prayers and let's also rejoice in happy news from the paralympics in this country we're rejoicing in the seventh gold medal for hannah goodall and gold medals for charlotte henshaw and laura sugar you will also be rejoicing across the world in the way in which the paralympics are making the world share together in tokyo and we pray for the japanese people as they continue to host that let's begin our prayers on this day oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise 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 is past 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm this morning 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 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 we're returning to our reading from the book of genesis and many of these chapters are very very long and detailed and so i'm going to do a little bit of catch up before we begin our lesson in chapter 32 and begin at verse 13. the chapter before uh is everything about jacob and laban his uncle bartering and tricking one another and getting the most they can out of each other in good deals now jacob it seems is a tremendously good manager of laban's estates but at the same time he is creating resources of his own and meanwhile as we saw yesterday his sons are being born one after the other i think we're talking about a period of something like 21 years and the the two wives leia and uh rachel with their two maids are producing the suns until in the end rachel conceives and her son joseph is born well now joseph gets a story as you know all on his own and one of the most famous stories in the whole of the old testament but for the moment let's just think about what's happening between laban and joseph there's not not only a tension between uncle and nephew and the sons of the uncle were rather jealous of jacob's ability and everything that that laban is giving to him to do but at the same time they're afraid that uh jacob will run off with the resources that they themselves should be gaining and at that time uh they begin to complain and jacob realizes that they're going to have to split their resources and god tells jacob it's time to go home back to bethel back to beersheba and at that point jacob realizes that he needs to take his family which has grown and his own resources of livestock and everything he possesses and begin the journey physically again he's had quite a journey mentally and spiritually but we're taking up his journey from the time that he has been given the instruction to go back home and so he is setting off but then another tension awakens within him a very human tension because at home is his brother esau and they have never met since the time that jacob stole his birthright and his blessing and in the advice of their mother rebecca left home to seek his uncle laban he's now become prosperous and skilled and a man with many possessions and resources so great that the livestock of jacob and the livestock of of laban have to be separated and now he's going with all his livestock back home but there he is terrified still terrified of his brother esau and what will await him there and so i'm going to go on now um he's sent messengers to esau and asking his favor and forgiveness and saying more or less jacob is very sorry in his coming home and there are gifts and all sorts of things for esau and the messengers have returned and said we came to your brother esau and he's coming to meet you and there are 400 men with him jacob even more terrified so we are now starting at verse 13. of chapter 32 perhaps i'll start at verse 9. jacob said oh god of my father abraham and god of my father isaac o lord who said to me return to your country and to your kindred that i may do you good i am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant for with only my staff i crossed the river jordan and now i have become two encampments please deliver me from the hand of my brother from the hand of esau for i am afraid of him that he may come and attack me the mothers with their children but you have said i will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude so jacob stayed there that night and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother esau 200 female goats and 20 male goats 200 ewes and 20 rums 30 milking camels and their calves 40 cows and 10 bulls 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys these he handed over to his servants every drove by itself and said to his servants pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove he instructed the first when he saw my brother meets you and asked to whom do you belong where are you going and whose are these ahead of you then you shall say they belong to your servant jacob they are a present sent to my lord esau and moreover he is behind us he likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves you shall say the same thing to esau when you find him and you shall say moreover your servant jacob is behind us for he thought i may appease esau with the present that goes ahead of me and afterwards i shall see his face perhaps he will accept me so the present passed on ahead of him and he himself stayed that night in the camp the same night he arose and took his two wives his two female servants his 11 children and crossed the forward of the jabbok he took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had and he was left alone and the man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day when the man saw that he did not prevail against jacob he touched his hip socket and jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him then he said let me go for the day has broken but jacob said i will not let you go unless you bless me and the man said to him what is your name and he said jacob the man said your name shall no longer be called jacob but israel for you have striven with god and with men and have prevailed then jacob asked him please tell me your name but he said why is it that you ask my name and there he blessed him so jacob called the name of the place peniel saying for here i have seen god face to face and yet my life has been delivered the sun rose upon jacob as he passed penuel limping because of his hip a very famous encounter at this time and jacob wrestling with whom the the the the man whom he believes to be an a physical presence of god and jacob clutches on and clutches on tell me your name tell me your name and in the end he blesses jacob and jacob lets him go and jacob then from that moment onwards talks about the night when all night long he wrestled with god it's a powerful story and one which with all the stories of resources and the way in which these worlds this world's resources were too little even in those days for jacob and laban but also the fear of something that we've done to another coming back to bite us later jacob's fear of his brother esau is writ large over this story and when esau is announced to be appearing he sends one should we say not only present but bribe really after another to try and win esau's favor but he stays eventually alone he sends his even his wife and children have been sent over the stream jabbok and he lies there and at this time as he wrestles with god he has given that new name we've talked again and again yesterday i won't go into that again about how when a new vocation is given often people take a new name and here he is no longer jacob he becomes israel and his children become the children of israel as jacob begins his journey his physical journey once again so let's look at some of the dates which are on this september the fourth in other years and i've really just three to talk about and they they fit together with our theme very well the first is that on the 4th of september 1965 albert schweitzer died he'd been born in 1875 and he was very much a child of his time of the last quarter of the 19th century and then in to the first half and more of the 20th century he was a a person who'd been born in al-saslaren which until 1870 had been french and then it was ceded to germany after the franco-prussian war so he became a citizen when he was born of the german empire but then in 1918 it was returned to france but by then schweitzer who is listed as a theologian an organist a musicologist a writer a humanitarian a philosopher and a physician by then schweitzer despite the fact of his extreme skillfulness and and uh wonderful studies of j.s spark and his organ playing second to none and uh he was a a friend of so many of the famous organists at the time became a doctor and went out uh to what is now gabon and founded the hospital at lamberani and he and his wife helen they they had a a a type of uh piano pedal uh um instrument that he could play there lifted out and taken out to that area of africa and there that hospital began to treat people but his thinking about the scriptures and his music continued and he became a great influence in terms of the way in which he gave up everything to go and do that with his wife helene and now that hospital which in sophistication in in modern times in gabon is is second to none in certain types of medicine it has a research institute but still there's a world heritage site a unesco world heritage site set around those buildings where schweitzer and helen his wife tended the sick for so many years and and now with modern resources that's being done magnificently according to the way things are now but we're thinking of how things were then and everything that schweitzer had to struggle with at that time and the way in which the the great war breaking out affected all those things and yet they kept on and when schweitzer died he as his wife helen buried there in their beloved lamborghini we give thanks for not only the way in which he followed a call which he felt to be for him and helen went with him to serve those needs in a completely different part of the world and he became an image and an icon of that for the world certainly in my school days that the name of albert schweitzer was was one that we treasured he was a nobel peace prize winner and also the way he wrote about jesus and saint paul and uh gave new insights to that but there's one quote that i wanted to quote this morning about his writings about our lord and this is schweitzer jesus comes to us as one unknown without a name as of old by the lakeside he speaks to us the same word follow me and sets us to the task which she has to fulfill for our time he commands and to those who obey him whether they be wise or simple he will reveal himself in the toils the conflicts the sufferings which they shall pass through in his fellowship and as an ineffable mystery they shall learn in their own experience who he is takes us back really to wrestling jacob tell me your name and schweitzer is then saying how in so many different ways jesus identifies himself and speaks the same words as he did to those in the earliest gospels follow me and those who obey that calling learn who he is in the conflicts and sufferings of this world and the ineffable mystery of the divine in not only the world to come but the qualities of the kingdom of heaven that they can show here and now so thanks be to god for albert schweitzer and his wife helen and on this day also uh e f schumacher he's normally known by the initials the af schumacher who was both a german and a british citizen he himself uh died on this day in 1977 having been born in 1911. he's a german british statistician and economist and he is best known for his concept of intermediate technology but perhaps most popularly known for his book which he wrote in 1973 small is beautiful a study of economics as if people mattered and his real thought was that the problem of technological production is not solved if we recklessly erode finite natural capital and deprive future generations of its benefits for however broad and wide and experimental and and also however big the appetite of humanity grows the resources of the planet are finite and will wear out if we treat them in that way and the sense of him thinking small and also thinking of what is right for particular cultures and communities caused him to say that high technology and the way in which it develops can expand the lifestyle of some but at the same time it destroys the cultures of others and in so doing so many aspects of our creativity and the creativity of many cultures is destroyed i've got two of his quotes here which are precious to us on this day when we're thinking about resources one of them is here any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex and more violent it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction and the other quote infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility they're quote so simple and rather like the psalmist the law of the lord is clean he talks in his writings of the the balance inherent in the natural forces of our planet and the way it has an infinite capacity to clean itself and restore balance but we as humankind now have the resources to destroy all that and work in the opposite direction any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex and more violent takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction so thanks be to god not only for schweitzer but also for ef schumacher on this day as we think about natural resources but i did want to talk about one technical technological invention which happened on this particular day when in 1998 the search engine google was founded by two graduates of stanford university sergey brin and larry page working in one of the dormitory rooms there in such a simple way and their idea was to extract meaning from the mass of data which was accumulating and accumulating and accumulating on the internet and that they created with google so that that's become so famous now that it's become a verb to google something and find out by the way in which that has been ordered information to help us in whatever we're doing so there's a thanksgiving for that positive use of technology when you as well and i for one feel i've got whole libraries at my fingertips whereas before i would have to go and search for everything and those things have become second nature but at the same time the lessons learned from our friend the electrician in malawi who has provided free electricity from the river flowing through and the village has power and is massively grateful to him let's say our prayers on this day but i wanted to begin our prayers with a prayer or him if you like of charles wesley and it's a hymn which i remember when uh archbishop robert runcie who was then the principal of our seminary at cunston was leaving us to go and be bishop of saint albans he preached a complement address and at the r at the end he asked that the hymn song be this hymn of charles wesley's which is normally known as wrestling jacob carmo thou traveller unknown whom still i hold but cannot see my company before is gone and i am left alone with thee thee all night i mean to stay and wrestle till the break of day i need not tell thee who i am my misery or sin declare thyself has called me by my name look on thy hands and read it there but who i ask thee who art thou tell me thy name and tell me now yield to me now for i am weak but confident in self-despair speak to my heart in blessings speak be conquered by my instant prayer speak or thou never hence shalt move and tell me if thy name is love it is love it is love thou dies for me i hear thy whisper in my heart the morning breaks the shadows flee pure universal love thou art to me to all thy mercies move thy nature and thy name is love one of charles wesley's finest hymns but as you see step by step reflecting jacob's experience with god and in the morning the sun rising on him and he limps away from that place which is another holy place for him limping because of his hip and the pain of that wrestling so we're thinking this morning in our prayers of the diocese of ely in the church of england in this province of canterbury pray for the life of that whole diocese and as we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth we pray today for the parish of east church with lays down and hearty it's the present vacant so we pray for the church wardens there sue hopper charles pierce and yvette guttile in the uh responsibility for those parishes at this time so let's say the prayer for this week is the last time we shall use it because the new colleague will be ours tomorrow bring your prayers from across the world and give thanks for all the resources that you have been given and also any spiritual insights that have moved you on almighty god who called your church to bear witness that you were in christ reconciling the world to yourself help us to proclaim the good news of your love that all who hear it may be drawn to you through him who was lifted up on the cross and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so we say each in our own language the prayer our savior taught us our father what 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 for our own prayers [Music] so 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 those whom you would pray for today and always amen you