good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this morning of the 28th of august i purposely come here to sit amongst the stones so say outside the walls of the city because this is the day when we shall be thinking of the first martyrdom of the christian church since stephen in our reading and the acts of the apostles it's also the feast day of saint augustine of hippo there are plenty of anniversaries today the day on which john bechman was born a very popular english poet laureate because of the humor of his verses and his love of the old things of the culture of this place among them the church of england his little poem about the church mouse which begins here among long discarded cassocks damp stools and half split open hassocks here where the vicar never looks i i nibble through old service books christmas and easter may be feasts for congregations and for priests and sami whitson all the same they do not fill my meager frame for me the only feast at all is autumn's harvest festival when i can satisfy my want with ears of corn around the font i climb the eagle's brazen head to burrow through a loaf of bread we remember him for his having mounted the campaign to save saint pancras station and if you arrive in england from the continent on eurostar one of the things you see facing you is benjamin's statue in sin pancreas station also this day in 1963 two hundred thousand people marched on washington dc in a civil rights occasion remembered for martin luther king's speech i have a dream his philosophy and belief was modeled not only on the gospel and on the person of jesus christ but also influenced by the non-violent social change belief of mahatma gandhi gandhi spent some time here in the deanery before the second world war as a guest here of my predecessor dean hewlett johnson we think also of people like father sarah the spanish priest in california who was instrumental in mission activity along that coast which we've been praying for because of the fires is we can died on this day in 1784. we remember in 1833 the britain's slavery abolition act receiving final royal assent and becoming law here and in creative terms we remember that this was the birthday of goethe born in frankfurt in 1749 and so influential in so many ways in literature remembered for faust most of all perhaps well we could go on with dates and anniversaries but let's remember saint augustine of hippo we shall come back to him in our reflections later on and the influence he has had on the western church particularly let's say our prayers bring whatever concerns you have at this time we're still thinking of those so much affected by hurricane laura and those who've lost their homes those who've died in louisiana and those who are facing what has now become a severe tropical storm in louisiana in arkansas oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the day stor star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night 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 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 and 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 is psalm 134 come bless the lord all you servants of the lord you that by night stand in the house of the lord lift up your hands towards the sanctuary and bless the lord the lord who made heaven and earth give you blessing out of zion a short sound but one which is full of intention and which we grow used to sunday by sunday in compline remembering those who both in the cathedral church and outside in whatever situation they are in bless the lord with thanksgiving so we turn to acts chapter 7 and we start today at verse 54 the council are enraged by what stephen has said to them now when they heard these things they were enraged and they ground their teeth said stephen but stephen full of the holy spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of god and jesus standing at the right hand of god and he said behold i see the heavens opened and the son of man standing at the right hand of god but they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him and they cast him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named saul and as they were stoning stephen he called out lord jesus receive my spirit and falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice lord do not hold this sin against them and when he had said this he fell asleep and saul approved of his execution and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of judea and samaria except the apostles devout friends buried stephen and made great lamentation over him but saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison now those who were scattered went about preaching the word and philip went down to the city of samaria and proclaimed to them the christ a violent and dreadful passage and hence were this morning in heart and mind sitting amongst the stones so say cast out of the city two things happen at this crucial point of the acts of the apostles until now luke has been describing the formation and the joy of the early church the way in which they have committed to each other and beginning to formulate what their way of life would be themselves led by the twelve seeing a total connection between what had been before and what was to come after they had met in the temple daily to say their prayers they had broken bread in private houses they had become a loving fellowship of what were called followers of the way and now all this has changed one can almost see the look on peter's face at the activity of stephen for stephen it is who himself throws the stone into the pond of still waters which the twelve are are skillfully negotiating and puts the message fairly and squarely to the council in such a way that this dreadful and violent end of the first christian martyr follows and as we read that luke is intentionally calling into our minds the way in which he in his gospel has described the crucifixion of jesus himself in luke's gospel the forgiveness of those who are nailing jesus to the cross father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing and stephen says words in the same way as he dies but also commends himself into the hands of god in total faithfulness having seen the vision of the glory of god reminding us again of luke's gospel into your hands i commend my spirit the words of jesus from the cross who himself had been taken outside the city wall in a scene of violence not in human terms of beauty and yet the gateway to the releasing of the grace of the holy spirit through resurrection well as i said this is the day on which we remember sint augustin of hippo who died on this day in the year 430 and we remember that augustine's early life was anything but faithful to the catholicity which his mother monica had brought him up in he himself led a robustuous life with all kinds of relationships and a son born from the woman that he was living with for many years and he himself simply swapped around between different philosophies explored in his very clever way manichaeism neoplatonism all sorts of things until as he describes it in his confessions one day he hears the voice of a child playing a game and the game had a rhythmic kind of song attached to it the two latin words tole ledger take it and read it take it and read it take it and read it and augustine picks up the scriptures and he reads in the epistle to the romans written by saint paul the words put on the lord jesus christ and make no provision for the flesh later on he says that the convincing thing to him which set the followers of the way the christianity of his mother monica apart from all those other philosophies which he had been exploring were words in the first chapter of the fourth gospel the word was made flesh and dwelt among us that set that apart one of my favorite sentences in the confessions of sinton garcin is it's one thing to see the promised land from a wooded mountainside it's another to go down into the valley and make the journey to get that and that from that moment onwards was what augustine did he never lost his absolute admiration for the writings of saint paul who makes his entry into the acts of the apostles this morning as the young man who held the coats shall we say of those in the crowd who were picking up stones to end stephen's life his earthly life and allow him faithfully to enter into glory but for saul this was only the beginning for that was his name then this young man then set himself the task of eradicating this new way we may say no more than that this morning because the story of the acts the apostles will go on luke will tell the story of saul who became paul but this morning we give thanks for stephen as well as central augustine of hippo the first christian martyr who by his death first unleashed the power of the followers of the way not only in jerusalem but in scattering them he unleashed that power for all nations and the sense of them having to remain in jerusalem and see that always the physical jerusalem not the heavenly jerusalem but the physical jerusalem to see that always as their center wherever they were of course it was in their hearts and minds the the eternal city as well as the the city of the of jerusalem itself but for now they are scattered to the great benefit of what happened next in the taking of the good news across the barriers of the nations let's give thanks for that as we remember augustine and this morning we are praying for the missional opportunities of the church throughout the world in every province of the anglican communion and also in our own diocese and here we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and for every parish on this morning when we recall saul's entry into the acts of the apostles stephen's martyrdom and what it costs to be a follower of the way and still costs for so many in the world so bring your own prayers wherever you are to the prayers of this day here in canterbury first the college for saint augustine merciful lord who turned augustine from his sins to be a faithful bishop and teacher grant that we may follow him in penitence and discipline till our restless hearts find their rest in you through jesus christ our lord amen and the prayer for this week oh god you declare your almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace that we running the way of your commandments may receive your gracious promises and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language and in whatever situation we find ourselves we bring our prayers for those whom we would want to pray for this morning to the words that our savior taught us in whichever language we normally say them 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 lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen and as the morning rain begins to fall we keep silence for a moment and give thanks for the refreshment of the holy spirit 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