yes [Music] [Music] and [Music] [Music] [Music] and [Music] good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this sunday morning the 12th of july it is the most beautiful morning and we welcome you here from wherever you are in the world a clear blue july sky but it causes us to remember that 80 years ago that sky would have been crisscrossed with vapor trails for on this day the battle of britain began and went on through the months of august and into september as young men in the sky fought to save their country from invasion across the channel the white cliffs of dover from here are just a few miles down the road and if you stand there you look across and get a very clear view of how near france is and so we remember with very elderly citizens in their childhood they would have looked up and seen all that going on but his children wouldn't have known the cost if that battle had been lost the cost to europe and the whole world in the defeat of nazism at that time so we remember those names on the memorial wall at capel la fern where today the royal air force was going to have a great festival of remembrance and they've had to do that virtually of course but we give thanks for those whom winston churchill named the few and in very famous poem here's just a few lines about that wall we were given these lines behind each name a story lies of bravery in some skies though many brave unwritten tales were simply sold in vapor trails outnumbered every day they flew remember now as just the few well at this time the virus the sky is unusually clear of any vapor trails because of course flying and across the world has ceased but the fight today is against the pandemic and overnight we've had the sad news from the archbishop of canterbury that bishop desiree mukhaniel the heroic bishop of gomer in the democratic republic of congo and a hero in the fight against ebola and a significant character in the political life of that nation has died of coronavirus and we remember him with enormous thanksgiving pray for his wife and his family and all those whom they took to be their family orphans of ebola and we pray that today heroic are fronting the fight against the pandemic the world over may be kept safe and be aware of our enormous gratitude for they too are the few fighting a danger to our humanity so on this lovely morning we say our prayers make lot shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night blessed are you creator of all do 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 father be god forever the life 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 oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen morning psalm is psalm 62 on god alone my soul in stillness waits from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my strongholds said that i shall never be shaken how long will all of you assail me to destroy me as you would a tottering wall or a leaning fence they plot only to thrust me down from my place of honor lies are their chief delight they bless with their mouth but in their heart they curse wait on god alone in stillness o my soul for in him is my hope he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that i shall not be shaken in god is my strength and my glory god is my strong rock in him is my refuge the peoples are but a breath the whole human race a deceit on the scales they are all together lighter than air put no trust in oppression in robbery take no empty pride their wealth increase set not your heart upon it god spoke once and twice have i heard the same that power belongs to god steadfast love belongs to you o lord for you repay everyone according to their deeds so we come to our lesson and it's a sunday morning and so we break into the normal reading from the gospel of saint luke but we are still with the writing of saint luke for this morning we are reading from the 28th chapter of the acts of the apostles i'm beginning at verse 20 16. when we came into rome paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him after three days he called together the local leaders of the jews and when they gathered he said to them brothers though i had done nothing against our people or the customs of our forefathers yet i was delivered as a prisoner from jerusalem into the hands of the romans when they had examined me they wished to set me at liberty because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case but because the jews objected i was compelled to appeal to caesar though i had no charge to bring against my own nation for this reason therefore i have asked to see you and speak with you since it is because of the hope of israel that i am wearing this chain and they said to him we have received no letters from judea about you none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you but we desire to hear from you what your views are for with regard to this new sect we know that everyone and everywhere it is spoken against when they had appointed a day for him they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers and from morning till evening paul expounded to them testifying to the kingdom of god and trying to convince them about jesus both from the law of moses and from the prophets and some were convinced by what he said but others disbelieved and disagreeing among themselves they departed after paul had made one statement the holy spirit was right in saying to your fathers through isaiah the prophet go to this people and say you will indeed hear but never understand and you will indeed see but never perceive for this people's heart has grown dull and with their ears they can barely hear and their eyes they have closed lest they should see with their ears and hear with that with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn and i would heal them therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of god has been sent to the gentiles and they will listen paul lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him proclaiming the kingdom of god and teaching about the lord jesus christ with all boldness and without hindrance it's a strange thing but rather a lovely thing that we've actually come hopped right through from the gospel of saint luke right to the end of his two-volume contribution to the new testament we shall of course tomorrow be returning to our reading of the gospel of luke but it's lovely just to contemplate the end of this great narrative for no one contributed more verses and more volume to our new testament than luke the evangelist who again you hear rejoicing in the fact that this good news now is for all nations he's already told in the chapters that we've read sunday by sunday in the last few weeks of the dangers experienced by all who went with paul not only dangers from violence amongst those who disagreed and saw paul as a great threat to their livelihood or to the way in which they themselves had held the faith i'm not just talking about paul's own people i'm talking about the people of ephesus for example who found an enormous threat in this and responded as crowds so often do when they are frightened or feeling that that which sustains them is threatened responded with violence and then again we read the story of the shipwreck and the narrow missing of life remember that luke was part of all that he was traveling with paul and here we have that little pronoun again when we arrived in rome we've no idea at all what happened after that final full stop which i read at the end of acts 28 for luke didn't continue he left the story of the early church to tell itself but yesterday in the cathedral church at evening song i found myself reading the end of paul's letter to the romans and it was full of names that paul wanted greetings given to while he and his companions which in all probability contained luke amongst them they were in corinth spending the winter there of probably 1857 58 and the letter goes forward commending people as they arrive in rome but paul had never been to rome he hadn't founded that church he was tentatively speaking as an apostle and speaking for himself though right at the end there's that little sentence where the scribe paul's emanuensis turtius of iconium says i turtius who i'm writing this letter he means physically scribing this letter send greetings to many greetings to people already there and to people who are going there and paul has sent there but he himself intending to go there via spain has never been there and now he arrives as a prisoner and we know that the end of this will be the end of his mortal life his physical journeying is over it ends in rome and so we think as we've thought this morning perched here between sky and earth we think of all those years ahead when his epistles will be written when the names will be just names that we imagine of that little community whose courage and whose writing gave us our good news of the lord jesus christ paul's letters predate any writing down of the gospel sin mark came after that in mark's gospel which was in all probability penned in rome came after that and so what paul is writing is the earliest accounts of what life in those little communities and there were clearly christian communities in rome who came to welcome paul hear what he had to say but others were there too who clearly did not accept what he had to say that was the story of the early church but it's wonderful this morning to think of that how it reaches right across time to this holy place here and to wherever you are in the world through the courage of women and men throughout the ages who have passed that news on through dangers it reaches to give us courage in the dangers we face today during this pandemic but it reaches far beyond that far beyond the vapor trails into a totally new dimension of eternity for all those things on this lovely morning of sunday july the 12th we give thanks as we say our prayers i mentioned bishop desiree and we pray for the repose of his soul we also have received news of a friend in rome dying juliola the mother of nikki who is work of the communion center there she works with kamla there we remember her grief at the death of her this morning and her little boy joshua who's lost his granny so we reach out across the world by these methods of communication and reach out to you in your hearts you will have many names that you want to remember as we say our prayers and we do that all in communion it's only for the democratic republic of congo but also this morning for the diocese of cagiado in kenya and bishop gadia lanini and his people and for the anglican church of papua new guinea and the primate the allen migi and all their courage in the pacific at this time we continue to pray for the villages of the ashford dinery and those who serve as chaplains now naming jeff walters ian rich tricia hill tracy bateson and jack bateson pray for our archbishop justin for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and today we use the new collect the collect for this fifth sunday after trinity almighty and everlasting god by whose spirit the whole body of the church is governed and sanctified hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people that in their vocation and ministry they may serve you in holiness and truth to the glory of your name through our lord and savior jesus christ amen and the prayer at the end of psalm 62 o god teach us to seek security not in money or theft not in human ambition or malice not in our own ability or power but in you the only god our rock and our salvation are men so we say together in whatever language we use and whatever way we like to say it the prayer our savior taught us when we gather together in prayer 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 so we bring the names that are on our hearts and in our minds to the silence which follows and 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 and upon those whom you love and would pray for today and always amen foreign