good morning and welcome to the garden of the dinery at canterbury cathedral as we come to say our prayers it's a windy morning but perhaps that's a nice thing to think of as we begin our section of luke's gospel which deals with the ministry of john the baptist speaking in the wilderness we've come high up onto the wall here of the deanery garden and the old city wall it's built on roman foundations but high up we can feel the wind and we remind ourselves that in the original greek of the new testament the word for wind and the word for spirit is the very same word and it blows all around us this morning on this spring morning in may oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice hallelujah blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as once you ransomed your people from egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your risen son may we the firstfruits of your new creation rejoice in this new day you have made and praise you for your mighty acts 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 one mind does we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen the first psalm of the morning set is psalm 24 which is a wonderful psalm to say on a morning when we've come up high here on the city wall the earth is the lord's and all that fills it the compass of the world and all who dwell therein for he has founded it upon the seas and set it firm upon the rivers of the deep who shall ascend the hill of the lord or who can rise up in his holy place those who have clean hands and a pure heart who have not lifted up their soul to an idol nor sworn an oath to a lie they shall receive a blessing from the lord a just reward from the god of their salvation such is the company of those who seek him of those who seek your face so god of jacob lift up your heads o gates be lifted up you everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in who is the king of glory the lord strong and mighty the lord who is mighty in battle lift up your heads though gates be lifted up you everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in who is this king of glory the lord of hosts he is the king of glory so we return to our reading day by day as our catalogue of lessons the lectionary gives us and today it's as though luke is starting a new beginning after the first two chapters later he will tell us an interval of 30 years has occurred between the stories of jesus's birth and the story that is now going to begin there's only one incident which we read uh about jesus in the temple at the age of 12 which interrupts that but mostly they are what is called hidden years and now bursting onto the scene comes john the baptist whom we last came upon when zechariah was holding him in his arms as a baby and saying you child shall be called the prophet of the highest for you will go before the lord to prepare his ways well here he is now as an adult 30 years later doing just that luke is a scholar a doctor and something of a thinker certainly he can paint wonderful verbal pictures of what's going on and he wants to set this in context in history as far as he can recently our local museum the beanie the museum and library of canterbury with whom we work together constantly with our archive and theirs um they've got in touch with us and said could i write something about what it's like living through this period so that it can be set down in their archive as an historical account from different perspectives of what these days of lockdown and coronavirus were like luke is doing the same for us and he's set that out at the beginning of his gospel but now he begins again and here we are at the beginning of chapter three in the fifteenth year of the reign of tiberius caesar pontius pilate being governor of judea and herod being tetrarch of galilee and his brother philip tetrarch of the region of ituraya and trachonitis and lysanias tetrarch during the high priesthood of anas and caiaphas the word of god came to john the son of zechariah in the wilderness and he went into all the region around the jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins as it is written in the book of the words of isaiah the prophet the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord make his paths straight every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill should be made low and the crooked faces shall become straight and the rough places shall become level and all flesh shall see the salvation of god john said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him few prude of vipers who warned you to flee from the roth to come bear fruits in keeping with repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves we have abraham as our father for i tell you god is able from these stones to raise up children for abraham even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire and the crowds asked him what then shall we do and john answered whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none and whoever has food is to do likewise tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to john teacher what shall we do and he said to them collect no more than you are authorized to do soldiers also asked him and we what shall we do and he said to them no bullying no blackmail and be content with your wages john standing not in any holy place but in the wilderness and clearly in a part of the wilderness where there was running water where he could baptize people into a new state of preparation for the receiving of jesus we hear what he says to different groups of people who have different temptations in their life or jobs of work to the soldiers who received their regular pay but had arms and power to frighten people he says no bullying no blackmail be content with your wages to tax collectors who were a hated band because they worked for the occupying roman forces he says see that you exact only the amount that you're authorized to do later on will will come across several tax collectors and zacchaeus particularly one of them makes a repentance to jesus about what he's done in the past and then also when ordinary people come he says it's a matter of sharing and making sure that if you have too much you see that those who have none are given something of your particular resources they can work out for themselves at any time what that might be that story reminds us rather the sharing of the tunic or the cloak with another of the story of saint martin which was so popular and has been across history the roman soldier who cut his cloak in half and gave half to the beggar who in the dream that night declared himself to be jesus to martin martin later on became the bishop of tours and was a favorite saint particularly in france but martin is very special to the city of canterbury for when queen bertha french queen came to marry the pagan king ethelbert one of the conditions of her diary was that she would bring her priest with her and that she could worship as a christian here before the king ever became christian himself and so the king took the church which was already here from the time when the roman empire had been christian and the roman soldiers were still here when they'd gone the church fell into ruin but it was rebuilt by ethelbert as a little church for his queen bursa and she dedicated it after the name of martin i can practically see it from the top of the wall here it's not far away and there's a path called queen bertha's path and goes through the queen's gate our quenen gate up to saint martin's church which is still in use if you like because central augustine used that church to worship him when he came here first the queen having helped him convert her husband if you like we canterbury cathedral are the daughter church of little saint martin's up the road there and we have very close connections with that congregation which still worships week by week in that beautiful little church all these things are patterns of how history develops we ourselves today are in a special situation when sharing and caring and not using powers that we have to influence people in the wrong way the message of john the baptist given to us today we can fix ourselves in history in a particular way just as luke does with the names of those who are leaders but we can also look around us and say what are the opportunities to prepare ourselves for what comes after this time of lockdown john the baptist sees himself as a messenger of preparation to make a society a community bands of individuals ready to receive the teaching of the one who is to come who comes with the wind of the spirit and the breath of life and that we give thanks for on this particular day as we come to say our prayers first and foremost of course we remember all of you wherever you are in the world but particularly in this mother church of the anglican communion we remember on this day the 5th of may the diocese of multan in pakistan and leo roderick paul the bishop there and his people the diocese of yarold in south sudan and david rock angon the bishop there nyang in south sudan and paul tomak lual the bishop there alawak luak in south sudan and the bishop isaac aleth and his people there and the whole province of the south sudan and then the diocese of ikedural in nigeria and emmanuel madhurike the bishop there and all his people it's a very important thing to think of the way in which this virus is affecting communities throughout the world but we also pray for the parishes in the area of the west bridge area deanery and today that group of parishes have asked us to give thanks for and pray for clergy who mostly in retirement help them in their worship brian chalmers john huis alan ramsey chris duncan and garth barber pray for our own communities and we use the connect of this particular week of easter almighty god whose son jesus christ is the resurrection and the life raise us who trust him from the death of sin to the life of righteousness that we may seek those things which are above where he reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men so as we come to say the prayer our savior taught us together we hold in our hearts all those who today have particularly difficult things to do those who are at essential work at this time of virus providing our resources or helping to heal and care for those who are sick and we use the prayer in whatever language we would like to say it in and in whichever words 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 we keep a moment of silence and the wind blows over us and we make our own prayers for those whom we love and those who are on our hearts this morning the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus christ that great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be among you and remain with you always amen