good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral to the dinery garden on this morning of saturday the 18th of july it's the most beautiful morning and we invite you to join us in morning prayer wherever you are in the world have in your minds those whom you would want to pray for on this day and we ourselves will be praying for you as you join us 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 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 does we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm this morning on this 18th morning of the month is psalm 90. yesterday we remembered how isaac watts the hymn writer set that sound to the hymn oh god our help in ages past metrical verse that we could remember here this morning it's the morning sound for today in the psalter itself lord you have been our refuge from one generation to another before the mountains were brought forth or the earth and the world were formed from everlasting to everlasting you are god you turn us back to dust and say turn back o children of earth for a thousand years in your sight are butters yesterday which passes like a watch in the night you sweep them away like a dream they fade away suddenly like the grass in the morning it is green and flourishes in the evening it is dried up and withered we consume away in your displeasure we are afraid at your wroteful indignation you have set our misdeeds before you and our secret sins in the light of your countenance when you are angry all our days are gone our years come to an end like a sigh the days of our life are three score years and ten or if our strengths endures even for score yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow for they soon pass away and we are gone who regards the power of your wrath and your indignation like those who fear you so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom turn again oh lord how long will you delay have compassion on your servants satisfy us with your loving kindness in the morning that we may rejoice and be glad all our days give us gladness for the days you have afflicted us and for the years in which we have seen adversity share your servants your works and let your glory be over their children may the gracious favor of the lord our god be upon us prosper our handiwork oh prosper the work of our hands so we turned this morning to our readings from saint luke's gospel and jesus is still in this chapter 20 of st luke's gospel teaching in the temple courtyard he's been surrounded by violence by trick questions by interference with his teaching but luke has described the ordinary people hanging on his words this morning a different group come to question him there came to jesus some sadducees those who deny that there is a resurrection and they asked him a question saying teacher moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies having a wife but no children the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother now there were seven brothers the first took a wife and died without children and the second and the third took her and likewise all seven left no children and died afterwards the woman also died in the resurrection therefore whose wife will the woman be for the seven had her as wife jesus said to them the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage for they cannot die anymore because they are equal to angels and are children of god being children of the resurrection but that the dead are raised even moses showed in the passage about the bush where he calls the lord the god of abraham and the god of isaac and the god of jacob now he is not god of the dead but of the living for all live to him then some of the scribes answered teacher you have spoken well for they no longer dared to ask him any question [Music] when one looks at the daily chart of anniversaries of births and deaths one is confounded and amazed by not only the situations that people have had to go through in history but also the names who keep an anniversary of their birth or death some days it's too full even to reflect upon them all names appear to us today like nelson mandela like thomas cook who began in the mid-19th century to help people travel and meet one another greatly helped by the opening of railways to begin with but his vision went on for over a century and a half people like jane austen appear and all her creativity people like gilbert white the director of selbourne in hampshire who became almost the godfather of english naturalists in their gardens with the diaries he kept of his own rectory garden but then huge situations also today this is the day of the beginning in 64 in the common era of the burning of rome in the reign of the emperor nero and that event became crucial in the life of the christian church because in blaming christians the persecutions which followed swept away what had been the even life almost of the christians in rome and in that conflagration people like peter and paul lose their lives the dates of their death we don't know but the kind of terror and suffering which christians had in rome at that time become an important date and luke must have lived through all of that together and we shall come to this in uh dare to his time in our readings with the crucial date 70 a.d when the roman general titus visited rome's retribution on jerusalem itself and at the same time life goes on and people have to live their life in happy occasions sad occasions occasions of intense tragedy and sorrow and challenge but with glimpses of that happiness which the good news holds out to us here is jesus teaching in the temple courtyard and the crowds hang on his word but more interruptions come yesterday we had the question of the should they pay taxes to caesar today sadducees appear they are crucially important leaders of the jewish nation the chief priests were sadducees and as saint luke tells us and the other gospel writers tell us mark and matthew the sadducees believed in no resurrection from the dead no afterlife in any way whatsoever they also did not believe in any kind of oral tradition they kept absolutely to the writings of the scriptures themselves and were in conflict in all these ways with the pharisees who had very different beliefs but both of them felt their authority challenged by jesus and the sadducees come asking what they think is a knock-down question about that which will be hereafter in the future with this story of the woman who married seven brothers in turn in accordance with the law that a brother if his brother dies and leaves no children has to marry the wife and raise children for his brother well it's not only an interruption but jesus really sees it as a ridiculous story and certainly he says you you know nothing at all for he talks in terms of a story of moses they have quoted moses to him he quotes moses back to them he talks of the story of the burning bush when moses feels himself in the presence of god i'm sitting this morning in front of a tree a shrub here which is is normally known either as a smoke bush or a burning bush my father used to call the little plants koshers in the in the herbaceous borders which would turn from light green to a dark red and and almost a dark purple color he used to call those burning bushes but this one is covered in smoke this morning in the way that it it presents itself at this time of year and that story of the burning bush causes jesus to come to the fact that god says to moses i am the god of abraham of isaac of jacob god is the god always of the present for him past and future are always present and jesus confounds them with that telling of the story for god being the god of the present shows the presence of the kingdom of god here and now and also the presence of those who were and those who will be in god's economy for jesus always talks in the present i am the resurrection and the life i am the way the truth and the life we can go through all those i am but what it means most of all is present tense that's the time that matters because god unfolds past and future into that conception of time too big for our human minds but the word is speaking in the temple courtyard to the people now and that now was for them when the people was hanging on were hanging on his words and now for us this morning as we hear those words and embrace them i am the resurrection and the life and the authority for believing that is in the people's hearts as they receive it with gladness and the sadducees like the pharisees and the herodians yesterday the day before go away having failed either to trap to trick or confound him with their questions but their intention to kill him still remains and the violence of human situations like the persecution of christians in rome following ad40 64 is present in so many situations in our world this is a joyful day for us in canterbury i'm about to conduct the first wedding service the first marriage after lockdown and it's one of our choristers whom i remember well he was singing in our choir at the time of the last lamboth conference in 2008 and today he is bringing his bride to the altar in canterbury cathedral to make solemn vows it's very much a present tense for him but he has chosen to come up the aisle and we can only have a small number of guests because of the rules at the moment to come up the aisle to a recording of the choir that he was in singing william harris's ansem based on john dunn's words bring us our lord god at our last awakening to the very house and gate of heaven words in a sermon of john dunn the dean of saint paul's but that has been translated and transformed into a christian prayer which is a very popular prayer but he feels that time when he was singing that is now bound into the i am of today as he and his bride emily become husband and wife at the altar so we pray for joel and emily today but also give thanks for that sign of embracing a christian promise not only for today nor even for their marriage but in that which is beyond as expressed in john dunn's prayer which we will use as part of our prayers this morning let's then say our prayers on this beautiful morning and first and foremost we look at the areas of the world that we are praying for we pray this morning for the northern territory in australia and greg anderson and the diocese and his people there the diocese of bathurst in australia and mark calder and his people there and the diocese of carno in nigeria and zaca nyam the bishop and his people there here in this diocese it's the day for praying for the area deanery of dover that's not only the town of dover but all the communities around it which we shall remember through the days of the coming week but for the moment we pray for the whole community of those parishes and their area dean and debauchery and the later malcolm gavin we bring all the folks that we would remember in prayer this morning and hold them in our hearts and minds as we say our prayers first we use the prayer for this week 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 each in their vocation and ministry may serve you in holiness and truth to the glory of your name through our lord and savior jesus christ amen and we use that prayer made from the words of john dunn's sermon which joel and emily will hear the words of as they walk the isle of canterbury cathedral to make their wedding vows today bring us o lord god at our last awakening into the house and gate of heaven to enter into that gate and dwell in that house where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling but one equal light no noise nor silence but one equal music no fears nor hopes but one equal possession no foes nor friends but one equal communion no ends nor beginnings but one equal eternity in the habitations of your glory and dominion world without end amen so as we bring our prayers together and pray them to the living god whom we call our father then we remember that he is the god of the present and folding past and future and that jesus said i am the resurrection and the life say the prayer he taught us to say in whichever language we use 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 moment of silence as we make our own prayers on this morning in the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and if 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 would pray for today and always amen