good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this morning of friday the 10th of july we've come into the dinery garden to sit under the sycamore tree on this morning after a wet night but the sky is now clear and the reason we're under this tree will become evident to many of you and many of you will guess as we come to our reading later on in st luke's gospel but for the moment bring your morning prayers from wherever you are in the world those things which are on your heart as we say morning prayer here together may christ the day 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 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 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 are men our morning psalm on this tenth morning of the month is a song that we normally know as the misery set to music of course most famously by allegri but this morning we read psalm 51 as our morning sound have mercy on me o god in your great goodness according to the abundance of your compassion blot out my offences wash me thoroughly from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin for i acknowledge my faults and my sin is ever before me against you only have i sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are justified in your sentence and righteous in your judgment i have been wicked even from my birth a sinner when my mother conceived me behold you desired truth deep within me and shall make me understand wisdom in the depths of my heart purge me with hyssop and i shall be clean wash me and i shall be whiter than snow make me hear of joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice turn your face from my sins and blot out all my misdeeds make me a clean heart oh god and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy spirit from me give me again the joy of your salvation and sustain me with your gracious spirit then shall i teach your ways to the wicked and sinners shall return to you deliver me from my guilt o god the god of my salvation and my tongue shall sing of your righteousness o lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise for you desire no sacrifice else i would give it you take no delight in burnt offerings the sacrifice of god is a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart oh god you will not despise so we turn to the gospel of saint luke for our regular reading and we're in chapter 19 beginning at verse 1. we are still in jericho where we were with bartimaeus who recovered his sight as we last read from sin duke but here this morning is another citizen of jericho very different jesus entered jericho and was passing through and behold there was a man named zacchaeus he was a chief tax collector and was rich and he was seeking to see who jesus was but on account of the crowd he could not because he was small in stature so he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see jesus for he was about to pass that way and when jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him zacchaeus hurry and come down for i must stay at your home today so zacchaeus hurried and came down and received jesus joyfully and when the people saw it they all grumbled he has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner but zacchaeus stood and said to the lord behold lord half of my goods i give to the poor and if i have defrauded any one of anything i restore it fourfold jesus said to him today salvation has come to this house since here also is a son of abraham for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost it's a wonderful story and luke names the man himself he was passing through jericho and we don't know whether this encounter caused him to change his mind and stay or whether it was already the intention of jesus and the twelve to make their lodging that night in jericho whatever on this the last stop before the entry into jerusalem itself and all that awaits him which he's tried so often in the past few chapters to share with his disciples here in jericho they stay with zacchaeus the chief tax collector very important man much much more senior to the provincial tax collectors like matthew or levi as he's sometimes called called that bison luke in his gospel for they were provincial tax collectors and if they'd been working in galilee like levi matthew then they would have been working for peridontipas and collecting taxes there here is a chief tax collector working for the roman government and because we're now down south in judea all the taxes would go to the emperor and for that reason alone as a collaborator a tax collector a chief tax collector would be despised and then again the reputation of tax collectors who were allowed to take more for their own profit as a way of making that job for the roman empire profitable for that reason too they were seen as crooked as sinners as people you didn't consort with and here is jesus coming through jericho and zacchaeus whom we're told was short in stature does something very undignified for the chief tax collector and probably at risk to himself in a crowd which despised him for the occupation he had he climbs a sycamore tree here we are sitting under a sycamore tree this morning and from there he thinks quietly he can see jesus clearly he'd heard of him and wanted to see for himself and jesus stops and names him that in itself is interesting so maybe he has heard of such an important character in the conversations with the citizens there or even from matthew levi himself saying there lives a man here called zacchaeus how do we know we don't know but he does name him zacchaeus come down so that zacchaeus by his almost childlike action of running on ahead of the clouds cries of climbing a tree and looking down is brought down not just to stand before jesus but to be asked to invite him to his home as a guest and we're told zacchaeus received jesus joyfully now here we can take this story in one of two ways we could see it rather like so many of the stories we've seen as a story of a sinner repenting and receiving forgiveness and being sent on his way but we could take it in a completely different way for the verbs that zacchaeus uses are in the present tense in the original language of saint luke's gospel and zacchaeus doesn't kneel at jesus's feet he welcomes him as a host and then in the present tense tells jesus what he does with his money his belongings half of my possession i give to the poor and he also says that if i've defrauded anyone present tense i restore what i've deflated fourfold and jesus doesn't say go in peace your sins are forgiven he says to the people standing around who've despised this man today has salvation come to this house for here is a citizen of this city who is also a son of abraham we can take it as we will but he also says that he has come to seek and save the lost for zacchaeus is clearly looking for something and it's jesus then who comes to him and is his guest in a household which he blesses there's enormous food for much thought in all of that but clearly again it was a story which attracted luke that those despised by others for whatever reason jesus raises up and gives dignity to the despised the outcast some of whom are doing their absolute best jesus notices when the crowd hide them and push them to the background and he establishes his blessing on that whole household no wonder zacchaeus received him joyfully we don't know what happened next we don't know whether zacchaeus followed jesus on the road to jerusalem whether he became part of all of that all we know is that his household was blessed and he was blessed and he took his place in that society with the blessing of jesus well now let's say our prayers and think how often we may push someone to the background who needs bringing forward and establishing in the same way that jesus establishes zacchaeus calling him down from his sycamore tree this morning we are praying with the ashford deanery and all the villages around the town of ashford the clergy there and the people of that area for the area dean caroline mansley and the late chair phil sybold the secretary emma bishop and the treasurer shirley leslie of all those communities so to within our anglican communion we pray for the diocese of northern indiana and douglas sparks the bishop there and his people and we pray to for the diocese of banga in the church in wales and for andrew john the bishop there and all of his people we remember justin our archbishop and prayed too for rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth pray for the members of the anglican general synod who are to meet tomorrow virtually and uh we pray for their preparations for that meeting we also bring our own prayers as we say prayers together this morning the prayer for this week oh god the protector of all who trust in you without whom nothing is strong nothing is holy increase and multiply upon us your mercy that with you as our ruler and guide we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not our hold on things eternal grant this heavenly father for our lord jesus christ's sake amen and the son collects at the end of the penitential psalm 51 miserably take away good lord the sin that corrupts us give us the sorrow that heals and the joy that praises and restore by grace your own image within us that we may take our place among your people in jesus christ our lord amen so in whatever way we like to say it in whichever language we join together in the prayer our savior taught us 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 now as we say our own prayers this morning 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 the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love those whom you would pray for today and always amen