good evening and welcome to canterbury cathedral and to the dinery garden for evening prayer on this friday the 26th of june as a new weekend begins we shall this weekend still be saying our prayers in various different places people will be in the nave separately praying privately but by next weekend we shall be back into the ordered life of the beginnings of worship in the cathedral itself and we much look forward to that day but for the moment i've come out into the garden to continue the thoughts we had this morning about new life and new growth we have a complete section of new life here because this ground we cleared earlier in the week to plant with annual seeds hardy annuals which will grow up and flower and give a scent but also we've placed two lovely roses gifts from jackie in spain and they're already flowering and we've put them here so that they can begin the color before all the annuals begin to flower i'm looking at the huge ancestry above me which is in full flower and the scent of that is very powerful indeed especially after all the rain we received this morning which has refreshed the garden so we begin our evening prayer oh lord open thou our lips and our mouth shall show forth thy praise oh god make speed to save us o lord make haste to help us glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen praise ye the lord the lord's name be praised this evening gives us as a psalm the last section of psalm 119 and i'm beginning to read from verse 169 let my complaint come before thee o lord give me understanding according to thy word let my supplication come before thee deliver me according to thy word my lips shall speak of thy praise when thou has taught me thy statutes yeah my tongue shall sing of thy word for all thy commandments are righteous let thine hand help me for i have chosen thy commandments i have longed for thy saving health oh lord and in thy law is my delight oh let my soul live and it shall praise thee and thy judgments shall help me i have gone astray like a sheep that is lost o seek thy servant for i do not forget thy commandments glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen our first lesson is written in the book of job chapter 24 and job is questioning why god does not act when people are suffering why are not times of judgment kept by the almighty and why do those who know him never see his days some move landmarks they seize flocks and pasture them they drive away the donkey of the fatherless they take the widow's ox for a pledge they thrust the poor off the road the poor of the earth all hide themselves behold like while donkeys in the desert the poor go out to their toil seeking game the wasteland yields food for their children they gather their fodder in the field and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man but they lie all night night naked without clothing and have no covering in the cold they are wet with the rain of the mountains and cling to the rock for lack of shelter they go about naked without clothing hungry they carry the sheaves among the olive rose of the wicked they make oil they tread the wine presses but they themselves suffer thirst from out of the city the dying groan and the soul of the wounded cries for help yet god charges no one with wrong here ends the first lesson and we read the song of mary the magnificat seldith magnify the lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in god my savior for he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed for he that is mighty hath magnified me and holy is his name and his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations he has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts he has put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away he remembering his mercy hath opened his servant israel as he promised to our forefathers abraham and his seed forever glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and never shall be world without end amen our second lesson is written in the 11th chapter of saint paul's letter to the romans beginning at the first verse i ask then has god rejected his people by no means for i myself i'm an israelite a descendant of abraham a member of the tribe of benjamin god has not rejected his people whom he foreknew do not know what the scripture says of elijah how he appeals to god against israel lord they have killed your prophets they have demolished your altars and i alone am left and they seek my life and what is god's reply to him i have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to baal so too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace but if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace would no longer be grace lord now let us thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou has prepared before the face of all people to be a light to lighten the gentiles and to be the glory of thy people israel glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen i believe in god the father almighty maker of heaven and earth and in jesus christ his only son our lord who was conceived by the holy ghost born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of god the father almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead i believe in the holy ghost the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen let us pray lord have mercy upon us christ have mercy upon us lord have mercy upon us our father what 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 amen o lord show thy mercy upon us and grant us thy salvation o lord save the queen and mercifully hear us when we call upon thee and do thy ministers with righteousness and make thy chosen people joyful o lord save thy people and bless sign inheritance give peace in our time o lord because there is none other that fighteth for us but only thou are god oh god make clean our hearts within us and take not thy holy spirit from us o lord who never fails to help and govern them whom thou dost bring up in thy steadfast fear and love keep us we beseech thee under the protection of thy good providence and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy name through jesus christ our lord amen o god from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all just works to proceed give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give that both our hearts may be said to obey thy commandments and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness through the merits of jesus christ our savior amen lighten our darkness we beseech thee o lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy only son our savior jesus christ amen two lessons where people job paul are dealing with the sense that they feel that god's answer is too long in coming the whole book of job full of amazing is full of that cry as job sits among the ashes and wreckage of all that he felt was a blessing to him and cries out to god and then paul speaks about the desolation he feels about his own people and then the two canticles the magnificat when mary responds to god's activity and the lung dimittis where simeon in extreme old age having waited and waited and must so many times have been tempted to give up holds the little seed of the newborn christ child in his arms and says now i'm ready to go on to that which is far greater beyond lord now let us thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word god's times are not our times but all the scriptures say to us hold on but expect to receive him in situations and places which are most unexpected magnificat and nunc demittis daily proclaim that in song or in poetry when we read them as we have this afternoon we've come to a place where seed has been scattered and the earth and the rain and the richness of creation will bring them with maybe a little help from us and the watering can to a fruition and all of those things become hugely important but they teach lessons of watching and waiting for very small things in god's good time to become wonderful paul in the epistle to the romans talk about the remnant who have not bowed the knee and turned away from their gods bound the knee to the wrong idols but are still bowing the knee to the right place of creative power which will further them and give them nourishment and life well this place this canterbury cathedral was a monastery in what england called the dark ages when chaos reigned outside and at that time it was like so many monasteries a seed pod where when the right time came that which had been held in faithfulness burst forth and was a gift to the world and that faith was of the invitation to the kingdom in this world and the next so many times in christian history when things have seemed so much so bleak and i read the creed this afternoon and said it as part of even song but really it's a catalogue of failure in worldly terms condemned to death suffered all of those things and resurrection was something that could hardly be called a hope for those who saw jesus die even he himself struggled with that at the garden of gethsemane and the cry from the cross my god my god why have you forsaken me yet holding on and sensing god's time and god's gift is very much part of the life that we offer to the world and see ourselves when we receive god's gifts as mere tiny seeds which given god's grace will flower in a particular and unique way for there's only one you and there's only one me in time and in eternity and that in the midst of all this creative life we hold on to and our little malaysia cockrell has just trumpeted it the cockerel of resurrection as a new dawn will be expected tomorrow morning let's say our prayers quietly now in silence for all those whom we would want to pray for and then we say the prayer of christ [Music] almighty god who has given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee and thus promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy name thou wilt grant their requests fulfill now o lord the desires and petitions of thy servants as may be most expedient for them granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting amen 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 and 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 this night and always the cockerel is reminding us that dawn can come for us at any moment of the day and we give thanks for that