good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this morning of saturday the 27th of june it began with lots of rain but we found a window i think in the showers now to come out and enjoy some fresh air in the garden as we say our morning prayers say wherever you are in the world feel welcome here our prayers are for you and with you and have in your hearts and minds those whom you would pray for on this day o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation and sustain us with your gracious spirit blessed are you sovereign god creator of all to you be glory and praise forever you founded the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands in the fullness of time you made us in your image and in these last days you have spoken to us in your son jesus christ the word made flesh as we rejoice in the gift of your presence among us let the light of your love always shine in our hearts your spirit ever renew our lives and your praises ever be on our lips 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 so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen the 27th morning of the month brings us a group of psalms from 120 onwards which are called pilgrim psalms they were the hymns that the pilgrims sang on their way to the holy city it's a refreshment after the length of psalm 119 over the last few days to have these little psalms but it's also a reminder to me and to all of us in canterbury that with the easing of lockdown pilgrimage will reawaken and we shall be welcoming physically rather than virtually pilgrims back to canterbury psalm 121 i lift up my eyes to the hills from where is my help to come my help comes from the lord the maker of heaven and earth he will not suffer your foot to stumble he who watches over you will not sleep behold he who keeps watch over israel shall neither slumber nor sleep the lord himself watches over you the lord is your shade at your right hand so that the sun shall not strike you by day neither the moon by night the lord shall keep you from all evil it is he who shall keep your soul the lord shall keep watch over your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore so we turn to the gospel of saint luke and today we have quite a tricky passage which i'm keen not to jump over and i'm keen to explore a little bit with you because bits of it have always puzzled me too we're now in chapter 14 and with verse 25 and remember jesus is going towards his messiahship and all that that means and he's been fairly clear about what he believes it means and the courage needed to fulfill it for any human being and he has shouldered the whole of our humanity and as they go along we've seen different groups of people in different villages and towns questioning him some hostile some rejoicing that he's there with them pharisees and sadducees and supporters of king herod and scribes and lawyers all sorts of people and also great crowds huge crowds sometimes we've seen them almost treading on one another because there were so many trying to get near him we've seen a little bit of teaching of the disciples themselves in chapter for in the center of all those crowds are the 12 who have a special vocation to share jesus's messiahship and even though they may not do it while he is with them theirs is the task afterwards for the journey they're about to make to jerusalem will prove too hard for their loyalty in terms of fear and suffering and we have to see that many of the crowds are saying can't i be one of your disciples can i be and jesus is beginning to talk about what discipleship for the twelve and those who would be with them actually means now great crowds accompanied him and jesus turned and said to them if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters yes and even his own life they cannot be my disciple whoever does not bear their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple for which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost whether they have enough to complete it otherwise when they have laid a foundation and are not able to finish all who see it begin to mock them saying here is someone who began to build and was not able to finish or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether they are able with 10 thousand to meet the one who comes against them with twenty thousand and if not while the other is yet a great way off they send a delegation and ask for terms of peace so therefore any one of you who does not renounce all that they have cannot might be my disciple salt is good but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltiness be restored it is of no use either for the soil or for the compost heap it is thrown away he who has ears to hear let them hear a difficult passage difficult because of the word hate because it sounds so strong and powerful in the context of all that jesus has taught us about loving those who are around us and how he has taught the principles of family life in respect for mother and father according to the commandments and also said in other places that a husband and wife are joined together as one flesh all those loyalties well here we have the word hate used for everything around and he's speaking about a specific type of discipleship one that's going to be too hard even for the 12. think of all the patches of ground and the seeds thrown by the cellar and think of the crowd in all that they're receiving as areas of that seed as it goes jesus is at this moment not recruiting but i suppose he's asking for support for those who are the twelve and the cost will be massive hate's a big word matthew doesn't use it in his gospel he says the one who loves whatever they have around them those around them more than this desire this vocation for specific discipleship is not worthy to follow it's not the only kind of following it's interesting that the word disciple simply disappears from the new testament in the epistles afterwards you can't find it there the twelve the apostles are there but this discipleship following the master to this specific vocation is an important concept for this part of the journey to what will happen in the city of jerusalem we use the word hate in different ways sometimes we say i hate wednesdays i'd rather have thursdays and our passions aren't much involved sometimes says this can be wonderful and wednesdays can be awful and the other way around and so we scatter words around jesus is speaking with strong words but what we see if we take that sentence out is not quite what's going on and at the same time it always used to puzzle me why he could use the word take up one's cross and earlier in the gospel of saint luke daily and follow him not worthy to be a disciple how could he know and then you have to realize that in the roman empire crucifixions were a daily occurrence just as in this nation in the 18th century it wouldn't have been strange to find someone left hanging at a crossroad as an example to others so in those days galilee and judea and any roman province would be used to the site of someone who had been convicted of a felony or an act of insurrection or some kind of misbehavior carrying the beam of their cross in nakedness to be hung in a public place in shame to die in agony sometimes the roman soldiers because they had to sit around and wait till they were dead would hasten that end in some way or another the disciples would have been used to it the whole town of cephalus in galilee earlier on and joseph and mary could tell that story had been attacked in this way by the romans because it was a place of insurrection terrible things happened there and trees were chopped down to crucify people as they would have seen on their way on their journey to jerusalem probably more and more crucifixion was a daily occurrence and the carrying of a cross was a daily occurrence for them to see and jesus's eyes are looking at that and looking at the dangers to the twelve and all their responsibilities and he says to everyone who feels the desire to follow him sit down and count the cost because the type of following that you choose and remember there are many who are called and sent back to their homes many who are healed and sent back to their homes many whose homes are blessed by his presence zacchaeus mary martha lazarus but the twelve have a terrifying vocation and he looks on in intuition to see how these will suffer the acts of the apostles gives us only the beginning of the story the epistles begin to tell the story and christian history tells that story only too well even to our present day of what that kind of discipleship costs our chapel of modern martyrs for those who fought for all sorts of causes from every nation is added to constantly and here is jesus saying sit down and count the cost count the cost of responsibilities to one another before you say yes this is the discipleship that i'm called to and if it burns in your heart then realize that that's the vocation that you must love about all other things but look round first because once you put your hand to the plow and turn back then everything becomes impossible it's a strand through st luke and i've begun to understand it as we've read it understood the tension of jesus in all of this and the responsibility he has for the twelve and what will happen to them hereafter he tells the two little parables about those who began to build or those who went out in strength to fight and then found they didn't have the resources and says please be careful count the cost and then come and follow me in whatever way you feel called and the ways of feeling called are as diverse as there are people in the world we give thanks for that this morning as we read that should we call it tricky passage in the gospel of saint luke let's say our prayers today as we pray for other areas of the world we are praying with the diocese of north central philippines and remember the bishop there gerald patio and his people and the reverend nester poltik the bishop there also who shares that episcopal responsibility and also the diocese of asante mampong in west africa pray for the bishop cyril kobina ben smith and for his people and the diocese of jos in nigeria and benjamin the bishop there and his people here in this diocese we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and today with we're praying for the parishes of the deanery of the wield in kent that contains wait for the list the villages and towns of staplehurst cranbrook hawkhurst gouthurst kilndown sutton valance chart sutton sandhurst east sutton hedgehorn frittenden sissinghurst and martin many beautiful communities and we pray for them all as we pray for the area dean rodney dreyer and the late chair graham coddling the secretary brian woodgate and the treasurer tony staples of the deanery which encompasses all those parishes so we say our prayers for those whom we know and love for those whom we would pray for on this day and we use the collect the special prayer for this week lord you have taught us that all our doings without love are nothing worse send your holy spirit pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love the true bond of peace and of all virtues without which whoever lives is counted dead before you grant this for your only son jesus christ's sake amen the psalm collect which remembers the pilgrim psalms as pilgrims joyfully trod the way to the holy city god of our pilgrimage bring us with joy to the eternal city founded on the rock and give to our earthly cities the peace that comes from above through jesus christ our lord amen so as we come to say the our father which jesus taught us to say every step of our pilgrimage when we pray then we say it in our own language in our own way and have in our hearts and minds all those whom we would pray for on this day 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 hold a few moments silence for our own prayers on this day unto god's most gracious mercy and protection we commit you the lord bless you and keep you the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you his peace 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 today and always amen foreign