good morning and Welcome to our second morning in our journey of the Gospel of St Luke as we go day by day looking at the special nature of St Luke we are today in the Church of Christ Church at New Haven and father Steven Holton is here sitting with me to help me take this morning prayer and think a little bit together about St Luke how long have you been R show here Stephen eight years so you know the parish pretty well now and we' we just had the most wonderful sung Mass here um prefaced with a forum on the English reformations they were all alive and sparkling this is lovely to to come together with you throughout the world on Garden congregation as we think about St Luke I'm going to begin the office and then father Steven will uh read a passage from St Luke's gospel which shows how Luke was attempting to connect what the new gospel for was saying and then going on to the The Acts of the Apostles with the preparation from the old test which is he wants people to understand why that preparation and that connection is so important so if you think about his gospel and and his Acts of the Apostles he geographically he begins in Jerusalem with the gospel and he ends at the end of The Acts of the Apostles in Rome but he doesn't just begin with Jerusalem M he begins in the temple and as if that's not enough right in the Holy place where old Zechariah in his turn as a priest was to burn incense in the Holy place and it's there with that old man that the new gospel Begins for St Luke but let's start our morning prayer and then oh yeah I'm fet is reminding me that there's some preparation going on for a concert this afternoon so if you hear background noise that is um what is happening so so you can eradicate that from your mind so let's begin our morning prayer this is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoice and be glad in it the Canticle this morning this morning is Van nighty come let us sing to the Lord let us shout for Joy to the rock of our Salvation let us come before his presence with Thanksgiving and raise a loud shout to him with Psalms for the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods in his hand are the caverns of the earth and the heights of the hills is his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands have molded the dry land come let us bow down and bend the knee and kneel before the Lord our maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand oh that today you would hearken to his voice glory to the father and to the son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever amen so father Steven is going to read part of the first chapter of St Luke's gospel a reading from The Gospel According to St Luke in the days of Herod King of Judea there was a priest named Zachariah of the division of abijah and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth and they were both righteous before God walking blamelessly in all the Commandments and statutes of the Lord but they had no child because Elizabeth was Barren and both were advanced in years now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty according to the custom of the priesthood he was chosen by lot to enter the Temple of the Lord and burn in incense and the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense and there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense and Zechariah was troubled when he saw him and fear fell upon him but the angel said to himo not be afraid Zechariah for your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John and you will have joy and gladness and many Will Rejoice at his birth for he will be great before the Lord and he must not drink wine or strong drink and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared and Zachariah said to the angel how shall I know this for I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years and the angel answered him I am Gabriel I stand in the presence of God and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news and behold you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their time and the people were waiting for Zechariah and they were wondering at his delay in the temple and when he came out he was unable to speak to them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple and he kept making signs to them and remain mute and when his time of service was ended he went to his home after these days his wife Elizabeth conceived and for for 5 months she kept herself hidden saying thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people here ends the lesson it is the most dramatic lesson I he struck silent I I never I never read it without being very moved I love the sentence I am Gabriel and the mood changes at that point when the old man has not believed the Angel's message and the old man is being perfectly sensible you know I'm well past the age of childbearing and my wife is well past and then you get this wonderful you know you feel the archangel's wings are filling the whole place at that point and saying I am Gabriel but it's a lovely thing about about holy places isn't it that this this place here in New Haven is full of that atmosphere when you come in of a holy space come in there's a there's a smell of the incense the the prayers of the people that have come before and imagining Zechariah in that place of being dutiful and burning the incense and praying day after day what what courage and what fortitude and what patience that took and suddenly he's confronted with this tear in the fabric of time and space this Angel yes and this fantastic revelation of what might happen and what might come and this F in of the end of the what we call the Old Testament yes and the beginning the stirrings of the new just at the beginning of that bridge yeah it is the full the full two chapters are are full of wonderful things if you think of Mary and and and and Elizabeth visitation so many of the things that we celebrate in our calendar seem to be wrapped up in that in just those moments yeah absolutely wonderful yeah yeah so when you when you think of what's happening to the holy land at the moment it's a very different scene how do you deal with that in worship and prayer yeah In This Moment there's so much uh anxiety and so much hope all wrapped up in what I love the very practical point where Zechariah says but this seems unlikely to happen yeah and Elizabeth is still just meditating and pondering on what this might be uh that hope in that that moment of which she cuz there's May what is happening in this moment one of the things that I love about Luke and the the Lucan gospel is the Deep concern for those who are dispossessed and those who are poor the Deep Humanity that we all share but especially those who may be bypassed in the in the halls of power or in the in the the in the the accounts of wealth and I remember that Jesus is coming to those very people that are feeling oppressed and that are feeling held down and battered and beaten by the vicisitudes and violence and death dealing of of Life Jesus comes in that moment to all those of the House of Israel but also we learn through his life he's come to all of us who are made in God's image I love that Luke so intently knits together that idea of the humanity of those made in God's image by tying it back to the back into prophecy to the very earliest uh human beings uh through even people that are difficult people that are murderers people that are sex workers all this line coming to Jesus it's a way that Luke shows us that Jesus cares so as I despair for those who are In Harm's Way as I despair for the uh the the attacks on uh the people of of Israel I just spare for the children and the innocent victims of Terror in in U in the Palestinian uh lands I try to hold hope yeah that the world was also complicated and full of violence when Jesus came and we still we we try to pray we try to be available for those who are refugees well we remember that the temple that Zechariah was standing in in ad70 was totally destroyed by the Romans and the loss of life and the taking away of of the nation into slavery was catastrophic and so really it's like wheels turning in over and history but now because of our screens um those hands of the people we can actually see from Gaza holding holding out their hands to us yes and and that the the the Jewish people and the libyans all of these around the Palestinians are are saying to the world help us but we can only help in in our prayers and in the the relief we try to send and pray that that councils higher up can do something about the the situation and then we have an obligation for our Jewish and Palestinian and Libyan brothers and sisters to act in ways that we can to give what we can yes and I also think we have a peculiar uh particularly Christian vocation to hope we're participating in a local pilgrimage this year U talking considering ourselves as pilgrims of Hope how do we bear the hope that Elizabeth has in that moment how do we bear the hope that Jesus brings uh in this moment and how do we continue to pray for the coming reign of God in which all is peace and all are all are Beloved the one lovely thing about these two chapters is the way in which Mary when she Embraces her vocation wants to tell someone who will understand yes uh and she goes to find a friend and and Journeys to Elizabeth to Elizabeth that's where she goes that very sort of tender meeting there they are wonderful chapters chapters 1 and two of Luke and I would bid you read them as though it were a story for for all the way through from the beginning of chapter 1 right through to the end of chapter 2 because it's like nothing else in the other gospels this is Luke who tells this story yes and it it shows the the caliber of the the Evangelist I think we better continue with our prayers because we could talk about Luke all day really but but and we'd like that um here's a Psalm next it's Psalm 62 if you'd like to read that for Sunday morning it starts there thank you for God Alone my soul in silence Waits from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that I shall not be greatly shaken how long will you assail me to crush me all of you together as if you were a leaning fence a toppling wall they seek only to bring me down from my place of honor lies are their Chief Delight they bless with their lips but in their hearts they curse for God Alone my soul in silence Waits truly my hope is in him he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that I shall not be greatly shaken in God is my safety and my honor God is My Strong Rock and my refuge put your trust in him always oh people pour out your hearts before him for God is our refuge those of high degree are but a fleeting breath even those of low estate cannot be trusted on the scales they are lighter than a breath all of them together put no trust in extortion in robbery take no empty Pride though wealth increase set not your heart upon it God has spoken once twice have I heard it that power Bel belongs to God steadfast love is yours O Lord for you repay everyone according to his deeds thank you a sentence from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians For the Love of Christ urges us on because we are convinced that one has died for all therefore all have died and he died for all so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who died and was raised for them take a moment of of quiet to think of any that we would pray for at this time and then we'll join together in the Our Father so as our savior taught us we ourselves pray Our Father Who Art in Heaven HED 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 and the power and the glory forever and ever amen the prayer for Sunday oh God you make us glad with the weekly remembrance of the Glorious resurrection of your son our Lord give us this day such blessing through our worship of you that the week to come may be spent in your favor through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen amen we say together the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all ever more amen well thank you stepen for being with us at the end of a busy morning and it's a joy and a joy to be together with all of us together thank you