good morning and welcome on this monday morning the 10th of august as we come into the dinery garden to say our morning prayers feel welcome wherever you are in the world this morning here it is the most beautiful day as we say our prayers we shall of course continue to remember the citizens of beirut and in our reflections we'll remember some other anniversaries which happened today but we begin our prayers on this feast day of saint lawrence who was a third century deacon in rome who was martyred for the faith and we give thanks for the life work and teaching of st lawrence o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be may ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more 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 and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever are men our psalm this morning on this tenth morning of the month is psalm 50. i'll read some verses from that now the lord the most mighty god has spoken and called the world from the rising of the sun to its setting out of zion perfect in beauty god shines forth our god comes and will not keep silence consuming fire goes out before him and a mighty tempest stares about him he calls the heaven above and the earth that he may judge his people gather to me my faithful who have sealed my covenant with sacrifice let the heavens declare his righteousness for god himself is judge hear o my people and i will speak i will testify against you o israel for i am god your god i will not reprove you for your sacrifices for your burnt offerings are always before me i will take no bull out of your house nor he goat out of your folds for all the beasts of the forest are mine the cattle upon a thousand hills i know every bird of the mountains and the insect of the field is mine if i were hungry i would not tell you for the whole world is mine and all that fills it do you think i eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats offer to god a sacrifice of thanksgiving and fulfill your vows to god most high whoever offers me the sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me and to those who keep my way will i show the salvation of god this morning we begin luke's second volume part two of his work which we know as the acts of the apostles and like part one it begins with a preface which he uses to explain to the one to whom he is writing and you could say that's you and me this morning the purpose of part two just as he explained the purpose of part one in the first book o theophilus i have dealt with all that jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the holy spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of god and while staying with them he ordered not to de them not to depart from jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the father which he said you heard from me for john baptized with water but you will be baptized with the holy spirit not many days from now so when they had come together they asked him lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to israel he said to them it is not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority but you will receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem and in all judea and samaria and to the end of the earth and when he had said these things as they were looking on he was lifted up and the cloud took him out of their sight and while they were gazing into heaven as he went behold two men stood by them in white robes and said men of galilee why do you stand looking into heaven this jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven then they returned to jerusalem from the mount called olivet which is near jerusalem a sabbath day's journey away and when they had entered they went up to the upper room where they were staying peter and john and james and andrew philip and thomas bartholomew and matthew james the son of alpheus simon the zealot and judas the son of james all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and mary the mother of jesus and jesus is brothers beginnings are good times and as we said on saturday every end is a new beginning we came to the end of st luke's gospel and he gave a little cameo picture of how his next volume would begin and today we begin it i said we'd remember some anniversaries and let's do that before we reflect on luke himself this in 1846 in washington was the anniversary of the founding of the smithsonian institution from money left by james smithson for the increase of knowledge now that has become the biggest museum institution in the world 30 million people visit it each year wherever it is in the world and there is no charge for their entry we are really fond of going into the zoo near to washington cathedral when we are there because especially early in the morning when everything is open and few people are there you see all kinds of creatures and enjoy them and as we walk about there is a sense of thanksgiving which psalm 50 gave to us in a wonderful way with god's ownership of all creatures can i say and i want to say thank you to all of you as well that today is that the day that we take our beloved tiger to have his left leg amputated and we give thanks and pray for him and for the vet christoph who will perform the operation also with we thank all those pets and creatures who have given hope to those in loneliness throughout this lockdown and we thank god for the work of the smithsonian institution and all who try to protect wildlife because at the moment when governments throughout the world are lacking funds those funds tend to be being withdrawn and that means that scarce creatures creatures that are endangered are left without protection so we we think of all that with the background of psalm 50 and god's ownership and care of the world but also of the injunction to offer day by day and at all times a sacrifice of thanksgiving for by doing so we honor our creator today also was the day in 1675 when king charles ii here in england chance ii began his reign the first day in 1660 when he returned from exile here in canterbury and was given hospitality and a chance to pray at the high altar charles ii in 1675 laid the foundation stone of the royal observatory in greenwich and created the position of astronomer royal john flamsteed who was with him at the laying of the foundation stone at that place which much much later would become the prime meridian setting international time and dates but on that day flamsteed's task was to map the heavens accurately so that longitude could be established for the safety of those at sea it took much longer than that to do that as most of you will know it needed the work of john harrison in the late 18th century to establish correct time for mariners with his maritime chronometer but for the moment let's think of that sense of accuracy for that is exactly what st luke is trying to achieve for us the double volume of st luke's writing contains so many words that they make up over a quarter of the whole of the new testament and our gratitude to him is enormous but i'm going to read to you again what he said at the beginning of his first volume to the one to whom he was writing as i said that could be you and me inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word have delivered them to us it seemed good to me also having followed all things closely for some time past to write an orderly account for you most excellent theophilus that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught he's gone to eyewitnesses and servants of the word he says no more than that but so many things in luke's gospel are ordered by him in a particular way and are there in luke alone we've seen them as we've read through the gospel day by day and felt a great sense of thanksgiving for his creative work and now on we go with part two very different because although they are waiting in jerusalem according to the command which jesus has given them on the mount of olives if we're to hear luke's testament near to bethany when he left them they are to stay in jerusalem and so the men of what men in white standing on each side that they perceive at that time say the same the same jesus will come again but for the moment the inference is your work is elsewhere now go and wait in the city until the father's gift of the holy spirit in power comes to you and they go back back to their upper room where they have known lockdown in their fear following crucifixion but now they go in a sense of waiting they don't stay in the upper room we're told at the end of st luke's gospel that their day by day in the temple praying and giving thanks but here luke tells us at the beginning of his next account that they are daily at prayer with one accord together and he is the one who lists the eleven and already he has given us the names of the group of women and here is mary the mother of the lord amongst them in the upper room as they wait and keep up their attendance in the temple all of those things are significant and perhaps one act of thanksgiving that we might give to saint luke is that so many occasions in our calendar of the christian year stories which fix the calendar names which fix the calendar it's that list in luke's first chapter of the acts which become the list of how we remember the eleven apostles a twelfth will be added when we start reading tomorrow but for the moment we offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving for all god's world for all god's creatures and also for saint luke's desire to map out what jesus did in his earthly incarnation and what happened to the church immediately afterwards as it spread from jerusalem as a starting point like the foundation of the royal observatory stone and then spread right across the world so thanks be to god for saint luke as we say our prayers this morning on this day of a new beginning today we're praying in the anglican communion for ohaji and igbema in nigeria and bishop chidi o para jayaku and his people and the diocese of brisbane in australia and philip john aspinall in his care as diocesan bishop there and here in this diocese as we pray for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth we pray today for the hawkinge parish of saint luke which is a nice coincidence and the priest there rob grinsell and his ministry in hawkinge bring your own prayers on this day as we say the prayer for lawrence day and then we shall say the our father together in thanksgiving for all almighty god who made lawrence a loving servant of your people and a wise steward of the treasures of your church fire us with his example to love as he loved and to walk in the way that leads to eternal life through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language we say 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 dress us 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 for our own prayers 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 and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those you would pray for today and always amen you