good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral to the dinery um we're going to say our prayers for ascension day and normally we would climb high onto the cathedral early in the morning on ascension day the choir of our school would be singing hail the day that sees him rise from the roof of the cathedral behind me well of course in this time of lockdown the children are not here and the school is empty teaching is being done online to them but we have climbed as high as we can on our own house to give an image of what the gospel writers and luke and the acts of the apostles are trying to do in earthly terms of the linking of those things which are earthly with those things which are eternal which jesus has been pointing to and the best image of that is coming high it's a morning of intermittent cloud and sunshine which fits the ascension story quite well for at the beginning of the acts of the apostles where the story is told in better detail we find a cloud covering the apostles and that tends to be not only a cloud in these terms but also something which is causing them to to wander a cloud covering their understanding while they wait with patients we in our lock down stage at the moment have had plenty of time of waiting and it seems that the waiting will go on wherever you are in the world you'll be in different circumstances in situations from the roof of the deanery i can see the the traffic of the city those who are traveling to their work are beginning to move and that is a sign of the work of the world but above me the swifts are screaming in the sky as they fly around and the sun keeps coming out from behind clouds in the blue sky so let's say our ascension day morning prayers o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your throne has been established from of old you are from everlasting alleluia blessed are you lord of heaven and earth to you be glory and praise forever from the darkness of death you have raised christ to the right hand of your majesty on high the pioneer of our faith his passion accomplished has opened for us the way to heaven and sends on us the promised spirit may we be ready to follow the way and so be brought to the glory of his presence where songs of triumph forever sound 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 amen the ascension day psalm is psalm 47 oh clap your hands together all you peoples sing to god with shouts of joy for the lord most high is to be feared he is the great king over all the earth he subdued the peoples under us and the nations under our feet he has chosen our heritage for us the pride of jacob whom he loves god has gone up with a merry noise the lord with the sound of the trumpet o sing praises to god sing praises sing praises to our king sing praises for god is the king of all the earth sing praises with all your skill god reigns over the nations god has taken his seat upon his holy throne the nobles of the people are gathered together with the people of the god of abraham for the powers of the earth belong to god and he is very high exalted i'm going to read from the gospel of saint luke but not in the sequence that we have been reading for this is a special day we shall be celebrating eucharist a communion at 12 noon which will also be online and at that the story of the ascension from the beginning of the acts will be told here it is right at the end of luke's gospel which we have been following we're in chapter 24 and jesus is talking to the disciples in the locked upper room in jerusalem and he says to them as a finality these are the closing words of the gospel then jesus said to them these are my words that i spoke to you while i was still with you that everything written about me in the law of moses the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled then he opened their mind to understand the scriptures and he said to them thus it is written that the christ is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from jerusalem you are witnesses of these things and see i am sending upon you what my father promised so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high and then he led them out as far as bethany and lifting up his hands he blessed them and while he was blessing them he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven and they worshipped him and returned to jerusalem with great joy and they were continually in the temple blessing god i don't know whether luke when he wrote the end of that gospel had already decided that he would write the sequel the series two the acts of the apostles but in that he tells the story of what happened next in great detail he also gives us a picture of the apostles standing with jesus on the mountain and the angelic visitation coming to them after they are left alone and the cloud has covered them location is an interesting thing in the gospels and as we've said before matthew and luke explore where to place sayings that jesus must have said many times to people and they give us locations but there is no doubt about the location of what we are commemorating today they have been back to galilee we've had the resurrection appearances on the lakeside but it's quite clear that the beginning whatever that beginning looks like the new beginning must happen from jerusalem and there they are to wait it seems they spend their time not just the twelve but we're told that the brothers of jesus the the women who were with him mary the mother of jesus they spend their time in prayer partly in the upper room and daily in the holy place in the temple blessing god but clearly there's a measure of fear there as we shall see from the acts of the apostles lesson which will be read at the communion today what happens next whatever it is will begin from jerusalem and it will look nothing like the life they had known before there will be new resources but some of the old resources of synagogue and temple will drop away and be taken from them some of them they don't want to lose but it seems that that's the way the path will lead and luke is absolutely clear as is matthew that this good news is for all the nations and so the resources they have they will need to take with them or create in new places new communities but for the moment that's too big a concept for the moment they're still in lockdown and the promised gift is yet to come these days as easter tide changes gear and goes towards pentecost the feast of the giving of the spirit these days are days of watching and waiting in expectation that the gifts of that eternal dimension the spirit of that eternal dimension the spirit of god himself will infuse the new community and make them what they were first called followers of the way it's that that we will be thinking of in these days to come for the next days until we reach pentecost the sunday after next watching and waiting a time of prayer and that begins on this ascension day as the sun has decided to shine on us in our rooftop exploration of this amazing event so we say our prayers and we in this place today remember the diocese of namarembe in uganda and bishop wilberforce kichu lualira and his people the diocese of abye in the south sudan and michael deng kabal the bishop there and his people and the diocese of accra in the province of west africa and the bishop daniel savanus mensah torto and all of his people here in this diocese of canterbury we pray today for the parish of saint in maidstone for joyce addison in her ministry and the reader robin fassenfeld in the community they serve there so we say the special prayer for ascension day praying that insights from the quality and resources of the eternal dimension of god will touch our lives as we watch and pray and wait for the way forward after our particular lockdown grant we pray almighty god that as we believe your only begotten son our lord jesus christ you have ascended into the heavens so we in heart and mind may also ascend and with him continually dwell who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever men so we say the prayer that our lord taught us to say in whatever language and in whichever way we would want to say it using it as a time of committing ourselves to this period of watching and waiting for spiritual gifts which help us to be followers of the way 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 time of silence now for your own prayers for this day and prayers for those for whom you would pray hey christ our king who has ascended into the glory of the heavens pour upon you the riches the grace and the gifts of his holy spirit and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and upon all whom you love and would pray for this ascension day and forever amen