[Music] good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this morning of august the 20th again a morning after some rain in the night so a nice fresh smell but a cloudy sky wherever you are in the world please feel welcome here and bring your own prayers as we say our morning prayers on this day which is the feast day of saint bernard of clairvaux an immensely important influence in the cistercian order not the founder a trio of men uh robert and and uh alberic and stephen harding were the first three habits of of that order and formed it i i know of stephen harding well because he was educated at sherbourne abbey as a benedictine and i was vicar of sherman for five years of my ministry and so he was well remembered there but then he went off to join the new order at sito the cistercian order but the energy for that order which made it a powerhouse of spirituality and the development of monasteries right across europe some of the most beautiful in england tin turn abbey and fountains abbey and rivo abbey and so many more the powerhouse came from bernard of clavo at the uh in the early years of the the 12th century we remember him today he died on this day in 1153 probably we remember him best as a hymn writer whose hymns in latin have been translated and hymns like jesus the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast but sweeter far thy face to see and in thy presence rest and perhaps even more famous oh sacred head sore wounded so let's begin our morning prayers and we'll think about bernard again later on in our reflection oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night blessed are you creator of all to you be praise and glory forever as your dawn renews the face of the earth bringing light and life to all creation may we rejoice in this day you have made and as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep open our eyes to behold your presence and strengthen our hands to do your will that the world may rejoice and give you praise 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 our psalm on this 20th morning of the month is psalm 103 bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with faithful love and compassion who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagles the lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed he made his ways known to moses and his works to the children of israel the lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness he will not always accuse us neither will he keep his anger forever he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our wickedness for as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his mercy upon those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so far has he set our sins from us as a father has compassion on his children so is the lord merciful towards those who fear him for he knows of what we are made he remembers that we are but dust our days are but as grass we flourish as a flower of the field for as soon as the wind goes over it it is gone and its place shall know it no more but the merciful goodness of the lord is from of old and endures forever on those who fear him and his righteousness on children's children on those who keep his covenant and remember his commandment to do them so we turn again to luke's account of the early church as written in the acts of the apostles and we are beginning this morning at chapter 4 verse 32. now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul and no one said that any of the things that belonged to them was their own they had everything in common and with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the lord jesus and great grace was upon them all there was not a needy person among them for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid them at the apostles feet and it was distributed to each as any had need thus joseph who was also called by the apostles barnabas which means son of encouragement a levite a native of cyprus sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet but a man named ananias with his wife sapphira sold a piece of property and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only part of it and laid it at the apostles feet but peter said ananias why has satan filled your heart to lie to the holy spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land while it remained unsold did it not remain your own and after it was sold was it not at your disposal why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart you have not lied to man but to god when ananias heard these words he fell down and breathed his last and great fear came upon all who heard of it the young men rose and wrapped up the body and carried him out and buried him after an interval of about three hours sapphira his wife came in not knowing what had happened and peter said to her tell me whether you sold the land for so much and she said yes for so much but peter said to her how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the lord behold the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out and immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last when the young men came in they found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband and great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things there is in the marketplace of the wiltshire town of devises a monument it's a monument to ruth pierce a farmer's wife who in 1753 came with three other farmers wives with a sack of wheat and they had agreed to split the proceeds of the sack of wheat between them at the end of the market day everything was given in and it was found that there were three pennies missing and ruth was accused by the other three and she said if god were to strike me down dead i am honest i have not stolen that money and she fell down dead and there in the marketplace is the great monument not put up in 1753 but put up in 1814 told from townsville into town's person and there it was because when she was found on the ground the three pennies were found in her apron pocket well these stories get told as warnings but for luke this story of ananias and sapphira however it's come to him is the other side of the coin to barnabas the son of encouragement coming in wholeheartedly as all the others in that community were giving in honesty to the power of the holy spirit or all that he had sold and wanted to give and then just for the the glory of having given so much ananias and sapphira make a pact to say that they themselves are going to do this but they'll keep back some money luke is remembering the saying of jesus as i say we have to hold the gospel of saint luke over the acts of the apostles and in chapter 12 10 of luke's gospel he recounts the saying of jesus anyone blaspheming against the son of man lying about the son of man will be forgiven jesus in human form showing the kindness of god but anyone choosing to lie against the spirit of the creator himself well that can't be forgiven and luke says after the death of ananias and sapphira great fear fell on the whole church the story was carried forward it reminded me of saint paul in romans 11 and verse 22 where he says in the middle of a sermon about trees and branches and pruning and taking out of the healthy life of the tree that which is diseased and he says note then the kindness and the severity of god severity towards those who have fallen but god's kindness to you provided you continue in his kindness otherwise you will be cut off peter is anxious for the life of the whole tree with its roots rooted in the liturgical worship of temple and synagogue which they are still following faithfully and its fresh shoots in the honesty and following of the teaching of jesus in that community and the story of barnabas is one aspect of that and the story of ananias and sapphira however it's come down is another note then the kindness and severity of god let's look at bernard of clavo one of his loveliest sentences is what i know of the divine sciences and the holy scriptures i have learned in woods and fields i have no other masters than the beaches and the oaks for vines and trees will teach you that which you will never learn from human teachers and then his other statement which probably most of us know even better the road to hell is paved with good intentions it needs grace and repentance day by day the cistercians when they founded their order were dissatisfied with the way in which monasteries had begun to grow rich and quite slack about the rule of saint benedict and they went back to a more severe teaching it's very evident in where they built their monasteries they took them away from the towns which were full of temptations and they placed them in valleys of great beauty and fields but away from human habitation in any great measure that's why those great monasteries tin turn and fountains and rivo were destroyed at the dissolution because there was no town around them to use them once the monks had gone but the architecture is still there we know and normally at this time of year we go to visit three beautiful cistercian monasteries in provence in the south of france their architecture is full of simplicity but as we go to see them each year they strike us with you could say the severity of their architecture but also the simplicity of their architecture and the beauty around them of the countryside and the tourney and silverka the three provincial sisters behind me here is canterbury cathedral benedictine monastery but there are aspects of it from land frank's cathedral and you can see a bit of a transept here of great simplicity it was that simplicity that the cistercians were attempting to emulate and one of the monasteries in provence saint is still a certain monastery if you go in lavender time for the monks grow great lavender fields in their sunny valley harvest it and make wonderful things from it if you go then you will be transported by the beauty of creation and the sky above the very simple monastery in architectural terms but something that makes you wonder at the simplicity and then to wonder at the way in which as bernard says trees and vines and growing things and even the stones themselves seem to teach you principles of creation but it's a community and a community always has to be guarded just as a tree has to be guarded and looked at and pruned and saint paul's little sermon about grafting back in and the kindness and severity of god we see that this morning in the two stories which have been handed on the story of the son of encouragement and the story of the two who try to lie to the spirit of the creator and came back to be a story handed on well we give great thanks for bernard of claveau i read earlier on or said earlier on that he wrote the hymn jesus the very thought of the it was translated by edward caswell the second verse is nor voice can sing nor heart can frame nor can the memory find a sweeter sound than thy dear name o savior of mankind and in the first verse the line but sweet afar by face to see luke's gospel and what he has collected about stories told in the early church before ever he got to jerusalem and what he knows of sin paul's teaching in the romans is attempting to give us the face of jesus and also the power of the name of jesus and the wonder and let's say also fear of the power of the holy spirit which is being given as a gift to the whole church which peter is guarding and protecting this morning well let's say our prayers on this morning and we pray on the 20th of august in the anglican communion for the diocese of okrika in nigeria and for tubo kasemi atari the bishop there and his people and the diocese of bengoma in kenya and bishop george makumo and all of his people and then here in this diocese today we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and for the parish of tenterdon rother and oxny and the clergy there lindsey hammond patricia fogdon judy darkins chris hodgkins and the assistant priest judith shaw and curate jeanette kenneth the daily work of the precincts is starting all around us as we say our prayers so we pray for this holy place but give thanks for all communities on thursdays we always give thanks for the benedictine communities at beck in france and they pray for us at the same time please pray for whomsoever you bring in heart and mind this morning as we say the prayer of sin bernard merciful redeemer who by the life and preaching of your servant bernard rekindled the radiant light of your church grant us in our generation to be inflamed with the same spirit of discipline and love and ever to walk before you as children of light through jesus christ our lord amen so we say each in our own language the prayer our savior taught us and we bring the that prayer together with all our prayers as we say those words 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 the sky has become blue as we pray and we keep silence for a moment and bring our own prayers as work starts today [Music] for 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 upon those whom you would pray for today and always amen [Applause] you