[Music] oh [Music] um [Music] so [Music] um [Music] now [Music] now um [Music] [Music] good morning and welcome on this sunday the 18th of october welcome wherever you are across the world to our morning prayer here in the garden of the deanery at canterbury cathedral yesterday we came to the end of quite a little pilgrimage on all the weekdays through spring and summer we have been reading through the words since luke left us in his gospel and in his acts of the apostles and yesterday at the end of chapter 28 of the acts of the apostles we ended that little pilgrimage well that took us through more than a quarter of the words of the new testament and for that we have to thank st luke and no better day than this because october the 18th is the feast day of saint luc the evangelist we remember him as the beloved physician as saint paul called him and also one of saint paul's disciples and followers for part of his work he was an eyewitness and for much he was a listener and collector of the memories of others and that we can think about in our reflection later as we give thanks for him on this day october the 18th has in my mind three really important uh connections with the past one goes right back today was the marriage of isabella of castile and ferdinand of aragon and that marriage was the foundation of spain's mighty empire the rich superpower of the middle ages it's funny how these events in history suddenly then burgeon and create a timeline but more seriously today we're remembering also the publication of hermann melville's novel moby dick in 1851 and we're remembering also on this date in 1922 the beginning of the british broadcasting company the bbc under the leadership of john reef at that time who became the first director general those things we'll think about and what they meant when we're reflecting after the reading of our scriptures and psalms and before the saying of our prayers but let's read the morning prayer for sin luke's day and bring your own intentions those whom you would want to pray for on this morning as we do so 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 made 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 o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm this morning is on 92 and we read part of that now it is a good thing to give thanks to the lord and to sing praises to your name almost high to tell of your love early in the morning and of your faithfulness in the night time upon the ten-stringed instrument upon the harp and to the melody of the liar for you lord have made me glad by your acts and i sing aloud at the works of your hands oh lord how glorious are your works your thoughts are very deep the senseless do not know nor do fools understand that though the wicked sprout like grass and all the workers of iniquity flourish it is only to be destroyed forever but your lord shall be exalted forevermore the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree and shall spread abroad like a cedar of lebanon such as are planted in the house of the lord shall flourish in the courts of our god they shall still bear fruit in old age they shall be vigorous and in full leaf that they may show that the lord is true he is our rock and there is no unrighteousness in him this morning our new testament lesson is just four short verses from the gospel of saint luke and i'm going to preface that by reading the old testament lesson given to us for st luke's day from the 55th chapter of the prophet isaiah and then following that we'll read the new testament lesson come everyone who thirsts come to the waters and whoever has no money come buy and eat come buy wine and milk without money without price why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food incline your ear and come to me hear that your soul may live and i will make with you an everlasting covenant my steadfast sure love for david behold i made him a witness to the peoples a leader and commander for the peoples behold you shall call nations that you do not know and nations that did not know you shall run to you because of the lord your god and of the holy one of israel for he has glorified you seek the lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake their way and the unrighteous one their thoughts let them return to the lord and the lords will have compassion on them return to our god for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are you always my ways declares the lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth making it bring forth and sprout giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth it shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which i purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which i sent it for you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands and instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle and it shall make a name for the lord an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off and from the very beginning of the gospel of saint luke whose day we keep with rejoicing and celebration and much gratitude chapter 1 verse 1 in as much 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 ministers 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 luke sets out his intention it's luke that places into the hands of jesus in that story which he no doubt has collected that story in nazareth when jesus goes back to his hometown and he's asked to read the scriptures luke tells us that story of him choosing the prophet isaiah and reading from it and he reads about the way in which the anointed one will bring freedom to those who are bound good news to those who most need it will raise those who feel down and give them joy and no better chapter to express that than the one we read in isaiah this morning 55 no doubt jesus knew that by part for he quotes so many times and here we sit amongst the trees on this still and really beautiful autumn morning i'm sitting beside a walnut tree and its leaves are falling now and a liquid amber tree and also the leaves beginning to fall and in front of me and between me and what you're looking at a cut leaf alder the beauty of the trees and isaiah imagine them clapping their hands with the good news but he also imagines that the freshness that the rain from heaven gives to water the earth and the word of god coming from that and not returning fruitless well no one gave us more of the words of the new testament than luke himself both in the gospel of luke and the acts of the apostles and in those four short verses he sets out his intentions is it to an imaginary reader theophilus lover of god the word means or is it to someone actually called by that name and at the same time luke is writing what you might call an apologetic to those who have a wrong impression of what those who are followers of the way of this good news follow it which luke has become luke doesn't just appear uh by his own writings in the new testament he is there in the letters of saint paul he's called the beloved physician in the letter to the colossians one letter very certainly of paul and it tells us something else for just before that verse paul has listed people like aristarchus and mark and in that little list he says these are the only ones of the circumcision of the jewish faith who are with me now and then after that he says and luke also sends you greetings giving us that clue that luke is in all probability of greek and he's learning things absolutely from scratch but what he says is in those four short verses there are many narratives and i'm going to try and collect them all together narratives from eyewitnesses of what happened in the ministry of jesus and we might add to that the ministry of the twelve in the early church that's the beginning of the acts of the apostles i'm going to create as far as i can an orderly narrative from reliable witnesses and luke sets about it and becomes very correct in what he's writing he's actually been likened to thucydides or one of the greek historians in that way but luke is giving us much more than history he is spreading for us heaven and earth in good news and the loveliest thing of all is that he part of the way through the acts of the apostles becomes an eyewitness himself it seems that although he was born in antioch that he joined saint paul in choas and there is that clue that when they leave philippi luke seems not to go with them and when they come back to philippi luke joins them again and all of those things we can act like detectives about because is fairly self-effacing and yet we use those little snippets which give us a picture of him from the letters of saint paul to create the image of the beloved physician and also the one who writes that story right up to the end of the acts where paul is there imprisoned but given freedom to see his friends for two full years and that becomes very important indeed so all of those things we remember with great gladness but we also remember with gladness our own pilgrimage because we've learned i have i hope you have so many things by reading those things in the gospel of saint luke and reflecting on them and and picturing them in the context of whatever else might have happened on that day and also enjoying the fresh air and the images that i'm sure luke the doctor would have said was very good for us he's become the patron saint of of physicians and doctors he's the patron saint of many things of artists and certainly if he wasn't a painting artist he was someone who knew how to draw up a verbal picture wonderfully and at the same time of course most of our canticles are magnificat our nunc dimitis our benedictus our gloria come from the writings of saint luke for all that as musicians we give thanks today as well and we could say so much more but we've said that and thought it and prayed it over the months gone by there are two other events as i said which are significant on this october the 18th one of them is the publication of this book moby dick in 1851 it's a monumental text almost biblical in its proportions and it has so many references to biblical stories that you catch them as you go it's one of those books you've got to read over and over again and take up and read bits of and remember the first sentence is just three words long [Music] call me ishmael and it's ishmael who like luke is the narrator but what kind of allegory of the ocean and god's creation and the way we treat it and human revenge in the person of captain ahab and the compulsion to follow that which grace cannot break and the way it affects all those around him and also the sense of the one who is an outcast well if we uh if we just read a bit more call me ishmael some years ago never mind how long precisely having little or no money in my purse and nothing particular to interest me onshore i thought i would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world it is a way i have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation whenever i find myself growing grim about the mouth and whenever it is a damp drizzly november in my soul so ishmael sets out and even at the end when he is there alone in the sea after the whale has destroyed the pequod it's the ship rachel who had lost one of her sailors who they met earlier rachel still searching for her children in the waters who finds what ishmael says doesn't find her children but finds an orphan he himself and takes him on board so that he can write that story what caused luke to follow paul and set out on this journey which took him through shipwreck and also gave him the ability to tell the story we we don't know but we know that it was an element of the good news and we remember that salvation also means healing how compelling to a doctor with the simple medicines at that time which were ineffective against so much that was threatening human life and today also october the 18th 1922 the founding of the bbc on which we rely so much and john reese had three principles for the bbc it was to inform it was to educate it was to entertain well it means so much more to us and has done to folk right across the world but also those principles would hold good too to what luke was trying to do to give us those things information education and let's say it entertainment for his stories are wonderful but they open out into ways that when you read them again and again heaven and earth are united and the pictures and the music are not just of humanity they are of god's good creation and the way we ourselves are to use it and tell the good news across the world the bbc was quickly followed up with the director general uh founding with the astronomer royal inventing those six pips which tell us the time and are still there and quickly afterwards the radio times which gave a written intention of all that was going to be broadcast how much we rely on that but it was one person's vision and moby dick one person's vision and that over a quarter of the new testament one person's vision set out in those four verses on his day today to collect the many narratives and order them into one and hand them on to that to us so for luke the beloved physician we give great thanks today as we say our prayers let's uh bring our prayers together and bring your own intentions in the anglican communion list we're praying for the episcopal church of the united states today and the presiding bishop michael curry well known to us here and someone who is excellent at giving that story to with with enormous enthusiasm and also in our own diocese today as we pray for just in our archbishop rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth we are praying for the homeless as we did last week for help healing and hope for those who live on our streets for all those suffering with broken family relationships bereavement abuse poor mental health or addiction and we give thanks for organization like porchlight and catching lives on this day so let us say the prayer force in luke's day almighty god you called luke the physician whose praise is in the gospel to be an evangelist and physician of the soul by the grace of the spirit and through the wholesome medicine of the gospel give your church the same love and power to heal through jesus christ our lord amen so we say each in our own language the prayer our lord 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 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 amen moment of silence now on this sunday morning as we bring our own prayers 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 the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always amen [Music] you