good morning and welcome on this Monday the 14th of October to the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University where we are at the moment this day is a bank holiday in uh the United States of America it's what used to be called more Columbus Day it's also indigenous people's day Across the Nation so people are having a holiday today but perhaps even more important it's Thanksgiving Day in Canada and already we've had conversations both last night and this morning with Canadian friends who are meeting with their families for festival meals and going to enjoy this day which is a day for giving thanks for the Bounty of the earth and the blessings of the great nation of Canada so in all these things we join in and wish the folk well who are celebrating we ourselves are now going to just say morning prayer together in this what feter calls a bite-sized form which needs little editing for him so that it can come to you quite quickly later on when we get back home we can show aspects of our journey this time in a more complicated and and picturesque way but for the moment these simple ways of saying morning prayer will come to you quite quickly you remember we're going day by day through special parts of the Gospel of St Luke luk because Friday is St Luke's day and we said yesterday and the day before that there's a tradition certainly in England of St Luke's day bringing a St Luke's summer a time of sunshine and the Turning of the leaves and certainly that's happening in New England where the leaves are turning beautifully here so we to are waiting for a St Luke's summer so let's turn to our morning prayer and then go to our special passage from St Luke I'm using passages which are only found in St Luke's gospel and are special to him I'm using again the shorter briy hour by hour this is morning prayer for Monday in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ the canical jubilate be joyful in the Lord all you lands serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song know this the Lord himself is God he himself has made us and we are his we are his people and the Sheep of his pasture enter his gates with Thanksgiving go into his courts with praise give thanks to him and call upon his name for the Lord is good his Mercy is Everlasting and his faithfulness endures from age to age glory to the father and to the son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be World Without End Amen our Psalm is Psalm 1 happy are they who have not walked in the Council of the wicked nor lingered in the way of Sinners nor sat in the seat of the scornful their Delight is in the law of the Lord and they meditate on his law day and night they are like trees planted by water bearing fruit in due season with leaves that do not wither everything they do shall prosper it is not so with the wicked they are like chaff which the wind blows away therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes nor The Sinner in the counsil of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the Way of the Wicked is doomed so let's turn to this little passage in St Luke's gospel and it's a very special passage because as I said before it only occurs in St Luke yesterday we read a passage about Zechariah which only appears in the gospel of St Luke and I suggested you might read the first two chapters of Luke because that story introduces to you the characters of Zechariah of Elizabeth his wife of Mary and of Joseph as they each shoulder and take to heart the vocation which is set before them today I'm reading from chapter 4 in St Luke's gospel this happens after his baptism after Jesus's baptism and at the same time it happens after the Temptations in the wilderness and then Jesus begins his ministry and here is the passage it's in chapter 4 beginning is it verse 14 and Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country and he taught in their synagogues being glorified by all and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as was his custom he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him he unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to Proclaim good news to the poor he has sent me to Proclaim Liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at Liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing and all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth they said is not this Joseph's son and he said to them doubtless you will quote to me this proverb physician heal yourself what we have heard you did at capani do here in your hometown as well and he said truly I say to you no Prophet is acceptable in his Hometown but in truth I tell you there were many widows in Israel in the Days of Elijah when the heavens were Shut Up 3 years and 6 months and a Great Famine came over all the land and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to zarapa in the land of sidon to a woman who was a [Music] widow and there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the Prophet Elisha and none of them was cleansed but only naamon the Syrian when they heard these things all in the synagogue were filled with WTH and they rose up and drove Jesus out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff but passing through their midst he went away this passage is as I say unique to Luke and Luke was a foreigner a Greek and he is Keen to tell this story for it shows Jesus proclaiming that his ministry is not particularly to his own people whether we think of them in the whole of Galilee or the whole of Judea or just in Nazareth but is there for the whole world and he specifically then turns to instances in the Old Testament and remember yesterday we were showing how Keen he was to show that the roots of our what we call New Testament the gospel that he's proclaiming the Acts of the Apostles which he will write right the roots of that are set in the writings of the Holy scriptures and the prophets in the Old Testament it's why in our services we read lessons from there and lessons from the Epistles and lessons from the gospel it takes you through that Lucan Journey from the small Holy Land through to the Mediterranean region and across the world and it takes you also from the journey that Luke's makes from Jerusalem all the way through to Rome at the end of The Acts of the Apostles where St Paul is imprisoned there and Luke is there attending on him but this gospel contains certain truths that if people know you well from an early age and something is happening which is very special they're liable to think in terms of but isn't he the little boy of so and so and we knew him when he was growing up how can he say these things to us and you see how Jesus quotes two stories and they are both a healing of someone who is a foreigner the Widow zarapas and also naam and the Syrian that wonderfully dramatic story where he comes to the prophet Elisha and is told to go and bathe himself to cure his leprosy by dipping himself in the river and this cures his leprosy when he is obedient to the prophet Isaiah of um Elisha so we think of that when we read this gospel how Luke is preparing a gospel for the whole world but we think even more of this passage which is quite often known as the Nazareth Manifesto for Jesus talks about his own vocation the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has proclaimed his gospel and the gospel is if we read that little passage the gospel is he has anointed me to Proclaim good news to the poor it's what gospel means evangelia good news to the poor sent me to Proclaim Liberty to captives recovering of sight to the blind Liberty to those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor it's if you like his Manifesto of the activity he tends he intends to go ahead and perform in his own Homeland when someone comes with a Manifesto and heaven knows we're hearing enough of them at the moment we had them in our English election and at the moment one of the parties the conservative party in England is choosing a new leader and each contestant brings forward their Manifesto very often written down often given in a speech to say if I come to be your leader this is what I intend to promote and we are in this nation of the United States waiting for an election on November the 5th and that too is causing manifestos to be not only proclaimed in a a written form or in in speeches which can be taken down but in in in statements which just come off the cuff about what they would intend to do the leaders if they were elected and this is the way forward some manifestos and some points in manifestos offend people mightily some manifestos are cheered to The Echoes because people have different needs but Jesus in his Nazareth Manifesto is setting out a spiritual agenda for God's Messiah the Lord's Christ when he comes to present and effect amongst the people and this whole gospel will be of Jesus proclaiming that Liberty to captives proclaiming sight to the Blind and not necessarily just those who can't see with their mortal eyes but those who in their hearts miss the gift of the Holy Spirit and are in a sense spiritually blind it's these he's come to set free and they're not necessarily those who are most blessed and they're not necessarily those of the chosen people there are any of God's creation who turn to him and this is a a marvelous Manifesto of great Freedom only to Luke because Luke was seeing things with different eyes notice how he uses the words physician heal yourself probably people have said that to him because Jesus in his little Manifesto says I doubtless he will say to me physician heal yourself how dare you talk to us and not address yourself he's had actually 30 years of preparation for this according to Luke and much healing and much torment in the wilderness has gone on but now he is certain about what his vocation is and he makes that clear by saying today in your very hearing this prophecy this text has come true and it offends them and they are angry with him and it becomes to look violent and ugly and they lead him up to the brow of the hill and the cliff on which Nazareth is built but he walks away and begins his ministry elsewhere is it's almost like a a small Prelude to the whole of his ministry for this is what happens in St Luke's gospel the Messiah the Christ is proclaimed as coming in the birth of Mary's Child in the first two chapters and John the Baptist who is going to Proclaim his coming in adult life and his ministry and then when that time comes people begin to First say wondrous things about him and then the mood turns and he begins to be rejected especially by the powerful and the rich and eventually they seiz him and put him to death and on the third day as we know he rises from the dead and that message then can be proclaimed by his church throughout the world this this is what Luke is intending to say in not only the gospel but the Acts of the Apostles which follow and we give thanks for that and give thanks for the special dimension of St Luke's gospel in proclaiming these things so we're sitting in this wonderful porch which has recently been uh really smartened up and and added to in a great way and behind me on the hill you can see what's called East Rock up through the wood Woods to a high cliff uh Fletcher likes to walk there quite often in the morning and enjoy the view it's very beautiful up there and we went up there with our friend Felicity mcgaan the wife of the the dean of Berkeley Divinity School on Eclipse day and saw the eclipse from there and it was a marvelous sight this also is a room where in the mornings generally after uh coffee after the the Eucharist and our prayers the the the breakfast is laid out for students of coffee and and pastries and everything else and it's a time for sitting around on these sofas and chatting about what's been preached about what's been read and also the worship itself but I think I said to you that a different team of of students prepare the worship and there's excitement amongst them to see if the worship is is is going to be effective and at the same time there is uh congratulations for folk who have preached or read or uh or or son in the service and it's a very happy time it's where we meet people and get to know people so these sofas this week empty because of the reading week which is going on and a certain quietness outside because of the bank holiday but um the day before yesterday I sat outside and UNC counted the birds while Fletcher was sailing uh and uh most of the activity came from Naughty squirrels running around and and and finding little acorns and nuts and chasing one another and it was very entertaining to to to be there amongst them under the trees it is a beautiful part of New England so let's go on with our prayers this morning and and read first of all a sentence from the epistle to the Romans and then we move to our prayers the night is far gone the day is near let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light the collect for this day oh God the king eternal whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning drive far from us all wrong desires incline our hearts to keep your law and guide our feet into the way of peace that having done your will with cheerfulness during the day we may when Night Comes Rejoice to give you thanks through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen so as we say our prayers we remember again those caught up in war and conflict those caught up in natural disaster and danger those who today will try to give them physical help and human encouragement we remember those whom we know are sick at this time and needing our prayers and perhaps our encouragement to continue their Journey with courage and on this day when we have read what is known to us as the Nazareth Manifesto from Jesus we remember all those who are seeking political office in any land and perhaps especially in this United States of America as the presidential election approaches take silence a moment now to add your own prayers and name Those whom you would pray for and Those whom you love as our savior has taught us so we pray 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 and the power and the glory forever and ever amen May the god of Hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the holy spirit amen and may the blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost be upon you and upon those whom you love and would pray for today and always [Music] amen so may the Lord give you a a happy day and to anyone listening from Canada Happy Thanksgiving from both of us and we hope it'll be a lovely family day and a remembrance of all that has happened in God's Bounty throughout the past year we ourselves will now continue our day but tomorrow we'll take another lesson from St Luke which is only to be found in his particular gospel God bless you through the day