good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this 29th of may friday the 29th of may is a significant date because in 1982 pope john paul ii visited canterbury and met the prince of wales here held the gospels of central augustine and said prayers with the archbishop of canterbury we shall be thinking of that event across today at evensong and tomorrow morning in our prayers it's also oh couple day when uh the returning king in 1660 went from canterbury on progress and on this day entered london to enormous cheering crowds as not only the monarchy was restored but also the ability and right to use the book of common prayer and an ordered liturgy and so we remember all those things this morning and remember how the oak has always been a symbol of strength to many nations and particularly to england so let's say our morning prayers on this o capital day o lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise send your holy spirit upon us and clothe us with power from on high alleluia blessed are you creator god to you be praise and glory forever as your spirit moved over the face of the waters bringing light and life to your creation pour out your spirit on us today that we may walk as children of light and by your grace reveal your presence 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 on this 29th morning of the month is psalm 139 o lord you have searched me out and known me you know my sitting down and my rising up you discern my thoughts from afar you mark out my journeys and my resting place and are acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word on my tongue but you o lord know it all together you encompass me behind and before and lay your hand upon me such knowledge is too wonderful for me so high that i cannot attain it where can i go then from your spirit or where can i flee from your presence if i climb up to heaven you are there if i go down into hell you are there also if i take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand hold me fast if i say surely the darkness will cover me and the light around me turn to night even darkness is no darkness with you the night is as clear as the day darkness and light to you are both alike for you yourself created my inmost parts you knit me together in my mother's womb i thank you for i am fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous are your works my soul knows well my frame was not hidden from you when i was made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth your eyes beheld my form as yet unfinished already in your book were all my members written as day by day they were fashioned when as yet there was none of them how deep are your counsels to me oh god how great is the sum of them if i count them they are more in number than the sand and at the end i am still in your presence we continue our reading from the gospel of saint luke and today we begin at verse 40 of chapter eight jesus returns from the other side of the lake back to his own home now when jesus returned the crowd welcomed him for they were all waiting for him and there came a man named jairus who was a ruler of the synagogue and falling at jesus's feet he implored him to come to his house for he had an only daughter about 12 years of age and she was dying as jesus went the people pressed around him and there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and though she had spent all her living on physicians she could not be healed by anyone she came up behind jesus and touched the fringe of his garment and immediately her discharge of blood ceased and jesus said who was it that touched me when all denied it peter said master the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you but jesus said someone touched me for i perceive that power has gone out from me when the woman saw that she was not hidden she came trembling and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed and jesus said to her daughter your faith has made you well go in peace while he was still speaking someone from the ruler's house came and said your daughter is dead do not trouble the teacher anymore but jesus on hearing this answered him do not fear only believe and she will be well and when he came to the house he allowed no one to enter with him except peter and john and james and the father and mother of the child and all were weeping and mourning for her but he said do not weep for she is not dead but sleeping and they laughed at him knowing that she was dead but taking her by the hand he called saying child arise and her spirit returned and she got up at once and jesus directed that something should be given to her to eat and her parents were amazed but jesus charged them to tell no one what had happened they step ashore once again on home territory and there are all the crowds welcoming him and the disciples back home yesterday we saw what had happened on the other side so that it's not the same jesus who steps ashore his vocation as the messiah the christ has changed dynamically in the matthew and mark accounts of the gospel i believe it's the story of the syrophoenician woman that begins to call cause that change here in luke it's the story of the man amongst the tombs whom jesus calmed and left clothed in his right mind at home and now jesus comes home but inside him the knowledge that his mission is not just for his own people not just for galilee not just for galilee and judea but for the whole world is beginning to demonstrate and grow and then in the middle of all that press and crowd someone comes up and touches him this is called oh capital day simply because the king who entered london earlier in his life had hidden from the armies of the puritan model army of cromwell he had hidden after the battle of worcester in 1651 where he was soundly defeated in an oak tree and watched the soldiers searching for him underneath they failed to find him hence the symbol of the oak sheltering him trees are a sign of strengths behind me we've no oaks of that kind in the deanery garden but we do have an ash tree here with its great strong trunk and it bows over me here and trees are seen as a sign of strength but they are also living vulnerable things of god's creation some of you may know the gilbert and sullivan opera radigal and if you do there's a song in it by old dame hannah and sir roderick who have met again in old age and they loved each other earlier and he had disappointed her and she sings a song about a flower underneath a sheltering oak that lived a little flower beneath a great oak tree when the tempest got to lower little carriage she no need had she to cower for she dreaded not its power she was happy in the power of her great oak tree but those of you who know the song remember that the oak tree dies and leaves her alone and the sheltering oak for all its strength showed itself to be a living vulnerable member of god's creation as all trees are the ash trees are under mighty threat the oak trees are under mighty threat from acute oak decline something to do with the the way that we have been careless with our planet but the trees aren't just there they actually are living and needing care jesus himself stepping ashore knows now that the way forward is not in mighty strength in human terms but in using his vulnerability as a human being to shelter people and meet them at the point of need see how in the middle of all those crowds he is able to spot that one human soul in distress needing him has touched him and while they laugh at him later on in the story it's almost as if peter is laughing at him at this point in the story when he says but everybody's touching you jesus says no i know that someone has touched me for power has gone out from me like any human being energy has been taken away and the woman falls at his feet and in a sense he blesses her but tells her as he has just so many your faith has saved you go in peace there are wonderful words wonderful words for luke the physician to write down for the physicians have failed to cure her hemorrhages but here jesus has used power from his own humanity to give her strength to go on in her particular journey as he will need strength to go on in his particular vulnerable journey for humanity a task that by the power of the spirit he has handed on to us at this time of threat not just to our planet but in the pandemic pandemic to all our humanity let's say our prayers on this day we give thanks for the approach of the feast of pentecost and the giving of the spirit and all the gifts it poured out upon the church and pray for our anglican communion through the world as we do day by day today for the diocese of indoqua in nigeria for david abbiosa the bishop there and his people and the diocese of akobo in south sudan and john jo the bishop there and his people we pray for justin archbishop of canterbury and the primates of the communion and on this day when we remember the visit of pope john paul ii we pray for pope francis and all our companions and brothers and sisters in the roman catholic church we remember to this diocese and pray for the parish of borton chelsea saint peter's borton manchester and philip goody and his ministry there pray for rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth in their episcopal ministry so we make our prayer for today the colleague for this day of this week oh god the king of glory you have exalted your only son jesus christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven we beseech you leave us not comfortless but send your holy spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to the place where our savior christ is gone before who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever are men and we use the sun collect creator god may every breath we take be for your glory may every footstep we take show you as our way that trusting in your presence in this world we may beyond this life still be with you where you are alive and reign for ever and ever amen so we say each in our own language and in our own way the prayer our savior taught us as we think of those for whom we would pray this day 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 so in a moment of silence we make our prayers for this day may christ our king exalted high above the heavens fill you with the grace and gifts of his holy spirit and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you and upon those whom you love and those whom you would pray for today and always amen