good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this day of wednesday the 23rd of september as we come together to see say our morning prayers it's been a morning following rain in the night and so there's a smell of freshness about the garden this morning but the rain has stopped and there's no wind and so wherever you are in the world feel welcome here bring your own concerns and your own prayers as we say our morning prayers together 23rd of september looking back over the centuries has given us one or two dates that we might think of and in 1939 the psychoanalyst should we call him sigmund freud died and he could be really have the claim to be the creator of psychoanalysis he's an austrian who really made that kind of of treatment for people something which developed and and grows that we take for granted these days at the same time in 1801 uh in 1835 rather the the uh the composer of opera vincenzo bellini died much admired by verdi and wagner and again we think of the performing arts and the particular difficulty they find themselves in at the moment with this pandemic making their work almost impossible we have had recently also a fire at wildwood which is a place that we all love to go to to see naturally animals of this nation both now and ones that were here in the past but have become extinct here and are still shown but that fire has done enormous damage and uh if you click onto their their site you can see how you can help this is very much a a local thing but local things at this time become very important and then again i want to remember but we'll do this also in the reflection the fact that on this day in 1964 at the paris opera house opera garnier as it's called the great ceiling which had been painted by chagall and was uh should we call it an insertion into that 19th century building was unveiled to everyone's astonishment let's think about that in chagall a bit later on when we think of the creative arts so let's for now begin our prayers and give thanks for all god's works in creation oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the true the only light banish all darkness from our hearts and minds 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 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 morning psalm on this day of the month the 23rd is psalm 111 alleluia i will give thanks to the lord with my whole heart in the company of the faithful and in the congregation the works of the lord are great sought out by all who delight in them his work is full of majesty and honor and his righteousness endures forever he appointed a memorial for his marvelous deeds the lord is gracious and full of compassion he gave food to those who feared him he is ever mindful of his covenant he showed his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations the works of his hands our truth and justice all his commandments are sure they stand fast forever and ever they are done in truths and equity he sends redemption to his people he commanded his covenant forever holy and awesome is his name the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have those who live by it his praise endures forever so on this day on this wednesday morning we return to the regular reading of the acts of the apostles and we've arrived at chapter 17 and i'm reading now from verses 1 2 15. now when they had passed through amphipolis and apollonia they came to thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the jews and paul went in as was his custom and on three sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures explaining and proving that it was necessary for the christ to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying this jesus whom i proclaim to you is the christ and some of them were persuaded and joined paul and silas as did a great many of the devout greeks and not a few of the leading women but the jews were jealous and taking some ruffians from the rabble they formed a mob set the city in an uproar and attacked the house of jason seeking to bring them out to the crowd and when they could not find them they dragged jason himself and some of the believers before the city authorities shouting these folk who have turned the world upside down have come here also and jason has received them and they are all acting against the decrees of the emperor saying that there is another king called jesus and the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things and when they had taken money as security from jason and the rest they let them go but the believers immediately sent paul and silas away by night to berea and when they arrived they went into the jewish synagogue there now these jews were more noble than those in thessalonica they received the word with all eagerness examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so many of them therefore believed with not a few greek women of high standing as well as men but when the jews from thessalonica learned that the word of god was proclaimed by paul at berea also they came there too agitating and stirring up the crowds so the believers immediately sent paul off on his way to the coast but silas and timothy remained there those who conducted paul brought him as far as athens and after receiving a command for silas and timothy to come to him as soon as possible they departed well now we really are entering europe they've come up through asia minor as it was called now turkey they've crossed over and yesterday we saw them in philippi and now today in thessalonica another hugely important city of the roman empire and they arrive there and there they do find a synagogue remember in philippi they've been received into lydia's house but here in thessalonica we have them going as they had before to the synagogue to speak to those who knew the law and the prophets and the psalms and notice how it says that paul three sabbaths following preaches the good news basing himself this time on the law and the prophets and the psalms there is the foundation for the teaching to develop that's how paul is still seeing the natural course the growing of this particular route from the faith that he had always held let's notice too that these places philippi and thessalonica are places that later on he will write letters to so that we can enjoy the communication because those letters to to the thessalonians and one to the philippians have survived how we wish that barnabas and mark in cyprus and everything that they did next gave us the same kind of of of letters that have survived and even more so those who were spreading the good news along the north african coast because we knew it was we know it was developing there too and the pax romana the peace of rome gave them the possibility of traveling mostly safely but certainly safety is not something they find when others feel that their way of believing and practicing their faith is threatened well that's a a common happening in humanity that threats bring not necessarily understanding and listening but threats bring a reaction which can be very violent and we are seeing violent scenes even to those who give paul and silas hospitality like jason in their own homes violence is done to them and the law is used against them so that the believers think it prudent that paul should leave on two occasions here first both paul and silas go from thessalonica to berea and then in berea when the same thing begins to happen then paul himself is sent away but silas and timothy remain and paul is conducted first to the coast and then across the sea to greece itself and we leave him today in athens alone [Music] athens as we shall think of tomorrow the great cultural center highly respected by the roman empire the greeks had a very special place within the roman empire because so much of their teaching their philosophies even their pantheon of gods and goddesses were embraced by rome and children were educated by greek teachers so that all kinds of things still came from greece to rome and athens held its position as an intellectual center tomorrow we shall see paul there all alone for silas and timothy they've been sent for but they will be long in coming and so paul is now in a waiting state these men find themselves really with no fixed abode save for the hospitality of those who are becoming believers and the way those churches develop we know from the epistles to the thessalonians and the philippians but very often wonderful creative things happen from those who feel themselves to be outsiders i said that on this day in 1964 the great ceiling in the opera garnier the paris opera house which was created in the um just after the the mid point of the the 19th century by the inspiration of the emperor napoleon iii at that time it's a very 19th century building but in 64 a new ceiling was painted for it by mark chagall he was a russian jew who had this enormous vocation to paint and picasso named matith and chagall as the ones who really understood and communicated color and surely when you sit in the paris opera house and look up for the first time because this ceiling first of all is so strange in the middle of all this 19th century uh decoration and architecture and design but it is the most wonderful all inspiring and chagall said of it up there in my painting i wanted to reflect like a mirror in a bouquet the dreams and creations of the singers and musicians to recall the movement of the colorfully attired audience below and to honor the great opera and ballet composers mozart wagner muzorski berlioz and ravel well those of you who know that ceiling when we look up to that will know that he's done just that as in so many ways he did but he never ceased being in some senses an outsider he had to keep moving on because of violent persecutions from his own russia he moved to france and then back to russia after the revolution live the life there fairly uncomfortably back to france and then having to move because of nazi persecution of the jews narrowly getting away with his family to the united states being there for a while and then back to france and all the time feeling an outsider but knowing the compulsion to and some of the things he created best of all were biblical and his work shows best i feel not only in the painting in the the paris opera house where the great chandelier lights it but in stained glass where god's sunlight shines through the pictures that he he has painted but are now in stained glass of the bible he says of the bible i did not see the bible i dreamed it ever since early childhood i have been captivated by the bible it has always seemed to me and still seems today the greatest source of poetry of all time what a wonderful thing to say i dreamed the bible we know the the windows of of chagall and matisse in the rockefeller chapel on the hudson river i have never been my partner here has been to the frey monster in zurich and there in that beautiful church i'm told for i've not seen it the windows he has created from the whole bible old and new testaments and the rose window not only the five scriptural panels if you have a chance to see that i long to see it then god's light shines through it and gives you the full flavor of his sentence i did not see the bible i dreamed it well it's what we're trying to do morning by morning with this group of outsiders in every community in the acts of the apostles but also with the story of those believers through the centuries wherever we are in the world so dream with me day by day but at the same time pray with us here and bring your prayers and concerns to our morning prayers this morning so we pray this morning in the anglican communion for the diocese of panchin in nigeria and for the bishop there olum yewia ajaya and his people and also in a very different part of the world the diocese of central philippines and the bishop there dixie taclobajo and the people of that diocese here in canterbury we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and for the bridge benefits which covers the villages of neckington lower hearts bridge patrick's born and beaksborn and we pray for the parish priest there estella last and all her people so we use the prayer for today as we bring our own concerns god who in generous mercy sent the holy spirit upon your church in the burning fire of your love grant that your people may be fervent in the fellowship of the gospel that always abiding in you they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service through jesus christ our lord amen so bring your intentions and prayers as we say together creatively in our own languages and in our own way the prayer our savior 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 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 a moment now wherever you are for your own prayers in silence 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 those whom you would pray for today and always amen you