good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this tenth day of june this wednesday morning on this day we celebrate the 99th birthday of his royal highness the duke of edinburgh and we wish him a very happy birthday indeed on this day and also it's the year's mind of the great uh spanish catalan architect antoni gaudi and we remember him most for his building of the sagrada familia which was consecrated in november of 2010 by pope benedict xvi and declared to be a basilica uh gowdy himself died in 1926 but all his imagination of almost stone like trees growing out of the ground and so many facets of creation in that building have been being built throughout the years since and is still not complete but it's a great icon of a holy place in our mind this morning too so we say our prayers wherever we are in the world on this day oh lord open our lips and our mouths shall proclaim your praise visit us with your salvation and sustain us with your gracious spirit oh come let us sing to the lord let us heartily rejoice in the rock of our salvation let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and be glad in him with psalms for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods come let us worship and bow down and kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand 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 tenth morning of the month is part of psalm 50. the lord the most mighty god has spoken and called the world from the rising of the sun to its setting out of zion perfect in beauty god shines forth our god comes and will not keep silence consuming fire goes out before him and the mighty tempest stares about him he calls the heaven above and the earth that he may judge his people to me my faithful who have sealed my covenant with sacrifice let the heavens declare his righteousness for god himself his judge here are my people and i will speak i will testify against you o israel for i am god your god i will not reprove you for your sacrifices for your burnt offerings are always before me i will take no bull out of your house nor he goat out of your foals for all the beasts of the forest are mine the cattle upon a thousand hills i know every bird of the mountains and the insect of the field is mine if i were hungry i would not tell you for the whole world is mine and all that fills it do you think i eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats offer to god a sacrifice of thanksgiving and fulfill your vows to god most high call upon me in the day of trouble i will deliver you and you shall honor me whoever offers me the sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me and to those who keep my way will i show the salvation of god so we turn to our reading of the gospel of saint luke and today we begin chapter 11. it's a very long chapter 54 verses well of course luke is the in terms of verses the longest gospel and if you add his acts of the apostles an enormous section of the new testament belongs to him but chapter 11 begins in a private place and it's why we've come here this morning to a place of silence in the midst of everything now jesus was praying in a certain place and when he finished one of his disciples said to him lord teach us to pray as john the baptist taught his disciples and jesus said to them when you pray say father hallowed be your name your kingdom come give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone who sins against us and lead us not into temptation and he said to them which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him friends lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and i have nothing to set before him and he will answer from within do not bother me the door is now shut my children are with me in bed i cannot get up and give you anything i tell you though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs and i tell you ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and it will be opened to you for everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and to the one who knocks it will be opened what father among you if his son asks for a fish will instead of a fish give him a serpent or if he asks for an egg we'll give him a scorpion you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will the heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him the disciples have noticed that the regular part of jesus life which begins the day is a place of prayer and his own shall we say not only praying to the father but wrestling with prayer like jacob in the desert in the old testament wrestling with what his destiny his vocation might be and they watch this the 12 and one day here luke recounts how one of them is sort of brave enough at the end of seeing jesus in this prayer to say lord teach us to pray as john the baptist taught his disciples remember that jesus in sending out the 72 gave them lessons about what equipment they needed and then sending out the twelve earlier on lessons about what equipment they needed and and now jesus is talking to the disciples about the equipment that they need in terms of prayer how to go on with their mission but how essential the prayer is and he gives them on this occasion with luke as he has in matthew and it's probably the form of the prayer that jesus gave us that we know best the one instant matthew he gives them a prayer to say around which to form their own prayers that's why in our morning prayers we always in our own language or in whatever way we like to say it say that prayer which jesus taught us to say when we meet in prayer and so to say that at the beginning of this chapter 11 is an important lesson for us that promise to always be there as part of our prayers our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven we know it well and then we get to verse five i have to say that i have a a personal special relationship with verses 5 to 13 because in earlier years thinking about 1960 i had to learn that whole passage in latin to recite and those words have stayed with me and at that time the words that were there were almost punched in my head and especially the three imperatives ask seek knock in the latin petite cuarite pulsate and they're still there but i think probably as a boy when i recited them in nervousness but i remember the latin teacher saying to me make emphasis of that because they are their instructions their commands but i was thinking of them as part of what one should be doing in ordinary human life well maybe that's the case but we have to remember that what's going on here is the continuation of the instruction in the life of prayer to the disciples those who've chosen to follow jesus it's intensely important and intensely important for us to realize that jesus himself is doing just those three things in his wrestling with his messiahship in his prayers that intensely personal moment which the disciples have said teach us to do the same so first the piece of regular equipment the our father as we call it and in the middle of that those words thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven thy will be done is the kind of words that so many say in the new testament and the old testament when they perceive their vocation and back away from it they're the words of the blessed virgin mary be it unto me according to your word to the angel i will be done they're the words of jesus in gethsemane nevertheless your will be done it's a wrestling with our particular vocation with our unique gifts and how to wrestle in prayer well here we have both a a mental activity a spiritual activity and a physical activity the the mental one is ask the spiritual one seek and the physical one knock batter it's like the prayer of john dunn butter my heart three person god those are instructions for prayer and the answers which will be given bit by bit and daily with those gifts come gradually and at different points of life and the will to obey comes at different points of life and as we do so we use all those gifts to help those around us in community to help those in our faithfulness to them in serious ways our care of them in compassionate ways and are cheering them up i see in the list of anniversaries today today is the is the year's mind also of les dawson who gave us so much pleasure by just playing wrong notes on the piano i remember a village that i had in wiltshire calling one of their faithful organists les dawson because they loved that organist really well but there were always wrong notes in the hymns and it was a point of almost cheerfulness and yet in the same way we know that that comedian was using very sophisticated gifts to make the world laugh and come together singing brings us together laughter brings us together joy and sorrow bring us together and jesus this morning is giving us very definite instruction in prayer the necessity of it and this necessity always to see what our particular role is the special unique role that god has prepared for us and also the will to respond with an intention to do that let's give thanks for our lord's instruction in prayer for us as this long chapter of saint luke with so much hostility towards him as we shall see is involved and we contemplate it day by day say our prayers this morning on this tenth day of the month we're praying today for the diocese of new york in the episcopal church and for andrew dietcher new york with all its tremendous trouble at this particular time as so many cities but to see its major highways with its shops boarded up all of that so we pray for christians there but citizens there and for the role of the bishop and his people in the episcopal church also we pray for the diocese of amritsar in north india for pradeep samaman taroi and his people there in this diocese for the parishes of kingstown creekside and high downs and for steve lillicrap in his ministry there and all his people for justin archbishop of canterbury for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth so we say the prayer for this week almighty and everlasting god you have given us your servants grace by the confession of a true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal trinity and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the unity keep us steadfast in this faith that we may ever more be defended from all adversities through jesus christ our lord amen we pray that god may keep us faithful to our times of prayer and give us knowledge of the necessity of them daily and we give thanks for our lord's instruction in prayer in these simple verses this morning as we say the prayer which he taught us with all its implications in whatever language we like to use 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 time of silence now as we make our own prayers and try to perceive what god wants of us on this particular day 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 would pray for this day now and always amen