good morning and welcome on this day when we come again to a stories of St Luke where we're actually sitting in the main quadrangle of Yale Divinity School and you may hear an amount of building noise going on universities are always building new buildings and they're taking advantage of this this week when students are on a reading week to to plow ahead with the accommodation that's going on there it will be the most carbon neutral building in the whole campus and so it's it's a great step forward in that way now I have a guest here this morning and I'm going to ask her to introduce herself and say something about her role in the um Berkeley Divinity School and in the University itself oh thank you so much it's so wonderful to be with you Dean um I'm y day Peters Peterson and I'm the associate Dean and director of formation at Berkeley Divinity School here at Yale and I'm an Alum of the institution and I'm so excited to come back and be able to in my role help students to grow ministerially spiritually and to do a bit of teaching uh it's just a wonderful thing to be back on campus on this here quadrangle and especially uh because we were able to welcome uh the dean to our opening of our Center we have done a sort of a revitalization of the center that our students use for worship and Recreation and so it's an incredible season of joy for us and if you're hearing this and you're curious about Berkeley about what episcopalians and anglicans do here at Yale um we'd love to welcome you as our guest and to show you around it's a wonderful place to study and Learn and Grow now we have an old connection don't we would you like to explain that too oh I I before I came to this uh work I was working as the uh Vicor of St Chad's Church in shury where incidentally the dean was ACC cure it and it's still so beloved and people talk about him even to this day so it's just it feels like they're just connections right absolutely you young salopian you absolutely it's a long long time ago I am well it's it but you know not not long in memory people just adore you thank you very much indeed for that um we're going to begin our morning prayer and we should have said behind us is the lovely Marin Chapel which is a main main Chapel for for services for the various uh aspects of of the University when it comes together in in worship yes it is and so it's used by it's used for all sorts of things but one of the most wonderful things is our daily practice of prayer together as an ecumenical institution and it reflects the diversity of of um lurgical styles and experiences of our student body and of The Wider Christian communion so it's just a wonderful place and we also even have weddings here and and other sorts of festive occasions so it's a place of Joy at the center of our campus for obvious reasons I officiated at a very happy wedding of last year so that that was was a lot of fun wasn't it a lot of fun terrific yes yeah so let's begin and then uh we can read bits together and at the same time we can just talk about what these passages mean to us absolutely so I'm on Tuesday morning of the um hour by hour little prayer book if then you have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Canticle is the first song of Isaiah surely it is God who saves me I will trust in him and not be afraid for the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense and he will be my savior therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing from the Springs of Salvation and on that day you will say give thanks to the Lord and call upon his name make his deeds known among the peoples see that they remember that his name is exalted sing the Praises of the Lord for he has done great things and this is known in all the world cry aloud inhabitants of Zion ring out out your joy for the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel glory to the father and to the son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever amen I'd ask you to read the 23rd psalm which comes on this day but it's in the King James version because it seems to be familiar to people but I love that version good the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in Green Pastures he leadth me beside the Still Waters he restoreth my soul he leadth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies thou anointest my head with oil o my cup runneth over surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever so we turn to our reading from St Luke today and we're going to read portions of chapter 10 and it begins with Jesus sending out not the 12 apostles that was earlier than chapter 10 but the 72 people that he has also called who are um together with his his disciples should we say learning to be Jesus's own evangelists here's the first little bit of chapter 10 after this the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on aead two by two into every town and place where he himself was about to go and he said to them the Harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few therefore pray earnestly to the lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his Harvest go your way behold I am sending you as Lambs in the midst of wolves carry no money bag no napsack no sandals and greet no one on the road whatever house you enter first say peace be to this house and if a son of peace is there your peace will rest upon him but if not it will return to you and remain in the same house eating and drinking what they provide for the laborer deserves his wages do not go from house to house whenever you enter a town and they receive you eat what is set before you heal the sick in it say to them the kingdom of God has come near to you well that's quite a a powerful piece of of preparation for Jesus himself coming through after them into the villages it is especially considering um the admonition at the end I think it would have come as a bit of a shock I mean you're asking just to just to go I me what's that about exactly exactly no equipment needed just you and I think about just as a person um it's all well and fine when Jesus the provider of all things is walking alongside you but to go on your own it feels like without that must have been pretty frightening absolutely I notic that um in when the apostles were sent out the 12 they were told uh not to carry a staff as though the journey wouldn't be very far to be honest whereas here that is missing they're they're allowed to carry a staff and I imagine they go out two by two not just singly but but going along and and using their own experience of Jesus to tell the story and it feels like that's kind of a um a foretaste of what's going to be the reality of things um at a late time when Jesus in his Incorporated body won't be among them that we even us now in these days will go forward two by two into a world into places that are not necessarily familiar and we'll need we'll need to to to go together even there's a lot of nervousness about the disciples at this time and who can blame them really because it's a big thing to understand and it's a relatively short time with Jesus it it is how long are the formation courses here generally well three years which match is a really good thing it it's it's that moment where um you think about how how busy they are among themselves arguing about who will be first or um not really understanding um squabbling a bit um excited all those things and then they have no they they are told but they can't really comprehend this is all going to come to an end and you're going to have to step out in a new way it's interesting in Luke you do get this sense of a much bigger crowd of faithful disciples and it's not only here where there's 72 of them to go out and these aren't the 12 um but also at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles he speaks about let's choose someone to replace Judas from those who have been with us from the beginning and this is the sign I think of many people following in in different amounts of of um giving of themselves because some probably couldn't give the whole of their life they had other commitments which were quite proper but at the same time they wanted to be part of it is that how you see it it is and and also I mean as a as a woman when I read Luke who's the the great um illustrator of of the women who are alongside Jesus I think about those who might not have been written into the account many of whom would have been women but also about the particularity that the 12 are both unique in particular but also signify the diversity and the and the and the plurality of people and experiences that will be part of Jesus's inner core and so for me I look at it as both and both that there's large crowd but also that there's an intimate crowd with Jesus 12 of whom are named and maybe some of whom are not named well I think those were with him all the time the women who were looking after them in fact yes and and Luke does does elaborate on that in in several passages and when you get to the acts of the apostle the same thing begins to happen absolutely and all the way through he's a very noticing sort of evangelist he is he is and and and sort of clarifying for us that the 12 isn't meant to be exclusionary in the sense that no one else had heard any news but rather to say these are the 12 particular that we're going to focus on who Jesus Drew closeth but there were many others who heard and were excited and as you said not everyone could have done that great journey with Jesus the whole way we'll come across two of them later in the chapter yes we will so if we go on here um let's go let's see where we start we're not going to read the whole chapter but I think it's it's a nice thing to start maybe at 17 here and then read through the Samaritan I sure can thanks okay no problem the 72 returned with Joy saying Lord even the demons are subject to us in your name and he said to them I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven behold I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you nevertheless do not rejoice in this but that the spirits that the spirits are subject to you but Rejoice that your names are written in heaven in that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said I thank you Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that you have hidden these things from the wise in understanding and reveal them to little children and I'm going to skip over to where the parable the that's okay okay and behold a lawyer stood to up to put him to the test saying teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life he said to him what is written in the law how do you read it and he answered you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself and he said to him you have answered correctly do this and you will leave you will live but he Desiring to justify himself said to Jesus and who is my neighbor Jesus replied A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed leaving him half dead now by chance a priest was going down that road and when he saw him he passed by on the other side so likewise a levite when he came to the place and saw him pass by on the other side but a Samaritan as he journeyed came to where he was and when he saw him he had compassion he went to him and bound up his wounds pouring on oil and wine then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him and the next day he took out two dinari and gave him to the inkeeper saying take care of him and whatever you spend I will repay you when I come back which of these three do you think Pro proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers he said the one who followed him the one who showed him mercy and Jesus said to him you go and do likewise it's a great story it is and it's it's unsettling a bit as a priest I feel a bit a bit a bit uh taken up well I think that that Jesus's power of of of exaggeration to make a parable instantly remembered is fully at play here and we have to have two things in mind one is the total hatred and and the way in which the Samaritans were despised because they had been part of the race that had been taken away from Israel to Exile but had had fallen into sort of bad habits and then come back and there they were and but there was no real Community between Jews and Samaritans in any way at all so to choose a Samaritan as the hero of the story and then also to we have to realize that there are certain rules of cleanliness about touching blood which a priest or a levite in those days if they were going to service at the temple would would actually count as highest of all but Jesus was never one to put religious rulings over in Priority Care of someone in desperate need I think those two sort of facts come into this Parable as he tells it absolutely and I and I think that part of it is the the question that we have for we know from other examples in scripture that uh human beings who do the sort of work that we do um sometimes um sometimes we we can lose the plot right if you will and um how how how embarrassing it would be to be brought up short by someone whose life is not at all dedicated to those things but seems to understand the deeper truth of what God wants us to do for one another and I and I wondered to myself you know uh what is Luke driving at here uh something about um do we do we really trust God right because there's a fear there right we see this and it's I've heard tell that perhaps people were afraid of the trickery of someone you know pretending to be ill and then they leap upon you and take your things I wonder about the times in my own life where instead of being L led by Compassion or Mercy I've been a allowed myself to be led by fear and I haven't reached out that hand because I was suspicious or I didn't feel conf in God's love yeah yes I think I've I've heard so many interpretations of this Parable and some of them treat it as an allegory even as far back as St Augustine you have this treat it as an allegory of of wounded Humanity lying on the roadside and Jesus coming along and and and helping uh the Samaritan to the the the safety of his church uh in and and all of that to me that doesn't actually get near the meaning of the parable this is a human story which Jesus is so good at at picturing and so I think this is another of his Luke the Gentile probably uh saying look these divisions that you have are utterly irrelevant compared with the glory of the good news of the Gospel which Embraces us all uh and the the the great thing is go and do likewise yes the thing is thrown back to us yes who is my neighbor so he tells a story about who could be a neighbor and it's the least likely person and then says look around you and and and do some decision making yourself and and and our tendency to put people into these bit these camps right I think about the times when well for example I I read about a generous Act of a person whose life has might maybe been filled with lots of things that weren't generous or kind or loving and my my easy dismissal of that that I somehow think I understand what happened there yeah and and I'm I'm the judge and I'm the jury and I've decided this is what this person was doing I think we're a lot more complex than that and and I think that I want to rule out the parts of my own life that are complex and only focus on the good but I'm but I wonder about the ways in which our Duality or our wanting to put people into those camps doesn't allow us to see the the power of Christ the power of the Holy Spirit moving through people who were unexpected and unlikely who are also drawn he says other sheep have I there's this this this drawing in of unlikely characters and there are plenty of folks that I think we count out because they don't quite meet our standards the holy spirit is nowhere more active than in St Luke's gospel in the the apostles it's it's really a big Dimension yes and we don't have to wait for Pentecost the holy spirit is is all the way through infusing people in a in a wonderful way yes there's one last and very important little bit left I'm going to read the bit and I'm going to ask you to comment on it you know what it is we have to play a bit for a surprise right so this is the last paragraph of chapter 10 now as they went on their way Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house and she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching but Martha was distracted with much serving and she went up to him and said Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone tell her then to help me but the Lord answered her Martha Martha you are anxious and troubled about many things but one thing is necessary Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from huh oh I'm such a Martha I struggle with this but I I think part of it is where our hearts are you know I think about what is the better portion um it's truly being with Christ in all that we do I think about brother Lawrence like in the simple things in the kitchen right but but Martha is not doing that Martha is doing this with some sort of other agenda and this is evident when she gets angry about what her sister's doing but the better portion is when we truly believe that Christ is animating what we're doing the holy spirit is animating that and so in whatever we're doing this is the good portion when our focus is on Christ and it could be any sort of portion I could be preaching or teaching if my focus isn't on Christ if I'm not animated by the Holy Spirit it is not a good portion yeah so her Noble acts mean very little because her focus is on many things and she's not filled with that peace but with a fear and anxiety one of the things that it's SP ual writers talk about is looking through your day each evening and finding the moments when you've suddenly encountered Jesus only for a minute and and just just marking that and seeing how it and here is physically not for long Jesus sitting in their house yes and and Mary chooses to to embrace that moment and Martha quite rightly is giving Hospitality but the the better part is being taken when when it's found yes um I can't see this story except in conjunction with the story in St John's gospel where Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus give a a feast in celebration before Jesus goes on to Jerusalem and they each bear their part so that that Lazarus is sitting beside Jesus as a great friend talking and and and Jesus enjoying his company and Mary takes the the ointment yes and bathes Jesus's feet as a sign of her understanding of what he has to do but then at the same time when you say the house was filled with the fragrance I'm sure it was also filled with the fragrance of Martha's Cooking and so all three of them together are people they homebound they're not asked to go out without Stave and everything else and and be on the road this is their Ministry yeah and it's one of the the Bethany household is one of the most important Ministries that we come across in the New Testament I think it it's a powerful image of Christ dwelling with us within us beside us in all of these ordinary moments whether it's eating with a friend whether it's um giving of ourselves so generously um and that in each of those things each one is becoming exactly who God called them to be and that is why it is this glorious sort of Pinnacle moment before Things Fall Apart yeah yet to be get to come back together again of course sure absolutely the these little moments in the the gospels remind me how important it is to return to them again and again and again the reading of the scriptures is is so much the staff as we journey through our our our life and um nothing better than listening to Luke so thanks to going thank you for being my companion along the way in so many wonderful ways well let's let's just finish our prayers and then we can go about our our for the day little lesson first here but you beloved are not in darkness for that day to surprise you like a thief for you are all children of light and Children of the day we are not of the night or of the darkness it's a little verse from one Thessalonians let's think for a moment and maybe you would like to to pray for us then we'll say the Our Father together um loving God we thank you for the many ways in which our paths cross you again and again um sometimes unexpectedly we thank you that you lead us into light and hope and away from the Shadows we thank you that you are ever with us um and we ask you to open our eyes to those places where you're meeting us even now uh May our eyes see you may our hearts know you may our hands embrace you that we might be your people thank you as always we think of those throughout the world who are suffering from Warfare and from hatred of others whole communities sometimes and at the same time those who are dealing with uh catastrophic natural disasters and seeing their homes demolished and in need of friends to to help them back into the ordinary things of life so as our say saor taught us so we pray Our Father Who Art in Heaven HED 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 amen 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 amen now we have to say this is an accidental thing isn't it it really is it's a total surprise but I guess that's how God works isn't it yes indeed constant surprise well exactly U we were sitting just sitting down I was going to give you an ordinary morning prayer here and fet said what we want is two mugs of tea and went in search of someone but the place is very very quiet and then suddenly this angel of Light appears wow I've never been called an angel I'd love that and so we've enjoyed our time together again it's been wonderful oh God bless you richly and thank you for everything you do for our church and for for me and for all thank you very much indeed we'll be back in the St Luke's Chapel at some stage because before too long yeah the St Luke is the patron saint of Berkeley Divinity School here I think say it's good thanks so much oh thank you