good morning and welcome on this tuesday the 18th of august as we gather for our morning prayers wherever you are in the world please feel welcome in this the dinner garden this is the part of the garden where we have the chickens running sometimes freely and sometimes because of foxy dangers in the pen here and you'll see why i've come in here later but let's begin our morning prayers bring your prayers and intentions in your hearts and minds from wherever you are in the world on this day 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 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 morning psalm this morning on this 18th morning of the month is psalm 91 we're more used to this sound in compline on sunday evenings read in the old coverdale translation but here we are this morning reading it in a more modern translation as our morning psalm whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high and abides under the shadow of the almighty shall say to the lord my refuge and my stronghold my god in whom i put my trust for he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and the deadly pestilence he shall cover you with his wings and you shall be safe under his feathers his faithfulness shall be your shield and buckler you shall not be afraid of any terror by night nor of the arrow that flies by day of the pestilence that stalks in darkness nor of the sickness that destroys at noonday though a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand yet it shall not come near you your eyes have only to behold to see the reward of the wicked because you have made the lord your refuge and the most high your stronghold there shall no evil happen to you neither shall any plague come near your tent for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways they shall bear you in their hands lest you dash your foot against a stone you shall tread upon the lion and adder the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot because they have set their love upon me therefore will i deliver them i will lift them up because they know my name they will call upon me and i will answer them i am with them in trouble i will deliver them and bring them to honor with long life will i satisfy them and show them my salvation so we turn to our reading [Music] it's in luke writing in the acts of the apostles and we're beginning today at chapter 4 you'll remember that peter and john have healed the lame man in the gates beautiful of the temple and led him into the temple leaping and rejoicing in the fact of his newfound freedom and the people have gathered around in solomon's portico and peter has been speaking to them and now we begin chapter four at that point and as peter and john were speaking to the people the priests and the captain of the temple and the sadducees came upon them greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in jesus the resurrection from the dead and they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening but many of those who had heard the word believed and the number of those who came were about five thousand on the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in jerusalem with anas the high priest and caiaphas and john and alexander and all who were of the high priestly family and when they had set them in the midst they inquired by what power or by what name did you do this then peter filled with the holy spirit said to them rulers of the people and elders if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man by what means this man has been healed let it be known to all of you and to all the people of israel that by the name of jesus christ of nazareth whom you crucified whom god raised from the dead by him this man is standing before you well this jesus is the stone that was rejected by you the builders which has become the cornerstone and there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to humanity by which we must be saved there is a a moment in sir edward elgar's oratorio the kingdom which was his sequel to his great oratorio the apostles telling the story of the calling of the disciples and going right up to the ascension and the kingdom takes up that story as you will know some of you and at that moment in the oratorio that moment when they put them in prison peter and john and it says it was towards evening elgar gives one of the most beautiful mezzo-soprano solos in all his works the sun goes down and it's as though he pauses you to reflect on what is happening and that's what we're doing now for peter and john are as they speak beginning to formulate what the church wants to teach they're searching through their memories of their time with jesus for they were eyewitnesses as we've had and it is important to us to remember that everything that is happening now in this story is only a little while after the events of holy week and easter and then the day of pentecost very near indeed and yet they are keeping up their regular should we call them liturgical prayers in the temple and at the same time speaking to the people and saying certain things that they are now beginning very much to believe is the message of the good news i think there's one thing that we need very much to say and that is you cannot read the acts of the apostles as luke writes it without placing over it as a key to make it understood all the way through the gospel of saint luke they are two sides of the same coin we must keep going back again and again to what luke has told us from what he has found out and discovered and something which is entirely and absolutely new and at the same time undergirding that is not only his understanding of the scriptures of what we call the old testament but also jesus's understanding of those scriptures and his use of them constantly and peter is quite sure that all this has been fulfilled and the most important thing that peter is wanting to say is that this man's healing has nothing to do with john and me it's a gift from on high from the god of abraham isaac and jacob as the traditional teaching of the old scriptures had it and he has anointed jesus to be the one who now has set free the holy spirit of power to the apostles themselves to give good news and to hand on to others to give good news and here is luke giving us his good news both in gospel and in acts of the apostles so we mustn't be afraid to go back to the acts from the acts to the gospel and then back because the last words that jesus said to his disciples were words concerning him which had been fulfilled in moses in the prophets and in the psalms so that's our first important point for this morning the gospels have the clue sometimes people say why is luke's account in the acts of the apostles not in absolute accordance with what paul says in some of his epistles i don't think for a second that luke had read all the epistles of saint paul they had not been collected together when he himself became first of all paul's disciple in a way and then followed on in the mission and while he was collecting all his things to write down what he's giving us now those epistles were the property of the church to which they had been sent and later for our great benefit they would be collected but luke is giving us what he has found out to the best of his ability and it is a wonderful ability but let's also come to our psalm and the way in which jesus himself uses those psalms and the illustrations in them yesterday we remember that animal farm george orwell's novel had been published on that day the 17th of august in 1945 and i said it's a parable which quite a few have used including esop to use animals and creatures and plants to illustrate things in human life jesus did that all the time our psalmist did it this morning in psalm 91 we shall be safe under god's feathers jesus says o jerusalem how often have i longed to gather you and your children like a hen gathers her chicks under her feathers and we're not surprised when we're likened to sheep going astray or chicks being gathered under god's feathers in protection all these hens and chicks here this morning are in the protection of this place but at the same time they are illustrations for us to use in gospel and sometimes in the acts of the apostles and here again peter does that this morning he refers to a very text which jesus himself has used in the gospel of saint luke in chapter 20 the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone the suffering servant who suffered so much has become the anointed one whom god has glorified and the key to the release of the power of the holy spirit which is now poured out upon these people giving new dimensions this is a day the 18th of august when the roman catholic church keep the feast of saint helena the mother of constantine we keep it in may together with the orthodox church i don't know why there's a dislocation of calendars but we are grateful for her pilgrimage through the holy land in the middle of the fourth century and all that she found that she's become the patron saint of new discoveries this empress of old time and day by day we find ourselves making new discoveries when we place the gospel of luke across the acts or the old testament scriptures and psalms beneath them as we read and use the works of god's creation in plants and animals and stones which have been rejected and cast aside now becoming a foundation and cornerstone all those things and the last thing of course the most important is the church in those early days followers of the way as they were called are beginning to discover the power of the holy name jesus the name that the angel gave to mary in luke's gospel in chapter one jesus it's not through any power of our own it's by the name of jesus christ of nazareth that this man stands before you well and salvation and healing are all really part of the same stem for its healing in this life but salvation is healing for eternity so we give thanks for all those things for all the keys that luke has given us but at the same time we give thanks for the grace of the holy spirit to help us use them and to interpret for us sin helena new discoveries in the scriptures every day of our lives if we ponder them and hold them up as a way of understanding god's wonderful creation using the images that jesus has given us so let's say our prayers on this morning and we pray first of all for our anglican communion and this morning we pray for the diocese of okinawa in japan and david o'hara the bishop there and his people and the diocese of bakuru in nigeria and juan zumbas the bishop and his people there here in this diocese as we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth we pray for the parish of bittenden all saints and smarden sin michael beautiful areas of kent pray for alex bienvey the priest there and all the people of those villages and communities so we bring our own prayers from wherever we are in the world those whom we have in our hearts and minds you can name them for names are so very important they conjure up those situations that we've known with those folk and also their present need so hold them in your hearts and minds as we say the prayer for this week and then the psalm prayer at the end of psalm 91 [Music] let your merciful ears oh lord be open to the prayers of your humble servants and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please you through jesus christ our lord amen and here is the sound prayer keep us good lord under the shadow of your mercy and as you have bound us to yourself in love leave us not who call upon your name but grant us your salvation made known in the cross of jesus christ our lord amen so let's say the prayer that our lord taught us in whatever language you like to use and in whatever way you would like to say it 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 power and the glory forever and ever amen moment of silence now as we say our own prayers today oh 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 you would pray for today and always amen uh