good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral to the deanery garden on this monday the 3rd of august as we say our morning prayers please feel welcome wherever you are in the world bring your own concerns to our prayers on this morning 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 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 psalm on this third morning of the month is psalm 16 preserve me o god for in you have i taken refuge i have said to the lord you are my lord all my good depends on you all my delight is upon the godly that are in the land upon those who are noble in heart though the idols are legion that many run after their drink offerings of blood i will not offer neither make mention of their names upon my lips the lord himself is my portion and my cup in your hands alone is my fortune my share has fallen in a fair land indeed i have a goodly heritage i will bless the lord who has given me counsel and in the night watches he instructs my heart i have set the lord always before me he is at my right hand i shall not fall wherefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices my flesh also shall rest secure for you will not abandon my soul to death nor suffer your faithful one to see the pitch you will show me the path of life in your presence is the fullness of joy and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore so on this monday morning we return to our regular reading of luke's gospel which our lectionary gives us and today we find ourselves in chapter 23 and we're beginning at verse 13. pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers of the people and said to them you brought me this man as one who was misleading the people and after examining him before you behold i did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him neither did herod for he sent him back to us look nothing deserving death has been done by him i will therefore punish him and release him but they all cried out together away with this man and released to us barabbas a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder pilate addressed them once more desiring to release jesus but they kept shouting crucify crucify him a third time pilate said to them why what evil has he done i have found in him no guilt deserving death i will therefore punish and release him but they were urgent demanding with loud cries that jesus should be crucified and their voices prevailed so pilate decided that their demand should be granted he released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder for whom they asked but he delivered jesus over to their will it's a terrifying story here is the roman governor of the province he's been governor since 26 27 the year and if luke's details are to be believed we're now looking at a much later date so he will have been there probably six or seven years or more he's used to the troubles that come normally he wouldn't be in the city of jerusalem but here he is because of the festival and the city is packed with people from all over the mediterranean world who have come for the passover and there's a sense of wonderful excitement and now we get the sense of them making sport of the roman governor for some of them the hated roman governor simply because of the imperial power he represents their foreign overlords and here they see someone with his back to the wall who is not going to make an easy decision he tried to pass it over to the local ruler as we saw to herod the tetrarch of galilee headed down there was no case either sent him back to pilate and here is pilot having to make a decision it's such a difficult one legend surrounds this man even the story which appears in matthew's gospel that his wife who later became known as claudia procula in the history of the churches it went on had sent him a message saying don't have anything to do with this just man i've suffered much in a dream because of him is that's not there in luke luke is looking at the facts of the story and he's telling it in his ordered way to say that there was no capital charge laid against jesus before the roman governor and therefore he should have been punished very light punishment which we find quite often in the acts of the apostles given and then released but the crowd won't have it a crowd is a volatile thing and prompted maybe by those who are provoking them within the crowd they begin to shout for one who already has led an insurrect an insurrection against rome and has been put in prison for murder in probably in that insurrection here they're shouting for someone the city knows well who has in the past proved a thorn in the side of the roman governor jesus is quite different he's not fulfilled their expectations of a great riot against rome and the ushering in of a messianic kingship he's he's each time avoided that in his teaching in the temple there is no capital charge against him three times that's definite three times peter denied jesus three is the definite number in england we have a thing called a three-lined whip which means that members of parliament of the united kingdom have to obey their party whips the offices of the party to vote in a particular way a three-lined whip here's a a three-lined exercise which luke is describing three times pilate tries to establish a right judgment how difficult because at the same time he has in his mind that right judgment might set their whole city on fire and then what will become first of all of his governorship secondly of his career this relatively unimportant man jesus from galilee it's simply a matter of trading that and then trying to forget it so as the crowd gets more and more vociferous pilate decides to hand jesus over to their will and release the one who had been a fermenter of insurrection before i don't know if you remember the scene of president chances of romania on the balcony facing all the crowds whom he thought were on his side and suddenly the shouts begin and his face changes it's the end of his power but his his guards and minders and handlers hustle him back into the the palace to get him away from that scene of danger well it could have been a bit like that the advisors of pilot saying this is a lost cause and it's relatively unimportant we can deal with anything barabbas does again later let's just get rid of this because the whole city is a powder keg at this time of passover so there we are it's a day when someone has to make a political judgment and they make a political compromise interesting that that relatively unimportant governor who later on according to the historian josephus is removed because he makes a mistake with the massacre of samaritans at mount gerizim who've risen up against him and the legit of syria has had enough and sends him back to rome before the emperor tiberius he will be heard and see what happens to his governorship tiberius is dead by then and pilate goes out of history in one way enters it in another a most unexpected way for his name appears in our christian creeds suffered under pontius pilate and some of the best music of western christendom has been written around that name because he appears in the creed which has been set to music so many times but here this morning he's just a man with a political career trying to make a judgment and being forced to make one which is unjust to keep order this is the day august the 3rd when in london in 1914 the foreign secretary was standing in the foreign secretary's room with the editor of the westminster gazette john spender and they were looking out together in the evening as the lamplighter began to do the lamplighter's work in st james's park lighting the lamps and you remember gray in a throwaway sentence which he remembered later saying and so did john spender said the lamps are going out all over europe we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime prophetic but also troublesome for him for he had worked so hard with the ambassadors of the various nations of europe to keep the peace over the ten years before and now he was looking into an abyss the next day he would have to go to parliament and justify a decision one way or the other which way the united kingdom would go on that day in a european war we know which way it went we know that the next night enormous crowds would gather in front of buckingham palace cheering the king and queen thinking this was going to be something glorious and an easy victory and we know that grey knew it wouldn't be he known mostly for his massive knowledge of birds and bird watching in his country estates had served a life of public service and now he's facing one decision or another how hard public life is how hard public life is today at this time of pandemic this time of decision making when crowds will pay for blood whichever way you go if they see a chance for a kicking of a politician in some way or another it's a hard thing to be in public life when the situation is volatile and pilot today is seen making a decision which is crucial for that passover feast but becomes even more crucial for the salvation of the whole world from then until beyond and into eternity so let's keep that figure in front of us as we pray for those making hard decisions today but at the same time let us give thanks that jesus suffering alone is set to carry on his shoulder the sins of the whole world in fulfillment of prophecy say our prayers today in our anglican communion we pray for the diocese of karnataka south central in south india and prasama kumar samuel the bishop there and also karnataka north also in south india and ravi kumar niranjan the bishop there and also mohan manuraj in that area of india with his episcopal oversight there too we are in our diocese praying for each other and the sign a prayer is is given by simon tillerson the vicar of all saints in saint peter's in whitstable so we pray for simon in his ministry and also for the church of saint peter's all saints and saint peter's at whitstable very near neighbor of ours only a few miles down the road but on the coast so we say the prayer for today as we pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover and tim bishop at lambeth and ask you to pray not only for your faith leaders but also for your political leaders as we pray for ours who have to make hard decisions sometimes with enormous public voices shouting this way and that here is the prayer for this week almighty lord and everlasting god we beseech you to direct sanctify and govern both our hearts and bodies in the ways of your laws and the works of your commandments that through your most mighty protection both here and ever we may be preserved in body and soul through our lord and savior jesus christ amen and the prayer at the end of our psalm give to us lord christ the fullness of grace your presence and your very self for you are our portion and our delight now and forever amen so we say each in our own language the prayer our savior taught us and we bring our own concerns to that prayer 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 amen moment of silence for our own prayers 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 those whom you would pray for today and always amen you