good afternoon and welcome to our evening prayers on this day following the ascension day when we remembered the glory of our lord jesus christ at his ascension and the uniting of the eternal things of heaven and the finite things of this earth on which we live and lead our daily lives while gleams of heaven touch our lives and call us to think of infinite things and be those creatures created in the image of god which we believe we are and which grace from the spirit gives us to be day by day i've come this afternoon to the le burnham walk in the general garden it's at the time of year when the golden chains are hanging down and the light of heaven is shining through them and there's no better picture for the ascension than this lovely la burnham walk as we begin our evening prayers o lord open thou our lips and our mouth shall show forth thy praise oh god make speed to save us o lord make haste to help us glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen praise he the lord the lord's name be praised psalm on this 22nd evening of the month is psalm 108 and we use some of the verses of that now as our evening sound oh god my heart is ready my heart is ready i will sing and give praise with the best member that i have awake thou loot and harp i myself will awake right early i will give thanks unto thee o lord among the people i will sing praises unto thee among the nations for thy mercy is greater than the heavens and thy truth reaches unto the clouds set up thyself o god above the heavens and thy glory above all the earth that thy beloved may be delivered let thy right hand save them and hear thou me god hath spoken in his holiness and through god we shall do great acts for it is he that shall tread down our enemies we turned first this afternoon for our first lesson which is in the 29th chapter of the book deuteronomy in the old testament and moses summoned all israel and said to them you are standing today all of you before the lord your god the heads of your tribes your elders and your officers all the men of israel your little ones your wives and the sojourner who is in your camp from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the lord your god which the lord your god is making with you today so that he may establish you today as his people and that he may be your god as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers to abraham to isaac and to jacob it is not with you alone that i am making this sworn covenant but with whoever is standing here with us today before the lord our god and with whoever is not here with us today here ends our first lesson we say the song of mary the magnificat my soul does magnify the lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in god my savior for he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed for he that is mighty hath magnified me and holy is his name and his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations he has showed strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts he had put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away he remembering his mercy has opened his servant israel as he promised to our forefathers abraham and his seed forever glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen our new testament lesson is taken from the first chapter of the first letter of saint john beginning at the first verse that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and was made manifest to us that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us and our indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son jesus christ and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete this is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus his son cleanses us from all sin we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins god is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us my little children i am writing these things to you so that you may not sin but if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world here ends our second lesson lord now let us thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people to be a light to lighten the gentiles and to be the glory of thy people israel glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen i believe in god the father almighty maker of heaven and earth and in jesus christ his only son our lord who was conceived by the holy ghost born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of god the father almighty from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead i believe in the holy ghost the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen let us pray lord have mercy upon us christ have mercy upon us lord have mercy upon us our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil amen oh lord show thy mercy upon us and grant us thy salvation o lord save the queen and mercifully hear us when we call upon thee endure thy ministers with righteousness and make thy chosen people joyful o lord save thy people and bless sign inheritance give peace in our time o lord because there is none other that fighteth for us but only thou o god oh god make clean our hearts within us and take not thy holy spirit from us a special prayer the collect for this ascension tide grant we beseech thee almighty god that like as we do believe thy only begotten son our lord jesus christ to have ascended into the heavens so we may also in heart and mind this are ascend and with him continually dwell who lives and reigns with thee and the holy ghost one god world without end amen oh god from whom all holy desires all good councils and all just works to proceed give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness through the merits of jesus christ our savior amen light on our darkness we beseech thee o lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy only son our savior jesus christ amen the beginning of the first letter of saint john a letter with the influence and hand of john all over it in terms of the kind of theology thinking and perception about jesus and what jesus shows us in his earthly life and in his risen life about the nature of god all over it that which was in the beginning it's as if john traditionally thought of us now in older years writing the good news and writing of his perception of it is delving back to the fact that that which they believed about god was from the first sentences of the scripture he had known from his birth in galilee those scriptures which our lord himself knew well and used constantly in his teaching but john goes on everything that those scriptures said from the beginning was demonstrated in human terms to him in the life of jesus we saw him we touched and knew the physical presence and now we want to communicate it to you and that presence gave assurance of the clarity of god as light when we look up at the light shining through all these golden petals of the luburnum this afternoon one is filled with the sense of the glory of creation and the blue sky above it and john is filled with the same kind of sense from his knowledge and it's a physical as well as a mental and spiritual knowledge of jesus christ in whom he saw the fullness of the creator of the father and all the love and grace that was the gift of the eternal dimension to us here on earth to use by the spirit's power in our own life today is a day when i have sent greetings to the islamic community here in canterbury for their time of fasting is over and as the call to prayer sounded it was sounding the beginning of eid when they will celebrate with great joy but at the same time by their statement today here in this city they were sounding it also as a sign of their solidarity in their prayers with our prayers sounded by the bell here in bel harry at this time of coronavirus prayers of thanksgiving for those in the health service and the care services and essential services helping us at this time and also prayers for the welfare and healing and health of our planet and our human race we sent all of that together with that greeting with our own friends there will be huge celebrations right across the world i remember when i was serving in the sudan when this day began enormous celebrations of huge joy well we have been celebrating our easter and none better than saint john to help us with that and at the beginning of his letter to us as to all christians throughout the ages the first letter of john he takes from the beginning of all creation and explodes the light of jesus christ in celebration across the world as his good news god is light and in him there is no darkness at all his eye sees all things that was very clear from the lesson from deuteronomy when the whole of the community of israel stood there in the sight of god and we're called to faithfulness the same with us when we say our prayers no use for barricading or trying to pretend god sees us as we are loves us as we are forgives us as we are when we come in penitence recreates us from what we are into what he intends us to be and created us for prepares us for that eternal dimension and this afternoon with the golden light of sunshine and with celebrations of other faiths around us we give thanks for our total faith both in jesus and in the father that he represents and the spirit which gives us gift like fireworks bursting in the sky as those celebrations will in so many countries today these the burnham flowers say to us god is light and in him there is no darkness at all and that light is shone on us in the face of jesus at all times when we say our prayers let's do that now and pray for all those whom we would want to pray for this afternoon and pray also for the folks that are on our hearts we will keep a time of silence and then pray the prayer of some christian together when we've remembered those that we would want to pray for almighty god who has given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee and has promised that when two or three are gathered together in thy name thou wilt grant their requests fulfill now o lord the desires and petitions of thy servants as may be most expedient for them granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting amen the grace of our lord jesus christ and the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be amongst you and remain with you today and always amen you