good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this morning of wednesday the 19th of august as we say our morning prayers in the dinery garden yesterday you will remember we were in the chicken enclosure in the back garden of the deanery today we've come to a different place which is another of our chicken enclosures which we rotate from year to year so this year we're using this space for the growth of pumpkins and squashes and courgettes in ground which the chickens fertilized last summer so it makes a nice rotation this is the day in 1902 when ogden nash was born and some of you will know his uh amusing poetry that usually just two lines or four lines often about animals there's one about the cow which goes the cow is of the bovine ilk one end is moo the other milk and one could read those on and on but i've i've chosen two little poems of his which are not about animals at all but here's one when i remember bygone days i think how evening follows mourn so many i loved were not yet dead so many i love were not yet born and another to keep your marriage brimming with love in the loving cup whenever you're wrong admit it whenever you're right shut up so i'll leave you to find other ogden nash poems we begin to say our prayers on this lovely morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise may christ the day star dawn in our hearts and triumph over the shades of night 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 are men our morning psalm on this 19th morning of the months is psalm 97 the lord is king let the earth rejoice let the multitude of the isles be glad clouds and darkness are round about him righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne fire goes before him and burns up his enemies on every side his lightnings lit up the world the earth saw it and trembled the mountains melted like wax at the presence of the lord at the presence of the lord of the whole earth the heavens declared his righteousness and all the peoples have seen his glory confounded be all who worship carved images and delight in mere idols bow down before him all you gods zion heard and was glad and the daughters of judah rejoiced because of your judgment so lord for you lord are most high over all the earth you are exalted far above all gods the lord loves those who hate evil he preserves the lives of his faithful and delivers them from the hand of the wicked light has sprung up for the righteous and joy for the true of heart rejoice in the lord you righteous and give thanks to his holy name so we turn to our reading from the acts of the apostles as luke continues the story of peter and john who've been brought before the council having been arrested in the temple by the temple police and the temple of course is the area of authority of the high priest and the whole family and the council have joined together and heard what peter has to say and now we continue at verse 13 of chapter four of the acts of the apostles now when the members of the council saw the boldness of peter and john and perceived that they were uneducated common men they were astonished but they recognized that they had been with jesus but seeing the man who was healed standing beside them they had nothing to say in opposition but when they had commanded them to leave the council they conferred with one another saying what shall we do with these men for that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of jerusalem and we cannot deny it but in order that it may spread no further among the people let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name so they called peter and john and charge them not to speak or teach at all in the name of jesus but peter and john answered them whether it is right in the sight of god to listen to you rather than to god you must judge for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard and when they had further threatened them they let them go finding no way to punish them because of the people for all were praising god for what had happened for the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old when peter and john were released they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them and when they heard it they lifted up their voices together to god and said sovereign lord who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them who through the mouth of our father david your servant said by the holy spirit why do the gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain the kings of the earth set themselves up and the rulers were gathered together against the lord and against his anointed for truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant jesus whom you anointed both herod and pontius pilate along with the gentiles and the peoples of israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place and now lord look upon their threats and grant to us your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant jesus and when they had prayed the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the holy spirit and continued to speak the word of god with all boldness this is a wonderful passage because it brings peter and john back from the council who have been confounded by their way of speaking not only because of the power of the holy spirit but remember they have spent three years in luke's timing with jesus learning and learning and misunderstanding and not understanding and grasping bits and pieces and now are putting things together and the way they speak is beginning to convince and to confound people and here they are before the council and beside them the man who had been lame so they let them go and they go back to and the word is those who were there's friends the extended family shall we say and they explain what has happened and then the prayer which follows is another development in our understanding of the followers of the way as christians were first called we saw that their prayers were rooted in the regular worship of temple and synagogue still but also this kind of prayer which they themselves usher is important in the formation of all the prayers that we say but first of all the word they use is used only twice by sin luke in all his writings and that is the word despotes for god and it's been translated in our translation sovereign lord it's only been used once in the gospel and that is when simeon at the beginning of his nunc dimitris says lord now let your servant normally the word for lord is of course kyrie which we use in the kirier leia song this is an absolute power given to the creator of the heaven and the earth who has set simeon's vocation and simeon's occasion was to watch and wait for the anointed one so that it's hardly surprising that he addresses god in that way and here the early christians do the same the totality of the creator's power sovereign lord and then as in prayers that we say now the shape begins to reveal itself aspects of the lord's power particularly relevant to the crisis are used and also the undergirding of the psalms and the old testament is there this prayer is very like the prayer which king hezekiah prays in isaiah 37 when he sets the letter from the king of assyria on the altar and prays but it's also containing the first two verses of psalm 2 which again i know well from handel's messiah why do the nations so furiously raged together and the people imagine a vain thing the kings of the earth rise up and the rulers take counsel together against the lord and against his anointed in the head because of the music but here it's being used in a prayer and the lord's anointed is now being identified as the christ which is what that word means and jesus christ is the name which they have used to heal the man in the name of jesus christ of nazareth rise up and walk you see how it's all beginning to fit together but one goes all the way back to the gospel of saint luke and uses that as a cipher to decipher the acts of the apostles and underneath the other cipher is the regular reading of the scriptures foresee how david is used to and we might look also at the word servant because when it's used for david and then when it's used for jesus it's a word which means more of someone who is related in almost childhood price and we translated servant but there's a an aspect of family relationship reminding us of jesus calling his father abba father the lord of all creation with absolute power every of everything he has created and the psalms are full of that mountains melting like wax in the presence of the god of god and then on the other hand those who are making the prayer are also and they identify themselves as servants of god and servants of his anointed and that word servants is quite different that's the one we would normally use where we offer our service by grace to the power which has been shown us of our own vocation yesterday ben cross died who was best known to me as harold abrahams in the 1981 film chariots of fire and that really wonderful film has in it also a portrait of eric little the missionary who died in the second world war in china but he played by ian charlson is the one who is divided by his vocation and is being urged to take up his vocation as a missionary and do you remember how he says god created me for a purpose but he also made me fast and when i run i feel his pleasure god has given us singular and distinctive gifts which he asks us to use for his glory whatever those creative gifts are simeon knew what his vocation was and now here are these servants of the lord pledging themselves in prayer in a very moving way with peter and john and all the others those who belong to them that we might call friends companions as followers on the way pledging themselves to the vocation that the lord the messiah the christ the anointed one of god has let them realize through the grace of the holy spirit may that same grace be given to us today let's say our prayers and today we pray on this 19th of august in the anglican communion for the diocese of oklahoma in the episcopal church of the united states and for edward konyenski the bishop there and his people and also the diocese of bunbury in australia and ian cootes the bishop there and his people there and in this diocese we pray for the benefits of romney marsh now that beautiful area of kent on the marsh ken tends to be wheeled and marsh and downland and white cliffs and everything else but the marsh is a wonderful place particularly in fine weather and it includes the church of all saints burma burmas all saints saint mary's bay saint nicholas new romney saint mary in the marsh st george ivy church st peter and paul new church sin clement old romney and saint peter and paul dim church we pray for chris mclean and john richardson in their ministry there and for schuner body the assistant priest and jackie darling the curette and all those who live in those villages on the marsh pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and for all those whom you in your hearts and minds would remember this morning here is the prayer for this week let your merciful ears o lord be open to the prayers of your humble servants and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things that will please you through jesus christ our lord amen and then the collect at the end of the psalm 97 most high and holy god enthroned in fire and light burn away the dross of our lives and kindle in us the fire of your love that our lives may reveal the light and life we find in your son our lord jesus christ amen we say together the prayer which jesus taught us to say in whatever language you would normally 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 the power and the glory forever and ever are men in the moment of silence as we make our own prayers this morning 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