good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this sunday the 11th of july i think you'll all be very aware that this is a a very special day for england and so here's the the flag of of sin george which is the english flag rather than the flag of the united kingdom the union jack and this is ready to go up on the deanery tower behind me on the flagpole there and we shall put that up and fly it it's the flag we fly also for the church of england but today it's flying very much for england and i hope from all over the world you'll feel welcome and especially um if any of you are in rome or italy feel welcome because this is going to be a great sporting event tonight and it's drawn the nation together in huge excitement and uh of course we are not um unused to competing with rome because we've had a tradition most years of of the canterbury team and the team fielded by his holiness the pope from the vatican either playing cricket here or in rome uh and twice here i've had the pleasure of seeing the cup once presenting it to the england captain the canterbury captain uh which has on it ut oonam sint that everyone should be one well that's the main prayer of course but today i think we can have a little bit of excitement both in italy and in england for the competition which will happen italy's got a double chance today because they've got a finalist in the wimbledon men's final championship which will be played out this afternoon so what a day for sport and here's the flag with the red cross of st george on the white background you will already have have seen i'm sure are choristers boys and girls song which they sang for the encouragement of the english team but here we're saying our prayers together on a summer morning an overcast morning no wind at all at the moment i hope there's a little bit of wind to raise the flag when we put that up but meanwhile it's a perfect morning for the swifts to be catching insects and you'll see them probably flying through the grass last night we were out here and um bats were flying through the grass in the same way going through catching the insects and the long grass is helping them to find their food but interesting things going on all around us on this particular morning we shall have some other dates to think about later after our reflection so let's start our morning prayers on this day o 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 and as we wake refresh 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 so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this 11th morning of the month is psalm 56 have mercy on me o god for they trample over me all day long they assault and depress me my adversaries trample over me all the day long many are they that make proud war against me in the day of my fear i put my trust in you in god i trust and will not fear for what can flesh do to me all day long they wound me with words their every thought is to do me evil they stir up trouble they lie in weight marking my steps they seek my life shall they escape for all their wickedness in anger oh god casts the people down you have counted up my groaning put my tears into your bottle are they not written in your book then shall my enemies turn back on the day when i call upon you this i know for god is on my side in god whose word i praise in the lord whose word i praise in god i trust and will not fear what can flesh do to me to you o god will i fulfill my vows to you will i present my offerings of thanks for you will deliver my soul from death and my feet from falling that i may walk before god in the light of the living that's a good psalm on this day when we think of saint paul arriving at his destination and being in in prison still with a soldier guarding him in rome as he thinks back on all the trouble he's been through but still puts his faith in god that this is the vocation he's called to so we're joining saint paul again in rome acts 28 where we left off last sunday and i'm starting at verse 17. this is the end of the story after three days paul called together the local leaders of the jews and when they had gathered he said to them brothers though i had done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors yet i was delivered as a prisoner from jerusalem into the hands of the romans when they had examined me they wished to set me at liberty because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case but because the jews objected i was compelled to appeal to caesar though i had no charge to bring against my nation for this reason therefore i have asked to see you and speak with you since it is because of the hope of israel that i am wearing this chain and they said to him we have received no letters from judea about you and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you but we desire to hear from you what your views are for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against when they had appointed a day for him they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers from morning till evening he expounded to them testifying to the kingdom of god and trying to convince them about jesus both from the law of moses and from the prophets and some were convinced by what he said but others disbelieved and disagreeing among themselves they departed after paul had made one statement the holy spirit was right in saying to your fathers through isaiah the prophet go to this people and say you will indeed hear but never understand and you will indeed see but never perceive for this people's heart has grown dull and with their ears they can barely hear and their eyes they have closed captioning not available of god has been sent to the gentiles they will listen paul lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him proclaiming the kingdom of god and teaching about the lord jesus christ with all boldness and without hindrance and there it ends the whole sequence of that huge work written by luke right from the beginning of his evangel his gospel right through now to the end you might say as i might think what a time to finish why finish there when clearly because lucas said paul lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed any who came to him we well know from the letter he wrote to the romans how many christians he knew in rome and knew of in rome both women and men and he speaks of them with enormous fondness just turn to the last chapter of the epistle of saint paul to the romans written to a christian community he has never physically visited and longs to go there well now he's there in rome and he's fulfilling his his uh his vocation of the the word of the lord saying to him you have testified to me in jerusalem now you shall speak for me in rome and here this begins he's begun as he always does by calling together the leaders of his own nation for he longs that his own nation shall receive this good news this as he calls it here in this translation this salvation of god i want to speak about that word in a moment but let me go back first to say and there are groups of people there whom he is longing to see and to greet and if i go to the end of the epistle to the romans this book is uh let's see here we are you can imagine how sticky the pages sometimes get in in the rain but there's no rain today and here we are uh here are the greetings and we read them quite recently so who is he waiting to see chapter 16 of romans i commend to you our sister phoebe a servant of the church at ken craig that you may welcome her in the lord in a way worthy of the saints and then the greetings prisca and aquila my fellow workers in christ jesus also the church in their house and then the whole list of names men and women as i say some he knows some he doesn't some he's heard commended and there in the middle of it all is rufus whom we know was one of the sons of simon of cyrene mark tells us that and in his gospel the father of rufus and alexander all of those things so there are friends there but also he is longing with all his heart that his own people will embrace this good news so why stop there we might ask of luke and as we ask that i want to just look at that last sentence therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of god has been sent to the gentiles they will listen paul already has that vocation to be giving the good news the evangel which saint luke has written in his first volume all that story and if we go back now to the very beginning of luke's gospel we find the other two occasions when the greek word for salvation of god in verse 28 is used soterion and where do we find it used we find it used in luke chapter 2 and who is speaking it why simeon it's there at the beginning of luke's gospel there's a beginning and an ending to this we're in verse 30 of chapter two and it's right in the middle of the canticle that we call nunc here's the translation here lord now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your soterion your saving help your saving message that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people israel that's how luke sees this saving message this salvation of god as we've translated it here in the end of acts the soterion and where else is it used just once in chapter 3 of st luke's gospel and in verse 6 and here we are it's part of the prophecy of isaiah about as luke thinks the ministry of john the baptist and all flesh shall see the salvation of god that is what john is proclaiming herald to that ceterion that salvation the work of the spirit the work of the spirit in paul which is not hindered he's able to invite people in to hear his preaching he's able also to um although he's he's a captive with a soldier guarding him to give hospitality to those who come you can imagine many friends imagine the conversations that are going on about that soterion that salvation of god which has been sent as a gift to the gentiles so let's ask the question again why does luke stop there and there are two answers that i've heard given the first is the fact that perhaps this was the first two volumes and here at the end of the second of a trilogy bit like elgar's trilogy which was going to be a trilogy from the apostles the kingdom and then the development of that kingdom the third was never written if luke wrote a third we don't have it but i suspect he didn't because this is not a biography of paul it's not a biography of peter it's the compliment to his gospel his evangel and the hero of this story is the holy spirit it's the work of the spirit which has led paul right across from speaking in jerusalem to speaking in rome it's the work of the spirit that suffuses and empowers all those epistles not just from paul but from peter and from james and from john and for from whoever who wrote the epistle to the hebrews whether it be barnabas or not all of those people it was the work of the spirit which empowered apollos in his ministry we don't have the facts of their stories but we have the knowledge of that ministry and the knowledge is all around us by our own christian communities throughout the world today showing the soterion it appears once more in the letter to the ephesians and it comes in uh chapter six and it's the helmet of salvation of satarian the work of the spirit in saving help as a gift of god the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit the gifts for the christian endeavor for the christian struggle against all those forces opposing it in the heavenly and eternal realms as well as here and that struggle is one that is charted right through and that gives you the reason i believe that luke stopped just there the evangel has reached rome paul is free to share it and that's enough all over the mediterranean uh other evangelists are at work the evangel is being shared and as i say the hero of this story is the spirit the spirit whom we ourselves receive as the gift of jesus and proclaim in our creeds proceeding from the father and the son in the western creed and we embrace that as the true message not only of the the gospel of saint luke fulfilling the prophecy of isaiah for all nations all flesh shall see it together and fulfilling all say the prophecy of simeon as he holds the little child jesus in his arms and proclaims a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of god's people israel all of that is part of the story luke is telling which ends here we with our fascination me too with biographies and facts and wanting to know all that kind of thing or not at one really with uh the evangelist he gives us what we need to know and we're not at one with sin paul who gives us really very little facts that they're sort of by the way in his messages to the church what he wants us to receive is not only the knowledge of the spirit's work but the gifts of the holy spirit which when he sets them out as armor he talks about the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit well a good morning to think of that on this sunday when we complete our reading of the acts of the apostles on sundays as we completed it last year when we went through the whole of luke and acts together and arrived at this point the christian tradition is of course that rome in rome was the place of sin paul's martyrdom as it was the place of sin peter's martyrdom at christian persecution later on but for the moment we leave him where he is effectively proclaiming the evangel and offering the gift the sectarian the salvation of god given to all peoples and the glory of the chosen people israel in the giving of that gift well what else happened on this particular day if we think of significant dates i wanted to say first that in 1848 waterloo station opened in london on this day july the 11th it's britain's busiest railway station with all its comings and goings but as i've said in the in other on other occasions stations tend to remind us of where they're going to take us and um between 1975 and 1992 waterloo station if i was in london was my route home going back first to salisbury and then in years after that to tisbury and then after that to sherman going along a southerly route west so waterloo station felt like the front door of going home it inside me paddington station is that because that's the front door to going home when i grew up so paddington station has that kind of feeling with it going back to bath and bristol and paddington station also used to take me uh to hereford but i think of waterloo station in one other way too waterloo station was a place where in the beginning the eurostar took off for paris and was the connection through from london to paris in its first years 1994 to 2007 and then now paddington station is that portal into europe for the train the fast train the eurostar and hopefully that kind of access will when the pandemic ends once again be smoothly going because it's a a way of getting through in that way 1859 um on this day big ben told for the first time now big ben is silent at the moment it's being restored the whole elizabeth tower as that has been called since our queen's diamond jubilee and that whole tower is under restoration so big ben does not strike but it is very much the sound of big ben is the sound of london and one recognizes that at once just as one recognizes our own clock here which is also under restoration but will soon strike again the two clocks sound different melodies big ben is the the great bell of the chimes of westminster the london chimes which each everyone knows and is in so many clocks westminster chimes but canterbury is a very different chime for canterbury's clock chimes a gregorian chant and we look forward quite soon now to hearing that gregorian chant again if i take a cough i could perhaps do both chimes so the westminster chime and then we would wait and then the great chime of big ben and the bbc used that very much to signal being in london just as the the site of of the the the clock tower the elizabeth tower as it now is is a sign of being in london if somebody wants in a film to say this is london without any words they show big ben um canterbury time quite different canterbury time when it chimes in quarters a gregorian chant singing out the psalms two very different chimes and uh the only other place i think of as the canterbury chime is merton college oxford and we thought about that yesterday when we were thinking of dean fell living in a house opposite that in the years of the civil war when it was criminal even to use the book of common prayer and merchant college was a sign of that a presenter from here went there and took the canterbury time there when the bells there were restored so we think of that in the way in which clocks set our lives but also give us a sign of where we are even when we hear them and we look forward to that coming back here to canterbury quite soon now i think big ben will be a bit after that but but not too long we hope 1859 in the same year a tale of two cities was published by dickens an historic novel but it's full we've we've looked at it quite recently when we were looking at charles dickens it's full of what i would call almost sacramental images by that i mean there are barrels of wine breaking in the street and wine flowing everywhere and also as that rolls off the cart and smashes the link with the tumbrils taking people to be guillotine all of those things but you remember how dickens start and you could say it at any time it was the best of times it was the worst of times but on the way through there is much imprisonment there is much pain and sorrow and there is much faithfulness as lucy manette whose marriage then to charles dani goes and waits outside the little prison window each day when her husband is imprisoned how in the end sydney carton gives up his life for charles darnay all of those things in dickens is one of my favorite dickens book and uh so i i tend to know it very well so i give thanks that it was published on this day with all those signs pointing to the way that we can deal with imprisonment we can deal with pain but we can also be brave enough with the weapons given to offer ourselves for each other in so many different ways and then uh in 1989 on this day the famous actor lawrence olivier died the 11th of july 1989. he had been brought up as a son of an anglican vicarage he had a what we call a high anglican father who had much ceremony in his in his uh uh liturgy and um lawrence olivier was said to be a chorister in the choir of all saints margaret street which had all the the ceremonies that his father gerard olivier would approve of and after that the the drama which he experienced both there and at school became what he should do but he when his brother went out to india to be a rubber planter in 1928 lawrence olivier missed him so much that he said to his father i'm going to follow my brother there and his father the the the the the church of england uh parish priests said don't be a fool lawrence you're not going to india you're going on the stage and that's where he went and we remember his capacity to interpret the works of others we see that mostly in films now since his death it was on the stage very much for 10 years he was the founding director of britain's national theatre but at the same time films started quite early wuthering heights in 1939 interpreting the words of emily bronte rebecca in 1940 interpreting the words of daphne du maurier henry v 1944 hamlet 1948 richard iii 1955 interpreting and demonstrating in drama the works of shape the words of shakespeare brideshead revisited on the television 1981 a long and lovely series and they're interpreting the words of evil in war and in 1983 a television production of king lear more shakespeare in truth we give thanks for all those who interpret the words of others for reading shakespeare is wonderful but some can lift them off the page in acting them and even in reading them for us and in other ways we see that with music a fine thing having it down in words and music but choirs like ours can lift things off the page and interpret things for us and that's a wonderful gift and luke has given us uh both his gospel and the story of the holy spirit in the acts of the apostles until that message reaches rome where it will be given to the world by saint paul and interpreted by oh so many since then in christian history the soterion the salvation of god with the gifts of the holy spirit the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit and then i think uh 2021 whatever happens tonight this will be a day that goes down in english history because it's 55 years as our queen said in her message to the football team yesterday that such a match was played with an english team in it and uh that i think we we shall always remember so uh we say as i shall say when i'm putting up the the flag and good luck england today and we we wish you well um and i i would also say if our italian friends want to shout out good luck italy we wish you well that would be a very good thing because competition is a thing between nations and it's a good spirited thing we we pray so let's um say our prayers on this particular day and we are praying as we look at our prayers on the 11th of july for the episcopal church in the philippines and we are praying here in the diocese for the dialysis and stewardship advisors and praying for archbishop justin for bishop rose and for bishop tim at lambeth we think obviously of all our friends whom we hold in concern in natural concern facing that natural i wouldn't say disasters but climate changes but disasters in in intense fires in certain places but also climate change which is worrying in other places and we continue to pray for all those in the front line of care in health so let's say the prayer a new prayer because this is sunday morning and so we are on the sixth sunday after trinity merciful god you have prepared for those who love you such good things as pass our understanding pour into our hearts such love toward you that we loving you in all things and above all things may obtain your promises which exceed all that we can desire through jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language now the prayer which our savior taught us 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 amen moment of silence now for your own prayers concerns and intentions on this day [Applause] [Music] okay is 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 are men i think i may have said uh and perhaps i'm wrong that uh it was paddington that that uh one of the trains set out for it was of course going to hereford in the west but it's in pancras now which brings eurostar to paris and the train for me back home here to canterbury from london now it's time to put the flag up on the deanery itself and so i shall go and mount the tower and hope a bit later on for a little bit of breeze to blow the flag out to show the cross of sin george of england so together we hoist the flaggers in george and canterbury says good luck england [Music] you