good morning and welcome to the dinery garden in canterbury cathedral on this wednesday the 7th of april the wednesday in easter week and we come to the third of our musings on the and imaginings centered around the revelation of jesus's resurrection in different stories i think that you won't have to guess for long which one it's going to be today i'm sitting on the path which here in england on this sunny spring morning is is bordered with with daffodil flowers um and i'm sitting down here as you'll see a bit later beside this wonderful viburnum a white viburnum different from the gold of the daffodils and also a little clump of white uh uh pullman area here beside me but it's a spring day here and the sun has yet to crest the wall beside me but it is a totally blue sky though a chilly air this morning wherever you are in the world whatever your climate and whatever your circumstances please feel welcome as we come with our concerns our intentions and our prayers together for morning prayer on this wednesday of easter week oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice alleluia blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as once you ransomed your people from egypt and led them to freedom in the promised land so now you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your risen son may we the first fruits of your new creation rejoice in this new day you have made and praise you for your mighty acts 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 does 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 son on the seventh morning of the month is psalm 36 sin whispers to the wicked in the depths of their heart there is no fear of god before their eyes they flatter themselves in their own eyes that their abominable sin will not be found out the words of their mouths are unrighteous and full of deceit they have ceased to act wisely and to do good they think out mischief upon their beds and have set themselves in no good way nor do they abhor that which is evil your love o lord reaches to the heavens and your faithfulness to the clouds your righteousness stands like the strong mountains your justice like the great deep you lord shall save both man and beast how precious is your loving mercy o god all mortal flesh shall take refuge under the shadow of your wings they shall be satisfied with the abundance of your house they shall drink from the river of your delights for with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to those who are true of heart let not the foot of pride come against me nor the hand of the ungodly thrust me away there are they fallen all who work wickedness they are cast down and shall not be able to stand so we turn to the 24th chapter of the gospel of saint luke and i'm beginning to read at verse 13. this is the story of the two disciples walking to emmaus and we have good memories of joe lumley our friend joe lumley reading that last year for us at evensong on easter yesterday that very day two of them were going to a village named emmaus about seven miles from jerusalem and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened while they were talking and discussing together jesus himself drew near and went with them but their eyes were kept from recognizing him and he said to them what is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk and they stood still looking sad then one of them named cleopas answered him are you the only visitor to jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days and he said to them what things and they said to him concerning jesus of nazareth a man who was a prophet mighty indeed and word before god and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem israel yes and besides all this it is now the third day since these things happened moreover some women of our company amazed us they were at the tomb early in the morning and when they did not find his body they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said but him they did not see and he said to them oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken was it not necessary that the christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and beginning with moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself so they drew near to the village to which they were going he acted as if he were going further but they urged him strongly saying stay with us for it is towards evening and the day is now far spent so he went in to stay with them when he was at table with them he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight they said to each other did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road while he opened to us the scriptures and they rose that same hour and returned to jerusalem and they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together saying the lord has risen indeed and has appeared to simon then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread once again an intimate story told only in st luke's gospel this one and as we read it the energy level expectation and surprise continues to increase it begins slowly they stood still looking sad and then begin to explain to the stranger who has come along to walk with them on their way to the village of emmaus one feels that the pace is fairly slow for their energy level as with all sadness and grief is very and yet there's already that seed of puzzlement in all that's going on and having told the story of the crucifixion of the one whom they had hoped was going to be the one who would come to redeem israel they then say but certain things have happened today which are puzzling to us they tell the story of the empty tomb but then they say him they did not see this is their occasion as the friends of jesus all these resurrection narratives happen in intimate circumstances with those who know jesus well and recognition brings many surprises but to each of them when jesus appears he gives them those things they need to take the forward journey not looking back but the forward journey that's why yesterday when we were telling that wonderful story in john's gospel of mary magdalene at the tomb and the way in which when she came to jesus she suddenly reached out to embrace or cling to his body and jesus knows this isn't the way forward for her that's a step into the past the risen christ whose spirit will be in his church in his disciples in his friends from then on is going to be a very different kind of presence with mary magdalene so there's the warning not to turn back for those memories are precious but the way forward is different and will be filled with power from the spirit of jesus given but for the moment the words to mary yesterday were touch me not or do not cling to me could have said that was then this is now and your route now is go tell my brothers all about this and mary runs you remember on the way forward having been warned against the way back the way forward to the disciples to the friends of jesus gathered there and pronounces her gospel as the apostle to the apostles i have seen the lord well now today this is different it's the evening of the same day but these two are sadly walking back to their home in emmaus the village from at a distance from jerusalem and as they walk the stranger joins them and then he's quite sharp with them when they say we had hoped that he says oh fools and slow to believe what you've been told all your life by the scriptures by the prophets how this one the lord's anointed would need to suffer and be given up to death before he's rising to new life will release the spirit to you and to those who receive that gift in belief and faith and act that out on the way forward but they're not there yet before clearly they go on listening and then reach the village as night begins to fall and again we get wonderful sentences which stay in the head for our backpack that we can remember easily and the old sentence which used to be used at complin abide with us for it is towards evening and the day is far spent wonderful sentence but actually it's an invitation for jesus to share our hospitality hospitality within our very being hospitality in our homes as we extend hospitality hospitality in places where we worship in different spaces in different ways throughout the world abide with us for it is towards evening and the day is far spent the further they know there's going to be much more to this day yet for them so he goes in and then this wonderful sequence of acts which awakens memory and recognition takes the bread blesses it breaks it gives it to them and in that activity he is known to them it's enough there's the gift and he vanishes what do they do they look at each other the way is down forward though it means actually geographically going back where they were because good news has to be shared and they say to each other did not our hearts burn within us on the road when he explained the scriptures meaning why on earth didn't we realize then but it's in the action of the breaking and the giving that jesus is known and that activity of the church of christians meeting together on the first day of the week to break bread in response to the lord's command at the last supper do this in remembrance of me here they have a very special remembrance of him it's another scene that artists love to portray and the wonder on the faces of those who are about to recognize realization will dawn and what happens energy level shoots up and the way back to jerusalem seems an easy thing now the energy is in the running again and they run back and the disciples already have a message of their own and that we shall come to tomorrow with another scene of resurrection but for the moment let's stay with these two for when the disciples have given them their message these two say what has happened to them on the road and at home and then the wonderful sentence how he was known to them in the breaking of bread they invited him in and then there was recognition hospitality is at the root of all this but in the shared meal whether it be at the altar or in one's home or out in the countryside or any kind of shared meal that hospitality the spirit of grace and of god is there and here we have this in this amazing story there are no parables in the resurrection narrative everything is a parable it's saying the kingdom of heaven is like this and a sign is given but the pictures are so strong that they are unforgettable and the words said are so short that they also are unforgettable remember dora the explorers uh backpack yesterday and the way in which it has in it the the equipment for the journey but also the map the scriptures that we hold and then the equipment well that has to be in our minds and hearts as we go always forward the past is a memory to prompt us it's full of wonderful pictures and warnings and also regrets it's full of forgiveness but at the same time the way is always forward and jesus gives us just what we need just what each of these people need in the resurrection narratives for these it was recognition in the breaking of bread well here we are in the open air again telling a story is easy to tell and wonderful to remember and using words that stay in our heads so easily and that we can use almost uh every night abide with us for it is towards evening and the day is far spent which instantly takes us to that bethany household but this morning as the sun rises here i want to remember something that we started remembering yesterday i said that in 1843 yesterday william wordsworth was made poet laureate of this nation and he was at that time almost 73 years old his 73rd birthday was april the 7th today the next day wordsworth died in uh 1850 so he was poet laureate just for seven years unlike his successor alfred lord tennyson who was poet laureate for decades but for wordsworth somehow the official title and commissioning things for special occasions didn't seem to light a flame for his creative spirit there's practically nothing of wordsworth poetry from those years those seven years as poet laureate the best parts of wordsworth are out in the fresh air and freedom and the sense of waiting for creativity to happen isn't that always so commissions to say do that now think of this now do this now are always much more difficult than being suddenly prompted rather like the the to it emmaus prompted to realization that this creative act can happen they're running back and they're sharing the news this creative act can happen and the early poetry of wordsworth out in the fresh air released from the city and beginning to tell in wonderful words all those things that the daffodil poem yesterday gave us of him young wordsworth and then even as he goes through the poems of of memories of his own life we give so much thanks for i've got here in my hand my copy of wordsworth prelude which is a long poem it's an autobiographical poem which he really completed mostly in 1805 it wasn't published until he revised it many times in 1850 after his death it was published and usually when you see the prelude it's the 1850 edition this is the 1805 edition which was copied from his useful handwriting in his manuscripts i want to begin it because there is a wonderful introduction childhood and school time as he breaks out for the first time into freedom in the countryside here it is and it's it's it's just so full of fresh air and the wonderful sunshine on the flowers that we're beginning to see this morning though there is blessing in this gentle breeze that blows from the green fields and from the clouds and from the sky it beats against my cheek and seems half conscious of the joy it gives a welcome messenger a welcome friend a captive grizzy coming from a house of bondage from yon city walls set free a prison where he has not been long immune now i am free enfranchised and at large may fix my habitation where i will what dwelling shall receive me in what veil shall be my harbour underneath what grove shall i take up my home and what sweet stream shall with its murmur lull me to my rest the earth is all before me with a heart joyous not scared at its own liberty i look about and should the guide i choose be nothing better than a wandering cloud i cannot miss my way i breathe again chances of thought and mountings of the mind come fast upon me it is shaken off as my miraculous gift tis shaken off that burden of my own unnatural self the heavy weight of many a weary day not mine and such as were not made for me it goes on in a massive way and it tells the story of his youth and his development all sorts of years of learning all sorts of mistakes made and one of the greatest mistakes he made was to embrace the french revolution in 1789 as though it were a messenger of freedom and wonder because the french king had called the parliament and there was going to be a completely new france when the reign of terror began and the imperial years he had second thoughts but right at the beginning there's a moment where he writes a phrase which was possibly my sister pauline's favorite line of poetry bliss was it in that dawn to be alive but to be young was very heaven and she always equated it with the beginning of the swinging 60s which sort of threw off discipline if you knew her well that was her her real sort of trumpet call and if i said that to her then uh she would she would say yes that was the way in which we broke the bonds in the 60s and a new life seemed to beginning bliss was it in that dawn to be a lie but there was worse the bliss was all out in the open air and later on in his poem the excursion we meet characters like the wanderer and the solitary and the pastor and all of those on the journey so these two days have been a good time to give thanks for the poetry of william wordsworth as well and the way in which it transformed the strictness of english poetry and brought the breath of fresh air into all that he and in the beginning coleridge did and meanwhile his sister dorothy wrote down in her grassmeal journals all the lovely things that they were doing which gives context to what's being written different ways of telling the story and the lovely things that we have this week of the resurrection narratives all amongst an intimate group of friends who know each other well and are transformed from grief to a way forward by the gifts the individual and unique gifts and ways of communicating himself that jesus gives to each from mary magdalene yesterday to the two disciples on the road to emmaus today thanks be to god for the variety of resurrection stories that we have throughout this week so let's say our prayers on this morning of the month and we are on the seventh morning so we're praying for the diocese of benin in the anglican communion in the church of nigeria in the bendel province and all the people who are living there and those ministering to them as i said yesterday this week we're praying for the villages and communities around the town of sandwich and all those in those villages who are clergy with permission to officiate helping out in all the villages around the sandwich deanery long long list of them and we give thanks for their ministry there pray for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover and for tim bishop at lambeth as we say the easter college which is beginning to stay in our heads lord of all life and power who through the mighty resurrection of your son overcame the old order of sin and death to make all things new in him grant that we being dead to sin and alive to you in jesus christ may reign with him in glory to whom with you and the holy spirit be praise and honor glory and might now and in all eternity amen so we say each in our own language with resurrection joy on these easter days the prayer that our savior taught us to say as the most important piece of equipment in our backpack 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 [Music] moment of silence for our own prayers on this day in easter week the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus christ that great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight 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 you