good morning and welcome to the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral on this monday of the second week of easter tide very much a working day although our nation is still in mourning following the death of prince philip and we continue to pray for the repose of his soul and give thanks for his long life and pray also for our queen and the royal family and all who are grieving at this time we think in our prayers too of those facing the eruption of mount la zufrier at uh the island of saint vincent in the caribbean all those being affected by that continuing volcano eruption there but also on the other side of the world in western australia we remember those being affected by the huge cyclone there so different circumstances right across our world and bring your own prayers and concerns from where you are as we say our prayers on this morning of easter tide oh lord open our lips and our mouths 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 psalm on this twelfth morning of the month is psalm 62 on god alone my soul in stillness waits from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my strongholds say that i shall never be shaken how long will all of you assail me to destroy me as you would a tottering wall or a leaning fence they plot only to thrust me down from my place of honour lies are their chief delight they bless with their mouth but in their heart they curse wait on god alone in stillness oh my soul for in him is my hope he alone is my rock and my salvation my strongholds say that i shall not be shaken in god is my strength and my glory god is my strong rock in him is my refuge put your trust in him always my people pour out your hearts before him for god is our refuge the peoples are but a breath the whole human race a deceit on the scales they are all together lighter than air put no trust in oppression in robbery take no empty pride though wealth increase set not your heart upon it god spoke once and twice have i heard the same that power belongs to god steadfast love belongs to you o lord for you repay everyone according to their deeds we're returning to the gospel of saint john and through this week the next few days we shall be looking at the i am statements of jesus in john's gospel but today i'm starting somewhere different i'm starting right at the beginning of saint john's gospel with the first 14 verses now like handel's messiah we are used to hearing them read and that wonderful oratorio sung at christmas time but in fact both are full of the new life of easter and what it cost our lord jesus through the days of holy week into passion tied to calvary and beyond to accomplish that new life so that in reading these 14 verses we're actually setting the scene for how that will be accomplished in a human life as the evangelist in the fourth gospel sets it out this poem shall we call it at the beginning of saint john's gospel is full of the freshness of easter and perhaps reading it now will give us a different insight so john chapter 1 verse 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god same was in the beginning with god all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life and the life was the light of humankind the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it there was a man sent from god whose name was john he came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him he was not the light but came to bear witness about the light the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world he was in the world and the world was made through him yet the world did not know him he came to his own and his own people did not receive him but to all who did receive him who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of god who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of god and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth the moment we read it we're back with a christmas gospel think of it this morning though as an easter gospel a preface for everything that saint john in the fourth gospel is going to unfold for us the first two words of saint john's gospel in the greek are exactly the same as the first two words in the septuagint the greek old testament scriptures and it was those scriptures that mostly new testament writers are quoting the greek translation done three or four hundred years before the birth of christ in alexandria and those two words in arcane in the beginning was the word and genesis in the beginning god created two different beginnings but they are different for the genesis one is establishing time the time when god created the heaven and the earth in st john it's looking back into eternity in the beginning the word already was the eternal word which is one of the titles that we give to the human jesus and the resurrected jesus taking us from this finite existence of creatures and everything on our earth within time and within space geographically located all of those things but this gospel is taking us back beyond that to a time where time doesn't matter there are no beginnings and endings and that thought begins to completely break apart our human ability to understand with the mind but sometimes we reach out with the spirit to all of that and know in our mind that we're doing it and that the spirit has gone beyond that it can happen from time to time but mostly we perceive the creator's activity though all of that is beyond time mostly we perceive it within time and receive the gift of those first verses of our old testament in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth setting the clock going and more than that setting the days and nights and the seasons and as that poem of genesis chapter 1 is told then we we find time unfolding as the first words of saint john's gospel unfold we are beyond time and enter into time when the human figure of jesus is sent as the way in which our minds our bodies our hearts our emotions can perceive the god who is outside time and within it and has created all things we're in the area as we were yesterday of the creeds we're in the area of according to the scriptures which we spoke about yesterday in one corinthians but we're also in the area of the present tense of everything that we read of jesus and when we come across this week the verb to be in its present tense i am and go across those seven i am statements of jesus in this second week of easter it's the freshness of a new beginning quite different from the first beginning which is opening up for us it can be reflected in the seasons and often easter has been portrayed and reflected particularly in the northern hemisphere at this season of springtime my father this time of year used to quote browning's poem oh to be in england now that april's there for whoever wakes in england finds some morning unaware that the lowest bow and the brushwood sheath from the elm tree bowl is in tiny leaf and the chaffinch sings on the orchard bow in england now well it's a wonderful poem of spring and you can forget in england for in the season of spring and new growth you will find that right across the world at some season and one can equate that new life with easter tide for easter is definitely a time of new life but the poem at the beginning of john which is so full in our english language of one syllable words of word and life and light all of those things are being given to us first of all by the witness there was a man sent from god whose name was john it's not john the evangelist who is writing this it's john the baptist who's being spoken of and that's taking us to a particular time to a particular ministry in a particular place on this finite earth where god is going to show himself and give himself to us in a very special way which will cause new life eternal life to be a possibility to be claimed and john is called john the baptist is called a witness and the greek word is the word for martyr which we get our word martyr from but we're used to martyr being someone who gave their life even to death this word is a witness in the giving of life in terms of time and gifts and ability and danger and daring and courage and here is john witnessing to the one who was coming into the world the true light already shining in creation but now to be perceived in humankind in the life of one person he would come to his own and his own would not receive him well we're used to thinking of that at the time when jesus was laid in a manger and almost having to sleep in a way that humankind doesn't tend to sleep because they have homes in which they are but so many are wanderers and and uh in some way having to to be finding what they can in terms of comfort and companionship that's a christmas lesson but it's much much more a lesson he came to his own and his own received him not for the days that we've been thinking about through holy week and easter how his own people rejected him but they were his own people and although the authorities rejected him there were so many already who had seen and received that light into their lives there's a marvelous uh poem by gerald manley hopkins called rosa mystica it's not one of his well-known poems and we shall deal with some of those because he writes about spring as no one else can but in rosa mystica he's he's talking about the human life of christ and also the ascension of jesus into the the other realm into which he's come to invite us and there's a question in verse 2 of that poem which is saying but where did that life exist and in the second verse of the poem he writes it was galilee's growth and it grew at god's will and burst into bloom upon nazareth's hill a wonderful couplet but establishing as we were yesterday the group of friends in galilee men and women whom jesus would call to himself with that invitation when he was ready after the hidden years weight in stillness my soul says our son this morning and jesus has been waiting until the moment when he bursts into bloom and issues the invitation among first of all the group of friends whom as we've seen he's called by special names which no doubt at the beginning made people laugh and it's clear that that peter was always known by the church in jerusalem by the aramaic nickname given to him by jesus kiphas the solid rock which in the greek is solid rock petross and we call him by that greek name peter simon peter but it's galilee's gross and it has been brought to flower during these i am statements by the teaching of jesus now being remembered back by the apostles as they go through these days of easter tide up until pentecost as we've said in the fourth gospel there's that moment after the cleansing of the temple when they remember the the words of the psalmist zeal for your house will consume me and they they worry for jesus's safety but then they began to understand what he meant when he said destroy this temple and in three days i'll build it again in terms of the temple being symbolic as the place where god dwells in all his fullness and that's in the life for us of jesus but the statements i am can apply just as easily to us as to him in psalm 139 which we read once through in in the month at the end towards the end of the month and in psalm 39 um we have that lovely sentence and it's a personal sentence which we can all say and one would say it every day i thank you for i am fearfully and wonderfully made i'm unique and that's not me talking it's you talking i am fearfully and wonderfully made and then yesterday in that creedal statement that we saw in 1 corinthians 15 where sin paul is quoting from the earliest days of the early church in jerusalem the verbal creed that they would use and then he adds afterwards and afterwards jesus appeared to me and now this is the the the present tense statement that we can use day by day by the grace of god i am what i am and we're talking about the unique vocation once again that god has given to every human being gerald manny hopkins would say to every creature to proclaim the glory of god by its and he used the word particular word inscape at the very depths of his of the being of that creature whether it be a flower blooming or a creature doing exactly what that creature is called to do or the thrush singing to wake us in the morning at this time of year all of those things speak of new life but they speak also to us of accepting our own unique gifts i thank you for i am fearfully and wonderfully made the psalmist by the grace of god i am what i am the addition to the creedal statement in 1 corinthians 15 both those sentences can be daily prayers for us there are certainly sentences for our backpack in this easter journey and tomorrow we shall go on claiming the infinite in the present tense day by day the gift of this new day as we say at the beginning of all our prayers so let's say our prayers on this particular morning pray for those whom we know to need our prayers most those who like our queen in the royal family are mourning the death of loved ones the world over you will know some we ourselves who remember friends from the past who have helped us to become what we are to realize our own gifts that we can use for one another and in the anglican communion today on this 12th of april we are praying for the diocese of bhopal in the church of north india the united church of north india praying for the people there praying for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambeth and today within the diocese of canterbury we're praying for the parish of saint leonards in diele sin richards in sheldon and saint nicholas with great munjun sint martin and we think of friends at great mountain fred and emilia who watch us daily and our great friends fred was the chaplain here at our king's school and and uh now is living in great mountain a lovely place to be we think of that community the parish at the moment vacant and uh pray for patrick cavanaugh who is helping with the ministry there during this time so bring your own prayers on this day and intentions as we use the special prayer for this week the second week of easter almighty father you have given your only son to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification grant us so to put away the level of malice and wickedness that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth through the merits of your son jesus christ our lord amen so each in our own language we use the prayer 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 lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen a moment of silence for ourselves to wait in stillness upon god from whom comes our salvation 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 and remember this day and always amen you