good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral as in the past few weeks we've come into the dinery garden to say our prayers with the the locked cathedral very visible in front of me in the early morning sunshine so we welcome you to this little service of prayer and reflection wherever you are in the world this morning it is the most beautiful april day here and we hope you can share some of that with the blossoming cherry trees around me at this time of the year so we begin our morning prayer 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 firstfruits 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 as a canticle a song of praise this morning i'm using two verses of an ancient easter hymn which many of you will know well tis the spring of souls today christ hath burst his prison and from three days sleep in death like the sun has risen all the winter of our sins long and dark is flying from his light to whom we give lord and praise undying now the queen of seasons bright with the day of splendor with the royal feast of feasts comes its joy to render comes to glad jerusalem who with true affection welcomes in unworried strains jesus resurrection a hymn of great joy at easter tide but our prayers also this morning are for all those in lockdown in serious fear of the health dangers around them and those working to prevent any infection and to bring those who are sick to healing one of the psalms for today is a very beautiful one psalm 118 i'm going to read just some of the verses from that o give thanks to the lord for he is good his mercy endures forever the lord is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation joyful shouts of salvation sound from the tents of the righteous the right hand of the lord does mighty deeds the right hand of the lord raises up the right hand of the lord does mighty deeds i shall not die but live and declare the works of the lord open to me the gates of righteousness that i may enter and give thanks to the lord this is the gate of the lord the righteous shall enter through it i will give thanks to you for you have answered me and have become my salvation the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone this is the lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes this is the day that the lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it a wonderful and poetic couplet this is the day that the lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it we've been reading through some of the days this week part of paul's letter to the little group of christians in the town of colisei as we've said before it had been an important town but by paul's time it was just a little almost forgotten community and nowadays if you go there all human habitation has moved some way away and the site is simply a mostly unexcavated group of stones but we remember that little christian community not far from laodicea and hierapolis and the letter of encouragement that paul wrote to them and today we are reading from chapter three beginning to read at verse 12. put on then as god's chosen ones holy and beloved compassionate hearts kindness humility meekness and patience bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other as the lord has forgiven you so you also must forgive and above all these things put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful let the word of christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom and singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to god and whatever you do in word or deed do everything in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks to god the father through him [Applause] we've noticed before how paul uses ordinary things and ordinary images suddenly to remind perhaps himself and the ones he's writing to whom he's never met but he's wanting to encourage of the qualities of the kingdom of god first of all in this passage he he uses a word which means generally putting on our clothes getting ourselves ready for the day let's be special today let's put on this we want to look and feel like this and he actually deals with the qualities of love and joy forgiveness and peace so when we get up with the risen sun we put them on by the grace of studying the word of jesus and conforming ourselves to the pattern of his human life so that the heavenly gifts of god may infuse us and we may put them on but sometimes other words remind him of different facets and he'll change the metaphor and he does that this morning in a wonderful way i think it's the word harmony when he says live in harmony with one another in his letter he's suddenly reminded of music well there's music all around us in the garden on an april day my father used to recite the poem by browning oh to be in england now that april's there for whoever wakes in england finds some morning unaware that the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheath on the elm tree bowl is in tiny leaf and the chaffage sings on the orchard bow in england now well true enough we've lost the elms and now are rather more conscious of how we take care of the growing things of the earth but the chaffing still sings on the orchard bow and the cherry trees are in blossom and paul speaks of harmony today is the birthday of one of our family she though is in spain a long way away so when we telephoned this morning the first thing we did was not say happy birthday but sing it for singing lifts the human soul in a wonderful way and paul notices that for his group of christians sing sing psalms sing hymns sing spiritual songs he says to them and it's the word harmony that actually brings that to his mind one person can't sing in harmony it needs two voices to make a harmony and companionship and encouragement of each other in all kinds of ways once we have put on the qualities of the christian life which paul has listed the encouragement is often given by singing the lady i was talking about in spain has been given the best birthday present of all even though parcels and letters and cards can't get through for the very fierce spanish loctine which has gone on for seven or eight weeks now and is much much fiercer than the one we have here is being relaxed so that an adult can go for a walk one kilometer with a child under the age of 14 well it happens that this lady lives with her little grandchild and for the first time they're looking forward to a walk outside the garden gate one kilometer how ordinary that would have seemed until recently and now it seems the best treat in the world walking in harmony with one another this morning we can sing in our hearts and sometimes words remind us of tunes fortunes have a wonderful way of bringing memories our queen when she gave a message to the nation wisely ended with some words that would have made my father and mother's generation and also many of us keen to sing them we'll meet again and she could have gone on because everyone would know it from that tune don't know where don't know when but i know we'll meet again some sunny day keep smiling through just as you always do till the blue sky chase the dark clouds far away music has the ability to lift the soul but we also have that ability to do that for each other so i say to myself as i put on the garments of my discipleship of christ morning by morning this isn't for me it's for my encouragement of others and today i must think of imaginative ways to be encouraging and in harmony so we say our morning prayer and first of all the easter prayer for this week almighty god 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 leaven 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 our men we pray for all those who will spend this day combating the coronavirus in whatever country in whichever land and nations are at different stages of their attempt to keep their citizens safe and bring healing back to all but in our hearts and minds we will have particular people that we want to pray for as we do now healing god whose son jesus brought wholeness to lives through the power of his love pour out we pray your power to give encouragement and to heal upon us all but upon particularly those who work in medicine that through your mercy we may see in our own day the sick restored to health the distressed brought back to happiness the broken restored to wholeness through jesus christ our lord amen so we say each in our own language and in our own way the prayer our lord taught us to say 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 for ever and ever amen moment of silence for your own prayers in the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus that great shepherd of the sheep 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 and upon all whom you love and would pray for today and always amen you