good evening and welcome to the lower field of the cottage that we're staying in in shopshire I'm sitting here by a quite folsome Brook which is babbling as Brooks should across the rocks and down to the pond where fetcher is picking up of the lovely bright yellow celines which grow along the bank here the lanes at the moment are full of primroses uh and and wild flowers of all kinds and spring is really beginning to take over this evening is a little bit gray but it's been patchy all day we've had areas of beautiful sunshine uh and other times when it's been cloudy so we'll see what happens this evening behind me you may may hear noise of joh the farmer and one of the F hands because they are starting up the quad bikes to go up and round up the sheep and their lambs for the evening I think later on this week or perhaps next week when we've gone uh this field we'll have sheep and Lambs in as well and the Lambs in the moment are perfectly delightful wherever you go in the car looking over the hedges there are mother sheep with their lambs and right up on CLE Hill they're in fields which Have No Boundaries at all and we've passed them on our way to this morning to the fine and very historic church of St Mary at bramfield where I was preaching uh for the Rector who had to be away for a baptism uh father Justin Parker and we thank him for his Hospitality this morning it's a church which doesn't live broadcast normally but Fletcher took a camera along and I hope this we week or in the next 24 hours or so can edit some of it but I thought we would continue those lessons which we were thinking about this morning and some of you may have a chance to hear that sermon at some stage but this service tonight will stand uh stand alone so that that those who don't have the chance to see this morning's sermon can understand the themes of today it's another Sunday in Easter April the 14th and we've heard lessons read from Easter tide through the Easter Sundays so I shall pick up on the short Gospel of this morning and then read also the lesson for even song um which is from the first Epistle of St John but let's begin our prayers for evening prayer for the Easter season and if you're following in daily prayer it's on page 269 oh God make speed to save us oh Lord make haste to help us in your Resurrection o Christ let Heaven and Earth Rejoice Allelujah blessed are you Sovereign Lord the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ to you be glory and praise forever from the deep Waters of death you brought your people to New Birth by raising your son to life in Triumph through him Dark Death has been destroyed and Radiant Life is everywhere restored as you call us out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light May Our Lives reflect his glory and our lips repeat the endless song Blessed Be god father Son and Holy Spirit blessed be God forever that this evening may be holy good and peaceful let us pray with one heart and mind as our evening prayer Rises before you oh God so may your mercy come down upon us to cleanse our hearts and set us free to sing your praise now and forever amen our Psalm is Psalm 150 not to us Lord not to us but to your name give the glory for the sake of your loving mercy and Truth why should the Nations say where is now their God as for our God he is in heaven he does whatever he pleases their Idols are silver and gold the work of human hands they have mouths but cannot speak eyes have they but cannot see they have ears but cannot hear noses have they but cannot smell they have hands but cannot feel feet have they but cannot walk not a whisper do they make from their throats and those who make them shall become like them and so will all who put their trust in them but you Israel put your trust in the Lord he is their Helper and their Shield House of Aaron trust in the Lord he is their help and their Shield you that fear the Lord trust in the Lord he is their help and their Shield the Lord has been mindful of us and he will bless us may he bless the house of Israel may he bless the house of Aaron may he bless those who fear the lord both small and great together may the Lord increase you more and more you and your children after you may you be blessed by the Lord the maker of heaven and Earth the heavens are the heavens of the Lord but the Earth he has entrusted to his children the dead do not praise the Lord nor those who go down into silence but we will praise the Lord From This Time Force forever more Allelujah glory to the father to the son and it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever amen so two Short scripture readings the first forming the gospel for this morning and it's a gospel taken from St Luke the 24th chapter the very last L and we at verse 36 and at verse 36 those who have recognized the Lord in the breaking of bread at emus and have run all the way back to Jerusalem to say we have seen the Lord appear with the disciples and as they're telling how Jesus was known to them in the breaking of bread Jesus appears in that upper room where the disciples themselves have the news that the Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon verse 36 of chapter 24 while they were talking about this Jesus himself stood among them and said to them peace be with you they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost but Jesus said to them why are you frightened and why do doubts arise in your hearts look at my hands and my feet see that it is I myself touch me and see for a ghost does not have Flesh and Bones as you see that I have and when he had said this he showed them his hands and his feet while in their Joy they were disbelieving and still wondering he said to them have you anything here to eat and they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and at it in their presence and then he said to them these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything written about me in the law of Moses the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them thus it is written that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to All Nations beginning from Jerusalem you are witnesses of these things and see I am sending upon as my father promised so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands he blessed them while he was blessing them he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they were continually in the temple blessing God so our even song lesson for that was the Gospel of the day our evening song lesson comes from the first letter of St John the second chapter beginning at the seventh verse beloved I am writing you no new Commandments but an old Commandments that you have had from the beginning the old commandment is the word that you have heard yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the True Light is already shining whoever says I am in the light while hating a brother or sister is still in the darkness whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling but whoever hates another believer is in the darkness walks in the darkness does not know the way to go because the darkness has brought on blindness I'm writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven on account of his name I am writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning I am writing to you young people because you have conquered the evil one I write to you children because you know the father I write to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning I write to you young people because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one do not love the world or the things in the world the love of the father is not in those who love the world for all that is in the world the desire of the flesh the desire of the eyes the pride in riches comes not from the father but from the world and the world and his desire are passing away but those who do the will of God live forever the lessons particularly the one from St John were written a long time after the events as those events are portrayed in St Luke's gospel for the letter of St John was written probably uh 30 years or something of that sort after the setting down the gospels but at the same time we have Stepping Stones to the way in which things would develop let's think first of all about the end of the Gospel of St Luke Jesus comes to them and he is there to establish his Humanity as their Messiah for everything about the life of Jesus Jesus portrayed his Humanity all the fears that we have shown in the Garden of Gethsemane about his capacity to fulfill his mission fire as the Christ asking that the cup might be taken from him but in the end saying to the father your will be done those things the pain he suffered all connected with our Humanity but all the way through there's that sense of of his Humanity so when he comes in Upper Room in this Lucan story and says to them peace be with you that settles their hearts but at the same time he wants them to know that it is still the Jesus they had known and his Humanity comes to the for he says to them a simple human statement or question eat here and they give him a piece of broiled that's grilled or baked fish a common food for those fishermen there and you get the sense that in each of these occasions both the EMAs story where he sprad and this story where he eats with them the grilled fish it's his Humanity that is coming forward remember when the little girl lifts her up from where they thought she was dead and the first thing he says to the parents will give something to give her something to eat this is the same kind of care for this humanity and he is demonstrating to them that this is the same Jesus who was crucified and trying to allay their fears and then he says to them now the job is yours and you will go out and and you will Proclaim how the Messiah the Christ Jesus himself fulfilled all the prophecies that are found in the law of Moses in the prophets and unusually in the Psalms Luke gives us that the Psalms they would have known very well from synagogue worship and from the way they were used in Jewish worship and still are and then he does something else which is significant in all sorts of ways he leads them out on the road to Bethany they go to the Bethany household as they had all through holy week one day after another they went out to Bethany and one thinks of that home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus where we see Jesus comfortable in a human household he leads them back to that as they leading them to Human households like our own homes where his presence will bless all that is going on there and particularly bless the love of one for another the support of one for another where hatred and fear can be banished by the presence of the Christ in our hearts and in our homes all of that is suggested by that end of St Luke's gospel the Bethany household I'm fully convinced at a a resurrection appearance to Mary and Martha and Lazarus was was a certainty and at the same time to the Blessed Mother herself Jesus's mother Mary but here we are at the end of St Luke's gospel before going on into the Acts of the Apostles another reading at the Eucharist this morning was taken from The Acts of the Apostles early on but after the day of Pentecost when the spirit had been given and the apostles were Brave in their proclamation of the Gospel Peter and John on going into the temple at The Hour of Prayer 3 in the afternoon and they had to pass by someone who had been sitting at the gate beautiful of the temple for years everyone probably in Jerusalem knew him he was lame and couldn't walk and couldn't get into the court of the men of Israel he was disabled and he asked Peter and John for arms and Peter and John look at him and Peter says I have no silver gold but what I have in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and the man rose up and his feet and ankles grew strong and he followed Peter and John leaping and praising God into the temple Courtyard for the first time truly a man of Israel his ability to walk confirmed not only to walk but to jump with Joy by the sound of everything that was going on and the people noticed that and Peter and John uh are confronted by the authorities for all this noise and as they have a a hearing before the authorities having been arrested for this disturbance in the temple they answer with such courage that the authorities sort of let them off with a warning because they don't know what to do with them it's something that confounds them now then we go on to John's letter so much later and that letter speaks of the love of the community of Christians for one another and the love of human households all of those things become tremendously important for what is going on in the growth of the church I would say if you wanted I said this in the sermon this morning so you can hear it twice if you look at the sermon but uh I would say if you want good proof of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead you find it of of course you find it in the evidence given in the gospels but you find it most of all in the total and immediate transformation of this broken group of people whose lives have been shattered and overturned all their hopes overturned they have been walking in in the shadow of death for those last 24 hours before more than that as they saw Jesus die they knew themselves to have failed him and then they've gone on uh in total grief what happens next and what happens next is that each of them in different ways receives back the presence of the Lord triumphant Beyond Death risen from the dead and offering that new life to them and to all but it's done in different ways as we've seen over the last few weeks to Mary quietly in the garden and because Jesus knows well that she will want to reclaim the past and make it just as it was reaching out for him he says touch me not but go to my go to my brothers go to the others and find them and tell him this good news tell them this good news and so off she runs as we've said over the last few weeks at the first Apostle of of the Resurrection but to the the two on the same day in the in the evening uh the two who went along the EMAs Road and were joined by The Stranger who was made known to them in the breaking of bread well that becomes a different kind of way in which Jesus shows himself it's apt for them first he's given them the teaching which he'll give to the apostles a bit later on uh about everything being fulfilled and then he makes to go on and they invite him into the the warmth of their own home and by that act of loving invitation to tall intense and purposes a stranger Jesus then takes the bread and in the breaking of that bread they recognize him and Things become totally clear for them who then set off back to Jerusalem at a new Pace the grief has gone the the lackluster quality of the despair that they were feeling has gone they run back to Jerusalem and are met by the same Joy the Lord is risen indeed he's appeared to Simon and then you get the scene where Jesus himself comes into the room and asks for some grilled fish having given them his peace and then uh it's another shared meal so often in our communities and in our homes shared meals become absolutely everything later on this evening uh Steven and JY will come back they've been staying at hton Hall as guests of the Marquis and maress of of Chumley where a lovely exhibition by Sir Anthony Gormley who's a friend for both of us uh is is on at the moment and Steven A sculptor himself is going to be the person who takes over from Anie Gourley with the ex exhibition next year which is very exciting in the huge grounds of hon Hall so we over supper will no doubt be sharing all kinds of news and excitements and that's the atmosphere of the Resurrection narratives that to me is the best proof of Resurrection because each of these human beings have been transformed not only so that they can love and be happy and and cheerful with each other again but also that they may be brave in all that they say and do without that gift of the spirit which Jesus has promised them in the discourses in the Last Supper without that gift of the spirit there would be no bravery and and and things of this kind everything is transformed so we've come to the time of saying our prayers and we've been reminded of situations where people in loving communities have come together and sometimes have needed forgiveness from one another and at other times uh needed to revise their thinking about each other all these things which are so much part of our ordinary community life but the Epistle of St John concentrates on that love and forgiveness that hope and that sense of light and life which are special to the St John's gospel but also his his uh his Epistles his letters so at this time we will begin to think of our prayers but I wanted first to to mention two dates that is significant oh hello little girl Hello skipping along aren't you hey here's Lily come to be come to be with us come on you going to come up or not Lily he come on she's a bit shy I think it's some time since you've seen her come up Li l hey there we are that's better here we are now greet the people they haven't seen you for a bit Lily loves it down by the stream here she likes it better when it's nice and sunny but at the moment it's uh not too bad is it Lily and she came skipping over the grass and here she is to join in our prayers and and thanksgivings this is the date in 1759 when the composer George Frederick handle died uh and he very much was someone who set all kinds of the scriptural stories to music for oratorios he wrote many operas too but in Lent he would write many many oratorios and of course his most famous one underlines that word Messiah the Christ the anointed one and so many texts of the Gospel uh uh and and of the Old Testament the prophecies that Jesus spoken about are un known to us because of the music of probably the most popular oratorio in English in the world the Messiah certainly so when I'm reading from from the scriptures and you come to a quotation from Messiah it's hard not to give it in the rhythm of handle and from the the moment of of every Valley shall be exalted and every mountain and Hill made low or I know that my redeemer liveth but especially of course Easter time the Hallelujah Chorus so on this day let's give thanks for the music of George Frederick handle and how he placed the scriptures and the gospels before us and brought the Old Testament prophecies to life as he wrote that oratorio and then the other date I think to remember which happen in our world uh and just as everything seemed settled sometimes something terrible happens and on this day in 1865 President Abraham Lincoln was shot dead in the Fords theater just as the Civil War had come to a close so it's a it's a time to think of the American people and the fact that they like us in England have an election to the time for uh very careful thinking uh and wisdom in Choice as in all human societies and in community life qualities of the Gospel the qualities of looking after each other become crucially important in in the way we go forward so here we are about to say our prayers for really uh dangerous places in our world places of war the Holy Land the people of of of Gaza and of Palestine and of Israel and Iran at this time also and at the same time we think of the city of of of Sydney where the Grievous knife attack has taken place we remember our Australian friends there uh and we continue to think of the people of Ukraine and those affected so by the the violent War there in Russia to all these things filling our prayers but the world has always been thus and it's needed courage and the right quality the qualities of the Kingdom of Heaven to see the light in the the midst of the darkness and to bring encouragement and kindness and light to those who most need it so let's together say the prayer that Jesus taught us and uh then we will just have a little bit of Silence uh and our evening blessing 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 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 so we continue to give thanks for our Lord's Resurrection in this Easter season and we keep silent for a moment to say our own prayers [Music] in the peace of God we TR to understand keep knowledge and love of God and of his son Jesus Christ Our Lord in the blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be upon you upon All Those whom you love this night and forever amen well God bless you both and all and uh on this occasion as we say our Easter prayers still in this season of Easter tide and enjoy um the evening I'll say but I don't know when you'll be watching this uh but may this blessing go with you well L we can go inside now and get you some supper and look forward to Steven and Judy coming back to have supper with us you like the song of The Birds you're pretty little girl aren't you [Music] [Music] e e [Music]