[Music] good morning and welcome on this tuesday of easter week april the 6th as we meet in the deanery garden at canterbury cathedral for our morning prayers wherever you are in the world please feel welcome and bring your own concerns on this day in easter week the glory of the daffodils in morning sunshine here is still very evident as a sign of easter and we have one of our friends a dear friend marion marks who died on easter sunday itself we're thinking of as we sit amongst the glory of the resurrection daffodils this morning we pray for her husband simon and the family you will have your own concerns to bring of joy and of sorrow as we meet for easter prayers in this easter week and celebrate the glory of christ's resurrection so let's begin our prayers on this in england lovely morning and wherever you are feel totally welcome oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection oh 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 so god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen our psalm on this sixth morning of the month is psalm 30. i will exalt you o lord because you have raised me up and have not let my foes triumph over me o lord my god i cried out to you and you have healed me you brought me up o lord from the dead you restored me to life from among those that go down to the pit sing to the lord you servants of his give thanks to his holy name for his ross endures but the twinkling of an eye his favor for a lifetime heaviness may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning in my prosperity i said i shall never be moved you lord of your goodness have made my hill so strong then you hid your face from me and i was utterly dismayed to you o lord i cried to the lord i made my supplication what prophet is there in my blood if i go down to the pit will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness here o lord and have mercy upon me o lord be my helper you have turned my mourning into dancing you have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing o lord my god i will give you thanks forever so we return to the 20th chapter of the gospel of saint john and we read yesterday the first verses of that chapter up to the point where peter and john see the empty tomb and we heard the sentence of the beloved disciple he saw and believed then the disciples went home again and it's that point in the garden by the tomb with the stone road back that we take up the story again this morning from john chapter 20 beginning at verse 11. but mary stood weeping outside the tomb and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of jesus had lain one at the head and one at the feet they said to her woman why are you weeping she said to them they have taken away my lord and i do not know where they have laid him having said this she turned round and saw jesus standing there but she did not know that it was jesus jesus said to her woman why are you weeping whom are you seeking supposing him to be the gardener she said to him sir if you have carried him away tell me where you have laid him and i will take him away jesus said to her mary she turned and said to him in aramaic rabonai which means teacher jesus said to her do not cling to me for i have not yet ascended to the father but go to my brothers and say to them i am ascending to my father and your father to my god and your god mary magdalene went and announced to the disciples i have seen the lord and that he had said these things to her this is the resurrection story which probably most is in our mind as we think of that first easter morning mary magdalene full of grief weeping beside the empty tomb and gradually the day is dawning and the sunlight is coming into that garden and stooping and looking into the tomb she perceives the forms of two angels in white in there speaking to her and asking why she's weeping and then she herself begins to unfold the story what is she looking for and everything is happening both with an internal eye as we'll think about a bit later in the reflection and also at a dimension let's think of this fourth gospel which we've dealt with and dwelt with so many times in our thinking during this passion tied and holy week of the way in which it works always at two dimensions of both here on earth and also in that infinity which to us is heaven under eternity and as the two begin to work with her she turns to the voice which is saying woman who are you seeking why are you weeping whom are you seeking and she turns and thinking in the earthly dimension that this figure standing as the sun begins to rise is obviously the gardener who has moved back the stone and perhaps had part in removing the body and she says sir the greek word kyrie giving respect and authority to the one who looks after the garden if you have taken him away tell me where and then jesus speaks to her just one word her name it needs no more for recognition mary so often when a friend speaks to us at the end of a telephone line they they won't say this is me they'll say your name and you know who it is by the intonation of a dearly loved friend's voice or someone that you recognize immediately and there is a a sense of joy in the recognition these resurrection statements in these beautiful pictures of great intimacy which are given to us through this week so few but packed with so many different dimensions both of earth and heaven and the words are few mary and now in her intimate aramaic local language of total recognition robonai my teacher the one who has done so much for me has opened my eyes and my heart to both dimensions but it's the earthly dimension first which causes her body to reach out to re-establish what had been and we have those words do not touch me some translation says do not cling to me i've not yet ascended to my father but go to my brothers and say to them i'm ascending to my father and your father my god and your god uniting the dimensions and then the same energy that we saw at work yesterday but in a different way here is the running again running now to the disciples and no great speech simply once again a resurrection sentence five words i have seen the lord what a wonderful sentence i have seen the lord it will appear so often through the centuries which follow this easter morning and continues to be said by those who internally and in the figures of others and in the activity of creation i have seen the lord but on this first easter morning in the garden it is charged with meaning and we give glory that these little resurrection sentences fit into a particular picture why do we think of this scene so much as the one which speaks to us of resurrection i think because so many artists have reached for their brush and pictured this scene normally it's a painting of the latin words no liam a touch me not as mary is reaching out for the lord and saying robonai but there is one painting which is full of powerful meaning and fletcher was talking about it the day before yesterday on easter day because he had seen it with our dear friend june taylor who died in lent and we said prayers for her then but they had gone together to the dullich picture gallery and there was an exhibition of rembrandt's paintings and one of those paintings one of the very famous paintings of rembrandt is christ and mary magdalene in the garden on the morning of the resurrection it's an extraordinary painting i didn't go to that exhibition but it stood apparently in a room by itself and the way that the exhibition had been arranged with light to go dark and then light and then gradually fade away into the darkness i'm describing it as he's described it to me caused different aspects of the painting to show as though the sun were rising and at first in the darkness the figure of christ is almost hidden by the great tree which stands in the painting next to the darkness of the tomb and then as the light comes all the light of the far-off city of jerusalem with its towers shine onto the figure beside the tree and we perceive that rembrandt to remind us of what mary was thinking in her mind as she turned her eyes blind with tears still he is dressed as the gardener with his broad brimmed hat to shade him from the sunshine as it comes up and in his hand the spade and in his belt the pruning tool and mary is just perceiving this figure and there's this transition going on inside her as the light came up i wish i could have seen it because the painting is one that i know but this experience of seeing how rembrandt has used his colors to show that dimension between the garden on earth and also their heavenly dimension reminding us really of the first eden where so much was lost and now this resurrection eden where christ to the gardener appears and comforts mary magdalene but gives her her commission as what the church has always called her the apostle to the apostles so she would run and say to them all easy words to remember and wonderful words i have seen the lord this resurrection narrative is something that plums deep inside us and we give thanks for the way in which rembrandt has shown it to us but even more the way in which the evangelist has painted the picture for us in the garden on that first easter day you'll remember that in the middle of lent we had the sad story of ann cowlard in lid who was taking her little pug dog who was her companion dora for a walk and a masked man uh masked because of the virus of course um pretending to be friendly with a friendly voice came up to pat the dog and stealthily unclipped the dog picked the dog up and ran away with dora and the elderly and also um mrs cavallard was someone who suffered with breathing breathing difficulty was helpless to do anything about it and then perhaps you'll remember that about uh three weeks later or so through the activity of the the virtual social media and the the the uh the paul o'grady website and all things like that dora was located uh far off 65 miles away and brought back home and dora was restored to anne and the neighbor on the news said um when the she was being interviewed and said this must be very happened she said yes we've all been so worried and we're now calling the pug dog dora the explorer oh now as you know i'm sure well and i had to find out dora the explorer is a very well-known animated children's cartoon series when i think and i went to look at it and see and there's something there with dora the explorer to help us at easter time and also to fit in with what we as a garden congregation and uh have been doing during these weeks and will continue to do on this easter journey for dora the explorer is a latina uh girl who goes on an adventure at each little episode and always as a puzzle to solve and always also the fourth wall as it's called between those who are watching and those who are acting on stage in this kind in on this in the on this occasion in the animated cartoon is broken down and you become involved we become involved and dora will set the puzzle for us too but there are certain constants in this which are always good as we do with the rhythm of our beginning of morning prayer each day and everyone likes constance they're waiting for a particular thing to happen dora always has with her her companion he's a monkey called boots with red boots and she always carries on her back the backpack and in the backpack are the things that she might need for the day and particularly a map which from time to time she takes out to use and helps with this and the riddle can be something uh about words because she is a bilingual with with the the and and and english or it can be about counting or it can be just a riddle about the pictures but always these things are there and different friends appear and you get to know them but those are constant dora the companion the backpack the map and a character is a fox called swiper who who takes things and makes things more difficult i sometimes swear that swiper exists in the deanery because there are things that i can never find and uh the breaking of the fourth wall in this cartoon means that everyone out there watching helps by by shouting swiper no swiping and quite often because of the the encouragement of everyone shouting in then the thing is found now what i would say is i've i've mentioned the backpack so many times and the resurrection words which will occur every day so simple he saw and believed yesterday today i have seen the lord these words are wonderful words to have in our backpack their prayers in themselves but they also conjure up the whole vision of resurrection which is part of our daily equipment going along and dora and her companion boots and all the friends she meets and the encouragement of thousands virtually who are shouting in because of the rhythm of the day it's a good image for us this morning one other thing i want to mention today and you'll see why um perhaps the minute i say his name on this day uh in 1843 william wordsworth was appointed the poet laureate of the nation and his poetry is very dear to us but one of the most favorite not just one of the most favorite of wordsworth poems it could count as the most favorite perhaps but one of the most favorite poems of the english-speaking world is his poem about the daffodils and in that poem he speaks about the unity between the starry heavens and that the flashing gold of the daffodils beside lake ulswater the story is written down in his sister doris's grasmere journals but he encompasses it in four verses which we'll remember in in a moment or two um but those four verses speak also of the way in which we have not only an outer eye but an inner eye which at moments of reflection can remember and call to mind dimensions of both earth and heaven none more so than these resurrection narratives these glorious little cameos like jewels which the four gospels give us and in them just short words for our backpack as we take out the map which is the scriptures old and new to open them read them and in just little sentences like sentences of the psalms heaviness may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning what a sentence that was from our son this morning and here we are with the joy of easter all around us i haven't forgotten wordsworth but we're going to say our prayers now and bring your own intentions and uh on this particular morning we are praying in our calendar for the diocese of bendigo in the anglican church of australia the victoria province there and for the people there and in this diocese for justin our archbishop and for rose bishop of dover tim bishop at lambeth and the area dean of sandwich deanery that's all the little villages around the town of sandwich and sandwich is a a place that we know and love very well it's not far away from here and the area dean is called chris spencer and we pray for him and all the little parishes of sandwich on this particular day of easter tide let's then say the prayer for this day bring your own intentions and concerns as you remember anyone that you would like to on this day 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 in the holy spirit be praise and honor glory and might now and in all eternity amen so we say the prayer that our savior taught us to say which is always part of our backpack in a multitude of different languages 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 our own prayers [Music] 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 i wondered lonely as a cloud that floats on high or veils and hills when all at once i saw a crowd a host of golden daffodils beside the lake beneath the trees fluttering and dancing in the breeze continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the milky way they stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay ten thousand saw eye at a glance tossing their heads in sprightly dance the waves beside them danced but they out did the sparkling waves in glee a poet could not but be gay in such a jockened company i gazed and gazed but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought for oft when on my couch i lie in vacant or in pensive mood they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude and then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils so [Music] so [Music] [Music] you