good morning and welcome to canterbury cathedral on this tuesday morning as we come to say our morning prayers it's a very special day for in this nation it's the birthday of our queen her 94th birthday and we wish her majesty a very happy birthday indeed oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice hallelujah so we say the easter anthems christ our passover has been sacrificed for us so let us celebrate the feast not with the old leaven of corruption and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth christ once raised from the dead dies no more death has no more dominion over him in dying he died to sin once for all in living he lives to god see yourselves therefore as dead to sin and alive to god in jesus christ our lord for christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who sleep the night has passed the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence oh god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen going to use some verses from the beginning of the psalm 4 this morning this morning psalm is 105 and i'm reading from verse 1. oh give thanks to the lord and call upon his name make known his deeds among the peoples sing to him sing praises and tell of all his marvelous works rejoice in the praise of his holy name let the hearts of them rejoice who seek the lord seek the lord and his strength seek his face continually remember the marvels he has done his wonders and the judgments of his mouth o seed of abraham his servant o children of jacob is chosen he is the lord our god his judgments are in all the earth he has always been mindful of his covenant the promise he made for a thousand generations yesterday we began in our morning prayers to read the lesson set for us at the beginning of sin paul's letter to the colossians and we thought of how fresh that letter must have been in encouragement to that little community founded by paul's disciple epathras in the fairly unknown town of colossae hey patras having heard paul himself in ephesus and carried the good news to his own people and then come to paul in prison asking for a letter of encouragement to further the work in colossae a place paul had never been to so he wrote his letter i'm taking up from verse 15 where we finished yesterday christ is the image of the invisible god the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things hold together and he is the head of the body the church he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent for in him all the fullness of god was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross and you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him if indeed you continue in the faith stable and steadfast not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which i paul became a minister those verses in the original text read differently from the first 14 verses because they read like a poem until paul comes to the line and and you and begins to apply the poem to the christians in colossi possibly it was a very early christian hymn for to sing of joy and to sing and reach out for glory is a wonderful thing to do as a human being it breaks the bounds of our earth's bone status and causes our heart and our mind to rise to the heavens and reach out for something eternal yesterday we looked at the way in which gerald manny hopkins considered a bluebell and its grace and remembering our lord's idea that looking around at the lovely things of creation causes you to think about god and his phrase consider the lilies of the field we saw how hopkins did just that with the bluebell well i've got here a book of his poems they were entirely unknown in his lifetime but he felt bound to write them down and so often when he couldn't find the word he found another and changed it a little bit to mean something one of his favorite words inscape is rather like the word landscape speaking of everything that's around us under the blue sky but it means what's inside us to make you and me unique as individuals our inscape and whatever expresses it and here's his poem about a morning like this spring when the thrushes are singing and the apple trees and pear trees are blossoming under a deep blue sky as the sun rises on this april day nothing is so beautiful as spring when weeds in wheels shoot long and lovely and lush thrush's eggs look little low heavens and thrush through the echoing timber does so rinse and ring the ear it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing the glassy pear tree leaves and blooms they brush the descending blue the blue is all in a rush with richness and the racing lambs too have fur their fling what is all this juice and all this joy a strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning in eden's garden have get before it cloy before it cloud christ lord and sour with sinning innocent mind and mayday and girl and boy most o maids child thy choice and worthy the winning hopkins is reaching out for all kinds of things in his mind and heart as he walks in in wales at sinbino's college where he was in jesuit training he had no permission to write poems and everything as a jesuit had to be given permission for but he he wrote them unknown in his notebook because he could not keep silent there was so much juice and joy but see how he also reaches for our lord's own staying you unless you turn around to become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven the last two lines say to us reach out and and be like that receive the gift of god and don't let it be clouded and soured with sinning especially the children as jesus said anyone who puts a stumbling block in the way of a little child it was better for a millstone to be thrown up and wrapped around their neck and them to be thrown in the depths of the sea a strong image but reaching out for the innocence of childhood and causing it not to be soured with sinning we all have that feeling this morning with the blue sky around us hopkins poems were fairly unknown during his lifetime only to a few friends to whom he wrote them but a friend of his robert bridges who became the poet laureate saw the quality of them and save them up and thirty years later he published them and so they are hopkins gift to us to reach out for joy on an april morning but also for truth about christ's messages to us in the way that we use creation to speak of god and become lifted beyond our human state we give thanks for that we give thanks for robert bridges bridges was a parish church organist as well as being the poet laureate he wrote hymns and because they're in rhyme they're easy to remember perhaps one for this morning which is one that we all love to sing robert bridges all my hope on god is founded he doth still my trust renew me through change and chance he guideth only good and only true god unknown he alone calls my heart to be his own we can all say our men to that as we say our morning prayers and in this place pray for areas of the anglican world especially on this 21st of april for the diocese of montreal in canada for mary irwin gibson the diocese of willockra in australia and for the bishop john stead and his people for the diocese of ejebu and the jebu north in nigeria with ezekiel our soga and solomon kupona the two bishops there and their communities in nigeria pray for justin our archbishop for rose bishop of dover for tim bishop at lambus and today for the parish of saint peter in sanet and jan duran's in the ministry there with all the people who live in that community so we make our own prayers for this day and i'm going first of all to say a prayer for our queen on this important day her birthday but also for all in positions of leadership and difficult decisions to make at this time almighty god the fountain of all goodness bless our sovereign lady queen elizabeth and all who in this land are in authority under her that together with all the leaders of the nations they may order all things in wisdom and equity righteousness and peace for the welfare of their people and the good of all our world to the honor and glory of your name through jesus christ our lord amen so an easter prayer risen christ you filled your disciples with boldness and fresh hope strengthen us to proclaim your risen life and fill us with your peace to the glory of god the father amen so we say the prayer our lord taught us to say in whatever language and in whichever way you would like to say it this morning 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 moment of quiet for our own prayers for those whom we love and for those whom we would pray about in whatever the part of the world we find ourselves the god of peace who brought again from the dead our lord jesus 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 among you and remain with you always amen