good morning and welcome to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral on this sunday the 18th of april we're on the third sunday of easter and uh we're coming out as business as usual our week of morning is over the flags are flying it at uh at full mast now and so we've come out this morning in to do our ordinary chores in in the big sky and uh we've not been here during the last week or so so i'm just going to give the girls their breakfast and they'll be quite excited as we're out here with them again and the little piglets soon will pick up from where they are and uh i hope they'll enjoy this when we did this before during a service we had a comment from one lady who wrote in when the pigs were playing about and piggybacking on one another and said this was uh improper behavior during a service well let me please reassure that lady that all we wrote back to her but all these pigs are little girls uh apart from the tiny piglets themselves and so what they were doing were the the sort of games that excitement always breathes at breakfast time and uh i'll just put the bucket over here and then come back to you and uh and then um we can begin our morning prayers together on this ordinary day the last thing that happened at that wonderful service yesterday at windsor was by prince philip's direction the royal naval signal on the bugles which said uh ready for action and uh that is what we are he would have us encouraged to go on we shall continue to remember continue to give thanks continue to pray for her majesty but the flags will fly this week at full staff for her majesty's birthday on uh um wednesday and for saint george's day on friday and we give thanks for that on this sunny morning as we say our prayers in easter tide 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 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 and as 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 18th morning of the month is psalm 90. you probably know the metrical version of that psalm oh god i help in ages past i hope for years to come rather better than the psalm itself but to read the sound is a wonderful thing on this sunny morning lord you have been our refuge from one generation to another before the mountains were brought forth or the earth and the world were formed from everlasting to everlasting you are god you turn us back to dust and say turn back o children of earth for a thousand years in your sight are butters yesterday which passes like a watch in the night you sweep them away like a dream they fade away suddenly like the grass in the morning it is green and flourishes in the evening it is dried up and withered for we consume away in your displeasure we are afraid at your rostful indignation you have set our misdeeds before you and our secret sins in the light of your countenance and when you are angry all our days are gone our years come to an end like a sigh the days of our life are three score years and ten or if our strength endures even for score yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow for they soon pass away and we are gone who regards the power of your ross and your indignation like those who fear you so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom turn again o lord how long will you delay have compassion on your servants satisfy us with your loving kindness in the morning that we may rejoice and be glad all our days give us gladness for the days you have afflicted us and for the years in which we have seen adversity show your servants your works and let your glory be over their children may the gracious favor of the lord our god be upon us prosper our handiwork o prosper the work of our hands a psalm of god's creativity which is all around us in plants and creatures and in our own creative activity as those made in his image and also us a psalm which leads us on from earth to the eternal glory of heaven on this day when there's hardly a sky a cloud in the sky and the sun is shining down it suits well our lesson which is the last of the i am statements which jesus speaks and i'm actually in john chapter 8 and beginning at verse 12. again jesus spoke to them saying i am the light of the world whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life so the pharisees said to him you are bearing witness about yourself your testimony is not true jesus answered even if i do bear witness about myself my testimony is true for i know where i came from and where i am going but you do not know where i come from or where i am going you judge according to the world standards i judge no one yet even if i do judge my judgment is true for it is not i alone who judge but i and the father who sent me in your law it is written that the testimony of two people is true i am the one who bears witness about myself and the father who sent me bears witness about me they said to him therefore where is your father jesus answered you know neither me nor my father if you knew me you would know my father also these words jesus spoke in the treasury of the temple as he taught but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come i am the light of the world it said simply and straight forwardly that echo amy i am statement and this time the image is of light and no better morning for this nor no better day than yesterday for that too when the sun shone down on st george's chapel windsor and all the home of the royal family there at windsor castle as they grieved but also above all else gave thanks and the funeral order gave them those things that prince philip who had had a hand in planning all of that wanted them and us not only to remember and give thanks for but to ponder now this gospel of course is full of light it begins with light and that light is something which continues until that moment in the temple later on when the group of greeks want to see jesus and jesus proclaims that his hour has now come and he then says and now we're looking in a different chapter we're looking in john chapter 12 verse 35 and as we read that we read so jesus said to them the light is among you for a little while longer walk while you have the light lest darkness overtake you the one who walks in the darkness does not know where they are going while you have the light believe in the light that you may become children of light well the concept of light the creator's light begins the holy scriptures the scriptures that jesus would have known and seem to know almost by heart the book of genesis god said let there be light and there was light and it goes on in the psalmist so many times thy word is a lantern to my feet and the light unto my path said that the gift of light is one that is with us throughout the scriptures from beginning to end earth light shed by the sun and the moon and heaven's light which is shed by the eternal word in the humanity of jesus we find that light and return to it again and again so that we may walk in the light an intensely important passage that jesus speaks i am the light of the world and we rest on that to give our journey along the way direction psalm 90 spoke of a direction but perhaps i might go further in saint john's gospel this morning with the i am statements if we're if we're looking for the way in which light works and brings fruitfulness well then probably the the area that i would want to look at this morning in our forest garden layers of creativity and the way life supports life and the birds some nesting right up in the trees and some nesting lower down and creatures using different trees at different levels and trees also taking strength from one another filtering the sun or allowing the sun to pass and allowing them to be fruitful see the trees i'd probably want to look at this morning would be the the fruiting trees a lower layer than the high canopy trees i'm actually sitting under a willow this morning but it's new green leaves of spring are filtering the sun onto me and filtering to the the sun onto the backs of of these uh lovely creatures down below enjoying their breakfast and as the sun does that it's giving us life as the water gives life jesus uses those images often but it's more than an image when we go on to another lower fruiting tree in st john's gospel for in the garden of gethsemane we find more i am statements echo amy i am and this time they stand neat jesus and his friends remember he's just called them and us friends i call you servants no longer i have called you friends have come to the garden of gethsemane amongst the olive trees and they're in the darkness but possibly with the full pascal moon being filtered amongst the trees a group come with torches and weapons and clubs and jesus asks the question of them whom are you seeking simple words whom do you seek and they answer jesus of nazareth and jesus responds in the greek with the two words echo amy in the translation we normally say i am he but it's only the same two words i am that word that was used of the name of the creator to moses by the burning bush and so often in the scriptures and so often by jesus and now there's no nothing apart from the presence of jesus i am who i am not i am the light of the world i am the way the truth to life i am the resurrection whom are you seeking jesus of nazareth i am he and they fall back at those words the power of those words and then he asks again whom are you seeking jesus of nazareth i've already told you ego amy i am he but if you want me then let my friends go and at that moment jesus showed us the burden of salvation all alone and becomes our light of the world the light by which we may as the bugle said yesterday be ready for action the scriptural thing as well isn't it be ready for action with belts fastened and be like those who wait for their lord but here we are this morning garden of gethsemane well whom are you seeking and where do those words appear again in exactly the same great greek words whom are you seeking not in the garden of gethsemane but in a different kind of light not this time the light of the moon but the light of the newly risen freshly risen sun on easter day as mary is by the tomb mary magdalene weeping and jesus says to her woman why are you weeping and then the words who are you seeking whom do you seek exactly the same greek words as he used in the garden of gethsemane but this time in answer he doesn't say i am he instead this is an intimate conversation with one of his friends he says her name and light dawns on her not this time the light of the sun but the light of resurrection morning yesterday we were thinking about henry vaughan um the welsh poet and we we read his wonderful poem piece which parry set as an anthem my soul there is a country far beyond the stars where peace it's crowned with flowers but today perhaps a different one of his poems for he was a 17th century poet who found in all of creation at the time as i said yesterday when the worship of the church of england was declared illegal and so what he would be doing by using the book of common prayer was a criminal act and so he himself wrote a companion verse set of verses for people to use in their own ponderings and one of them is called the world it's a poem by henry vaughan it's four verses long and really deserves to be studied and not just read through quickly but i'm going to give you the first verse this morning and this is it i saw eternity the other night like a great ring of pure and endless light all calm as it was bright and round beneath it time in hours days years driven by the spheres like a vast shadow moved in which the world and all her train were held the two dimensions of st john's gospel that which is in time and place which jesus in his humanity shares and that which is beyond eternity like a great ring of pure and endless light it's a poem worth reading right to the end because there too a way is given after the disappointment that vaughan sees in what men and women are chasing after in this life and not following the light and the fruitfulness which the light brings so as we give thanks for all of that this morning we pray for our world we continue to give thanks for the lessons given us yesterday by the act of worship and also we apply them as the call for be ready for action comes as a new week begins this morning we're asked in the anglican communion to pray for the church of ireland and we pray for that church and province and for the primate there the archbishop of aramah pray also for the whole nation of ireland at this time for northern ireland and for its peace and tranquility to be restored and also for those who have to make decisions for ireland as we pray for the church in all its denominations that pray to for this area deanery the parishes around the cathedral and around the city of canterbury and beyond and today we're asked to pray for the work of chaplains working within this area deanery of which we are apart exercising chaplaincy ministry within schools uniformed organizations care communities clubs health care groups prisons police we could go on the list is quite long so we pray for those exercising that same kind of ministry wherever you are so let's say the prayer for this day it's a different prayer for this day because we've gone to the third sunday of easter [Music] almighty father who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples with the sight of the risen lord give us such knowledge of his presence with us that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life and serve you continually in righteousness and truth through jesus christ our lord our men so as the great bell harry dunstan as not bill harry that's dunstan ringing the heaviest of all our bells calling people to worship because we're allowed now to have a congregation a distance congregation at our matins and sung eucharist so we say the prayer our savior taught us in whatever language you would like to use 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 silence as the bell rings this morning [Music] [Music] [Music] since we give thanks for christ the light of the world and the light he shares with us so that we may be lights in our generation we give thanks for all life around us and our stewardship of god's creation 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 within 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 amen [Music] do [Music] you