good morning and welcome to the beach at the dinery at canterbury cathedral as we come to the fifth of our scenes of resurrection and we've picked up a little beach cat along the way who may appear and be with us uh not very true to the story but uh very much wanting to be here and um welcome wherever you are in the world bring your own prayers and intentions in england this morning it's a really lovely morning with a blue sky and no wind at all there is rain on the way tomorrow but for the moment here we are with our little fire here and you will guess why that's been lit we said yesterday that to go back to the scenes of good friday and holy week become very important activities in our remembering all the things that jesus in his earthly ministry through the three years of that public ministry and all the scenes in the gospels but especially those last hours on the thursday and the friday and if you want to go back to the scene of the brazia at night on good friday in the good friday three hours devotion it's the third section of that and there's a link for you to connect with so that you can then get back to that and fast forward to the time of the rising of that wonderful pascal moon if you remember and the brazia there beside which peter was sitting when three times he denied his lord so if you want to return to that and then hold it alongside this that is good gospel reflection and is one of the things that we have to do daily because reminiscences of the scenes will come into our mind at all times and they are helpful juxtapositions as we ourselves look back on our notebooks if you're one of the regular garden congregation and have kept a notebook through the days of lent and also then transfer that to intention for now as the easter scenes unfold in the present tense and the disciples remember as we do as we read the gospel so we're going to say our prayers together and then after the psalm we will read the passage from saint john's gospel chapter 21 oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise in your resurrection o christ let heaven and earth rejoice hallelujah 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 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 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 ninth morning of the month is psalm 46 god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear though the earth be moved and though the mountains tremble in the heart of the sea there the waters rage and swell and though the mountains quake at the towering seas there is a river whose streams make glad the city of god the holy place of the dwelling of the most high god is in the midst of her therefore shall she not be removed god shall help her at the break of day the nations are in uproar and the kingdoms are shaken but god utters his voice and the earth shall melt away the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold come and behold the works of the lord what destruction he has wrought upon the earth he makes wars to cease in all the world he shatters the bow and snaps the spear and burns the chariots in the fire be still and know that i am god i will be exalted among the nations i will be exalted in the earth the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold so our lesson this morning the fifth of the resurrection narrative scenes that we have been thinking of and contemplating this week of easter is written in the 21st chapter of the gospel of saint john and we started verse 1 i'm reading up to verse 14. after this jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of tiberias and he revealed himself in this way simon peter thomas called the twin nathaniel of cana in galilee the sons of zebedee and two others of his disciples were together simon peter said to them i'm going fishing they said to him we will go with you they went out and got into the boat but that night they caught nothing just as day was breaking jesus stood on the shore yet the disciples did not know that it was jesus jesus said to them children do you have any fish they answered him no he said to them cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some say they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish that disciple whom jesus loved therefore said to peter it is the lord when simon peter heard that it was the lord he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea the other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish for they were not far from the land but about a hundred yards off when they got out on land they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread jesus said to them bring some of the fish that you have just caught so simon peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish 153 of them and although there were so many the net was not torn jesus said to them come and have breakfast now none of the disciples dared ask him who are you they knew it was the lord jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and so with the fish this was now the third time that jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead [Music] the beginning of this scene of resurrection we will continue with that story tomorrow but for the beginning we just concentrate on these verses 1 to 14 of john 21 because in them there are so many signs first of all the disciples have gone home gone back to where it all began the sea of galilee and there they are at the beginning at the end of a day on the beach or maybe outside their own homes talking for all we know is that simon peter suddenly says i'm going fishing is that a is that a sign of saying well the last three years have been amazing but it's all come to this and it's also puzzling the only thing i can think of doing is going back to what i know how to do in the place where i know how to do it on the shore of the sea of galilee and in the waters of the sea of galilee named here by its other name the sea of tiberias in honour of the roman emperor done by the king in galilee as a kind of honor to the overarching power of rome it's the sea of galilee and here they are near it it doesn't say which of the towns they were in but they're there together and notice that nathaniel is named as being there with them we haven't really heard of nathaniel since the very beginning of this gospel when jesus found him under the fig tree and called him and nathaniel at that time was the first to give an affirmation of complete faith because of the way in which jesus called him were given enough detail only to know that the words of jesus in calling and the eyes of jesus seeing someone as they are how do you know me do you remember nathaniel says i saw you under the fig tree and we don't know what that meant we do know that it was enough for nathaniel who had said can anything good come out of nazareth um to be called here he is again with the disciples these are not necessarily all members of the 11 that again a group of friends thomas is there the one who had doubted the sons of zebedee are named and they had been called from the lakeside leaving their father in the boat with the hired hands from their clearly flourishing company with the hired hands and going to follow jesus we're not told that andrew is there it's a possibility that he's one of the others or philip the great friend of nathaniel but he'd brought him we don't know we're just given enough information to know that a group of friends are there thinking we just better go back to the beginning and start again nor do we know whether or not this story as it's told is a chronological replacing in the story of the one we read in luke or which happened at the beginning of jesus's ministry or is it a story which happens twice and because it's happened before the beloved disciple at once recognizes the figure as mourning begins to dawn standing on the shore and shouting children have you any fish and knowing that they haven't they've had a fruitless night even doing what they knew how to do well the nice thing is that when peter at the beginning simon peter says i'm going fishing they all say we will go with you there's a companionship there a companionship shall we say in puzzlement and also a companionship in beginning again somewhere who knows where this will lead and throughout that night it leads nowhere they catch no fish until of the voice of the stranger on the shore rather like the stranger in the story of the emmaus road with the two disciples one called cleopas but not knowing the name of the other one we don't need to we just know that when they got to the point where their home was they said to him those words which i said learn those for your backpack it's a good evening prayer abide with us for its stores evening and the day is far spent and he went in and was known to them in the breaking of the bread and new energy was restored well here's a depressing night for them all even doing what they know how to do they've failed and the voice on the shore is underlining that by saying children have you any fish and the answer is no and then comes the instruction still from the stranger and that instruction is cast the net on the other side of the boat you're doing this wrong casting it on the other side of the boat and at that point they do that and the net becomes so full of fish they have difficulty with it and it's at that moment that the beloved disciple says it is the lord another of those resurrection sentences it is the lord [Music] so it's the beloved disciple who says to peacea it is the lord and the moment simon peter hears that energy changes another has told him it's the lord and recognition dawns on him and all the all the um shame of the brazilian back on the thursday night is completely forgotten for the moment it's the lord he wants to be with him he grabs his outer robe to put around his working coat jumps into the sea and swim he can't wait for the boat the boat is having difficulty pulling the net and simon splashes to the shore and the others came on in the boat as with the resurrection narrative it's the beloved disciple first who sees and believes it's an internal knowing with that and in this way also he recognizes the stranger on the shore to me to say that word the stranger on the shore is uh is a memory and some of you may remember there was a tune played on the clarinet by a man called akka bilk who was the nephew of my sunday school teacher her name was audrey carpenter nice to remember because she taught me so many things and her nephew was a jazz player in the city of bristol but he composed a tune for a television series on children's television called the stranger on the shore because it was about an au pair girl who got lost and had no idea how to find the family that she'd strayed from and this tune was called the stranger on the shore it's probably still i've not even tried to google it but i'm sure it's still there that clarinet tune played it first by akabilk and reminiscent of a long time back for me but when i say the words the stranger on the shore now it comes very much to the figure through the gathering dawn that the beloved disciple recognizes and the boat is slowly coming on with the group of the disciples we'll call them though they're a mixed group of friends and their galileans they've come home to begin again where it all began and this beginning is going to begin in a way they least expected simon peter has come to the shore and finds a fire lit already and jesus standing there and on the fire are fish and there's bread fish and bread of course instantly takes us back to the nourishment that jesus gave to the five thousand and at this point um i just want to introduce the most wonderful gift that was given to me when i came here by a great friend the bishop of masasi at the time his name was patrick and he has retired since then patrick machico and one of his ordinance or one of his priests actually at that time came to one of our courses for early ministry his name was luke and he brought with him from the bishop this wonderful gift from masasi in southern tanzania which i knew well because i spent time there living the life in masasi and ministering there now um on this but you can see it's a table of the last supper and it's a long way um uh for the camera to pick it up and it's rather dark but it nevertheless is very much the people of masasi carving almost themselves into the last supper and at that point you look at it and you see jesus and the 12 at that point and i think it's at the point where they're saying to him lord is it i is it i but on the table amazingly yes there's bread and jesus will take the loaf and yes there's wine there are the cups but on the table also are three platters of fish and the sign is of jesus nourishing but also it's a sign of the call of the disciples to become fishers of people in a very different way follow after me and i will make you fishers of people and now here on the lakeside he's going to give them the encouragement and the spirit to do just that i love this of course it's not accurate in what it's saying about that supper table on the thursday night because there would have been no fish there but it's very accurate about the way in which jesus took bread and fish and he took the bread and gave thanks for it he blessed it he broke it and he gave it to the disciples to distribute and then it says and the same way with the fish and everyone was fed and nourished and fragments were taken up in basketfuls so that the church's life can continue and this is a sign not just of that last supper it's also a sign of this breakfast on the lakeside and also a sign of the feeding of the five thousand and the actions which jesus took on that occasion which are the four actions that his church reproduces every time we meet together for the eucharist he took the bread he blessed it he broke it he shared it it's what we do and in every meal um that sharing of food becomes a holy meal but especially when we meet together in the eucharist the sacrifice of thanksgiving giving of jesus himself to us and us to one another and to what he has called us to do to him so that we may be the body of christ let me put this down here on the beach where it's well placed and i'm giving thanks for the diocese of masasi and james the bishop there today who was just a young man when i knew him first and now has episcopal distinction with great energy so peter and the boatload of disciples bring the fish ashore and there's great detail about this how many fish the net was not torn but the great sentence sentence it's the sentence of the resurrection i almost like best come and have breakfast breakfast is one of my favorite meals after we've been across to matins and said the uh said the um uh office to wherever we are in the world which which comes before breakfast then this sense of now it's breakfast time and one of the best breakfasts we've enjoyed perhaps i've said this to you before is a breakfast that we tend to have with our friends nancy mead and andy mead in rhode island where so many of the little villages and there's a fishing place and nancy's family very very much into fishing um and uh we go and have breakfast with the fishermen who brought the catch in and the the places there are called nazareth and bethlehem and so on you find yourself in galilee having breakfast with the fishermen there on rhode island another memory you'll have many memories with this but the gospel evokes memories and makes of them shall we call it a sacrifice of thanksgiving we break those memories and offer them to one another our stories just as these evangelists are spreading the evangel the good news by giving us pictures and stories so i've said before there's no need for parables in these resurrection narratives they are full of pictures they're full of signs and they reach back into the gospels and they reach forward into the life of the church so that everything becomes a present tense a present tense for this day the 9th of april on this but in this particular year this year of pandemic 2021 but every year would have had things happening in that way i want to say that actually in 1913 on this day my mother was born so to me that's a it's not a memory i have of course it isn't but it's a precious day it's a precious anniversary and all of the things that associate with that we share with one another and thank god we've been able to do that virtually in so many different ways we've been able to note down in our working books through lent all those things would have sprouted and begun to grow but this beachside story beside the brazia and it will become even more important tomorrow when we continue through this beachside story reaching back to aspects of the gospel and those sentences which the fourth gospel keeps saying but after he had been raised from the dead the disciples remembered we're using their memories back and they remember the things they they've been told remember the pictures he'd given them remember the activity remember the things that they had been warned about remember their failings but remember also on this day their joy and what else is there well of course the change from the slowness of sadness that their night's work at doing what they knew how to do best has been a complete failure and now suddenly with the call of the lord new energy comes it's not running this time it's splashing to the shore with simon peter but there will be much much running because jesus will give them a new commission and it all happens after those wonderful words of invitation come and have breakfast i always feel that that should perhaps be the sentence in the eucharist when we do it in the morning come and have breakfast such a wonderful wonderful invitation and so ordinary but then so many of the things that our savior says to us are in ordinary terms it's what the incarnation means and yet they reach out to a totally different infinite dimension so that far light reminds us of this scene but so do so too does the water of the lake the the elements fire water earth air the beach the sky the sea the breakfast laid out for them cooked by the flames of the fire all those things and you can see we could go on a very long time but i leave all those things to you to think of during the day as you just stop and give thanks for signs given or share a reminiscence all those things our activities of how we cast the net onto the other side of the boat and do things in a different way and be brave in terms of sharing the evangel the good news and sometimes we say i don't know that you'll understand this and the most surprising people suddenly do and said yes no i've had that experience too and you've helped me by sharing it today maybe that will be something that is a common place in the next 40 days as we go towards pentecost let's say our prayers on this particular morning on the beach so we are praying in our list for on the anglican communion the diocese of bermuda and that's actually an extra provincial diocese and is in the care of justin our archbishop who is still here with us in canterbury so we pray for him too and his family and uh we pray for rose bishop of dover we had a lovely time yesterday because her grandchildren came down into the fresh air of the precinct and ran around and enjoyed being here together and came and looked at the little piglets and and were were filled with this sort of thing because they're so small said ah they were so it was a lovely experience with those those two and we pray for tim bishop of bishop at lambeth and sean his his wife at this time of easter when all of us are just feeling a new beginning today our our diocese of canterbury is praying for the parish of saint andrews in deal and the priests there paul blanche and his people it's in that area around sandwich that i said we're praying for at the moment and we'll go day by day through those parishes in that lovely area and deal is very much by the sea here's the easter connect 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 and the holy spirit be praise and honor glory and might now and in all eternity are men so together in whatever language and in whatever way you'd like to say it we say the prayer our savior taught us 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 for your own prayers and intentions and concerns this morning oh 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 amen [Music] you