good afternoon it's the Saturday of Easter week and we thought this afternoon before we left grenwich and moved on to Daren where we shall be tomorrow we would just record an evening prayer with you a Saturday evening prayer for the Easter season welcome wherever you are in the world and uh we hope that this peaceful service towards the end of the day will be a help to prepare for Sunday or even to be used on Sunday itself 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 lips reflect his glory and our lives repeat the endless song Blessed Be god father son Son and Holy Spirit blessed be God Forever at this point our daily prayer Prince an Easter hymn which we'll read as a poem he choirs of New Jerusalem your sweetest notes employ the Pascal Victory to him in strains of holy Joy how judah's lion burst his chains and crushed the Serpent's head and brought with him from death's domain the long imprisoned dead triumphant in his glory now his scepter ruleth all Earth Heaven and Hell before him bow and at his foot stol fall while joyful thus his praise we sing his Mercy we implore into his Palace bright to bring and keep us ever more all glory to the father be all glory to the son all glory Holy Ghost to thee while endless ages run Allelujah amen 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 this evening is Psalm 19 it's on page 673 the heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork one day pours out its song to another and one night unfolds knowledge to another they have neither speech nor language and their voices are not heard yet their sound has gone out into all lands and their words to the ends of the world in them has he set a tabernacle for the Sun that comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoices as a champion to run his course it goes forth from the end of the heavens and runs to the very end again and there is nothing hidden from its heat the law of the Lord is perfect Reviving The Soul the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple the statutes of the Lord are right and rejoice the heart the Commandment of the Lord is pure and gives light to the eyes the fear of the Lord is clean and endures forever the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold more than much fine gold sweeter also than honey dripping from the honeycomb by them also is your servant taught and in keeping them there is great reward for who can tell how often they offend oh cleanse me from my secret faults keep your servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get dominion over me so shall I be undefiled and innocent of great offense let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight oh Lord my strength and my redeemer glory be to the father and to the son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever amen a lesson from the gospel of St Luke and I'm reading from chapter 24 4 and I am at verse 36 this is from the moment when the two from EMAs have run back to Jerusalem telling of what they saw and the fact that they recognized the Lord in the breaking of bread verse 38 36 as they were talking about these things Jesus himself stood among them and said to them peace be to you but they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit and he said to them why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts see my hands and my feet that it is I myself touch me and see for a spirit 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 and while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling he said to them have you anything here to eat they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and at it before them 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 and in the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the Forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to All Nations beginning from Jerusalem you are witnesses of these things and behold I am sending the promise of my father upon you stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high another of the Resurrection appearances this time told by St Luke I think probably we're going to have to change from the morning room here because we have two friends that we're looking after while our friends here that were guests of have gone off for lunch and so um I think we'll move into the kitchen and join our other friends that were meant to be taking care of and hope that they are beginning to settle down in there but let's just see we take this with us I think to we'll take the the daffodils because they'll come in useful later when we're thinking about something else here in the kitchen so come through with [Music] me here we are now oh no no that's not the sort of noise we want to hear there we are you better now we're here so let me introduce to you here with the CH in her mouth marold and this one this lovely one is Jezebel and they're going to be we hope quite silent while we go on with our meditation sit down marold I may as well be talking to the table notice that what Jesus says is something which we've heard him say before that everything in the law and the prophets and the Psalms he adds on this OCC is to be fulfilled by the Christ and so often the evangelists say this was to fulfill what was spoken of him in the law and the prophets or the prophet Isaiah or looking back to the verses of the Psalms all of that has been fulfilled in what they have experienced and Jesus is helping them understand it I think we're going to have some trouble here and uh at that point um the disciples are beginning to understand what being on an Apostolic Mission giving the the gospel the good news to the people is going to mean and it's going to mean that they themselves will be walking through the same dangers that Jesus himself has been through sit down now Jezebel so we used to have someone who has gone to Glory now who used to say to me why do we bother to read the Old Testament why not just the gospel and the New Testament but but of course when we read this particular passage we know that Jesus himself says that understanding about what is going on by fulfilling the law and the prophets which he's come to do actually means in terms of human life so I think that the lesson is an important one and Luke makes it well he's the only one who adds the Psalms in this but that happens importantly because the Psalms are the hym book of the second temple and those hymns are the ones that Jesus himself would know this is a day April the 6th when two anniversaries that I like to point out are kept one of them is the death of the high Renaissance artist Raphael he was one of the Trinity of Michelangelo Leonardo D Vinci and rapael himself and he died at a very early age of 3 but not before he' accomplished a great amount of paintings and Architectural plannings and for 12 years he worked in Rome and was commissioned to do things now two of his paintings I wanted to point out and you can probably find them if you look up Raphael one of them is called The Miraculous draft of fishes and he's painted magnificently the the time when Peter having been Amazed by the catch they had made is there in the boat with Jesus this is the Lucan telling of the story when Peter says depart from me for I a sinful man oh Lord and Jesus says come and follow me from now on you will be catching human beings for the gospel and the good news not any longer fishing just for fish we'll carry on this isn't a real fight going on these are two sisters playing with each other but uh there's a bit more than sisterly love going on here so the second of the the pictures that the paintings that that I wanted to point out is a painting of the Transfiguration it was a painting in the year 1520 which was the year Raphael died and uh that painting was unfinished but only slightly unfinished it looks like the most amazing painting of completeness let's take this away from you and that's better um better is disappointed that I got rid of the squeaker um so this Transfiguration painting is a painting which not only gives the story which we read yesterday from St Mark's gospel or the day before from St Mark's gospel because that showed the disciples Peter and James and John on the mountain with the dazzling whiteness of Jesus in front of it it was the morning we had the snow I remember that and in Raphael's painting there's much more than that yes you see the wonder and the sort of um sleepiness of the disciples not knowing quite what to say and Jesus himself with Moses and Elijah on each side but it then shows you also the scene at the bottom of the mountain which in the Transfiguration Story shows the father of the epileptic boy attempting desperately to have his son brought to Jesus and as he does so uh Jesus reappears from the mountain side and sees he what's going on here and the father says I brought my son to be healed he was an epileptic and sometimes the the epilepsy throws him into the fire but your disciples could not could not heal him and Jesus then says bring the boy to me and in Raphael's painting when you look at it the agony of the Father the distress of the boy is all too evident and so you you you have the on the Mountaintop Wonder thoughts of heaven and and the Fulfillment of Prophecy with the disciples there below the other disciples trying desperately to help the father but they have to have Jesus back amongst them and there's a sense of Jesus saying right enough of Mountaintop thoughts to those three who've come down let's deal with the problems of the world these are much more the task of giving the good news of the gospel and Raphael in his colors picks all of that out it is the most beautiful painting uh and one that one longs to see and then the other date which happened on this day the 6th of April this time in 1843 is the date on which William woodsworth became poet Laurette and he in 43 became the PO Laurette and began the enormous years right up to the death of Tennyson of the two of them holding that position the two great Poets of the Victorian age 1843 um Wordsworth 1850 right up to 1892 I think Tennison and and the Monumental works of poetry that they composed but but for me Wordsworth and especially at this time of year is always connected with this particular flower because going for a walk on the 15th of April 1804 Wordsworth with his sister Dorothy at Grassmere came across a site that took his breath away and he gave us four verses which many of you will know by heart some of the words I know by heart it was certainly one we learned at school but it has the beauty of Springtime wrapped into it and uh the evocation of of scenes which Raphael was able to produce with paint Wordsworth was able to produce with words so here is this poem I wandered 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 Neverending line along the margin of a bay 10,000 saw ey at a glance toning their heads in spritely dance the waves beside them danced but they outdid the sparkling waves in Glee a poet could not be but gay in such a jened company I gazed and gazed but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought for of 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 a springtime poem fit for Easter when those golden flowers are seen all along the roadside here as well as in the gardens and decorating the house on the table here so let's say our Easter collect on this Saturday evening as we prepare for Sunday tomorrow low Sunday we call it but really no Sunday can be low in Easter tide and we look forward tomorrow to worshiping in the Church of St Luke at Daren here's the Easter collect 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 amen let's hold silence a moment before we say the are father together and think of All Those whom we know to need our prayers on this Saturday evening and those also who are unknown to us but are in our dangerous World struggling with distress or grief or serious sickness so we say together Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingom kingom 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 the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and Minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his son Jesus Christ Our Lord and the blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be among you and remain with you always amen well I think the Poetry has Quant our little friends down although I think that marold has found another squeaky toy haven't you and her sister is just having a little snooze over there but you're like the warmth of the fire here aren't you and you're going to settle down all quiet now as we prepare ourselves to travel to um Daren uh and worship tomorrow at St Luke's so you can find that worship on the St Luke's Daren website and we can go on from there but for the moment have a good night yourself uh and uh there we are there a biscuit there's a biscuit for you waking them up unusual for us to be with dogs not cats but there're are lovely lovely couple of dogs aren't you St