Easter Sunday Service

Easter Day

(Shared with kind permission of Reverend Roger Wood)

Hymns:

Jesus Christ is risen today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMwPEmUMP7U

The strife is O’er https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJjq4RFnLnk

Good Christians all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkbeGsOo2Nk

In Christ alone

Thine be the glory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPH7-dNrwb8

Sentence:

The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

Hymn:

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 our Lord Jesus Christ, may reign with him in glory,to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be praise and honour, glory and might, now and in all eternity.

Reading: John 20, 1 – 18

Hymn:

Sermon:

Our guide to Holy Week and Easter this year has been St. John. He tells of the coming of the Servant King. On Maundy Thursday John told how Jesus, acknowledged by his disciples as their ‘Lord and Master’, took the lowest place, washing the disciples’ feet.
He did so to point the way to a new kind of kingdom, not one shaped by power flowing down from above but by love welling up from below. On Good Friday, John told of the inauguration of that kingdom. He showed us a kingly figure deliberately taking the lowest place, his throne a cross, his crown a crown of thorns. The king was crowned but he had yet to establish his kingdom. To do that required a further intervention. It is that intervention that we celebrate today.

In raising Jesus from the dead, God gave a ringing endorsement both of Jesus’ actions and of his understanding. He endorsed his actions in setting before the people a model of a servant king. 

(Indicated by the kingly head at the top of the picture) 

He endorsed his understanding that the kind of world God wanted to see was one shaped not by power but by service.

This endorsement had two effects. Firstly, it brought about the beginning of faith.
It was born when John himself entered the sepulchre and saw the discarded graveclothes. ‘He saw and believed’. (Image 2 shows the mouth of the empty tomb and the disciples looking in.)

The other effect was to bring about the birth of the church. This came on the evening of Easter Day: (Image 3.)

Late that Sunday evening, when the disciples were together  behind, locked doors for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. 

‘Peace be with you,’ he said… So when the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. Jesus repeated, ‘Peace be with you,’ and said, ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’

John’s account of Easter and Holy Week tells of the founding of a new kingdom. It tells of a king who deliberately took the lowest place and by so doing pointed the way to a new world order, one shaped not by power flowing down from above but by love welling up from below. (Shown by the pyramid at the bottom of the picture.) 

It is now our job to continue the building of that kingdom until it can be truly said that in our church, our communities, our society, and our world ‘It is accomplished.’

Hymn:

The Communion:

Hymn:

Prayers:

This Holy Week, Lord, we have watched your coronation as the Servant King, and we have seen you setting about establishing your kingdom. You have called us to be your subjects and to carry on your work. We pledge our allegiance to you and rededicate ourselves to your service.

We turn to Christ.

We submit to Christ as Lord.

We come to Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

We will continue the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship.

We will persevere in resisting evil.

We will proclaim your gospel by word and example.

We will seek and serve you in all people.

We will work for the acknowledgement of your authority in human society.

Lord, may you dwell in our hearts through faith;

may we be rooted and grounded in your love,

may we bring forth the fruit of your Spirit in love and joy and peace till your kingdom comes and your will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

Post-Communion Prayer:

God of Life, who for our redemption gave your only begotten Son to the death on the cross, and by his glorious resurrection have delivered us from the power of our enemy: grant us so to die daily to sin that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his risen life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing:

The God of peace fill you with all joy and hope in believing and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

Hymn;