Marsden Road Uniting Sunday Service from Rev John Candy: MRUC Worship for Easter Sunday

Marsden Road Uniting Church Carlingford

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Look Again,

Sunday 04^th April 2021

Easter Day - year of Mark 9.30am

Gathering God’s People

Acknowledgement of First Peoples

We acknowledge the first people who have cared for this Land, where we worship, the Wallumedgal.

May our worship join with the voices of the First Peoples of this Land.

A LIT CANDLE IS PROCESSED IN:

The candle is placed on the table with these words:

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Christ is risen indeed!

This is the day that that the Lord has made

Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Call to Worship - (Abingdon 2013)

When grief holds sway and you feel lost and abandoned... join Mary and the women in the garden, as they cast aside their funeral spices to rejoice in awe and wonder. Fear is healed by hope this day. Death is swallowed up in victory.

Hear the good news: Christ is Risen!

But we watched him die.

Sing the good news: Christ is alive!

But we saw him buried in the tomb.

Share the good news. Death has lost its sting!

We will sing with the angels and laugh with the saints of God.

Hymn TIS 368: This is the day the Lord has made.

(tune – Arlington)

Opening prayer

God of mystery and might, when we dread the dawn of grief and pain, surprise us with the light of your wondrous love. We come to the tomb expecting death but find life instead. As we behold the glory of our salvation, take us back to that moment of faith when fear was healed by hope and death was swallowed up by life. In the holy awe of Easter morning, may our hearts rest in silent gratitude before they shout that Christ is alive and has called us by name. Amen

A Prayer of Confession

During the week of his passion and death, we turned away from your Son, O God.

Even after Christ shared table with us, offering us the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation, we shrank into the shadows and drank the dregs of our regret.

Even after Christ urged us to keep the faith, lest we succumb to temptation in the time of trial, we fell asleep while he prayed in the garden and ran when the soldiers arrived.

But we are here now, Merciful One. As we profess the depth of our gratitude for being called as your disciples, may our living help heal the pain of Christ’s dying. Amen.

Declaration of Forgiveness

God, who raised Jesus from the dead, offers us life with Christ and forgiveness in his name.

Thanks, be to God!

The Peace

See the peace of Christ in your brothers. Be the peace of Christ for your sisters. Share the peace of Christ with one another as we celebrate the Prince of Peace this day.

The peace of Christ be with you.

The peace of Christ be with you always.

(You may like to exchange a sign of peace with those around you.)

A Word with The Young People –

Theme: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Object: A small juice glass half-filled with juice.

As you can see, I have a glass with some juice in it. There are two ways of looking at this glass of juice. Some people would look at the glass and say it is half empty. There are others who would look at the glass and say it is half full. (Drink all of the juice in the glass.)

Well, we solved that problem, didn't we? Now everyone who looks at this glass would say that it is empty, but guess what? Everyone still wouldn't look at the glass in the same way. Some would look at the glass and grumble and complain because it empty. Others would look at the glass and see it as a glass just waiting to be filled with good things to drink. I guess there are always different ways to look at any situation.

On the Sunday morning after Jesus was crucified, a woman named Mary went to visit the grave where the body of Jesus had been laid. When she got there, she found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. She ran to find someone to tell them what she had seen. She found two of the disciples, Peter and John, and she said to them, "They have taken our Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him."

The three of them immediately ran to the tomb. When they got there, they all saw the same thing, but they didn't all look at it in the same way.

Peter looked and was curious. The Bible says Peter went in the empty tomb and looked around. He saw strips of linen laying around and the cloth that Jesus had been buried in folded neatly and placed where the body had been. "Hmmm, very interesting," Peter might have said to himself.

Mary looked and was sad. The Bible tells us that Mary didn't even go inside the empty tomb. She just stood outside the tomb and wept because she feared that someone had stolen the body of Jesus.

John looked and believed. The bible says that John went inside the tomb and he saw and believed. Now, I don't know exactly how much John understood, but I think he believed that Jesus had risen from the grave just as he said he would.

Three people -- they all saw the same thing -- one was curious, one was sad, and one believed. I think that is pretty much the same way people react to the story of Jesus today. Some people hear the story, and they are curious, others hear it and think it is sad, others hear it and believe. How do you look at it?

Offering Prayer

God of joyful surprises, with laughter in our hearts and songs on our lips, may our lives reflect the glory of this day. You offer abundance of life and fullness of grace to all who turn to you and seek your blessing. Receive our tithes and offerings in the name of your Son, the source of our joy and strength, that they may be for the world your Easter light and life. Amen.

Hymn TIS 362: Jesus Christ is risen today.

(tune – Easter Hymn)

The Service of Holy Communion

The Great Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you.

And also, with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Living God, on this most joyous day we offer our thanks and praise to you, creator of heaven and earth, creator and lover of all humanity. Even when we turned away from you, you never rejected us. You spoke words of mercy and love through the prophets; promising to swallow up death forever and to host a banquet for all people; a feast of life-giving sustenance. And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!

Holy God, this meal which we share today is indeed the celebration that death has been defeated forever. We celebrate also how the language of your love became audible through the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, our beloved Lord; and how the nature of your love became visible through his life and sacrificial love. He graced lives with healing and hope, with compassion and power and as if that were not enough, he gave his very life for us. On the night of his betrayal, as he sat at the table and broke bread with his friends, he said:

'Take and eat; this is my body which is broken for you. Remember me each time you do this.'

After they had eaten, he took the cup, and said:

'Remember me as you drink from this, for it is my life, poured out for you - the beginning of a new relationship with God.'

Christ has died.

Christ is risen.

Christ will come again!

God of all power breathe your Holy Spirit upon us, and upon these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be for us the life of Christ and that we may make that life visible through our faithful witness to him. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen

Blessing and honour and glory and power are yours for ever and ever. Amen.

The Breaking of the Bread

We break this bread and take this cup so that we can all share in the life of Christ. God's gifts for God's people. Thanks, be to God.

Lamb of God

Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world,

have mercy on us.

Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world,

have mercy on us.

Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world,

grant us peace.

Invitation to Communion

Jesus says: ‘The bread that God gives is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’
(Thanks be to God.)
Come, everything is ready.

Prayer after Communion

This has been no ordinary meal. It has been one in which we have been fed and nourished with the life of Jesus, our crucified and risen Lord. May we go from this table, refreshed and eager, to share that life with others. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

The Service of the Word

First Reading: 1 Cor 15:1-11

The Gospel Reading: Mark 16:1-8

After the final reading the reader will say For the Word of the Lord

Please respond by saying Thanks be to God.

Readings: NRSV Translation

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

¹ Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, ² through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain. ³ For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, ⁴ and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

Mark 16:1-8

1 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6 But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ 8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Preaching of the Word - Look Again,

In the darkness on the third day after their rabbi’s execution, three women check one last time to make sure they have everything they need. Followers of Jesus in his lifetime, they want to be faithful to their teacher in death. Jesus had been robbed of a proper Jewish burial as his death came right on the verge of the Sabbath. The women intend to make this one thing right in a universe turned hopelessly away from God. The Twelve are hiding in a locked room with other disciples for fear they will be found out as followers of Jesus. Meanwhile, the women prepare to be at the tomb as dawn breaks.

In purely human terms, the story of the would-be Messiah from Nazareth in Galilee has come to a brutal end. For the Roman colonial government, Jesus is a minor statistic, yet another Jewish revolutionary crucified in Rome’s ongoing efforts to preserve the peace in Palestine. The ringleader, Jesus, has been publicly and cruelly killed. His disciples have vanished for fear of a similar fate. For the keepers of the status quo, this has been a successful Passover festival. Jesus’ movement is buried with its leader.

The women arrive at the tomb and looming large is an insurmountable obstacle between them and their task. The women know they don’t have the strength to budge the great stone blocking the entrance to the tomb. As they walk to the garden, they wonder, “Who will roll the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”

Our Gospel reading for this morning tells us that the women then looked up. The original Greek text [anablepo] for this can also mean the women looked again. The women come upon the tomb and as they expected, the stone is rolled in front of the entrance. They don’t stand a chance of getting near Jesus on their own. Then they look again, or perhaps do a double take, and realise that the stone has been rolled away.

Our writer of Mark has already prepared us for this need to do a double take. It works something like bi-focal vision in this Gospel. Twice in the Gospel, Jesus has healed blind men and allowed them to see again. The word used to describe the two blind men seeing again is the same one used here, to look again [anablepo]. Already in those stories of healing the blind, there was a sense in which spiritual healing allowed the men to see again with physical sight.

In Mark’s Gospel, faith gives us the ability to see the world as God sees it. We gain bifocal vision. When we look with the eyes of the world, we see the obstacles and problems. The stone blocks our path, and it is too large for us to even budge. We look with the eyes of faith and a different picture comes into focus. God has already removed the obstacles that we could not remove by our own power.

This is seen most clearly in the Easter story. The three women are blocked by an obstacle, which they stood no chance of removing on their own. They ask one another, “Who will roll away the stone?” Yet, when they look again through the eyes of faith, they see that the stone has already been rolled away. The Greek here is in the perfect tense. The stone that blocks their way is already long gone when they do the Easter double take and see the world as God sees it.

What are the stones that need to be rolled away in our lives? Is the obstacle one of relationships that can’t be made right? Or is our path blocked by an addiction to alcohol, drugs, or some other destructive cycle from which we don’t have the power to break free? All of us can find our way blocked by obstacles too big to budge. The story of Easter tells us that God offers the ultimate leverage to remove the obstacles in our way.

If you rely on your own might, your own abilities, your own wisdom, the stone in your way will be more than you can face. Full Stop. But, when you have the courage to admit you don’t have the power to remove the obstacle, you can turn the problem over to God. Then with the eyes of faith, you may come in time to see that the insurmountable obstacle has been rolled away.

Yet, that is not the end of the Gospel reading. Scripture is if nothing else, the most realistic of books, and today’s reading is no exception. The women enter the tomb to find an angel, a divine messenger, with the news that Jesus has been raised from the dead and has gone ahead of his disciples to Galilee. It would be wonderful to report that the women were immediately filled with joy.

Instead, we are told that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome fled from the tomb seized by terror and stricken with awe. Rather than spreading the joy of resurrection, we are told, “They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

It is there that the reading ends. The Gospel we call Mark offers the challenge of a circular story. The Gospel begins with Jesus in Galilee challenging people to come and follow him; at the close of the story, Jesus has once more gone ahead into Galilee holding out the offer of discipleship to any who will come and follow him.

So, what about you? Would you have the courage to leave the empty tomb and go back to Galilee to take up the task of being Jesus’ disciple now that you know the way of discipleship led to the cross and the grave? Even with the triumph of Easter, we can fearfully retreat now that we know the cost of discipleship.

The Gospel, the Good News offers a dual challenge this Easter. The first is to look at the very real obstacles in your life with the eyes of faith. The things that you are powerless to change are not obstacles to God. Through grace, you can see that God has already removed the problems plaguing you, if you have the faith to push ahead on the journey of life and journey through them.

But the second prong of the challenge of the Gospel, the Good News comes when you push ahead. Just as the women found the stone rolled away only to be struck dumb with terror and awe at the news of Jesus’ resurrection, we too can lose our focus and stop seeing the world as God sees it. The second challenge then is the harder one. Once you have seen that God can remove the obstacles blocking your way, then we are called and invited to follow where Jesus leads.

The three women that morning did break free from fear. We know that they were all active in the earliest Christian church. They found the courage to follow Jesus even after they had learned the cost, they might have to one day pay for their faith in him.

Jesus enables the removal of the obstacles from our paths if we stop trying to remove them only by your own might. Then he will give us the grace to continue the journey. The path is open to each of us. Jesus is still out there beckoning, “Follow me” to those who listen. We only need respond by faith and say yes to the invitation.

For Alleluia! Christ is risen.
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Hymn TIS 380: Yours be the glory.

(tune – Maccabeus)

Intercessory Prayers - Easter – Year B

Praise and honour to you, Jesus Christ, for you have triumphed gloriously.

We pray for your world: for the welfare of all your people and for your creation entrusted to our care; for all in positions of authority; for men and women in their daily work.

Roll away the stones of hatred and greed. Transform us with your spirit of justice and righteousness, that all your people may share in the freedom of your risen life.