Sunday Service 5th April 2026
Introduction
Hello. I’m Neil Thorogood and it’s my joy to welcome you to our worship on this Easter Sunday. I’m the URC minister of two congregations in the South Western Synod. Thornbury is a market town about half an hour from Bristol. Trinity-Henleaze is in one of Bristol’s suburbs. I also have the very great honour of being the Moderator Elect of the URC General Assembly. As we come together to celebrate the resurrection of Christ on this most special of days in the Church’s year, I hope and pray that this service will give you space and opportunity for you own celebration. A little later in our worship we will share the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Before our call to worship, let us take a moment to be still in the presence of God.
Call to Worship
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his steadfast love endures for ever!
Let Israel say; his steadfast love endures for ever!
Let all the Church now share; his steadfast love endures for ever!
For Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Hymn Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
Charles Wesley (1707-1788) sung by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band
‘Christ the Lord is risen today’,
all on earth and angels say;
raise your joys and triumphs high;
sing, ye heavens, thou earth reply.
2 Love’s redeeming work is done,
fought the fight, the battle won;
death in vain forbids his rise;
Christ has passed the gates of Hell.
3 Lives again our glorious King;
where, O death, is now thy sting?
Once he died us all doth save;
where thy victory boasting grave?
4 Soar we now where Christ has led,
following our exalted Head;
made like Him, like Him we rise;
ours the Cross, the grave, the skies.
5 King of Glory, Soul of bliss,
everlasting life is this,
Thee to know, Thy power to prove,
thus to sing, and thus to love!
Prayer of Approach and Confession
Jesus, we come like the women
who made their way in the dawn to mourn you;
we gather in worship and still we are fragile,
worried about the world and weary of weakness and wrongdoing,
and we discover that death could not stop you,
the tomb could not contain you, despair could not undo you.
Easter dawns for the women and the world with rejoicing beyond words!
Jesus, we come with the company of heaven
and the family of the Church to rejoice;
we gather in worship and still we are amazed,
renewed in faith and hope and love,
blessed in ways that give freedom to our souls,
named as the cherished children of God,
invited into creation made new and life made more beautiful.
Whatever we carry as we come to worship,
However our journey and history bring us
to this time upon this Easter day,
let us dwell deeply upon your story.
We remember that Easter’s joy grows from the sadness of the Cross.
You have taken upon yourself the burdens of our sin;
the failures of our living, the foolishness and the selfishness,
the spoken and the unspoken, the done and the undone,
the public and the secret evils that drag at us with so much power.
You have lifted these burdens from us,
and welcomed us once more into the heart of the God
whose longing is that all be saved.
Hear us, as in silence together,
we offer our own Easter ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry…’
Silence
Declaration of Forgiveness
God of all mercy, we pray as the Psalmist prayed long before us:
we thank you that you have answered us and become our salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.
This, truly, is the day that the Lord has made;
we rejoice and are glad in it.
In the name of our risen Saviour,
and in the power of the Spirit of God, we pray. Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
God who has the power to raise the dead,
let the powerful presence of your Spirit break open
these old words of your Bible,
that they might bless with joy and hope us this Easter. Amen.
Reading Colossians 3: 1-4
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
Hymn Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks To The Risen Lord
Donald Fishel (born 1950) © The Word of God Music/Admin. by Song Solutions
OneLicence No. # A-734713 Frodsham Methodist Church Cloud Choir accompanied by Andrew Ellams and produced by Andrew Emison and used with their kind permission.
Alleluia, alleluia, give thanks to the risen Lord;
alleluia, alleluia, give praise to His name.
1 Jesus is Lord of all the earth,
He is the King of creation:
2 Spread the good news o’er all the earth, Jesus has died and has risen:
3 We have been crucified
with Christ;
now we shall live for ever:
4 God has proclaimed
the just reward:
new life for all, alleluia!
5 Come, let us praise the living God,
Joyfully sing to our Saviour:
Reading St Matthew 28: 1-10
After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’ So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’
Sermon
Dear Friends, as we come to reflect on God’s Word to us in our Scripture readings to us this Easter day, let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our saviour and redeemer, Amen.
“Christ the Lord is risen today! Hallelujah!”
“Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee,
how great thou art, how great thou art!”
“In Christ alone my hope is found;
he is my light, my strength, my song;
this cornerstone, this solid ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all –
here in the love of Christ I stand.”
“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.”
We could keep on with the words of our hymns and worship songs for a very long time and never come close to saying all that could be said and all that might be sung upon this day. For this is the day of all days; the day we remember resurrection, the day the world is made new, the ending of the beginning of the reign of Christ.
There is so much that could be said. But I wonder if we might just dwell upon a couple of thoughts as our worship moves from the readings of scripture towards the celebration of Holy Communion? I wonder if we might let Easter be very big, and become very small?
Our reading from the letter to the early Christians in Colossae, in a place now forgotten in today’s Turkey, invites us to remember just how big Easter is. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead begins a new day; the dawn sunlight beginning to flood the garden where the tomb now lies empty. Colossians lets the resurrection be joined with the ascension; with Christ’s triumphant return to be for ever within the presence of God. Easter becomes a much bigger beginning. The resurrection begins the transformation of all things; creation being made new as the love and power of God floods every corner and cranny of all that is and all that life can be.
We read: “…seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God… for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” As another of our worship songs has it: “I am a new creation, no more in condemnation, here in the grace of God I stand.”
This part of Colossians is, we think, meditating upon the meaning of baptism. Part of the symbolism is that the waters of baptism wash us clean of all that sin, despair and death do to destroy us and drive us away from God. In baptism we remember that we die to our old lives where sin, despair and death held so much power to dominate so much. We are born again into a new life as the followers of Jesus who is risen from the dead and who holds our lives safe for ever within the heart of God.
Baptism is made possible because Easter is so very big. The resurrection demonstrates the truth of all the claims Jesus makes about himself and about God. Baptism is one of the two great ways our traditions of the Church have always said we can live out this newness in our worship. The other, which awaits us later in this service, is our gathering at the Lord’s table to share his resurrection banquet in bread and wine.
Colossians is inviting us, as this Easter day unfolds, to celebrate not just that Jesus has risen from the dead, but that we and all who turn to him are also no longer defined by death. Resurrection, not destruction, is our destiny.
We sing something of how big Easter truly is, how it spans the world and the ages, in words such as these:
“For all the saints who from their labours rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed;
thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest. Alleluia, Alleluia!”
Easter truly is very big.
But let us also allow Easter to be astonishingly small.
The Japanese theologian, Kosuke Koyama, once delivered a series of talks in which he meditated upon the Easter story. He had in mind passages like this one we have in Colossians. He spoke of the glory of the resurrection. But he also offered us an image that has held me ever since I heard him speak it back in the 1980s. He reminded us that the risen Christ has hands that are painfully open to greet us, hold us and keep us safe. Jesus carries in his body the wounds of his crucifixion not just in the morning when he steps from the borrowed tomb in a garden in Jerusalem, but for eternity as he sits at God’s right hand. Easter only becomes possible because of Christ’s sufferings on Good Friday and the silence of his grave through Holy Saturday. Jesus makes himself small enough to come into one place and time; to a backwater province of a mighty empire and to the insignificant fishermen and women of Galilee. He carries for all eternity his wounds of love and mercy for them and for you and for me and for all humanity and all creation. Isaac Watts has us sing it like this:
“See from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down;
did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown?”
Alongside the cosmic picture we have this Easter morning from Colossians, we are being welcomed into the profoundly intimate portrait of the resurrection story in the gospel of Matthew. The prequel to what we have read comes just a few verses earlier, in chapter 27:
“So Joseph [of Arimathea] took the body [of Jesus] and wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.”
We are in the small story of a few close friends who have ended up following Jesus during his brief ministry. Here are people whose names the gospels want us to know and to remember; real women and real men, caught up in a story whose outcome is a mystery and whose impact is catastrophic for them.
Joseph and these two Marys have shared in a nightmare. They have witnessed the crucifixion of a friend and much more than a friend. They had treasured the highest of hopes; believing that the rabbi who came from Nazareth and wandered the beaches and hillsides of Galilee was none other that their longed-for Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us. They have seen their highest hopes utterly demolished in stages: arrest in the garden at night; some kind of secret trial; Roman agreement to a crowd’s call for blood; crucifixion at Golgotha; death and burial in this borrowed tomb; the endless darkness and despair of the sabbath when all they could do was wait and weep.
Now the first day of the week is dawning, and the women return to the tomb. They come to do what we’re meant to do in such a place at such a time; they come to grieve, to mourn for all that has been lost, all that has been stolen away.
But a very different picture greets them. And here we have that story turned into paint for us this Easter [Easter, Empty Tomb image displayed – Jesus Mafa artworks from the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library].
This picture is one of a great series created in the 1970s as the French Catholic missionary Francois Vidil worked with the Mafa communities of Northern Cameroon. In all, 63 images of the life of Jesus were acted out and photographed and then painted by local artists to create a visual gospel.
Here, for us, is Matthew’s Easter made visible: “And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said.”
Perhaps this painting lets us enter into a much smaller Easter so that it might become our very own and very personal story. The resurrection of Jesus wants to become my story and your story. It is the promise of Jesus that the new life he offers is available to everyone. But we need to choose to let it in. We need to accept our need for it. We need to trust it to be the real story that can set us free to be everything God wants us to be; ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven! No one can do that on our behalf. We have to believe it to be true for ourselves.
As I look at this image I see the parable of Easter unfolding; the story that waits for me to complete it. I notice that the woman on the far right with the jar carried on her head seems to have an expression of shock on her face, her left hand raised as if to ward off something frightening. The shorter woman in the middle of the group carrying a jar also seems to have her mouth open in shock. Resurrection is an impossibility. It might well leave me with little more than questions and doubts this Easter.
But the painting has two more figures for us to notice. The angel in white sitting nonchalantly on the rock beside the open tomb is smiling. The woman on the left of the group is smiling in return, her right hand held open as if to receive something.
Easter is, more than anything else perhaps, just the best good news of all. Easter’s heart is joy. Jesus is all he claimed to be and all the gospels teach us. Death is undone. Evil is undone. Despair is undone. Their power is ended and the world is made new. And that world can dawn in my heart and every moment of my life as it dawns in your hearts and lives as well; a small seed of wonder that will grow in us until the moments of our dying and then continue on into our eternity with God.
This painting is a parable in another way. We see the story of Easter no longer held in history in first century Palestine. It has been set free to become a story for the Mafa people of Cameroon in the 1970s. It wears their clothes and is embodied in their flesh and blood.
So it always is with Easter. From this moment in a garden when Jesus walked out of the tomb to see sunrise over Jerusalem around 33 AD, to our worship wherever we find ourselves today in 2026 AD, Easter always wants to become our story, written into our flesh and blood, celebrated in our worship, lived out in our homes and streets and communities.
As I began with our hymns, let us end with another that might give voice to more of what Easter means:
“This joyful Eastertide, away with sin and sorrow!
My Love, the Crucified, has sprung to life this morrow:
Had Christ, who once was slain, not burst His three-day prison,
our faith had been in vain; but now has Christ arisen,
arisen, arisen; but now has Christ arisen!”
To God be the glory. Amen.
Hymn This Joyful Eastertide
George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) Public Domain BBC Songs of Praise
This joyful Eastertide,
away with sin and sorrow.
My Love, the Crucified,
hath sprung to life this morrow:
Had Christ, that once was slain,
ne’er burst his three-day prison,
our faith had been in vain:
but now hath Christ arisen,
arisen, arisen, arisen!
2 My flesh in hope shall rest,
and for a season slumber:
till trump from east to west:
shall wake the dead in number:
3 Death’s flood hath lost its chill,
since Jesus crossed the river:
Lover of souls, from ill
my passing soul deliver:
Offertory
As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, let us make our offering for God’s work in and beyond this place. Let us pray:
Risen Lord Jesus,
as you have begun the new creation
through your living, dying and rising,
receive these gifts of money and the offering of our lives,
that our gifts might belong to you,
and our living and witness be blessed and fruitful
to your praise and glory. Amen.
Holy Communion
The Narrative of Institution
Upon this Easter day of resurrection, we come to the table that Jesus shared with his friends on the night before he died upon the cross. We come to remember. We come to be fed again. We come to be formed anew into the body of Christ. Let us remember why all of this is possible and good, as we hear again the words of the apostle Paul:
“For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Thanksgiving
The Lord is God, and he has given us light.
The Lord is our strength and our might, he has become our salvation.
Salvation is the gift that you offer to us all, merciful God.
Even when we were far off, you chose to come close to us.
Even in our doubts and despair, you kindled a light that will not die.
As you gather us at this table, setting before us the bread and wine
that speak of so many things, we thank you.
Thank you for seeking us out in the life that Jesus lived;
in the love that he revealed, in the healing that he gave,
in the teaching that he left for us.
Thank you for seeking us out in the death that Jesus died;
in the punishment that he took, in the suffering that he embraced,
in the brokenness that he took upon himself.
Thank you for seeking us out in the new life that Jesus revealed;
in the joy that he offers, in the hope that he promises,
in the future that he welcomes us into.
Easter has dawned, a day for the healing of all creation
and the renewal of all things;
thank you for the hallelujahs we can share across the world today.
Send your Holy Spirit upon us gathered here
and upon these gifts of bread and wine.
Let them become for us the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Let them feed us with the good news of resurrection.
Let them be food for pilgrims as we journey on together
with one another and with you.
We offer our prayers, and share this meal,
in the name of Christ our risen Lord,
to whom be glory and praise for ever. Amen.
Hymn Come Ye Faithful Raise the Strain
John of Damascus (c.675-749) translated John Mason Neale (1818-1866) Public Domain, sung by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission.
Come, ye faithful,
raise the strain
of triumphant gladness;
God has brought his Israel
into joy from sadness.
Loosed from Pharoh’s bitter yoke
Jacob’s sons and daughters,
Led them with unmoistened foot
through the Red Sea waters.
2 ‘Tis the spring of souls today;
Christ has burst his prison,
and from three days’
sleep in death
as a sun has risen;
all the winter of our sins,
long and dark, is flying
from his light, to whom we give
laud and praise undying.
3 Now the queen of seasons, bright
with the day of splendour,
with the royal feast of feasts
comes its joy to render;
comes to glad and faithful hearts,
who with true affection
welcomes in unwearied strains
Jesus’ resurrection.
Prayer after Communion
Living God, lover and companion,
you create and sustain, bless and renew.
Thank you for all we have shared together
as we worship upon this Easter day.
Thank you for weaving our stories
into your great and glorious story of love.
You feed and bless us
so that we can be the friends and followers of Jesus.
Help us to hear your call and say ‘Yes’ to all you command.
Hear us, as we journey on this Easter, in our prayers for your world.
On this day of life made new,
we pray for all whose lives cry out for newness:
for survivors and abusers, for fighters and victims,
for those seeking sanctuary and those forced to flee,
for those who welcome the stranger and those who wish the stranger ill,
for everyone whose body or mind is broken
by sickness, sadness or hopelessness,
for healers and helpers who persist in doing good
even if all seems impossible,
for the lonely, for the angry, for the unmoved,
for the powerful, for the powerless.
Hear the prayers of our hearts as we name those people and places and situations we want to bring to you this Easter…
Silence
God, in your goodness, receive all of these prayers,
the ones we speak and the ones we cannot even turn into words,
and may your Easter blessings enfold and renew all creation.
Amen.
Hymn Thine Be The Glory
Edmund L Budry (1854-1932), translated by Richard B Hoyle (1875-1939)
Public Domain recorded at St Andrews Kirk, Chennai, India and used with their kind permission.
Thine be the glory,
risen conquering Son;
endless is the victory
Thou o’er death hast won.
Angels in bright raiment
rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave clothes
where Thy body lay.
Thine be the glory,
risen conquering Son:
Endless is the victory,
Thou o’er death hast won.
2 Lo! Jesus meets thee,
risen from the tomb;
lovingly he greets thee,
scatters fear and gloom.
Let the Church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing;
for her Lord now liveth,
death hath lost its sting.
3 No more we doubt Thee,
glorious prince of life!
Life is nought without Thee;
aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerors, through Thy deathless love:
bring us safe through Jordan
to thy home above.
Blessing
Risen Lord Jesus,
not even death could undo you.
Let the wonder of your resurrection
and the promises you keep,
be the blessings for your people.
Renew in us and across all creation
the life, hope and joy of Easter.
Travel on with us, as we go on our way,
in the power of your Spirit,
and the name of God. Amen.