Sunday Service 12 April 2026
Welcome and Introduction
Hello and welcome to worship as we continue our Easter celebrations. In today’s service we think about faith and doubt, joy and sorrow, commitment and salvation. My name is Andy Braunston and I am the United Reformed Church’s Minister for Digital Worship. I live and work up in Orkney off Scotland’s far North Coast but when this goes out I will be, enjoying a sabbatical looking at medieval reform movements in France and Italy. So, with our joys and sorrows, our faith and doubts, we come to worship the Risen Lord.
Call to Worship
Come to worship, come and give thanks for our imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance kept for us who are surrounded by God’s power. We come to worship! Come to worship, come and give thanks for our salvation, despite your trials and tribulations, come and give thanks! We come to worship! Come to worship, pledge anew your allegiance despite your doubts, offer your service despite your weakness, offer your joy despite your sorrows. We come to worship. Come to worship for Christ has risen! Christ is risen indeed!
Hymn The Day of Resurrection
John of Damascus (c.675-749) translated John Mason Neale (1818-1866) Public domain The choir of the Cathedral of St John the Divine.
The day of resurrection,
earth, tell it out abroad!
the Passover of gladness,
the Passover of God!
from death to life eternal,
from sin’s dominion free,
our Christ has brought us over
with hymns of victory.
2 Our hearts be pure from evil,
that we may see aright
the Lord in rays eternal
of resurrection light;
and, listening to his accents,
may hear, so calm and plain,
his own ‘All hail!’ and, hearing
may raise the victor strain.
3 Now let the heavens be joyful, and earth her song begin,
the round world keep high triumph and all that is therein;
let all things seen and unseen their notes of gladness blend,
for Christ the Lord is risen, our joy that has no end.
Prayers of Approach, Confession and Grace
We give thanks to You, O Ancient of Days,
for You give us new and everlasting life,
an eternal inheritance that will not wither or decay.
You reveal our salvation to us and bring us joy.
We give thanks to You, Risen Lord Jesus,
You are to us more precious than gold.
Even though we cannot see or touch You,
we believe and rely on You even as we doubt,
and long for that day when You will be fully revealed.
We give thanks to You, Most Holy Spirit,
for in You we find our joy and fulfilment;
in You our restless hearts find their repose,
our ancient hungers are satisfied, and we discover our salvation.
And yet, despite our thanks, O Trinity of Love,
we complain and grumble.
Despite the gifts You lavish up on us,
we demand more.
Despite the faith we have,
we find it easy to fail to trust in You.
Despite the satisfaction You bring,
we crave for more and plunder the earth and its people.
In our relentless hunger
we forget both the simple things of life,
and the simplicity of life itself.
Give us time, O God, to change.
In Your loving kindness help us turn our lives around.
In Your insistent love help us to
love and forgive ourselves,
love our neighbours,
and, in this,
rediscover our love for You. Amen.
People of God, hear the good news!
The Lord is your portion and cup;
the Lord gives you good counsel and is ever before you.
The Lord does not give you up nor abandon you to the Pit,
but instead shows you the path of life and fullness of joy.
So, accept the grace on offer and discover
everlasting pleasure in God’s service. Amen!
Prayer for Illumination
When our hearts and minds are fearfully locked from inside, O God,
slip in behind our defences and appear to us, as Your word,
ancient, yet ever new, is exposed, proclaimed, and lived.
That we may feel your peace, see your wounds, and believe. Amen
Reading 1 Peter 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith – being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Hymn All Creation Sings God’s Greatness (Psalm 16)
Jacque B Jones (b1950 USA) Benjamin Brody (b1975, USA) GIA Publications Ltd OneLicence No. # A-734713 performed by Benhamin Brody.
All creation sings God’s greatness,
praising works that God has done;
while the earth reflects God’s glory,
God’s vast deeds touch everyone.
Grateful souls cannot be silent;
in God’s presence we must sing.
To the source of all compassion
songs of gratitude we bring.
2 God who watches all the nations
hears the smallest
whispered prayer.
Through all trials and tribulations
we trust God and don’t despair.
3 God stands with us
in our troubles,
guides us then to safer grounds,
honing us like precious metals
while our thankful song resounds.
4 We bring gifts
of sweetest incense,
fragrance carries thankfulness
to the God
whose love surrounds us,
tells what words cannot express.
Reading St John 20:19-31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Hymn Now The Green Blade Riseth
John Macleod Campbell Crum (1872–1958)
© Oxford University Press OneLicence No. # A-734713
Performed by Paulo Castro and Danielle Hartman
Now the green blade rises
from the buried grain,
wheat that in dark earth
many days has lain;
Love lives again, that
with the dead has been:
Love is come again,
like wheat that springs up green.
2 In the grave they laid him,
Love whom we had slain,
thinking that never
he would wake again,
laid in the earth like
grain that sleeps unseen:
3 Forth he came at Easter,
like the risen grain,
he that for the three days
in the grave had lain,
quick from the dead
my risen Lord is seen:
4 When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
thy touch can call us
back to life again,
fields of our hearts that
dead and bare have been:
We live in gloomy worrying times with the rise of new style dictators, with some very old agendas, the cracking of alliances that have helped keep Europe and the West peaceful for 70 years or so, responses to globalisation which threaten our economic certainties, and the changing of our domestic politics in ways which make the future look very uncertain. Our immediate future, even our middle term future looks worrying. Costs rise higher than benefits, wages or pensions, climate change brings a level of uncertainty which means “business as usual” can’t go on. It’s easy to get gloomy and find hope evaporating like the morning due – even if politicians seek to offer it to us. Yet despite the gloom we’re in the Easter season where hope fills our services, prayers, readings and hymns. It’s like we’re between two realities – that which is going on around us and that which we’re told is to come. But we’re used to that; every time we pray the Lord’s prayer we long for the coming Kingdom even as we pray for bread and forgiveness now.
Hope fills our first reading from I Peter even though it was written in very gloomy times. The letter offers encouragement to Christians enduring persecution that had become part of the Roman response to this new religious movement. The current suffering is “just for a little while” and allows the faith of the church to be tested. The key sentence is “Although you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” This sentence links our experience with that of those early Christians who hadn’t, themselves, encountered Jesus in the flesh but, like us, loved and served him. This links with our Gospel reading where Jesus commented “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
The resurrection is the key moment in history where all is made new but “for a short time” the old unrenewed world lingers – seen then in the persecution and suffering of the Early Church and seen now in current places of persecution, in the sin, oppression, and eco-suicide seen in our world. Yet the writer asserts God has given us a new hope in Jesus’ resurrection. In the past they have been given a new birth and living hope, in the future they are assured of an eternal inheritance even if, in the present, there is suffering.
This three-directional way of looking at things is useful to us even if it seems odd to think about assurance in persecution as giving us hope now as, in the West at least, the Church suffers not persecution but indifference and suffering of its own making. We can look back to the dawn of the Church, to the history of each of our congregations and see signs of hope as in every age God has called forth people to worship Him and covenant together to proclaim the coming Kingdom. Those stories of faith can enrich our own even if, in the present, the immediate future might be grim. Our churches struggle, our society teeters as authoritarian leaders come to the fore again, and the increasing disparity between rich and poor is a huge threat to our stability and mutual flourishing. These are all things which are in the ether as we seek to be faithful Christians in a difficult age, yet our ultimate future is assured. Navigating the present well means having our hope in God’s future.
Our Psalmist, whose words we sung in metrical form earlier, begins asking for protection and confesses absolute dependence on God. The poet aligns herself with those who also have devoted themselves to God in a faithful community standing in contrast to another unfaithful violent community and compares and contrasts these two groups. As a refugee seeks protection and security so does the Psalmist – finding them in God’s love and care. The relationship between God and the poet is one of mutual faithfulness; God’s fidelity to the Psalmist is reflected in her faithfulness towards God. As in our reading from 1 Peter where a faithful community is encouraged to remember God’s own fidelity, here God is thanked for His love, protection and blessing. God’s loving kindness is for all who, like the Psalmist, put their trust in divine providence. At Easter we remember that God’s loving kindness extends beyond the grave and that loving kindness sustains in our present gloom and gives hope for the future.
Protestant Christians, disliking the crucifix as a symbol, use the empty cross or the empty tomb as symbols of hope, new life and Easter. For the disciples gathered together in today’s Gospel reading, however, these were symbols of confusion and trauma. Unable to believe Mary Magdalene’s witness, the empty tomb was not so much a sign of resurrection but of disappointment and fear. Had their Lord’s body been taken and defiled? Would the authorities come after them next? Locked down together one can imagine their fears making them spiral – no wonder Jesus’ first words were of peace. Breathing himself into them, he commissioned them for the work of declaring forgiveness and preaching his gospel to a wounded and traumatised world.
Thomas, unsurprisingly, doesn’t believe his friends – they’d not believed Mary either. For Thomas seeing is believing yet for us we have to believe without seeing. This means that we must make a leap of faith and trust not with our senses, not with science, not with rationalism but with faith.
- This is the faith that healing will come.
- This is the faith that justice will prevail.
- This is the faith that God’s ultimate future will be one of blessing contrasting with the disasters on our immediate horizon.
The Catholic practice of having a crucifix in churches has something to offer here. In the wounded body of Christ we find new life and transformation. Life is found in the excruciating agony of death. Peace is found in torture’s torment. Healing is found in scars.
This offers hope for the Church in the West. Congregations die and the faith that sustained generations of believers seems to be extinguished in an indifferent world trapped by our fall where governments lay entangled by pride, and nature is polluted by greed. Yet Easter tells us to find new life in odd places – a cemetery for instance! New life leads to new hope. Shoots of life appear on the coldest days, plants appear through the snow. Even in places where the Church is in decline there is hope; new expressions of Church seek to authentically follow God’s call and to engage with the Christian tradition. People still seek us out and find a love that will not let them go. There’s hope for those who believe that things will be different, that God’s kingdom still breaks in, that in death we find new life.
Our immediate future, even our middle term future looks worrying but our passages today assure us of a long term ultimate future which is in God’s hands. As the Reformed we believe we should let God be God. That means to put our ultimate trust in God and God’s providence – not in some naïve fatalistic way, but in a deep and secure trust that, despite the vicissitudes and crises of our time, God’s reign will come. As the writer of 1 Peter puts it we have an “inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
We look to the future with some trepidation even as we look to our final destiny with secure and lasting hope. Hope needs to be nurtured, it needs to be sustained by looking beyond the present and immediate future to the bigger picture – where our inheritance awaits and is being protected even from the wannabe dictators, cracked alliances, changing economic realities, and uncertain politics. Jesus’ assurance that those who believe but don’t see offers us hope. So, this Easteride, look up beyond our crises, let God banish our doom and doubt as we shout the praise of a crucified King.
Let’s pray:
We praise You, Risen Lord Jesus,
for the peace you bring,
for the hope you give,
for the victory you won.
Help us to raise our eyes above our current times,
and look to You and Your coming Kingdom,
where every tear shall be wiped away,
and where you shall dwell with us,
renewing all of creation. Amen.
Hymn Away With Gloom, Away With Doubt
Edward Shillito (1872–1948) Public Domain Sung by the choir of First Presbyterian Church, Encino, Paul Pitman, Accompanist
Away with gloom,
away with doubt,
with all the morning stars we sing;
with all the people
of God we shout
the praises of a King,
Alleluia, alleluia,
of our returning King.
2 Away with death,
and welcome life;
in him we died and live again:
and welcome peace,
away with strife,
for he returns to reign.
Alleluia, alleluia,
the Crucified shall reign.
and welcome spring; and everywhere let merry songs be sung,
Alleluia, alleluia, for such a King be sung.
Affirmation of Faith
We sing to our Lord a new song;
we sing in our world a sure hope:
God loves this world, called it into being,
renews it through Jesus Christ, and governs it by the Spirit.
God is the world’s true hope.
We know Christ to be our only hope.
We have enmeshed our world in a realm of sin, rebelled against God,
accepted inhuman oppression of humanity, and even crucified God’s son.
God’s world has been trapped by our fall,
governments entangled by pride, and nature polluted by greed.
Our only hope is Jesus Christ.
After we refused to live in God’s image,
Jesus was born of the virgin Mary,
sharing our genes and our instincts,
entering our culture, speaking our language,
fulfilling the law of our God.
Our only hope is Jesus Christ.
In His death, the justice of God is established;
and forgiveness of sin is proclaimed.
On the day of the resurrection,
the tomb was empty; His disciples saw Him;
death was defeated; new life had come.
God’s purpose for the world was sealed.
God will renew the world through Jesus,
who will put all unrighteousness out,
purify the works of human hands,
and perfect their fellowship in divine love.
Christ will wipe away every tear; death shall be no more.
There will be a new heaven and a new earth,
and all creation will be filled with God’s glory. Amen
Intercessions
O Most High,
we bring our prayers to You for our world, the Church, and ourselves.
We pray for places where hope runs thin,
where warfare, famine, disease and violence run rife…
pause
Rise up, O Most High, a people of hope,
that looks beyond the crises of our time
to see and work for the imperishable, undefiled, and unfading hope
that You bring.
God, in your mercy hear our prayer.
Risen Lord Jesus,
we pray for the Church
persecuted and ignored,
glorious and sinful,
serving and shameful.
pause
Rise up, O Risen Lord, a hopeful Church,
that looks beyond itself, its problems, and its crises,
to see its imperishable, undefiled, and unfading mission
that You give.
God, in your mercy hear our prayer.
O Holy Spirit,
we bring to You ourselves and those we love.
We pray for those in any kind of need,
those in the news, and those forgotten about;
those who are hungry and destitute, and those who have too much;
victims of crime and those who harm others.
pause
We pray for those in need in our own community
pause
We pray for those we love who are ill in mind, body, or spirit…
pause
We pray for ourselves….
pause
Rise up, Most Holy Spirit, hope in our hearts
that we may remember our ultimate future is imperishable, undefiled, unfading and in your hands alone.
God, in your mercy hear our prayer.
As our saviour taught us, so we pray…Our Father…
Offertory
We are a people of hope! To have faith is to have hope that the way things are can change, that the ultimate future given to us by God is secure even as we live in an evermore insecure world. One of the certainties of our world is that we need to give; we give to support the causes and charities which are dear to us, we give to counter the consumerism that poisons our souls and we give to make a difference. We give in so many ways, through offering our time, talents, and treasure and so, at this point in our worship we give thanks for all that has been given. Let us pray:
God of hope, we thank You for these gifts,
for the love, time, and commitment they represent,
and for the ministry they will fund.
Keep us ever hopeful, and ever trusting in Your good future, Amen.
Hymn The Strife Is O’er, The Battle Done
Symphonia Sirenum Selectarum (1695 Cologne), Francis Pott (1832-1909) sung by a 100 voice Mass Choir for Classic Hymns album at St Andrew’s Kirk, Chenai and used with their kind permission
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
The strife is o’er,
the battle done;
now is the Victor’s triumph won;
O let the song of praise be sung;
Alleluia!
2 Death’s mightiest powers
have done their worst,
and Jesus hath his foes dispersed;
let shouts of praise and joy outburst:
Alleluia!
3 On the third morn
he rose again
glorious in majesty to reign;
O let us swell
the joyful strain:
Alleluia!
4 Lord, by the stripes
which wounded Thee,
from death’s dread sting
Thy servants free;
that we may live and sing to Thee.
Alleluia!
Blessing
May the One who knew you since before the foundations of the world,
the One whose love for you drove Him to the Cross,
the One who offers you hope amidst the gloom,
hold you, love you and give you hope.
And the blessing of Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
be amongst you and remain with you,
now and always, Amen.