Easter Sunday Worship 9 April 2023

 
Today’s service is led by the Revd Paul Whittle 
 

Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, thou earth reply, Alleluia!

Christ is alive! Let Christians sing.
The cross stands empty to the sky.
Let streets and homes 
with praises ring.
Love, drowned in death, 
shall never die.
 
Christ is alive! No longer bound
to distant years in Palestine,
but saving, healing, 
here and now,
and touching every place and time.
 
In every insult, rift and war,
where colour, scorn 
or wealth divide,
Christ suffers still, 
yet loves the more,
and lives, where even hope has died.
 
Women and men, 
in age and youth,
can feel the Spirit, hear the call,
and find the way, the life, the truth,
revealed in Jesus, freed for all.

Christ is alive, and comes to bring good  
to this and every age,
till earth and sky and ocean ring with joy,
with justice, love and praise.
 
Sermon
 
‘Mary!’ Have you ever jumped when somebody has unexpectedly said your name? Have you ever had a meeting where someone has unexpectedly recognised you?  About a couple of years ago, early in my time as Moderator of the National Synod of Scotland, I was in an online meeting of Scottish church leaders, on zoom, when a private message came in the chat – there was a Paul Whittle in my class at Paisley Grammar School.  And, yes, George Whyte, then principal clerk to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was in my registration class at Paisley Grammar School. Indeed, as Whittle and Whyte, in a day when boys sat alphabetically by surname, not only were we in the same class, but we were often in adjacent seats.  It was about 49 years since we had seen each other, and I can claim the slightly more unusual surname as a valid reason why he recognised me first.
For Mary, we don’t know exactly how long it was since she had seen Jesus, but it was probably just a few days. But what a lot had happened in those few days, indeed in many ways more than in the 49 years between George and my days as schoolboys and as church leaders.
 
For Mary, and the others, it had all ended on Friday. The bottom had fallen out of her world these last few days. She had gone through a devastating experience. It had been so good. For once she had felt that she belonged. Being part of the wider group of Jesus’ disciples had left her excited, hopeful, valued.  She thought, as they all did, that this was the beginning of something great. God was intervening in human history. 
 
Things were going to be different. Mary had enjoyed listening to Jesus, the stories he told, the insights he offered. She had marvelled at his engagement with all sorts of folk, not least the many times when he brought healing. She had seen the crowds come to be part of this great adventure. And then it was as though the whole world had crashed in on her. A few short days had seen Jesus arrested, tried, though rather a sham of a trial, and then, horror of horrors, crucified. Nothing made any sense any more. She was inconsolable. There wasn’t really anything that could be done, but it seemed only right to try and offer some last offices of love, to take some spices to anoint his body. 
 
But even that hadn’t worked out. It was all going wrong. The body wasn’t there. She could only think that it had been stolen. It all added to her sense of devastation. They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.
 
Mary shares the news with Peter and another – unnamed – disciple who immediately rush to the tomb to see for themselves. Peter goes in first. His focus is on the linen wrappings, a point that John makes in writing his gospel to stress that they have been discarded because they are no longer needed. Someone who is alive does not need the wrappings of the deceased. There is an interesting contrast with the story of Lazarus who emerges from his tomb still wearing his graveclothes, and conjuring up for us a rather strange picture. The implication is that these graveclothes can be removed from Lazarus, for now – but it’s for now. The difference in what happens with Jesus is that they are completely left behind because they are irrelevant. The risen Jesus does not need graveclothes – and is not going to.  
 
Peter is followed by his colleague disciple. It is interesting to note that it is actually the other disciple who got to the tomb first, but clearly wasn’t sure what to do, so paused at the entrance to the tomb. Peter, impetuous as ever, doesn’t hesitate but goes straight in. The other disciple then does the same and enters the tomb – and then we have a fascinating little comment: he saw and believed. The question though is: just what did he believe? In the next sentence we are told that they didn’t yet understand about the resurrection. It would seem that the claim here of this disciple is not exactly that Jesus is risen, but that Jesus is ascended, or at least in the process of that new, or recovered, way of being with God.
 
And, as John’s telling of the fantastic Easter good news continues, that all fits. The two disciples go off home, probably because they don’t know what else to do. I wonder if we sometimes miss something special because we go off somewhere because we don’t know what else to do.
 
I can’t help wishing that they had stayed a bit longer with Mary, simply because they would then have shared the amazing experience that came next for her. Hardly able to see through her tears, she first looks into the tomb and sees two angels, two messengers who ask why she is crying. As she turns, having given her explanation, there is someone else in the garden. She assumes it’s the gardener. That’s reasonable – and maybe, just maybe, he’s the one who has moved the body, and so she asks that question.
 
But what happens next is beyond her wildest dreams as Jesus speaks her name. Mary! He didn’t need to tell her who he was then. She knew that voice. Teacher! Rabbouni! And, just to link with our little comment about the ascension and the likely thinking of the disciple who ran faster than Peter to get to the tomb, the explanation that Jesus gives Mary is not about resurrection, though that is certainly involved, but about ascension. Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ 
 
The turning-point was surely when Jesus spoke Mary’s name. I wonder what is the turning-point for you and me this Easter and what we are going to do with what God might want to say to us? I am sure that Mary wanted to give Jesus a hug. That would be a natural response. But it wasn’t for that moment. And that’s why Jesus says do not hold on to meand explains just a little of the miracle of the moment. And Mary’s task? To share the good news. To tell what she has experienced. I have seen the Lord. And so, as Archbishop William Temple says in his commentary on John’s Gospel: “This forgiven sinner becomes the messenger of Christ to the apostles.” What a reminder that God uses us, yes, even us. May we, in word and action, this Easter and always, proclaim that Jesus is risen!
 
Hymn    Now The Green Blade Rises
John Macleod Campbell Crum 1872 – 1958 © Oxford University Press, sung by the Smoke Fairies
 

Now the green blade riseth 
from the buried grain, 
wheat that in the dark earth 
many days had lain; 
love lives again, that 
with the dead has been,
Love is come again, like 
wheat that springeth green. 
 
In the grave they laid him, 
Love whom hate had slain, 
thinking that never 
he would awake again,
laid in the earth like 
grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, 
like wheat that springeth green. 

Forth he came in quiet, 
like the risen grain,
he that for three days 
in the grave had lain; 
quick from the dead 
the risen Christ is seen:
Love is come again, like 
wheat that springeth green. 
 
When our hearts are wintry, 
grieving, or in pain, 
Christ’s touch can call us 
back to life again,
fields of our hearts that 
dead and bare have been: 
Love is come again, like 
wheat that springeth green.

Jesus invites his saints to meet around his board;
here pardoned rebels sit, and hold communion with their Lord.
For food he gives his flesh, He bids us drink his blood;
amazing favour, matchless grace of our descending God!
 
This holy bread and wine maintains our fainting breath,
by union with our living Lord, and interest in His death.
Our heavenly Father calls Christ and His members one:
we the young children of His love, and He the first-born Son.

We are but several parts of the same broken bread;
our body has its several limbs, but Jesus is the Head.
Let all our powers be joined His glorious name to raise;
pleasure and love fill every mind and every voice be praise.
 
Holy Communion 
 
Introduction
 
As we come to Communion, I remind you that it is far more about what God does, than the elements we use.  As I remember, I once celebrated Communion with custard creams and coke.  Certainly, a biscuit, as easily as a piece of bread, can become a sacrament, a cup of water or tea a remembrance of God’s redeeming love.
 
Invitation
 
For Holy Communion today, I invite you to lend Christ your table. That was how it was in the days that Jesus lived on this earth. He borrowed the tables of Zacchaeus, of Mary. Martha and Lazarus, of the owner of an upper room, of a couple who lived in Emmaus,  and with that last, at their table, he took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to them, and then their eyes were opened. So, in your many kitchens, and living rooms, rest your hands lightly upon these elements which we set aside today to be a sacrament. 
 
Prayer of Thanksgiving
 
Let us ask God’s blessing upon them.  Let us pray.
 
Gentle Redeemer, send your Spirit of life and love, power and blessing upon every table where your child shares elements of Communion, that this Bread may be broken and gathered in love and this Cup poured out to give hope to all.   Risen Christ, live in us, that we may live in you. Breathe in us, that we may breathe in you. God of all those who are scattered and broken, you call us to wholeness. We thank you for the love demonstrated in giving your son, that we might be united with you. We thank you that in Christ you enter into the pain, uncertainty, and fear of our world; and that your arms are open in loving embrace, gathering us to you as a mother hen gathers her brood under her wing, as a shepherd gathers his flock. We thank you for bread and wine, symbols and signs for us today, of your faithfulness to your people through all generations. Loving God, whatever our elements of communion today, bless them, and if we are partaking of bread, or something like it, of wine, or something like it, or if we are not, bless us all.  Sustain us.  Nourish us with your grace.  In Jesus’ Name we ask it.  Amen.
 
The Institution
 
We remember that Paul the apostle wrote letters to congregations throughout places  we now call Greece, Turkey and Macedonia, and they were the first “remote” worship resources. Our digital service has a long heritage.  The Communion words sent to the church at Corinth were these:
 
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. 
 
The Sharing
 
Let us in our many places receive the gift of God, the Bread of Heaven.
The Body of Christ is the Bread of life.  As you eat, remember that.   
 
Let us in our many places receive the gift of God, the Cup of Blessing.
We are one in Christ in the cup we share.  Let us drink thankfully.  …..
 
Post-Communion Prayer
 
Spirit of Christ, you have blessed our tables and our lives. 
May the eating of this Bread give us courage to speak faith and act love, 
not only in church sanctuaries, but in your precious world, 
and may the drinking of this Cup renew our hope. 
Wrap your hopeful presence around all whose bodies, spirits and hearts need healing, and let us become your compassion and safe refuge. Amen
 
Hymn    Thine be the Glory  
Edmond Budry (1904) BBC Songs of Praise
 

Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.
 
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.
 
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.

Blessing
 
Be blessed. Have hope. Know that despite our failures, despite our disappointments, despite our brokenness, Jesus is risen. The joy of the Lord be your strength. And the blessing of God Almighty, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, be with each one of you, now and always.  Amen. 

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