KILRENNY PARISH CHURCH

Transcript of Service at Kilrenny Parish Church

Sunday 4^th April: Easter Sunday

Yopu Tube link: https://youtu.be/hGv3akwINyk    

Call to Worship

The long wait is over

Pause

The tomb is empty

Pause

The grave clothes folded

Pause

The alleluias are alive,

Jesus is risen

Happy Easter my friends

 

Leader: Christ is Risen!

All: He is Risen today!

 

If you haven’t already,

please feel able to wish those around you

a Happy Easter Day.

Hymn CH 212                  Morning has broken

 

 

Opening Prayer and “The Lord’s Prayer”

Risen Lord,

we are the Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.

We are the Easter people come to worship,

released from tombs of pain and doubt and fear and death

into the freedom of this new day,

and its promise of hope fulfilled.

 

We are the Easter people,

Emerging into the brightness of faith,

Blinking, questioning, wondering, hoping.

Come to us, into the garden of our lives,

and touch all that is barren, and wasted and dried

with Your healing hand.

 

 

 

Forgive our half-lived lives,

our broken promises, and our failed kindness.

Call to us by our name,

that we might turn from all that limits and burdens us,

and lift us up into forgiveness and freedom.

 

Open the gateways of our hearts and minds,

and call us out into Your world to be

embraced by Your unfailing and renewing mercy.

Today, in silence, prayer and song,

may we encounter Jesus and His grace.

For we are the Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.

Through Jesus Christ our risen Lord.

 

And now, we join our voices together in the Prayer Jesus taught us:

 

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done;

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for ever

Amen.

 

Song:                              “I walked into the Garden”

 

Reading: John 20: 1 - 18      

The Empty Tomb

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away from the entrance.  She went running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!”

Then Peter and the other disciple went to the tomb.  The two of them were running, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and reached the tomb first.  He bent over and saw the linen cloths, but he did not go in.  Behind him came Simon Peter, and he went straight into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there and the cloth which had been around Jesus' head. It was not lying with the linen cloths but was rolled up by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in; he saw and believed. (They still did not understand the scripture which said that he must rise from death.)  Then the disciples went back home.

Mary stood crying outside the tomb. While she was still crying, she bent over and looked in the tomb and saw two angels there dressed in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and the other at the feet.  “Woman, why are you crying?” they asked her.

She answered, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!”

Then she turned around and saw Jesus standing there; but she did not know that it was Jesus.  “Woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who is it that you are looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener, so she said to him, “If you took him away, sir, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

She turned toward him and said in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (This means “Teacher.”)

“Do not hold on to me,” Jesus told her, “because I have not yet gone back up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to him who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God.”

So Mary Magdalene went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and related to them what he had told her.

 

 

Hymn CH 410          Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!

 

Reading: 1 Corinthians 15: 1 – 11

And now I want to remind you, my friends, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm.  That is the gospel, the message that I preached to you. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it—unless it was for nothing that you believed.

I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures; that he appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles.  Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once, most of whom are still alive, although some have died.  Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles.

Last of all he appeared also to me—even though I am like someone whose birth was abnormal. For I am the least of all the apostles—I do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God's church.  But by God's grace I am what I am, and the grace that he gave me was not without effect. On the contrary, I have worked harder than any of the other apostles, although it was not really my own doing, but God's grace working with me.  So then, whether it came from me or from them, this is what we all preach, and this is what you believe.

 

Hymn CH 426                  All Heaven declares

 

Reflection: “Resurrection and Rebirth”

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in your sight Lord, amen.

 

What is there to be said about the mystery of the Resurrection that better and wiser preachers than myself haven’t said over the generations? Today is a day of great joy, our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the grave and lives! We cannot understand or indeed comprehend how this has happened, our minds cannot grasp the enormity of God’s power or His grace. In life, Jesus gave of Himself tirelessly, in death, God overcame all that the world could do to His Son and lifted Him body and Spirit from the depths of Hell to the glory of Heaven.

 

For us, this mystery is at the very centre of our faith as we know that the promise of eternal life with Jesus is available to all who believe.

 

The apostle Paul gives us an example of how his life was changed by his encounter with the Risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. The man who had persecuted the first Christians came face-to-face with Jesus and found his life was completely turned around: what had seemed impossible became reality in a moment. The man who held the coats as Stephen was stoned, became the most travelled, the most influential and the most celebrated of all the apostles.

 

His new beginning is a model for us all. As Paul himself tells us, he didn’t deserve to receive God’s grace, but he received it anyway, and impact of that moment has reverberated down the centuries to us. For God to choose Paul was both remarkable and inspired. Here was one of Christianity’s most vicious foes, a man determined to wipe out this new religion, who suddenly is faced with the reality of the Risen Lord and finds he cannot deny the power of Jesus.

 

New beginnings don’t just belong in the past. They aren’t just reserved for the Son of God or the apostle Paul; they are available to us all.

 

Today is a day of new beginnings. New hope is here, and we can all be part of it. The past year has been the hardest many of us can every remember, but we now have hope of a new beginning. As the weeks go by, we can see a future that allows each one of us a little more freedom and hope.

 

The Resurrection on Easter Sunday could have been the end of the story, but instead it was just the beginning of a new story that leads to us here today. Each one of us has the chance for that same new beginning as Paul experienced. Some of you will have had that experience of seeing your life turned around so dramatically that it is almost unrecognisable from what went before. Others will have seen a more gradual change in their lives, and that’s ok too, because most of us have come to faith that way. And it’s amazing when you look back, that the person you think has never changed, has changed out of all recognition.

 

Today, we celebrate the miracle of the empty Tomb and the Resurrection. We celebrate the mystery of Jesus’ Resurrection and we celebrate His power in our lives. We are able to do so every single Sunday, but this Sunday is special because today we take time to remember that mystery of rebirth and renewal.

 

We live with the hope of new life and the promise of eternal life, living with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

 

Amen.

 

 

Prayers of Dedication and Intercession

Lord Jesus Christ,

Come, stand among us,

that we might see You by our side,

that we might hear You call our names,

that we might now, on this heady day of joy,

be still, right now, and know that You are God.

We give You heartfelt thanks from our full hearts.

 

We bring to You our prayers this day

For a world needing Easter.

We pray for those locked in by hurt, and loneliness and grief.

We pray for those locked in by addiction, and hunger, and poverty.

 

We pray that we, inspired by Your Good News this Easter Day,

may bring our practical care and help to those who call out,

and to those who are silent,

and in our lived-out faith and love, show no partiality

as we bring what hope we can to those in need.

Today we pray for our nation, for our Queen,

and for those who shape the future of our country and our world.

 

In times of uncertainty make us confident with kindness.

In times of frustration, make us gentle with vision.

Help us to be the Easter people bringing light into our world.

 

Lord Jesus Christ,

for the Church we pray, that in our work and witness

we may be generous in our believing,

and joyful in our serving.

Help us to blend tradition and newness,

to keep our faith and work a power for good,

and a dynamic for reconciliation and renewal.

 

This Easter Day, this new beginning, this time of lifting up,

lift up our heads and hearts, lift up our eyes and voices,

for our Lord Jesus Christ is risen!

And there is hope!

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

 

 

Hymn CH 419                  Thine be the glory, Risen, conquering Son

 

Blessing

There is no longer silence

because everything is full of alleluias.

Go into the world

and seek out the patterns of life

across all gravestones.

Step into tomorrow

knowing it has already been taken care of

and find the one beside you

who has made it all possible.

Amen