Sundays at All Hallows (Sunday, April 16, 2022)
DRAWING NEAR TO GOD
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Invocation of the Holy Spirit:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Keith Getty and Phil Medeira’s “O Breath of God Come Fill This Place.”
O Breath of God come fill this place
Revive our hearts to know Your grace
And from our slumber make us rise
That we may know the risen Christ
O Word of God so clear and true
Renew our minds to trust in You
And give to us the Bread of Life
That we may know the risen Christ
O love of God so unrestrained
Refresh our souls in Jesus' name
Let us reflect Your sacrifice
That we may know the risen Christ
May God the Father God the Son
And God the Spirit make us one
In holiness let us unite
That we may know the risen Christ
In holiness let us unite
That we may know the risen Christ
In holiness let us unite
That we may know the risen Christ
Opening Hymn:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Natalie Sleeth's "God of Great and God of Small."
God of great and God of small,
God of one and God of all,
God of weak and God of strong,
God to whom all things belong,
Alleluia, alleluia, praise be to your name.
God of land and sky and sea,
God of life and destiny,
God of never ending power,
yet beside me every hour,
Alleluia, alleluia, praise be to your name.
God of silence, God of sound,
God in whom the lost are found,
God of day and darkest night,
God whose love turns wrong to right.
Alleluia, alleluia, praise be to your name.
God of heaven and God of earth,
God of death and God of birth,
God of now and days before,
God who reigns forevermore,
Alleluia, alleluia, praise be to your name.
Praise be to your name.
Song of Praise:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Geoff Bullock and David Reidy’s “Blessing, Honour, Glory.”
Blessing, honour, glory to the Lamb
Holy, righteous, worthy is the Lamb
Blessing, honour, glory to the Lamb
Holy, righteous, worthy is the Lamb
Death could not hold Him down
For He is risen
Seated upon the Throne
He is the Lamb of God
Blessing, honour, glory to the Lamb
Holy, righteous, worthy is the Lamb
Blessing, honour, glory to the Lamb
Holy, righteous, worthy is the Lamb
[Instrumental interlude]
Blessing, honour, glory to the Lamb
Holy, righteous, worthy is the Lamb
Death could not hold Him down
For He is risen
Seated upon the Throne
He is the Lamb of God
Death could not hold Him down
For He is risen
Seated upon the Throne
He is the Lamb of God
He is the Lamb of God
He is the Lamb of God
Blessing, honour, glory to the Lamb
The Lord be with you.
The Lord bless you.
Let us pray.
Silence
Almighty and eternal God,
the strength of those who believe
and the hope of those who doubt:
may we, who have not seen, have faith
and receive te fullness of Christ’ blessing;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
HEARING GOD’S WORD
A reading from the Gospel according to John (John 20: 19-31)
Alleluia! Hear the Gospel of Christ.
Glory to Christ our Saviour. Alleluia!
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded 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 by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.
Silence
Alleluia! This is the Gospel of Christ.
Praise to Christ our Lord. Alleluia!
The Blessing of Believing
Poor Thomas. His name would become synonymous with someone who refuses to believe without proof, someone who habitually doubts, a sceptic. I recall hearing the expression “doubting Thomas” when I was a child. “Don’t be such a doubting Thomas!” I do not hear it today like I heard it then. The expression appears to have fallen into disuse.
While Thomas refused to believe until he saw proof of Jesus’ resurrection for himself, he did believe when he was presented with evidence that Jesus had risen from the dead. Jesus would appear to Thomas and would invite Thomas to examine his hands and his side. Tradition tells that he not only believed but he carried the gospel to India where he started the Mar Thomas Church and suffered martyrdom.
What is key in this passage from the Gospel of John is not Thomas’ initial disbelief, his unwillingness to take his fellow apostles’ word that they had seen the risen Jesus, his insistence upon seeing the risen Jesus for himself. It is his reaction to the sudden appearance of the risen Jesus and Jesus’ response to that reaction.
How did Thomas react to Jesus’ appearance? He professed Jesus to be his Lord and God. This profession goes beyond that of Martha’s earlier in John’s Gospel when she acknowledged Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah, God’s Anointed One.
John does tell us what went through Thomas’ mind when he heard from his fellow apostles that Jesus had rise from the dead and they had seen him. We only can speculate. What John does tell us is that Thomas wanted tangible proof.
What was Jesus’ response to Thomas’s expression of belief? ““You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
Blessed are those who believe without the kind of evidence of his resurrection that Jesus presented to Thomas, appearing before Thomas as he did—alive, with nail wounds in his hands and a wound in his side from a spear thrust. They are indeed favored.
As John goes on to write, they through faith have life. In fact, this was the purpose of his Gospel that those who hear or read what is written in it will believe that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and that in that faith they may have life as his disciples.
What is the life which they have through faith. It is to know the only one true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. Knowing God and Jesus involves having more than a casual acquaintance with them. It means having a close, intimate relationship with the Father and the Son, by which we are united to them, and which will last throughout eternity. Those who have such a relationship are truly favored. It is a relationship which God graciously offers to all who would believe in Jesus. It is a relationship into which God enables us to enter by his grace, the power of the Holy Spirit, working in our lives.
Hymn of Response:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Henry Alford’s hymn, “We Walk by Faith, and Not by Sight.”
1 We walk by faith, and not by sight:
No gracious words we hear
of him who spoke as none e'er spoke,
but we believe him near.
2 We may not touch his hands and side,
nor follow where he trod;
yet in his promise we rejoice,
and cry, "My Lord and God!"
3 Help then, O Lord, our unbelief,
and may our faith abound;
to call on you when you are near.
and seek where you are found:
4 That when our life of faith is done
in realms of clearer light
We may behold you as you are
in full and endless sight.
5 We walk by faith, and not by sight:
No gracious words we hear
of him who spoke as none e'er spoke,
but we believe him near.
PRAYING FOR GOD’S WORLD
Concerns and Prayers
In the power of the resurrection
we offer our prayers to God.
Let us pray.
Remember, O Lord, in your love
the Church throughout the world . . .
those recently baptized and confirmed . . .
those who minister to others . . .
Silence
May your whole Church know your power
and be a sign that Christ is risen.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love the world you have made . . .
those who seek a fair and proper use of the
world’s resources . . .
those who strive for justice and peace
among the nations . . .
Silence
May the whole earth be transformed by mercy and rejoice in hope.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love those who suffer . . .
the victims of violence and injustice . . .
those who mourn . . .
Silence
May all in need find comfort, strength and freedom in the living Christ.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love those who have died:
those who have confessed the faith
and those whose faith is known to you
alone.
Silence
May all your children receive grace and light according to their needs and come at last to share with all the saints in life eternal.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Gracious God, we ask these prayers through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Saviour. Amen.
As our Saviour taught his disciples, we pray:
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 trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
GOING OUT TO SERVE
Let us pray.
Lord our God, we give you thanks
because you have delivered us from the
power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of
your Son.
Grant that, as by his resurrection
we are brought to new life,
so by his continued reign in us
we may be brought to eternal joy;
through the same Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Closing Hymn:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Tony Alonso’s “God Sends Us Forth.”
1 God sends us forth to love and serve,
make known God’s name and live God’s word,
mirror God’s love and reflect God’s grace
till all have seen the Savior’s face.
2 Nourished by Christ with word and bread;
burning with love and Spirit led,
sent to embrace the world in need,
to make God known in word and deed.
3 Called to the ones the world ignores—
hungry and thirsty, weak and poor—
let us be Christ who heals all pain
and comforts those with guilt or shame.
4 So, with the cross to lead the way,
let us go forth in peace today
till ev’ry end of earth has known
the saving love of God alone.
Benediction:
God the Father,
by whose glory Christ was raised from
the dead,
strengthen you/us
to walk with him in his risen life;
and may almighty God bless you/us,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
or
Christ our King
make you/us faithful and strong to do his will that you/we may reign with him in glory;
and may almighty God bless you/us,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Alleluia!
Go in joy and peace to love and serve
the Lord.
In the name of Christ. Alleluia!
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love the world you have made . . .
those who seek a fair and proper use of the
world’s resources . . .
those who strive for justice and peace
among the nations . . .
Silence
May the whole earth be transformed by mercy and rejoice in hope.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love those who suffer . . .
the victims of violence and injustice . . .
those who mourn . . .
Silence
May all in need find comfort, strength and freedom in the living Christ.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Remember in your love those who have died:
those who have confessed the faith
and those whose faith is known to you
alone.
Silence
May all your children receive grace and light according to their needs and come at last to share with all the saints in life eternal.
Lord of life,
hear us in your love.
Gracious God, we ask these prayers through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Saviour. Amen.
As our Saviour taught his disciples, we pray:
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 trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
GOING OUT TO SERVE
Let us pray.
Lord our God, we give you thanks
because you have delivered us from the
power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of
your Son.
Grant that, as by his resurrection
we are brought to new life,
so by his continued reign in us
we may be brought to eternal joy;
through the same Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Closing Hymn:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Tony Alonso’s “God Sends Us Forth.”
1 God sends us forth to love and serve,
make known God’s name and live God’s word,
mirror God’s love and reflect God’s grace
till all have seen the Savior’s face.
2 Nourished by Christ with word and bread;
burning with love and Spirit led,
sent to embrace the world in need,
to make God known in word and deed.
3 Called to the ones the world ignores—
hungry and thirsty, weak and poor—
let us be Christ who heals all pain
and comforts those with guilt or shame.
4 So, with the cross to lead the way,
let us go forth in peace today
till ev’ry end of earth has known
the saving love of God alone.
Benediction:
God the Father,
by whose glory Christ was raised from
the dead,
strengthen you/us
to walk with him in his risen life;
and may almighty God bless you/us,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
or
Christ our King
make you/us faithful and strong to do his will that you/we may reign with him in glory;
and may almighty God bless you/us,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Alleluia!
Go in joy and peace to love and serve
the Lord.
In the name of Christ. Alleluia!
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