Sundays at All Hallows (Sunday, April 9, 2023)

Welcome to Sundays at All Hallows. This Sunday is a very special Sunday for Christians around the world. Different Christian traditions have different names for this Sunday—Easter Sunday, Pascha, Resurrection Sunday, and some Christian traditions observe this Sunday on a different Sunday from this particular Sunday in April, But they all do one thing in common on this Sunday: They celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, his victory over death.

DRAWING NEAR TO GOD

Christ is risen, alleluia!
The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia!

Gathering Song:
Open this link in a new tab to hear the anonymous Latin hymn, “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today.”

1 Jesus Christ is ris'n today, Alleluia!
our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!
suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!

2 Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
unto Christ, our heav'nly King, Alleluia!
who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!
sinners to redeem and save. Alleluia!

3 But the pains which he endured, Alleluia!
our salvation have procured; Alleluia!
now above the sky he's King, Alleluia!
where the angels ever sing. Alleluia!

4 Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!
praise eternal as his love; Alleluia!
praise him, all ye heav'nly host, Alleluia!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Alleluia!

Songs of Praise:
Open this link in a new tab to hear “Glory to God in the Highest.”

Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.

Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.

Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father,
we worship you,
We give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory.

Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.

Lord Jesus Christ, Only Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sins of the world:
have mercy on us; have mercy on us
you are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer, receive our prayer.

Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.

For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to God’s people on earth.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Bernadette Farrell’s
“We Sing Your Glory.” 

Round
[1] We sing your glory, sing your praise.
[2] We sing your glory, sing your praise.
[3] We sing your glory, sing your glory.
[4] Glory, glory and praise.

The Lord be with you.
The Lord bless you.

Let us pray.

Silence

Glorious Lord of Life,
we praise you,
that by the mighty resurrection of your Son,
you have delivered us from sin and death
and made your whole creation new;
grant that we who celebrate with joy
Christ’s rising from the dead,
may be raised from the death of sin
to the life of righteousness;
for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever.
Amen.

HEARING GOD’S WORD

A reading from The Acts of the Apostles (Acts 10:34–43)

Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right. This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching his message of baptism. And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

“And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross,* but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.”

Silence

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Bernadette Farrell’s “Alleluia, Word of God.”

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

1 Word of God, Jesus Christ, live within our hearts:
Open our eyes, open our minds, to you today.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

*2 Word of God, Jesus Christ, show us how to live:
Challenge your church, call us to rise with you today.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

3 Word of God, Jesus Christ, sharper than a sword:
Enter our lives, strike through our comfort and our fear.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

*Omitted on the video.

The Holy Gospel according to John. (John 20:1–18)
Praise and glory to God.

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed—for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.

Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

“Mary!” Jesus said.

She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go and find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.

Silence

This is the Gospel of Christ.
Praise to Christ, the Word.

What Difference Does Jesus’ Resurrection Make?

Did you know that two-thirds of US adults, 66%, believe that Jesus rose from the dead on the first Easter Sunday, according a 2022 State of Theology Study, jointly conducted by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research? They believe that the New Testament accounts of his physical resurrections are completely accurate. Less than a quarter, 23%, disagree. 11% say that they are not sure.

Younger Americans are the least likely age group to say they believe in a historical resurrection, according to the same study. However, 58% of those aged 18 to 34, a healthy number, accept it as a fact.

If you are one of the sceptics or one of those who is uncertain, and you are expecting me to try to convince you that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead, you will be disappointed. The purpose of this talk is not to present arguments for the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Rather I propose to address something else that this survey revealed. Many Americans who believe that Jesus rose from the dead, do not see what difference it makes. They don’t make a connection between Jesus’ resurrection and their daily lives.

Whatever your view of Jesus’ resurrection, I invite you to consider with me the implications of his resurrection if it did indeed happen as three out of every five Americans believe.

During his earthly ministry Jesus made a number of claims. These claims were the primary reason that the Pharisees and the teachers of the religious law sought to kill him. They are claims that have significant implications for everyone, not just for those who identify themselves as Christians. While Jesus took issue with their teachings and practices, exposed their hypocrisy; their lack of kindness and forgiveness toward others, and their attention-seeking and self-promotion; and stole the limelight from them, what upset them the most was Jesus’ identification of himself with God. It was his claim to be the unique Son of God and divine, for which the religious authorities would condemn him to death. It was Jesus’ claim to be Lord, even over the Sabbath.

Jesus not only made this claim, but he also offered proof of it with his performance of a variety of miracles, turning water into wine, healing the sick and the disabled, expelling demons, feeding a multitude, and raising the dead. He commanded the wind and the waves and walked on the surface of the sea.

The New Testament tells us that people reacted to Jesus one of three ways. While they may not have fully understood who he was, they like Nicodemus who visited him late at night, they recognized him as someone very special—in Nicodemus’s words, “a man come from God.” Or they followed him for a time for their own personal advantage. Or they rejected him and his claims and came up with explanations of their own for his miracles, something that we may do ourselves. Some Pharisees and teachers of the law claimed that Jesus was in league with the devil. If we think about it, we do the same thing today. We react to Jesus in one of these three ways.

Jesus’ resurrection was a “game changer” as one writer puts it. It cast Jesus’ claims, his message, his promises, his teaching, his example, and his miracles in an entirely different light.

As well as claiming to be one with God, Jesus also claimed his words, his message and his teaching, were not his own. They were the Father’s. In other words, they were God’s words. Jesus claimed to be able to forgive sins.

Jesus told his disciples on a number of occasions that he would be killed but would be raised from the dead. He told them that he would one day return but not as the savior of the world but as the judge of the living and the dead. As I have already noted, he claimed to be Lord over even the Sabbath.

When he made this claim, Jesus was not claiming to be some earthly ruler, as the Jews had envisioned the promised Messiah, but the Lord of all.

The message that Jesus proclaimed was one of repentance: he called upon people to turn from their sins and to turn to God.

Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples, a promise which the New Testament tells us he kept, and to be with his disciples to the end of the age.

In his teaching Jesus emphasized loving God and loving others, even those who hate us and who wish or do us harm. He gave his disciples a new commandment to love one another, and he commanded them to tell others about him, form them into disciples, baptize them, and instruct them in everything that he commanded.

What else Jesus taught is recorded in the four Gospels, which comprise the first four books of the New Testament.

When I consider what is written there, I see a strong connection between Jesus’ resurrection and our daily lives. Jesus’ resurrection is a vindication of everything he said and did.

In the Gospels Jesus makes it quite clear. We cannot follow him for our own personal advantage as some have tried in the past. As Jesus said, why do you call me Lord when you don’t do what I tell you?” We really have only the option of genuinely following Jesus as a disciple or rejecting him. It is not a decision to be made lightly or on the spur of the moment.

The place to start is the Gospels. You cannot decide on whether you are going to follow Jesus until you get to know him. The Gospels are where we will meet him. This is true for all of us, not just seekers wanting to learn more about Jesus but also for old-timers, those who have been reading their Bibles and going to church for a long time.

The Gospels can be compared with a stained-glass window. When it is dark outside, the window may not catch the eye. But when the sun shines through the glass, it scintillates with color. The Holy Spirit can do the same thing with the Gospels.

Before you read a passage from the Gospels, ask the Holy Spirit to shed light on the passage and to bring it to life. Read the passage slowly and meditatively out loud. Ask the Holy Spirit to enable you to discern the truths and principles contained in the passage and to take them to heart and to apply them to your own life. Do this for a few minutes every day.

You cannot become friends with someone unless you spend time with them and get to know them. We cannot put our fingers in the holes in his hands or the wound in his side, but the risen Jesus will make himself known to us if we earnestly seek him.

Silence

Song of Response:
Open this link in a new tab to hear John Macleod Campbell Crum’s “Now the Green Blade Rises.”

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love has come again, like wheat that springeth green.

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:
Love has 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 has 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 has come again, like wheat that springeth green.

PRAYING FOR GOD’S WORLD

Concerns and Prayers
A short pause for silent prayer may be made after each response. The bidding in brackets [ ] may be omitted.

Let us implore the all-holy and ever-blessed Trinity to show mercy and grace to us and to all people.

O God the Father, have mercy upon us:
O God the Father, have mercy upon us.
O God the Son, have mercy upon us:
O God the Son, have mercy upon us.
O God the Holy Spirit, have mercy upon us:
O God the Holy Spirit, have mercy upon us.

Stretch out your hand upon us, O Lord, and save us; raise us up and defend us.

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for the peace that comes from above, and for the salvation of our souls.

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for the peace of the whole world, and for the welfare and unity of the Church of God.

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for the conversion of those who do not yet believe or have fallen into error.

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for our country, for this place [or city], for this district, and for all that live in it.

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for all Christian people throughout the world.

Lord, have mercy.

[Let us pray for all Christian princes and governors, especially our Sovereign Lord, King Charles.]

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for all in authority in this land, especially those in this county [or city or place].

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for all who minister in Christ's Church, especially for N. our pastor.

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for all who are traveling by land, sea, or air.

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for steadfastness in the faith for our brothers and sisters in other lands.

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for all who are sick or suffering, in mind, body, or state of life.

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for quiet, peaceful lives, free from temptation and sin, and for a joyful reunion with all our loved ones in heaven at life’s end.

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray that we may faithfully represent Christ in the world and to the world.

Lord, have mercy.

Let us pray for the faithful departed.

Lord, have mercy.

(Other biddings may be added here.)

Lord, you have given us grace to agree in these prayers, and you have promised that when two or three ask together in your name you will grant their requests. Fulfil now, Lord, our desires and prayers as may be best for us. Grant us in this life, knowledge of your truth and in the age to come, life eternal. Amen.

And now as our Savior Christ taught us, we are bold to say:

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

Closing Song:
Open this link in a new tab to hear Donald Fishel’s “Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks (Alleluia No 1).”

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

Alleluia alleluia
Give thanks to the Risen Lord
Alleluia alleluia
Give praise to His Name

2 Spread the good news o'er all the earth
Jesus has died and has risen

Alleluia alleluia
Give thanks to the Risen Lord
Alleluia alleluia
Give praise to His Name

3 We have been crucified with Christ
Now we shall live forever

Alleluia alleluia
Give thanks to the Risen Lord
Alleluia alleluia
Give praise to His Name

4 God has proclaimed his gracious gift
Life eternal for all who believe

Alleluia alleluia
Give thanks to the Risen Lord
Alleluia alleluia
Give praise to His Name

5 Come let us praise the Living God
Joyfully sing to our Savior

Alleluia alleluia
Give thanks to the Risen Lord
Alleluia alleluia
Give praise to His Name

Benediction:
The God of peace,
who by the blood of the eternal covenant
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ,
that great shepherd of the sheep,
make us perfect in every good work;
working in us that which is pleasing and good,
and the blessing of God almighty, 

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 

be with us and remain with us
for ever. Amen.