Sunday service for 17 April 2022, Easter Sunday

17 April 2022, Easter Sunday
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri Peterson
Manse: 632143
Email: tpeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk

Prelude Music

Welcome

Call to Worship

Leader: Come, the light is dawning —
1: light of a new day,
2: light of possibility,
3: light of resurrection life!
Leader: Come, the light is dawning —
1: bit by bit, as our stories come together,
2: we begin to understand
3: God has done a new thing!
All: Christ is risen, he is risen indeed!

Prayer For New Life
Living God, we don’t know what to think,
for you are working beyond the realm of our imagination.
We aren’t sure what to expect —
if you can open the tomb and leave the shroud of death behind,
what else can you do?
We come to see what there is to see…
to sit in the garden of grief and wonder,
looking and listening,
for we trust that whatever we thought we knew,
there is more to your story.
We praise you this day,
for You have unbound us all from the power of death,
calling us by name to walk into new life with you.
Give us the grace to be present,
and witness to your love that overcomes all.
Amen.

Online hymn: On the Darkest Day, by Resound Worship
(in person Hymn 410: Jesus Christ is risen today)

in person only: Children’s Time
Flowers
Egg Hunt
Song: Hallelujah Christ is Risen

Reading: John 20.1-18 (NRSV)
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘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.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

For the word of God in Scripture
For the word of God among us
For the word of God within us
Thanks be to God.

Sermon: Dawn
We have been living with John’s gospel for months now, ever since Christmas. We have looked as Jesus revealed himself in miracles and in conversations, we have listened as Jesus called us like a shepherd calls the sheep. And after all that, the thing that really most stands out to me as I hear the story of resurrection morning today is all the assumptions people are making at every turn.

Mary Magdalene came to the grave, just as so many of us have done before, to pay respects to her friend, perhaps to have a talk or to leave some flowers or just to cry in peace. She assumed everything would be exactly as they had left it, two nights before.

When she saw the grave was open, she assumed the worst and ran back to tell the others, who raced each other to the cemetery…perhaps assuming that Mary was mistaken? But they found everything exactly as she had said. They saw the shroud lying there, and assumed there was nothing more to be done about this situation, so they went home.

But Mary stayed. She had come to the grave to weep, to talk, to grieve, and now there was just another layer of grief on top of everything else, so she still needed that space and time to just be there where her beloved friend was…or where he should have been, anyway.

Mary stayed by the grave when everyone else had gone home — just as the women had stayed by the cross when the others had run away. She stayed to keep watch, and to bear witness to the depths of despair the world can sometimes bring. She stayed in the moment, in the midst of confusion and hurt. She was present — the Hebrew word, you might recall from last autumn, is hineni, fully here and engaged. Not rushing off to the next thing, or covering up her feelings to pretend to be strong; not simply getting on with things or keeping busy to keep her mind off the horrible reality. She simply sat and wept at the injustice and the fear and the sadness.

And because she stayed, she saw.

She looked into the empty space, assuming she would see only what the men had seen before…just a pile of cloth. But instead she saw two angels sitting there — and she doesn’t even seem to have registered who they were. They sat there, one at either end of the empty space where the body ought to have been, watching over…what, exactly? When they spoke to her, she continued to assume someone had robbed the grave, and she turned away from these strangers who were in the place where her friend should have been, only to run into yet another stranger who asked her the same question.

Why are you weeping?

Well, because we assume that’s what you do in a cemetery. That’s what we do when we go to visit a grave, we weep. We remember the person we loved and all the things we shared, and we miss them and their presence in our everyday lives, and we feel a sense of that hole…that empty space in our hearts that we carefully watch over.

Through the veil of tears and assumptions, Mary could not see the truth in front of her. Only when Jesus called her name did Mary realise everything she thought she knew had changed. And immediately Jesus said: do not hold on to me!

Or perhaps, more to the point: do not hold on to your assumptions about me.

Don’t assume everything is going back to normal. That’s not what resurrection is about.

Do not hold on to how I used to be, Jesus says. Everything is different now that the power of death has been defeated. The old assumptions about how things work are no longer true.

Mary thought she was going to the cemetery to mark the end of the story, and it turned out that her grief instead marked a new beginning — not just in her life, but in the life of the world. Back in the very first chapter of John’s gospel, we heard that In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God…all things came into being through him, and what has come into being in him was LIFE — and the life was the light of all people.

That Word — life and light and love — called Mary by name, and she heard and knew the truth. The same living Word calls us by name, wherever we are, wherever we have stayed long enough to see. And then it says to us: don’t let your dreams be too small. Don’t let your assumptions cloud your vision. Don’t box me in with your ideas and traditions. Don’t hold on to the way things used to be, because God is doing a new thing, and it is far beyond anything you could have imagined, and will reach farther than you ever dreamed. What has come into being in him is life, and it is the light of all people.

Mary Magdalene went to the grave while it was still dark, but as she stayed there in the valley of the shadow of death, a new reality dawned before her eyes, and she followed Christ’s directions — she let go of all she thought she knew, she let go of the hope of returning to normal, and she turned toward the world God so loves, by going to tell the others. To the ones who had first heard Jesus say “come and see” all those years ago, the ones who had come and seen and gone home again because what else was there to do?, she said: “I have seen the Lord.”

And the light of new life dawned.

May we go and do likewise. Amen.

Online hymn: Jesus Christ is Risen Today
(In person Hymn 422: Christ is alive and the universe must celebrate)

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
We have heard a rumour, O God,
that there’s life to be found on the other side of death.
That rumour is just enough to bring us hope,
and just the hope is enough to bring us a moment of life.
Your gift of resurrection invites us to lean in
and hear the rumour of love beyond endings,
love that graces us with new beginnings.
Help us to believe, and to share this rumour far and wide.
For the world needs this news —
that the way things have been is not the way they have to be.
So in places where violence is commonplace,
we pray for a new day of justice and peace to dawn.
In places where despair clouds possibility,
we pray for a new day of hope to dawn.
In places where death seems to rule the day,
we pray for a new day of life abundant to dawn.
In places where our imagination is constrained,
we pray for a new day of expansive grace to dawn.
We ask these and all things
in the name of the one through whom all things came into being,
who calls us and sends us out to be his body,
the risen Lord Jesus the Christ,
who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

(In person Hymn 419: Thine be the glory)

Benediction
Go from this place to live in the light of new life, and to tell the others: I have seen the Lord!
And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.

Sung Benediction Response (John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.

Postlude Music

Announcements
* Happy Easter! Easter is a season that lasts for 50 days, so we will be celebrating resurrection for the next seven weeks!
Teri is off from the 21st of April through the 6th of May. We look forward to welcoming the Rev. Jeanette Peel and the Rev. Margaret Nutter to lead us in worship. Please note that there will be no print worship services distributed for the next two Sundays, and our online services will be shared from OGA and the Lyle Kirk.
If you have a pastoral need while Teri is away, please contact Cameron and he will either connect you to the pastoral care team or to the minister on call.

*You are invited to join in reading the Bible in a year for 2022 — immersing ourselves in God’s word throughout the year. Click here to find a reading plan that’s five days a week (leaving a couple of days for catch up each week!). Watch this space for information about a Bible study as we go through the scriptures together!

* All worship is online (or on the phone at 01475 270037, or in print) and we also meet in person, subject to the usual protocols for distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing. We can now welcome up to 85-100 people for worship with one-chair-between-households distancing. No booking is required. Masks are required at all times inside the building, including while singing. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door.

* Tonight we will gather for evening prayer on the Connect Facebook Page, led tonight by Teri. Log on at 6:58pm to join in.

* The Kirk now has online giving! If you have not already set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Peter Bennett, our treasurer, or Teri and she can give you his details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!

* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word on Youtube, pray with video devotions on Facebook, and consider a new angle on something with a devotional email. Feel free to share with your friends, too!

* The Spring Church Notes are now available! You can read them by clicking here.

*Young Adults Bible Study is on Zoom most Sunday afternoons. Contact Teri for the link to join and for a copy of the book they are using.