Sunday Service - 11 April

Welcome to our service - 11 April

This service sheet can be used individually or with households.
We would encourage you to say (or even sing) hymns and songs out loud.
Prayers, other liturgy or readings can be said out loud or silently, corporately or individually.

If you are able, we would also like invite you to join us for our main Sunday service, 10am, live on Zoom. Even if you have never been to St Gabriel’s before we would love you to join you. Please get in touch with the vicar Alistair (vicar@saintgs.co.uk) and he will send you the Zoom details.

Please join us for public worship in the church building this Sunday, 11:30am, for a service of Holy Communion.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.

Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.’

Alleluia, alleluia.

SONG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuMh_ept-Js

Crown Him with many crowns,

the Lamb upon His throne;

Hark! how the heav’nly anthem drowns

all music but its own:

awake my soul, and sing

of Him who died for thee,

and hail Him as thy chosen King

through all eternity.

2. Crown him the Son of God,

Before the worlds began,

And ye who tread where He hath trod,

crown him the Son of Man,

who e’vry grief hath known

that wrings the human breast,

and takes and bears him for His own,

that all in Him may rest.

3. Crown him the Lord of life,

Who triumphed o’er the grave,

And rose victorious in the strife,

For those He came to save:

His glories now we sing.

Who died and rose on high,

Who died eternal life to bring,

And lives that death may die.

4. Crown Him the Lord of years,

The Potentate of time,

Creator of the rolling spheres,

Ineffably sublime:

All hail Redeemer hail!

For Thou hast died for me;

Thy praise shall never,

never fail throughout eternity.

CONFESSION

In baptism we died with Christ, so that as Christ was raised from the dead, we might walk in newness of life. Let us receive new life in him as we confess our sins in penitence and faith.

Like Mary at the empty tomb,

we fail to grasp the wonder of your presence.

Lord, have mercy.

Like the disciples behind locked doors,

we are afraid to be seen as your followers.

Christ, have mercy.

Like Thomas in the upper room,

we are slow to believe.

Lord, have mercy.

ASOLUTION

May the God of love and power

forgive us and free us from our sins,

heal and strengthen us by his Spirit,

and raise us to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.

COLLECT

Risen Christ,

for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:

open the doors of our hearts,

that we may seek the good of others

and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,

to the praise of God the Father. AMEN

SING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16KYvfIc2bE

In Christ alone my hope is found.

He is my light, my strength, my song;

this Cornerstone, this solid ground,

firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace,

when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!

My Comforter, my all in all,

here in the love of Christ I stand.

2. In Christ alone! - who took on flesh,

Fullness of God in helpless babe!

This gift of love and righteousness,

scorned by the ones He came to save:

till on that cross as Jesus died,

the wrath of God was satisfied -

for ev’ry sin on Him was laid;

here in the death of Christ I live.

3. There in the ground His body lay,

Light of the world by darkness slain:

then bursting forth in glorious Day

up from the grave He rose again!

And as He stands in victory

sin's curse has lost its grip on me,

for I am His and He is mine -

bought with the precious blood of Christ.

4. No guilt in life, no fear in death,

this is the power of Christ in me;

from life's first cry to final breath;

Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of hell, no scheme of man,

can ever pluck me from His hand;

till He returns or calls me home,

here in the pow’r of Christ I'll stand!

Words: Stuart Townend

Music: Keith Getty

READINGS

Acts 2.14a, 22-32

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.

22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men,[a] put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him:

“‘I saw the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.

26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will rest in hope,

27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,

you will not let your holy one see decay.

28 You have made known to me the paths of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence.

29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.

John 20.19-end New International Version (NIV)

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

This is the word of the Lord

Thanks be to God.

TALK written by Alistair Stevenson

Conspiracy theories can often make for very funny reading. It’s incredible to hear what some people will believe and why, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, a small minority choose to believe in some very alternative truths.

The worrying thing is that, as we look around the world, it seems like conspiracy theories are being believed by more and more people and having a greater impact on world events than ever before.

And there are some incredible conspiracy theories out there. Some of the most popular include the flat earth and even hollow earth theory and that there might even be a whole other civilization of advanced beings living in it beneath us. Another theory is that Paul McCartney secretly died in 1966, at the height of The Beatles fame, and that the other three members covered it up by hiring someone who looked and sang like him. Or that Elvis is still alive. That the moon landings never happened. That Area 51 in America was created to house alien spaceships. That aliens also built Stonehenge. Or a more recent one being that 5G mobile technology causes coronavirus. The list goes on and in an internet age, conspiracy theories can quickly gain global attention.

The resurrection of Jesus could easily have been dismissed as a conspiracy theory, made up by the disciples like many other similar stories that we were around at the time. In fact, as we read in Matthew’s gospel, the authorities at the time did their best to do just that. We read that while the women were on their way back from the tomb, “some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.”

Belief in the resurrection of Jesus is the most important fact and piece of evidence about Jesus. Jesus wasn’t just a nice guy with some good deeds and teaching - he was in fact the son of God who defeated death and made it possible for us to have an eternal relationship with God, now and in the world to come.

If you have ever played the game Jenga you know that removing the pieces at the very bottom will likely cause the whole thing to fall very quickly. In the same way if we start doubting the resurrection of Jesus the rest of our faith and belief will quickly crumble.

When we read the gospel accounts we see though that doubt and unbelief were evident in the followers of Jesus immediately after he had been raised for the dead. In fact, three of the gospels, Matthew, Luke and John, all mention that some did not believe or doubted, even having actually seen the resurrected Jesus.

At the end of Mattthews gospel we read that “the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” In Luke’s gospel we read that when Jesus appeared to the disciples they were initially “startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.” Jesus said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?” And then in John’s gospel, that we heard this morning, it is Thomas who represents those who doubted. Jesus tells Thomas to “stop doubting and believe”.

This is remarkable, that even with the physical presence of Jesus in their midst there were those who still doubted that Jesus had actually defeated death and was alive again. Moreover, the gospel writers choose to put this detail into their accounts. They could have skipped over it.

In spite of Jesus being with them physically there were some who still doubted and chose not to believe. This tells us something about the human heart and some people’s response to God - that despite all the evidence to the contrary, some will still not believe and will choose to reject the offer of relationship with God.

As Christains, we don’t just remember and celebrate the resurrection, we also return, every Good Friday and in fact every time we come to confession, to the cross. To remember Jesus dying in our place and the sins that he bore for us. It is so important that we do remember and go back to the cross regularly. But we should never stay there for long. Doubt and questioning will remain if we stay at the cross. Transformation and whole-hearted belief in Jesus comes when we experience, regularly, his resurrection in our lives.

In our passage we see that Thomas didn’t simply want to believe the word of the other disciples, he wanted to see Jesus himself. Encountering the resurrected Jesus was his crucial life turning point. Early Christian writings outside the New Testament say that Thomas was so transformed that he went on to take the Gospel to southern India and was eventually martyred for his faith. Many churches and in fact family groups in those communities of southern India trace their faith all the way back to those who were first baptised by Thomas.

Peter writes in our passage from his letter that we heard this morning:

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.

The resurrection changes everything. It gives new birth - a living hope for an inheritance that is everlasting.

However many, if not all of us, still experience doubt. Having personally experienced the resurrected Jesus at an earlier point in our faith, we may now have more questions and more doubt than ever. And so, if this is the case, how do we deal with doubt? How do we turn our unbelief into belief - a belief and conviction that spills out of us and impacts everything and everyone around us. Let me suggest four things:

1) Come to God with your doubt. Peter writes - ‘though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials’. Doubt is one of the trails we suffer with. In our gospel reading, Thomas is clear about what he wants to see. He is not asking for anything more than what the other disciples had already seen. In verse 20 Jesus came and stood among them and he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. For whatever reason Thomas is not with them and so now, a week later, Thomas is asking for the same as what the disciple had already experienced.

God wants us to come to him with our doubt and questions and ask him for our own evidence and our own experience. Like Thomas - let’s not settle for second hand experiences or the stories of others, let’s pursue our own encounters with Jesus. Let's say: “I want to see him, I want to experience him at work powerfully in my life.” Let’s seek our own turning point. Doubt is ok only when it causes us to come closer to God growing in deepening faith and trust.

2) Learn to live with mystery and in doing so, relinquish control. It is a very healthy and important part of our questioning to learn to live with mystery. As both Jesus and Peter say in our passages - we do not see him as those first disciples did. We can all too easily find security in answers and things, in our own minds at least, making logical sense. But in searching for an answer we can often struggle to relinquish control instead of saying: ‘God I have questions - it doesn’t make sense - but I will trust you and believe that you are good and that you are at work beyond my understanding, beyond what I can perceive and see’.

3) Will you feed your doubt or feed your faith? Many, if not every Christian, struggles to read the Bible. To understand or interpret parts that are sometimes confusing, difficult to translate, or challenging to relate to our world and context thousands of years after it was written. Having studied the Bible academically I think I have more questions than ever. But how we respond in those moments is so important. We can choose to retreat, to give up reading, or we can choose to delve deeper, to find the answers through more reading not less. As with the Bible, the same is true with our faith. Our doubt should lead us to go deeper to find Jesus and not retreat. We can feed our doubt with things that are just not helpful. The enemy will do his best and use every means to get us to question further and believe the lies he is telling us. Instead we can feed our faith, delving deeper into worship, into the presence of Jesus, into his word, into prayer.

4) Make the main things, the main things. The heart of the gospel and a relationship with Jesus - the foundation to God’s Kingdom coming - is the resurrection. It was the turning point for Thomas and for the rest of the disciples. A fearful group of believers full of doubt and ready to run for their lives, transforms into a powerful, unapologetic, transformational community that radically turns human history. Such a transformation should be true of every believer. Through the resurrection we interpret everything. It is the lens we use to view the world. When we start to doubt the resurrection, or the power of the resurrection - both in the lives of others but significantly our own life - we will lose hope, belief and trust in Jesus. The resurrection is the main thing.

Moreover, we can also get lost in questions and debates that might seem important at the time but can distract and turn the eyes of our heart away from the resurrected Jesus. Church history shows us how it doesn’t take much for God’s people to divide and be disunite. The resurrection is the core belief that we should unite around as a church. Let’s make sure we make the resurrection the main thing for our lives as well as the church.

The resurrection of Jesus was not some conspiracy theory but a fact. We know that not only for the evidence of the event 2000 years ago, but the millions of people today who testify to knowing the resurrected Jesus for themselves.

Peter tells us in his letter: “even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” When you delve further into faith and belief in Jesus the result is an inexpressible and glorious joy, despite what is going on in life. As Thomas did on seeing Jesus, we declare with our lives - ‘My Lord and my God’.

Do you need to hear the voice of Jesus saying to you this morning - ‘stop doubting and believe’? As Jesus stepped into the locked room of the disciples, know that Jesus can unlock the doors and step through the wall of the hardest of hearts. Don’t lose faith that Jesus can still have a relationship with those we love the most but who still don’t know him. Keep praying for them that they might stop doubting and believe. Amen

Let us affirm our faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God:

Though he was divine,

he did not cling to equality with God,

but made himself nothing.

Taking the form of a slave,

he was born in human likeness.

He humbled himself

and was obedient to death,

even the death of the cross.

Therefore God has raised him on high,

and given him the name above every name:

that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bow,

and every voice proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Amen.

PRAYERS - written by Jo Chamberlain

Dear Lord Jesus

In this season of Easter, we take time to keep on remembering and celebrating your resurrection. When all seemed lost and dark, you brought light and life and hope. We give thanks that death was not the end, we rejoice in the new life that you bring. Help us to remember this part of our faith through every aspect of our lives. When things seem lost and dark, remind us that you bring light and life, and help us to hold onto hope.

Jesus, Lord of life: