ST ANDREW’S CHURCH
MARCH 31, 2024 EASTER
LIGHTING OF THE CHRIST CANDLE

ANNOUNCEMENTS

CALL TO WORSHIP
O Day of Resurrection, we lift our hearts with joy!
Christ has led us from death to life. Hallelujah!
O Day of Resurrection, we will with hope!
Christ has led us from earth to heaven. Hallelujah!
Christ is risen from the dead. Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! He is risen indeed.

HYMN 247 Christ the Lord is risen today

PRAYER OF INVOCATION
God of Resurrecting power, you lift our hearts with joy when we
see the tomb is empty. God of Resurrecting hope, you fill us
with excitement when we hear that Christ is risen. God of
Resurrecting love, you embrace us with courage when we trust
in the power of new life that you promise in the Risen Christ.
We offer you all glory, honour and praise with hearts
overflowing in Jesus’ name. Hear us now as we confess together
…
UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION
God of Resurrecting joy,
we confess it’s not easy to sustain Easter hope.
We let discouragement, fear and frustration to settle in

and we let anger and anxiety turn our hearts away from you.
Resentment and disappointment cling to us and we
forget your great mercy and love. Forgive us.
Restore within us the joy and hope you promise us
in Christ, our Risen Lord. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON
Christ died for us, Christ rose for us , Christ reigns in power for
us. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation The old life is
gone, a new life is begun. Friends, believe the gospel – in Christ
you are forgiven. Since we are reconciled to God in Christ let us
share a sign of Peace with each other
THE PEACE
HYMN 260 Alleluia, alleluia Give thanks to the risen Lord

Spirit of resurrecting Truth, roll away any assumptions that
block our understanding of the Easter story. Open our minds and
hearts to receive the Good News that Christ is risen indeed.
Change our lives with this gift. Alleluia!

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Page 956
John 20:1-18 Page 1685

SERMON
In the name of Father ,Son and Holy Spirit
It had been… such a terrible three days. On Thursday Jesus met
with the twelve in the upper room. There he broke bread with

them, and told them yet again that he was going to die. Nobody
really believed it… how could he? After all he had done? Who
could possibly harm him? But later that night, as the disciples
slept in the garden and Jesus prayed it happened just as he had
predicted. He was led away like a convict- tried by the Roman
government, and sentenced to die by crucifixion.
On Friday, they led him to the place of the skull, nailed him to
the cross, and there Mary Magdalene watched him die. It was
not pleasant to watch. To make matters worse, he died late in the
afternoon. Mary and the others had to rush his body into the
tomb so that it could be laid to rest before the Sabbath began
that evening. Mary wept as they sealed the tomb. She sobbed to
think of what had happened the past few days. It all happened so
quickly. Even his burial happened so quickly. They didn’t have
enough time to really properly prepare the body- there was still
so much for her to do. She had to leave him be for the Sabbath,
but she will be back at the crack of dawn on Sunday to properly
care for his body.
As dawn approaches on Sunday, Mary makes her way to the
tomb carrying the herbs needed to properly anoint the body. As
she approaches the tomb she sees the stone has already been
rolled away… the soldiers guarding the entrance… gone!
Now, anybody who knows anything about Palestinian culture of
the day would know better than to have the first messenger to
be a woman. No one would believe her. Women's views were of
so little value that their testimony was not even accepted in the
courts. But the first crack appears when, as John reports in his
Gospel, Mary Magdalene blurts out to Peter the one piece she

can't keep to herself: "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,
and we don't know where they have put him!"
What Mary sees, she does not understand. She thinks of the
opening to Jesus’ tomb as an entrance. She never thinks of it as
an exit. In her mind, thugs have come and robbed the tomb,
moving the body of Jesus. She can’t conceive of the possibility
that Jesus has actually walked out of the tomb by Himself.
Look at how Peter and John react to Mary’s alarming
announcement. They run as fast as they can to the tomb to
investigate the situation. Now, it is generally agreed that John,
that “other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved,” is the youngest
of the apostles. So he “outruns Peter and reaches the tomb first”
(John 20:4). But if John is the youngest of the disciples, Peter is
surely the most impetuous, and, when he finally gets to the
tomb—he runs right in. We read that “he saw the strips of linen
lying there, as well as the burial cloth, that had been around
Jesus’ head… folded up by itself…separate from the linen” .
Now, you can almost hear the wheels turning in Peter’s head.
He’s looking at the scene, - taking in what he is seeing. He’s
thinking. He’s using his power of reasoning. The grave cloths in
which a body would have been bound to preserve it are laid out
neatly—not thrown aside carelessly. And the face cloth was
“folded up by itself.” This does not have the signs of a robbery.
They return to their room
We find Mary at verse 11, crushed by her thoughts… unable to
tear herself away from the tomb of her master. It is too much!
The arrest - the trial- the conviction- the sentence-and the
punishment- she has seen it all. He had done so much for her.

Now, she is robbed of the one kindness she could repay him…
she can not even properly care for his body.
As she stands crying, someone asks “ Woman why are you
crying” Mary sees Jesus standing there but doesn’t recognize
him immediately . She mistakes him for a gardener “Sir, if you
have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I
will get him.” Jesus says one simple Word “Mary” She turns
and cried out , “Rabboni!”
Jesus says, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to
the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am
returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your
God.’” Mary Magdalene runs to the disciples with the news: “I
have seen the Lord!” And she tells them what he had said to her.
The death of Jesus caused barely a ripple on the surface of the
empire. The death of one obscure Jewish troublemaker meant
nothing to the Romans, and less than that to most of the rest of
the Mediterranean world. The earthquake? a coincidence. The
tearing of the veil in the temple? Who even noticed outside of a
bunch of fanatics? The world went on. And the resurrection?
Who could believe that? Everyone knows that once you're dead,
you're dead. The soul may be immortal but the body dies. We're
talking sophisticated, educated people, here, this was the most
literate, well-traveled, cosmopolitan society ever. Only
superstitious backwoods hicks could believe a tale like that!
Life and death outcomes are based on a form of credible
evidence known as eyewitness testimony. It is well documented
more than a few people actually witnessed the presence of our
living Lord.

Some believe, and some don’t. In fact, most don’t. That’s the
way it’s always been. However in our day skepticism is even
more acute. The motto that seems to be gaining acceptance here
of late is “Follow the Science.” Many moderns, thinking
themselves to be sophisticated and scientifically informed,
simply refuse to believe pretty much anything that has to do
with what Christians call revelation, and certainly not that a man
can be raised from the dead. The world in which we live assigns
death to the Last Word, the Final Say.
So many people in our day reject the Resurrection because it
cannot be proven scientifically. While they are wrong in
rejecting it, they right in thinking that it cannot be proven
scientifically. Scientific proof requires carefully controlled and
repeatable experimentation. The Resurrection, being an
historical event, cannot be repeated. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime
event.
The New Testament has been subjected to the hottest fires of
criticism ever devised by the human mind. Its history and the
landslide of manuscript evidence has been filtered, sifted,
researched, debated too many times to count, and by the best
minds—for generations!
Strangely, even though every aspect of the Christian faith was
debated and squabbled over within the first century Christian
community, the resurrection of Jesus was not. It was never the
conclusion of any argument among the apostles and earliest
eyewitnesses, but rather the premise of all other arguments. If a
topic under debate had any connection with the resurrection, the
writers simply resolved the issue by reminding all contenders
that Jesus arose from the dead. That ended the debate simply

because the event was the one established, irrefutable fact the
church didn’t doubt.
God knows how hard it is for us mortals to believe in something
we’ve never seen or experienced. Fortunately, he gives us
experiences of many “little resurrections” along the way in order
to prepare our minds for the great restoration at the end. These
take the form of amazing deliverances, surprising turns of
events, answered prayer, healings, rescue from certain death,
and so forth. After a lifetime of seeing God’s repeated
interventions in our behalf, it becomes much easier to imagine
and expect the final one he promises us.
I know I have shared this story from the internet before but it
blends well with what Easter is
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin during his day was as powerful a
man as there was on earth. A Russian Communist leader he took
part in the Bolshevik Revolution 1917, was editor of the Soviet
newspaper Pravda (which, by the way means truth), and was a
full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and
political science are still read today. There is a story told about a
journey he took from Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a huge
assembly on the subject of atheism. Addressing the crowd he
aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity hurling insult, argument,
and proof against it.
An hour later he was finished. He looked out at what seemed to
be the smoldering ashes of men's faith. "Are there any
questions?" Bukharin demanded. Deafening silence filled the
auditorium. Then one man approached the platform and
mounted the lectern standing near the communist leader. He

surveyed the crowd first to the left then to the right. Finally he
shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Russian
Orthodox Church: "CHRIST IS RISEN!" En masse the crowd
arose as one and the response came crashing like the sound of
thunder: "HE IS RISEN INDEED!"
I say to you this morning: CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN
INDEED AMEN

HYMN 256 Now the green blade rises

OFFERING
Easter Day celebrates God’s most precious gift to us in Christ’s
dying and his rising. As we present our gifts this morning, may
our generosity reflect God’s goodness to us, and the hope we
have in Christ Jesus, our Risen Lord.
DOXOLOGY

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him all creatures here below
Praise him above ye heavenly host.
Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost

OFFERTORY PRAYER
God of Resurrecting Grace, we offer our gifts with grateful
hearts, recognizing how much you have given us in Christ, and
what that gift has cost. Empower these gifts to spread the hope
and joy we feel today in the world you love, in the name of your
greatest gift, Jesus Christ. Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

God of new beginnings, break into your Church with
resurrecting power. Where congregations are challenged to
rethink outreach in changing times, inspire new approaches and
renew commitment for today’s ministry. Where gathering
resources and finding new leaders present challenges, renew our
trust in your faithfulness and our hope that remembers the empty
tomb. Resurrect, renew and revive your people, O God. Hear
our prayer.
God of new possibilities, break into our relationships with
resurrecting power. Where they are vibrant and life-giving,
nurture and sustain them. Where there are memories of hurt or
current misunderstanding, refresh them with forgiveness and
reconciliation. Where they are neglected or taken for granted,
open our eyes to the great gift we offer each other.
Creator God , in the beauty if the folding out of springtime we
give you thanks for this incredible world. yet we also know
there are so many ways in which the ecology is suffering from
human ignorance . Lead us in looking after your incredible
creation
God of new opportunity, break into the governance of your
world with resurrecting power. Stir the minds and hearts of
leaders to work for justice and the equitable sharing of
resources. Where violence and conflict threaten the innocent and
the earth itself, raise up advocates for peace and negotiators to
call combatants to account. Bring wisdom, compassion and
cooperation to all in authority. We lift to you the people of the
Ukraine well into the third year of conflict with Russia – the
middle East deeply mired in war with thousands who have died

in the fighting – in Haiti overrun by thugs who have destroyed
the government and we lift other countries and peoples who
are in desperate situations but their stories have submerged
under the coverage of the major stories We pray that all the
leaders come to the understanding of justice and peace
God of new life, break into situations of illness, pain, grief, and
loss with resurrecting power. Where there is sickness of body,
mind, or spirit, bring healing and hope. Where people mourn the
loss of someone dear or their dreams of a better tomorrow, bring
comfort and courage to go on.
We pray for …..
God of New Creation, break into the circumstances, places, and
lives that we name in the silence of our hearts… [silence]
God of Easter Day, break into our moments of celebration and
joy. Give us gratitude, the impulse to share, and a spirit of grace
and understanding. Resurrect, renew, and revive our spirits.
Hear our prayer. Now we pray in one voice in the words that
Jesus gave:
THE LORD’S PRAYER
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. 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, and the power, and the
glory, forever. Amen.

HYMN 249 The day of resurrection

BENEDICTION
Go now, with wonder at the empty tomb to amaze you, with
Mary’s joy in the garden to lift your hearts, and the disciples’
hope at news Jesus has risen to encourage you. ay God’s
resurrecting love open the future for you, empowered by the
Spirit, and embraced by Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord.
CLOSING SONG
264 Sing Amen