Included
April 7, 2024
Easter Season
Lighting the Christ Candle
Welcome and Announcements
Call to Worship
L: We have been freed!
P: Fear and death have no claim on us!
L: Christ the Lord is risen!
P: Even though we have not touched his wounded hands, yet we believe.
L: Even though we have not heard him speak our names, yet we believe.
P: Let us celebrate God’s love through the life of Jesus Christ. AMEN.
Hymn: 257
Prayer of Adoration
God of the resurrection, we gather this morning as a community of believers. We come with joy to greet one another and to tell again and again the amazing news:
Christ is risen!
Love is victorious over death!
You have given us new life
in the name of your Son!
May our singing, praying, listening, and proclaiming be a testimony to the power of your love to make us a new creation as a community of faith.
May we strengthen our community as together we make our confession…
Prayer of Confession:
Patient Lord, you wait for us to understand. You wait for us to remove the blinders of prejudice, fear, unbelief, confusion. You have offered to us the greatest miracle of all time, the resurrection of Your Son Jesus Christ. We sang and celebrated last Sunday, but a week later we have gone back into our old ways of perceiving your presence and love. Shake us up, Lord! Shake us up and cause us to look with new eyes on our Savior, who came that we might have life, abundantly serving all who are in need. Forgive our stubbornness and our complacency. Reach out to us so that we may reach out with healing love to others, for we pray this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
Let us celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ!
He came to earth for us, he died for us, he rose again to claim us as his own. In everything Jesus does, he includes us as his beloved. Know that his love is poured out for you, for your healing, for your peace and for your joy. Be at peace and Rejoice! AMEN.
Passing the Peace
Hymn: 258 Thine be the glory
Scripture:
1 John 1: 1-2: 2 p 1898
John 20: 19-31 p 1686
Sermon: Included
This is the second Sunday of Easter when we usually hear the Scripture Lessons of the account of the disciples on the Emmaus Road, or the story of Doubting Thomas.
Today we read the account of Jesus appearing to the disciples and then coming back to appear to Thomas, who had been left out, and refused to believe without seeing Jesus and feeling the scars that he still bore.
Poor Thomas, he gets a bad rap because, frankly, all of them were unable to believe without special act of inclusion on the part of Jesus. Whereas Jesus did chide Thomas that it was easier to believe without seeing, none of them believed without seeing, and none of them believed only by seeing. For Thomas and the others, having a personal encounter was important to cut through the depth of their grief. That personal encounter made it possible for them to be eye-witnesses to the resurrection.
Without eye witnesses the whole report of the resurrection would simply be an idle tale.
Why should we believe an unsubstantiated story?
We believe, because we have the witness of those who saw and spoke with Jesus after the resurrection.
More than that we have the account of the special encounter each had with Jesus.
We believe, because we have the witness of those who believed on their word, and those who spoke about their own faith journey. They spoke of the ways in which they themselves had known Jesus to speak directly to them, in the Scriptures, in the actions of others, or while in prayer. They told us of the ways they had been included in the story.
At some point Jesus comes to all of us through the whispering of the Holy Spirit within. It may not be as dramatic as those first appearances; but it was and is nevertheless effective.
We start with the story of Mary who had gone to the tomb early in the morning and found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. She didn’t know what to believe, and went running into town to tell Peter and the others. With Peter and John she returned to the tomb. When they returned to town, she stayed behind weeping.
She sees the angels who ask her why she is crying. She tells them that someone has taken the body of Jesus away.
Turning away from them she sees Jesus. And she believes, or does she?
Jesus speaks to her, asking her why she is crying, and whom she is seeking. But she still does not recognize him.
Seeing (and even hearing) is not necessarily believing.
Without the needed recognition of Jesus and his voice none of us would believe. For each of the followers in those days, and for each of us through the generations, there have been those things in which we felt called by name. Like Mary.
She sees Jesus, and she hears his question; but she then assumes that he is the gardener and asks him to tell her where the body had been taken.
And here we see the one crucial thing of importance in every appearance of Jesus. His kind, tender love for his followers.
In that love he speaks to Mary giving her the thing that she needs to penetrate her grief and help her to believe. Jesus gives her that personal touch,
he speaks her name, “Mary”.
It is that act of inclusion that opens her eyes and her heart, she falls at his feet, and calls him Rabbi.
From there she goes back into the city to tell the disciples the story, “Jesus is alive, I have seen him.”
In the gospel of John, we don’t learn if the disciples believed her words. But the commentators point out that they remained locked in the house because they feared the Jews who would find them and kill them like they did Jesus. They suggest that this indicates that although they heard her words, it did not mean that they came to believe.
Remember what John told them about when Peter and John saw the empty tomb. They looked and saw that the tomb was empty, and they believed. But what they believed was the story that Mary had told them about his body being missing. John reports, “They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.” John 20: 9-10 NIV
Later that night Jesus appeared to the disciples. Suddenly, without warning and not via the door or the windows—he just appeared. To a group huddled in fear this appearance must have been shocking and they needed comforting.
Did seeing mean believing.
John is not clear, but we read in Matthew that when he appeared to them, that “When they saw him, they worshiped him, even though some of them doubted.” Matt 28: 17 NIV
And then Jesus shows his kind, tender love to the whole group. He begins with the usual greeting, “peace be with you” and he shows them the nail scars in his hands and the scar from the spear in his side. Then he breathes on them, charging them to receive the Holy Spirit and to go forth to forgive. In the Matthew account he instructs them to go forth and tell others and to baptize them.
He gave them peace, proof of life and proof of scars, and reminded them of their calling.
For each of them this is a personal encounter of inclusion that reminds them of what they had been called to be his followers.
Jesus also appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He joined them on the journey and asked them what they were talking about. Amazed that someone did not know of the crucifixion, they told him the story and added the puzzling aspect of the empty tomb and the woman who told them that Jesus was alive. Luke records, “ They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.” Luke 24: 23-24 NIV
So not only did the disciples not believe the women, they also didn’t believe their own eyes and ears when Jesus walked with them and talked with them.
As they walked Jesus, told them again the many things he had already taught them regarding the Messiah and the death he would have in Jerusalem and that he would rise again on the third day.
They still did not see him for who he was, although later they admitted that his words strangely warmed their hearts.
When they got to their home, they invited Jesus to stay for supper and then as they sat at the Table, he took bread and broke it.
The events of the Passover Supper would have been a big part of their recent memories, but also of their hope that Jesus was THE ONE.
In that one kind, tender act of love, Jesus reminded them, AGAIN, of who he was, and their eyes were opened, and they believed.
They immediately returned to the city and told the disciples.
We note that for Mary, Peter, John and the other disciples and follower the act of kind, tender love that included them in the group of believers was different and intensely personal.
That special act of love and inclusion was also given to Thomas.
We read that when Thomas hears that Jesus is alive, he refuses to believe unless he can touch the nail scared hands and side, and we label him a doubter.
But we forget that each of them struggled to believe before seeing him, and even after seeing him, or even after hearing him speak.
Mary could not believe until he spoke her name.
The disciples hiding behind locked doors could not believe until they were commissioned.
The disciples on the Emmaus road could not believe until the act of breaking bread.
Thomas needed something very different and that is exactly what Jesus gave to him. The chance to touch and to feel. Jesus again appeared in the locked room and said to Thomas, with great tenderness and love, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” John 20: 27 NIV
To be included for each of the followers of Jesus meant that Jesus gave each of them what they needed to enabler them to believe. That gift meant the words, the scars, their name, the actions, or the opportunity to touch.
It took many things but, for none of them was seeing the avenue through which they believed.
Each of them had a personal encounter with the Risen Christ.
Earlier I said that all of us had come to believe through Scriptural witness, or of by being told by another the truth of what Scripture taught and then I added these words, “At some point Jesus comes to all of us, through the whispering of the Holy Spirit within. It may not be as dramatic as the first appearances; but it was nevertheless effective.”
We all know that to be true in some way or other. Jesus speaks to us as we read Scripture. We hear him speak in the testimony of others. We pray and his peace comes upon us. We wait on him in silence, and he calls us by name. More than that, we can recall numerous encounters in which the people of God have shown us God’s love and we saw Jesus in their actions.
We have known those times when Scripture seemed to be written just for us. Or even the sermon…
I recall one time when a friend who was struggling in life, asked to come to worship with me. The sermon that day was on exactly what her struggles were.
Later she accused me of telling the minister her story and having asked him to preach on it.
I had not.
It turned out that for her, that sermon was that personal word from Jesus that included her in the body of Christ.
The truth is that all of us have been included through the way that Jesus touched each of us.
None of us saw and believed; but neither did any of the disciples. It took a personal encounter filled with tender, kind love for them and for each one of us, to believe.
We may believe because of their word; but only because when we encountered that word, we were pulled into the tender, kind love of Jesus ourselves. It was because we saw that love when Jesus suffered and died and on the third day rose again, for us. Jesus did this because he wanted to include us, all of us, in his mercy, grace and most of all bring us all together as his brothers and sisters.
Rejoice and remember the love that drew you into his arms. Rejoice and give thanks. Amen
Hymn: 261 Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah verses: 1, 4, 5, 6, 7
Invitation to the Offering
All that we have belongs to God. We joyfully lay our possessions before God. Through the grace of God and the bounty of this church, we have the ability to share our gifts so that all may have what they need to live. We thank God for the opportunity to truly be in fellowship with one another and with the world through the offerings we present today.
Offering and Doxology 830
Offertory Prayer
Offering Prayer
Generous and surprising God, we are amazed at the surprising ways in which you build our faith and direct our lives. Surprise us again with your ability to turn these humble offerings into gifts that will transform the world
through our witness to your love. We lay our very lives at your feet, O God,
knowing that you will use us to proclaim and embody the gospel. Amen.
Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Holy God, for the gift of faith which sees beyond the present moment and looks to an eternity, we thank you.
For the gift of faith small as a mustard seed, which has power
within its simplicity, we thank you.
For the gift of faith bestowed on those who would simply come,
hearts open in humility, we thank you.
In the gifts of faith given, you have included us, called us as your own and directed our footsteps to serve and minister to others.
In gratitude we bring before you our intercessions for one another and for your whole world.
Joys
Local Concerns
Global Concerns
War/ Ukraine-Russia, Palestine-Israel
World Central Kitchen volunteers killed bringing aid to Gaza
International Day for Refugee rights
Lord Jesus Christ, a world is waiting, hurting, longing, searching for hope, crying out for meaning, hungry for some reason to believe in the future. Bring your gift of kind, tender love and draw the world and all who live in it, into the inclusion of your grace and mercy.
Resurrected God,
though we have hidden ourselves in a locked room
and huddled together as ones who build barriers,
send your Living Word through our locked doors
and into our guarded hearts
that we might be witnesses of your grace
and couriers of your goodness.
By the power of your Holy Spirit,
grant us the trust to believe the Gospel
not because we see it
but because we have been seen by it
and transformed through it.
Come again in your living power and bring new life to all. We pray in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray together saying,
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 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, for ever. Amen
Hymn: 264 Sing Amen (two times)
Benediction
Jesus,
Go forth to dare to believe in the things we cannot see:
Dare to trust in God’s love for us
Dare to trust in God’s love for those around us
Dare to trust in the hope of eternity.
Dare to believe that another world is possible
Dare to believe that we can play a part in the kingdom to come.
Dare to believe in heaven on earth
Dare to believe in the light breaking through
Dare to trust in justice made new
Dare to trust in God’s love for us.
Dare to receive the kind, tender love of Jesus, the merciful grace of God and the soul flooding presence of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Blessing Song: 422 Chorus only
Sing a new song unto the Lord
Let your song be sung from mountain’s height
Sing a new song unto the Lord
Singing hallelujah
Schutte, New Dawn Mills, 1979