my Lord and my God!
ST ANDREW’S CHURCH
April 27 2025 Easter 2
LIGHTING OF THE CHRIST CANDLE
ANNOUNCEMENTS
CALL TO WORSHIP
In life, in death, and in life beyond death,
The Risen Christ is Lord.
In success and discouragement, in fear and in hope,
The Risen Christ is Lord.
Of the poor and broken, of the sinner and the sinned against,
The Risen Christ is Lord.
In Church and community, in our hearts and our homes,
The Risen Christ is Lord, and so we gather to worship in his name.
HYMN 262 Come to us beloved stranger
- Come to us, beloved Stranger,
as you came that Easter day.
Walk with us to our Emmaus,
for we need you still today.
Come to us when we are broken,
when our dearest hopes are lost,
speak to us the prophet’s message
you fulfilled upon the cross.Stay with us and give us blessing,
that our hopes again may rise.
Offer us your broken body;
open our unseeing eyes.
Come to us, God’s love embodied;
touch our hearts with burning flame.
Risen Christ, once dead, now living,
come to us through joy, through pain.3. We would never fail to see you
as you walk with us each day.
As a friend and not a stranger
you would join us on our way.
Help us trust that through your mercy
we can doubt and fear transcend,
and to others be a blessing.
Keep us faithful till life’s end!
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OPENING PRAYER
God of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, we rejoice in this new day you have made. We praise you for the abundant life with which you bless us, and for all the beauty that surrounds us as spring takes hold again. We praise you for your Son, Jesus, and the power of new life promised in his resurrection. We praise you for your Spirit at work in human history, to restore and redeem our hope with that power of new life. God of steadfast love, we worship you with the Spirit and the Son, and claim your gift of new life, even in the face of any doubt or danger within the world you love. All praise, honour and glory be yours, O God, now and evermore Gracious and forgiving God, hear us now as in this holy place we present our prayers of confession speaking together saying …
UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION
O God of might and mercy,
in raising Jesus from the dead, you showed us your power
to defeat all that brings fear and sorrow to our lives.
In his resurrection, Jesus promised to be with us
everywhere and always.
Yet we confess we are sometimes uncertain
about your promises.
We doubt the promise of resurrection for our own lives.
Upheaval and anxiety eat away at our peace.
Forgive us when we struggle to trust your goodness
and your steadfast love for us.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
Hear and believe the good news of the Gospel. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and set free from sin and sorrow. In Jesus Christ, God offers us the gift of peace. May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ fill your hearts this day.
THE PEACE
HYMN 78 This is the day
- his is the day, this is the day
that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made.
We will rejoice, we will rejoice
and be glad in it, and be glad in it.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
we will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day, this is the day
that the Lord has made.Open to us, open to us
the gates of God, the gates of God;
we will go in, we will go in
and praise the Lord, and praise the Lord.
Open to us the gates of God;
we will go in and praise the Lord.
Open to us, open to us the gates of God.3. You are our God, you are our God;
we will praise your name, we will praise your name;
we will give thanks for your faithfulness
For your faithfulness.
You are our God we will praise your name,
We will give thanks for your faithfulness
You are our God, you are our God,
We will praise your name.
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
Psalm 118:14-29
John 20:19-31
SERMON
The disciples had been through quite a week, a lot of ups and downs. Only six days previous they’d been filled with great joy as Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. But the excitement of his triumphal entry soon fizzled. Just four days later, Jesus has been betrayed by Judas. He was hunted down, abandoned by his disciples, arrested by soldiers, and put on trial. It was all so dismal and disappointing.
At the mercy of his captors, Jesus was knocked around, flogged and ridiculed, until the sentence of death was handed down by Pilate followed by the torture of the cross—spikes hammered into hands and feet, an agonizing death by suffocation, suspended in mid-air on wooden beams. Then came blood and water, rushing out of his pierced side Finally, Jesus’s lifeless body was taken down and buried.
For sure it looked like all was lost. The disciples cowered in hiding on that Sabbath. Suddenly came the rush of incredible events on Easter Sunday. Disciples have gone to Jesus’s tomb, and they find it empty! At the same hour, Mary Magdalene is met by the Lord Jesus himself. Not dead, but alive! Not bruised and bloodied, but changed and glorified—so glorified Mary doesn’t recognize him. She turns and rushes toward Jesus. He needs to tell her, “Do not cling to me Go instead to my brothers and tell them I am returning to my Father , my God and your God
In the first three gospels we are told absolutely nothing at all about Thomas. It is in John’s Gospel that he emerges as a distinct personality, but even then there are only 155 words about him. There is not a lot about this disciple in the Bible but there is more than one description.
Earlier in the journey when Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem, the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them. Surprisingly, it is Thomas who says: Then let us go so that we may die with him. It is a courageous statement, yet we don’t remember him for that.
Still the disciples live in fear despite Jesus’ post crucifixion appearances. Suddenly Jesus himself appears to the disciples in a locked room and shows them his hands and side. They move from a state of fear to joy as they recognize Jesus and accept his resurrection. Jesus’ response to their joy is threefold. First, he wishes them peace. His words recall the earlier Paraclete discourses, when Jesus promised to leave the disciples the Spirit, reassuring them with these words: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (14:27).
But not every disciple is there. The verses here tell us that Thomas is not present. When they tell him the good news he wants proof that Jesus is back from the dead before he can trust that it is so
You see, Thomas was there. He saw Jesus die. And like you and me, he knows something true. When people die they don’t come back. They REALLY don’t come back. Dead is dead. Thus this one disciple is branded with the word “doubt”. Indeed, so closely have we associated Thomas with this word, that we have coined a phrase to describe him: “Doubting Thomas.”
A week later, Thomas gets his proof in a dramatic post-resurrection scene. Jesus appears to the disciples again and wishes them peace, but then he addresses Thomas specifically. It is interesting that Thomas had wanted to see Jesus and touch his wounds, but when Jesus invites him to touch, he doesn’t need to. Nowhere does John say that Thomas actually touches the wounds. We also usually fail to point out that in this story of Thomas’ doubt, we have the one place in the all the Gospels where the Divinity of Christ is bluntly and unequivocally stated. Thomas makes an earth shattering confession of faith! “My Lord, and my God.” Not teacher. Not Lord. Not Messiah. But God . It is uttered with conviction as if Thomas is simply recognizing a fact, just as 2 + 2 = 4, and the sun is in the sky. You are my Lord and my God! These are certainly not the words of a doubter.
So what happened after he saw Jesus in Person? He changed. Church tradition is that he went the furthest of all of the disciples – all of the way to India, to tell them that he had seen Jesus with his very own eyes, touched him with his very own hands, and because they trusted his story – they believed, and there are still churches there today that were founded by him.
Easter is the way that Jesus changes who we are after the resurrection – while most of our studies are on the person Jesus before the crucifixion, what happened after is what changes us permanently. Still the truth is, even those of us who call ourselves believers doubt at times. In fact, our very faith should be based not on blindly accepting what we have been told, but in asking questions until our faith becomes our own. It is OK to ask questions, because it is there in our doubt that our very faith is forged.
As you know, the traditional church has been losing members over the last 60 years or so. But in Europe, they have started something new – it is called a “Thomas Mass” for skeptics and other good Christians. The services are held about six times a year across Europe.Starting in Helsinki in 1988, ministers, artists, musicians, and civic leaders worked together to create a prayerful service that would again fill their cathedral, not with departed churchgoers, but with doubters, seekers, searchers, and believers alike.
Recognizing that Europe had become a continent of skeptics, they named the service after Thomas “the Doubter.” It immediately began to spread across Europe, and services are prayerful and participatory rather than passive.
I love the way this story ends as Jesus talks about us and our questions. He says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” He doesn’t expect anyone to believe instantly, he says, “have come to believe.” Jesus gets Thomas and he gets us.
A statement that leapt out at me in one of the pages I was researching is this —. IF A SHUT TOMB COULD NOT HOLD JESUS IN, A SHUT CHURCH CANNOT KEEP HIM OUT! Continue in your search for truth, because it is only in seeking that you will find. AMEN
HYMN 256 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 is come again like wheat new springing green.
In the grave they laid him, love by hatred slain
Sure that he would never, never wake again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen
Love is come again like wheat new springing green.
Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for these three days in the grave had lain;
Raised from the dead my living Lord is seen
Love is come again like wheat new springing green.
When our hearts are wintery , grieving and in pain
Then your touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been
Love is come again like wheat new springing green.
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OFFERING
In this season of Easter, we celebrate God’s most precious gift to us in Christ’s dying and rising. As we present our offering today, let us give with thankful hearts, trusting that God can do amazing things through the gifts we offer in Jesus’ name.
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
Generous God, Along with our gifts we offer you our thanks for your steadfast love, our foundation when things around us seem uncertain. Bless these gifts and the ministry of our congregation; and bless the mission we undertake as part of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. May what we offer spread the blessings we know to others, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord Amen
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
e give thanks to you, O God, for you are good, Your steadfast love endures forever. We thank you, God, for the many ways you provide for our needs: for air and water, for food and shelter, for work to do and rest to sustain us. We pray for your creation, too often at risk because of the choices we’ve made. Help us care for the earth and all its creatures and relationships.
Show us how to cherish the gifts you have given and protect them for future generations.
We thank you, God, for family: the families we were born or adopted into, the families we married into, and other families who welcomed us into their midst as friends and neighbours. We pray for those who have lost family members and relationships, and for any who know abuse and pain within the family circle.
God, we also thank you for friendship, and for those who bring us joy and wise counsel. Help us extend the gift of friendship ; to those who are experiencing isolation, loneliness or grief.
We thank you, God, for the peace and freedom we enjoy in Canada, and pray that the conflict over what these gifts mean will be soothed with deeper understanding among us all. We place faith in your leading hand in the guidance for justice and wisdom in the Federal election tomorrow.
We pray for those who know neither freedom nor peace: those living under oppressive regimes or in conflict zones, and those who have fled their homelands, in search of safety.
Give us courage to stand up for people who cannot stand up for themselves, so that they too will know peace and freedom.
We thank you, God, for your Church, for our congregation and its leaders, and for all who volunteer time, talent and energy to the work we undertake in Jesus’ name. By your Spirit, guide us and inspire us with new insight into mission and ministry. We pray for other churches in our community and in our presbytery , and for the sense of mission that guides each one into service. We pray for church musicians and choirs who help lead congregations in worship and praise.
As we share worship today, we bring before you those whom we have spoken about and those who remain in our hearts …….
Fill us with a deeper sense of unity so that we can model relationships that transcend differences in this divided world.
O God, thank you for the gift of your Son, whose resurrection empowers us to look to the future with hope. Thank you for the gift of your Spirit who draws us into unity with you and one another, as together we offer the prayer Jesus taught us:
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
- The day of resurrection: earth, tell it out abroad,
the Passover of gladness, the Passover of God!
From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky,
our Christ hath brought us over with hymns of victory.2. Our hearts be pure from evil, that we may see aright
the Lord in rays eternal of resurrection light,
and, listening to his accents, may hear, so calm and plain,
his own ‘All hail!’ and, hearing, may raise the victor strain.3. Now let the heavens be joyful; let earth its song begin;
let the round world keep triumph, and all that is therein;
invisible and visible, their notes together blend,
for Christ the Lord hath risen, our joy that hath no end.
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BENEDICTION
As we prepare to leave today gratefully hear God’s words of blessing. As we journey may God direct you in your happiness and pleasure – bless you in your anxiety and trouble , sustain you in any peril or danger and protect you now and always . May his grace shower you now and always AMEN
CLOSING SONG
He is Lord, he is Lord ;
He is risen from the dead and he is Lord.
Every knee shall bow
And every tongue confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord .