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EASTER SUNDAY 2020

Alleluia Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia

As I prepare this morning’s service I’m not sure what the situation regarding the Corona Virus pandemic will be, what I do know though, is that it’s our task on Easter Sunday as always to look for the signs of life in the most desperate of places and there see the glory of the Risen Christ. It is to proclaim that love is stronger than death and that there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love in the risen and living Christ

So, we sing Charles Wesley’s well known and much-loved Easter hymn

Hymn Christ the Lord is risen today

Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia! All creation joins to say, Alleluia!

Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia! Sing, ye heavens: let earth, reply, Alleluia!

Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia! Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia! Vain the stone, the watch the seal, Alleluia! Christ has burst the gates of hell, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia! Where, O death, is now your sting? Alleluia! Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia! Where thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia! Following our exalted Head, Alleluia! Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia! Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

King of Glory, Soul of bliss, Alleluia! Everlasting life is this, Alleluia! You to know, your power to prove, Alleluia! Thus to sing, and thus to love, Alleluia

Prayer

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.

‘The Empty Tomb’ Richard Bavin 2013 Image Copyright © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. The Methodist Church Registered Charity no. 1132208

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Glory to you, O God: You raised Jesus from the grave, bringing us victory over death And giving us eternal life. Glory to you, O Christ: For us and for our salvation you overcame death And opened the gate to everlasting life. Glory to you, O Holy Spirit You lead us into truth and breathe new life into us. Glory to you, Creator, Redeemer and Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen

Silence

If we have fallen into despair: Lord forgive us If we have failed to hope in you: Lord forgive us If we have been fearful of death: Lord forgive us If we have forgotten the victory of Christ: Lord forgive us

Silence

May the living God, Raise us from despair, give us victory over sin, and set us free in Christ. Amen

As we are set free in Christ, with Christians around world, we join in the prayer that Jesus gave us;

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. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, Now and forever. Amen

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Psalm 118 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever! Let Israel say, ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’ The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen

Hymn The day of resurrection

The day of resurrection, earth tell it out abroad! The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God! From earth to life eternal, from earth unto the sky, Our Christ has brought us over with hymns of victory.

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.

Now let the heavens be joyful, let earth her song begin, The round world keep high triumph, and all that is therein; Let all things, seen and unseen their notes of gladness blend, For Christ the Lord is risen, our joy that has no end.

Noli me tangere (Touch me not) Roy de Maistre 1952-1958 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. The Methodist Church Registered Charity no. 1132208

I wonder what you notice in this painting:

I see the compassionate Risen Christ, wounds visible in his foot and hand, looking tenderly on Mary as she desperately reaches out to grasp him

As we look at the painting, let us hear John’s Gospel account of the encounter

Gospel Reading: John 20. 11-18 …… 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

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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.

Reflection It may be hard for some of us to celebrate Easter this year. There will be no family gatherings, exchanging of chocolate eggs, egg hunts, early Communion services and Easter breakfasts. We have to share virtual hugs, virtual meals and virtual worship. In the face of the pandemic, suffering and death touch every part of the planet. This is in addition to ongoing conflicts, wars, hunger, and poverty that are the present reality for so many in the world. So, what does it mean to affirm - Christ is risen, he is risen indeed? We cannot ignore the present reality – that feels more like crucifixion than resurrection. Yet, within the gospel reading, we find words of hope even in a time such as this.

Mary had come to the tomb before the dawn had broken. It was still dark: night-time dark, heart-time dark, grief-time dark. When the two disciples, turned to leave,

• Mary stayed at the tomb weeping – staying with the pain and grief, the struggle to understand what was going on, refusing to run away or turn away, she stayed put: the tears rolling down her face. This is lament and grief, acute and raw. It is the lament, many of us will understand better through the experiences of the past few weeks. All Mary could do was cry. She couldn’t understand, couldn’t make sense of what was going on. And like those bereaved now, there was the aching pain, for now she was denied the opportunity to carry out the last loving actions.

• When she was able, still weeping, she peered into the emptiness of the tomb. It takes great courage to face reality – the empty tomb at that moment, was Mary’s frightening reality. And our reality, the pandemic: pain and suffering on an almost unimaginable scale. Yet, it was, as Mary peered in, facing the bleak emptiness, that God’s messengers, the angels spoke, ‘why are you weeping?’ Her response, ‘I don’t know where they’ve laid him’ is such a heart-felt human response – desperation in a desperate situation. ‘It’s terrible’ is a phrase I’ve heard many times in recent weeks in response to our desperate situation. Like many of us in our desperation, Mary wasn’t able to

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grasp a fuller picture – she wasn’t able to recognise who was there with her.

• For when she turned around Mary saw the gardener! In her anguish, she pours out her longing. And Christ’s tender, clear, ‘Mary’ penetrates her grief, with the desire for a healing touch, the comfort of familiar human contact. So it seems so out of character that the Jesus who had spent the whole of his ministry touching and healing, now says, ‘Don’t touch me, don’t cling to me.’ We are only too aware that, at present, the most loving thing we can do for our family and friends, especially for those who are most medically vulnerable, is ‘to refrain from embracing’ to keep our distance. It’s hard!

• When Jesus forbids Mary to hold onto him it’s for a reason. Our ‘not touching’ is also for a reason. Jesus reveals to Mary, what he wasn’t able to reveal to the two disciples – that he was returning to his father and our father, his God and our God. Life was going to be different and Mary needed to let go of the familiar, so that she could give this message to the disciples. She had a Christ given task to fulfil. Traditionally, Mary has been regarded as the first apostle; for the Risen Christ sent her to deliver his message to the others. Mary was given her task, it came through her courage of staying in a place of emptiness and pain and there encountering the Risen Christ. The risen Christ still bearing the wounds of his own pain, suffering and death. It was Christ’s leaving them, that enabled the Holy Spirit, at Pentecost, to empower them.

• So, for us this Easter morning, we are like Mary – staying with our present reality. If we are open, within the bleakness, we may recognise the Risen Christ, in so many people. Maybe gardeners, but also refuse collectors, hospital cleaners, good neighbours, caring care workers, nurses, doctors, council workers, a myriad of professionals, politicians all turning their skills and knowledge to conquering the corona virus. So that we might again have new life. And, I pray that we will hear the wounded Risen Christ, tenderly whispering our name, assuring us, ‘I am with you always, to the end of time.’

Prayer In the hope and power of resurrection we offer our prayers to God.

Risen Christ, you rose in the darkness of night, discarding the garments of death, And met your people in their agony and tears. Help us to see your light in our darkness; and to feel your power in our weakness

Where there is love, there God is, in the quiet we make our prayers to God.

For the world – those places we carry within our hearts …..

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Compassionate Risen Christ: meet the people and places in their agony and tears

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For the church – world-wide, for those places where to proclaim Christ is risen leads to hostility and persecution, for the churches as they find ways to celebrate this Easter, and for us as we seek new unfamiliar ways to communicate the good news.

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Compassionate Risen Christ: meet the churches and Christians in their weakness and need as they seek to be faithful to you

For ourselves, those we love and for all we carry in our thoughts and prayers; the isolated, those who are ill in body, mind or spirit, the bereaved

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Compassionate Risen Christ: help us to see your light in our darkness; and to feel your power in our weakness. For our hope for the world, the church and ourselves is in you. Amen

Hymn Christ is alive, let Christians sing

Christ is alive! Let Christians sing. The cross stands empty to the sky. Let streets and homes with praises ring. Love, drowned in death, shall never die.

Christ is alive! No longer bound To distant years in Palestine, But saving, healing, here and now And touching every place and time.

In evry insult, rift and war, Where colour, scorn or wealth divide, Christ suffers still yet loves the more, And lives where even hope has died.

Women and men, in age and youth, Can feel the spirit, hear the call, And find the way, the life, the truth, Revealed in Jesus, freed for all.

Christ is alive and comes to bring Good news to this and every age, Till earth and sky and ocean ring With joy, with justice, love and praise.

Blessing Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, So, may we greet each new day with hope Live each new day with courage Share each new day with others May we end each new day with prayer So, may sleep and peace, bless us.

Go in peace and joy to love and serve the Lord. In the name of Christ. Alleluia.