PARISH OF ST. PETER IN THANET
Easter Day 12 April 2020 – Pew Sheet
The Collect for Easter Day
Lord of all life and power, who through the mighty resurrection of your Son overcame the old order of sin and death to make all things new in him: grant that we, being dead to sin and alive to you in Jesus Christ, may reign with him in glory; to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be praise and honour, glory and might, now and in all eternity. Amen.
Intercessions for Easter Day
Lord God, even though our church building is closed, help us to proclaim with joy your message of hope for the world. As we rejoice and celebrate that He who is dead, is alive, that He who was buried, is risen, may our lives testify to the truth of the resurrection.
Lord hear us. Lord mercifully hear us
Lord God, make us aware of the presence of the risen Christ in our lives. Let us all proclaim the good news that ‘He is risen’and, as we rejoice this day, we remember your words to your disciples ’peace be with you’. We pray for peace in our world, especially in those places where there is still conflict and war.
Lord hear us. Lord mercifully hear us
Lord God, we pray for the world we inhabit especially through these difficult and trying times. We pray for those who lead and take important decisions. Give skill, sympathy and resilience to all who are caring for the sick, and your wisdom to those searching for a cure. Strengthen them with your Spirit, that through their work, many will be restored to health.
Lord hear us. Lord mercifully hear us
Risen Lord, as you appeared to Mary in the garden, to the disciples in the upper room and to the travellers on the Emmaus road, be known among us, in our homes, in our lives and in our journeying. Help us to walk in your presence and peace. We entrust to your tender care those who are ill or in pain, knowing that whenever danger threatens, your everlasting arms are there to hold them safe. Comfort and heal them, and restore them to health and strength; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Lord hear us. Lord mercifully hear us
Blessed are you, Lord God our Father, by whose power our Lord Jesus Christ is raised from the dead. We rejoice in the glory of the risen Lord and of all your saints who have shared in your triumph over the grave and death. We pray for our loved ones departed that they may rejoice in the glory of your presence.
Lord hear us. Lord mercifully hear us
In your prayers please remember
Prayers for healing – Alexander Tate; Gordon Burley; Tony Bridges; Sybil Warner; Ernie Turner; Mandy Winters; John Cox; Nick Biggs; Betty Lockwood; Johnathan Aitken; Andrew Cox; Sophie Woodin; Keith Evans….and those whose names have been entered in the book for prayers in St. James’ Chapel.
Those who have died recently – Rosemary Clarke-Jones…..and all those relatives and friends who are mourning the loss of their loved ones.
Please do keep in touch with one another. There will be many who are feeling very isolated, afraid and vulnerable, so a friendly phone call will make all the difference.
The heart of today’s Gospel reading is the resurrection appearance of Jesus as our risen Lord to Mary Magdalene. We know very little about her as she doesn’t appear in Johns Gospel until her appearance with the other Marys at the foot of the cross, but here in the garden, her appearance is quite pivotal, she is the first to take the news to the disciples that the tomb is empty and is the first to meet and speak to the risen Lord.
Throughout all of the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection appearances to his disciples what shines through is the striking conviction of them all: ‘’We saw him’ they all say. ‘I have seen the Lord’ says Mary in the garden, and of the travellers on the road to Emmaus we read: ‘then their eyes were opened and they recognised him’. But every one of them whom Jesus appeared too enjoyed a different kind of experience, no two appearances were the same. There was nothing stereo typical about how these witnesses became convinced that the man who had just died was still living, and was now in contact with them.
Take Mary for example, she simply went to the garden to grieve, to begin the slow painful process of coming to grips with the death of the one whom she loved. She had come at the very earliest she could get there. She would have been breaking the law to come on the Sabbath and she had come to spend a few hours in the peace and quiet of the early morning to sit and mourn with the body of the one she had loved; and where she had expected death, she found new life, for there was Jesus, not that she recognised him until He called her name.
On the road to Emmaus it wasn’t until Jesus had interpreted the Old Testament and shared a meal with Cleopas and his fellow disciple, that the truth finally dawned on them.
And as for Thomas, no amount of persuasion from the others was enough, and so he encountered Jesus in a locked room. It was not until he had seen the mark of the nails and put his hand in his side that he was able to believe.
I wonder if John only tells us this story in order to stress the Christian conviction that ‘seeing Jesus’ is much more than just looking at him or touching him; it is an inner experience: ’Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
This is the conviction that enables faith in the risen Christ to come down through the centuries to us here and now. We heard read in the passage from Acts that: ’God raised him up on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all people but to those of us chosen by God as witnesses,’ and we are all of course witnesses to the risen Lord.
All those who saw the risen Jesus did so very differently and this is, I believe, because God recognises that we are all different, we are unique individuals. God will speak to each of us individually through our own distinctive experience, and in ways we will all understand.
It is important that we take comfort and reassurance from this, for it means that this Easter morning we don’t need to covet someone else’s encounter.
There are no league tables, it is not a competition, all we need to do is live joyfully with our experience of God’s action in raising Christ from the dead.
We will all have experienced this in many different ways, maybe through fellowship of the church, through a relationship with someone, or maybe a conversation with a stranger. The how, the where and the when are not important. It is the experience itself that matters.
The message of Easter Day is clear. The risen Christ comes to us in whichever way He chooses. He matches his appearing to our own experience and needs, and chooses whichever means will best speak to our inner self. All we need to do is take that experience and treasure it and live in the promise and the hope for the future which it gives us.
I wish you all a very happy and joyous Easter Day. Amen Rev Jan