GREETINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS MINUTE FOR MISSION
HYMN #173 Thine Is the Glory
CALL TO WORSHIP
One: This is the Good News of Easter –
The Grave is empty,
Christ is Risen
ALL: HALLELUJAH! HE IS RISEN INDEED.
One: This is the Good News of Easter –
The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness can never put it out.
ALL: ONCE WE WERE NO PEOPLE,
NOW WE ARE GOD’S PEOPLE:
THE LIVING BODY OF CHRIST
One: In the quiet in the garden,
In the hush of the upper room
The Risen Christ greets us
ALL: WITH HANDS STILL WOUNDED
WITH FEET STILL DRIPPING WITH DEW
THE RISEN ONE CALLS BY NAME.
One: Death and darkness are dispersed,
ALL: RESURRECTIONS ABOUND,
WE ARE AN EASTER PEOPLE
OUR SOULS ARE FILLED WITH HALLELUJAH!
HYMN #155 Jesus Christ Is Risen Today
PRAYER OF APPROACH:
One: Just before daybreak,
Mary went to the tomb.
ALL: A VOICE CALLED: “MARY.”
One: As she stood weeping in the garden,
a voice spoke to her saying,
ALL: WHY ARE YOU LOOKING FOR THE
LIVING ONE AMONG THE DEAD?
HE IS NOT HERE …
One: As she stood in the garden a voice said,
ALL: DO NOT BE AFRAID,
BUT GO AND TELL THE OTHERS…..
One: In the quiet of the evening the disciples cowered in the upper room
ALL: AND A VOICE SAID
“PEACE BE WITH YOU”
One: In the quiet of the evening,
Thomas came filled doubt,
ALL: WITH BOLDNESS AND FEAR HE SAID,
“UNLESS I SEE AND TOUCH, I WILL NOT BELIEVE”
One: In the hushed darkness of the night
Behind locked doors, they gathered
ALL: AND A VOICE SAID
“PLACE YOUR HAND HERE AND BELIEVE…”
One: In the quiet murmur of our day
ALL: A VOICE CALLS US BY NAME,
A VOICE CALLS US IN PEACE
A VOICE CALLS US TO BELIEVE. AMEN.
HYMN #396 Jesus, Stand among Us
PRAYER FOR WHOLENESS
One: We are an Easter people,
A people of The Resurrection
ALL: WE SEARCH FOR SUNBEAMS IN THE STORM
WE CELEBRATE CROCUSES IN THE SNOW
WE FIND THE SIGNS OF SPRING
STIRRING IN THE WINTER’S THAW
One: We are an Easter people,
ALL: IN THE FACE OF DEATH WE CELEBRATE LIFE.
IN THE DARKNESS WE PROCLAIM LIGHT.
One: We are an Easter people,
ALL: WE LEAP AND DANCE,
OUR BEINGS SATURATED WITH HALLELUJAHS,
BECAUSE THE LORD LIVES, WE LIVE.
One: We are an Easter people,
ALL: WE ARE A PEOPLE OF THE RESURRECTION!
HALLELUJAH!
SCRIPTURE READINGS: John 20:19-31
Acts 4:32-35
CHOIR ANTHEM:
STORY STOOL:
HYMN: #856 Miren Que Bueno (Psalm 133)
SERMON:
Church tradition tells us that Thomas, the one who said he wouldn’t believe unless he saw with his own eyes, the wounds in Jesus’ hands, and placed his hand on the wound on Jesus side … Thomas, the one who has come down through history to us known as “Doubting Thomas” … the same figure we’ve encountered in our readings today, was the one who carried the Church into the far east and founded the Christian Church in India and the sub continent. Thomas, tradition tells us journeyed far beyond the then known world to share the Gospel.
So, if Thomas was one of the first missionaries to travel far beyond the confines of Israel and also the Roman empire, why is it that he comes down to us as a sad figure? Calling someone a doubting Thomas is not an edifying statement – it is a criticism.
But is Thomas, the one who had the courage to speak his doubt, a negative figure in this morning’s reading?
What if, Thomas’ bold proclamation that he will not believe unless he sees and feels the resurrected Christ for himself, is actually a bold and courageous act?
As contemplated Thomas this week, my mind has been drawn to innumerable examples in history of individuals who stood up for what they believed in. Individuals who said simply to the crowds around them – “this is not what I will believe in … this is not what I will be about …” and they boldly charted their own path, sometimes in the very face of the society and the power structures in which they lived and moved.
Think of Galileo Galilie, the astronomer and scientist. Galileo boldy explored things like gravity and astronomy, and came to the conclusion that the earth revolved around the sun, not the sun revolving around the earth. “Outrageous” screamed the authorities of the day … and they drove Galileo to his knees and forced him to renounce his own theories …
Then quietly, some five hundred years later the Catholic Church said -“Oops, we were wrong … Sorry Galileo. You were right !!” Too bad Galileo wasn’t around to hear the long overdue apology.
It would be lovely to say that such things hardly ever happen, but over and over throughout human history we encounter again and again moments in time when the authorities, or the majority say – “you’re wrong,” only to be proven in the fullness of time to be the one in error. And usually, the Church is central in that process …
We could cite Columbus sailing westward into the Atlantic Ocean – the people he left behind believed in the core of their being, that the foolhardy sailor and his three ships would sail off the end of a vast flat disc that was the way they understood the earth … history, and our presence in North America proved Columbus a visionary. The flat earth-er – well, they’ve become a quaint anachronism in our modern society. And again, the Church was proven wrong …
In the modern era the struggle of minorities for equal rights may be another more obvious example of just such a moment when the majority, who hold the reigns of power are proven in time to be simply WRONG.
A powerful example of this call comes form a letter that Martin Luther King wrote in 1963 while sitting in a jail cell in Birmingham Alamaba for engaging in acts of civil disobedience. While King and others demonstrated and were arrested, the Christian and Jewish leadership of Birmingham and other cities called for an end to the disobedience. They pointed to the laws of the land and said – “Mr King you’re wrong,” They pointed to the Bible and said – “Mr King you’re wrong.” They pointed to the faith and the traditions of the Church and said – “Mr King you’re wrong.”
The leaders – the rabbis and priests and ministers of the South called on King to end his demonstrations and instead, wait for the right to vote, wait for equality, wait for things to change … “Wait Mr King,” they called – “Just wait.”
So from a jail cell King wrote in reply to their call to wait:
For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant 'Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
We have waited .for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God- given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six- year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.
It was the leaders of the Church that told Martin Luther King and the minorities of the US to wait … wait … wait … Morality rested in the jail cell with King, yet the authorities and those holding power believed they were right.
Like a modern day Thomas, King spoke from the heart and called for justice – justice that transcended the laws of the United States. Over and over he said – sometimes God’s justice runs counter to the laws of the land – sometimes God’s justice makes us very uncomfortable …
The struggle against Apartheid is another example of the Church around the world telling the likes of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu that they were wrong in their fight. Churches around the world said for many years that those would we opposing Apartheid were simply WRONG … hmm, who has history proven to be right?
So how do we live a Thomas experience in the modern era?
Questions and doubt have a place in faith, questioning the way things are, and having the courage and the boldness to stand up for what we know is right is a good place to start.
Thomas stood opposed to the other disciples who excitedly told him that they had seen the risen Christ. Thomas wouldn’t profess belief until he saw and touched and experienced the Risen Christ for himself … Thomas had to live the resurrection first hand before he would say – “I believe.”
In the church we don’t like the Thomas experience. We want things nice and calm and everyone going with the flow … We don’t want the boat rocked. We don’t want to be stirred from our complacency. So we use the term doubting Thomas with derision.
We tell the likes of Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu to wait. We scoff at the likes of Galileo and Columbus, laughing at their foolishness … We tend to follow like peacable, calm sheep … we don’t want to rock the boat.
But Thomas’ proclamation “My Lord and My God,” is not a statement of complacency nor cowardice. Thomas set the conditions for his belief and he BOLDLY walked forward … and then suddenly, before him stood the Risen Christ and when Thomas put his hand “just here” the power of the Resurrection surged through him and he simply said – “my Lord and my God …” and when he rose from his knees it was Thomas, doubting Thomas who bravely, brashly and boldly went out beyond the known corners of the world – far beyond the comfort of Galilee, perhaps even as far as modern day Thailand proclaiming to all whom he met the Good News that “He is Risen.”
Does this sound like the actions of a cowardly doubting wimp?? Thomas laid out his conditions for belief, and when they were met it was HIM (doubting Thomas) who boldly ventured way beyond the known world proclaiming the Risen Christ …
The challenge for us of the modern Church is to stand in that moment with Thomas and share his boldness and his courage – to share his willingness to stand opposed against the crowd. In the Church history shows us that such individuals are often the ones who take us by the hand into wonderful new areas of discovery, justice and learning – but when they stand up and speak their mind, they are seldom appreciated …
May we have the courage to hear the Thomas’ in our midst who challenge our assumptions and who are guided by the Spirit to lead us beyond our comfort zone, and even beyond the known world … May we have the courage to swim against the crowd, even when they claim to be right …
May it be so, thanks be to God …
Let us pray …
HYMN #703 In the Bulb There Is a Flower
OFFERING:
OFFERTORY:
PRAYER OF DEDICATION:
HYMN: #82 A Light Is Gleaming
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE THE LORD’S PRAYER
HYMN: #424 May the God of Hope Go with Us
COMMISSIONING/BENEDICTION:
SUNG RESPONSE: HYMN #884 You Shall Go Out with Joy
The worship has ended…
…the work of God’s people has just begun
Go in peace
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ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Lunch – following worship service next week. Join in the fun, food and fellowship
Observer Subscriptions are due!! (We’ve had mention in The Observer twice since November). Cost is $14/year. For information call Marion McNabb or the church office.
Thanks to the generous responses of the community over the Easter weekend.
Ø The Maundy Thursday dinner at the Covenant Church donated $1400 to the Rebuilding Fund.
Ø The Good Friday service at MCCC donated $1250.00 to the Rebuilding Fund
Ø The Easter Sunday service at Townview Manor donated $300.00 to the Rebuilding Fund.
A HUGE thanks to Eleanor for her music leadership over the Eatser weekend – Eleanor played FIVE services in four days. Thanks Eleanor, and thanks to the choir!
Thanks to Cal Frost for ALL his help at Tanner’s Crossing School last Sunday morning.
Thanks to Perry, Dean and Jennifer at Minnedosa Funeral Services for the use and their support of the Maundy Thursday Service.
Thanks to the AOTS for last week’s brunch.
A belated thanks to Nancy McKay and the women of Curves for their donation to the Food Cupboard at the beginning of April.
Concert of Choirs and Quartets – May 9th, 7:30 p.m., MCCC. Proceeds to the Rebuilding Fund.
Memorial Service at the Personal Care Home – Tuesday, April 25th, 2006 at 2:30 p.m. All are welcome.
Building Committee meeting – Tuesday, April 25, 06 at 7 p.m. at the Adult Learning Centre.
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