Alleluia! Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Confession
Let us show our love for our risen Lord by confessing our sins in penitence and faith, and offering ourselves anew in his service.
God of mercy, we acknowledge our sin before you, the wrong we have thought and said and done, and the good things we have failed to do. Forgive and cleanse us, that we may offer ourselves afresh in the service of our risen Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
May almighty God, who sent his Son into the world to save us, grant us his pardon and peace, now and for ever. Amen.
Theme Prayer (Collect for the Day)
Risen Christ, you filled your disciples with boldness and fresh hope: strengthen us to proclaim your risen life and fill us with your peace, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.
God’s Word - Acts, chapter 3, verses 12 to 19 :
Peter saw the people coming and met them with these words: ‘Men of Israel, why be surprised at what has happened? Why stare at us as if we had made this man walk by some power or godliness of our own? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has given the highest honour to his servant Jesus, whom you handed over for trial and disowned in Pilate’s court - disowned the holy and righteous one when Pilate had decided to release him. You asked for the reprieve of a murderer, and killed the Prince of life. But God raised him from the dead; of that we are witnesses. The name of Jesus, by awakening faith, has given strength to this man whom you see and know, and this faith has made him completely well as you can all see.
‘Now, my friends, I know quite well that you acted in ignorance, as did your rulers; but this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets: that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, therefore, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, and then the Lord may grant you a time of recovery.’
Luke, chapter 24, verses 36 to 48 :-
As the disciples were talking about all that had happened, there was Jesus, standing among them. Startled and terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, ‘Why are you so perturbed? Why do doubts arise in your minds? Look at my hands and feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see; no ghost has flesh and bones as you can see that I have.’ They were still incredulous, still astounded, for it seemed too good to be true. So he asked them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They offered him a piece of fish they had cooked, which he took and ate before their eyes.
And he said to them, ‘This is what I meant by saying, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms was bound to be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. ‘So you see’, he said, ‘that scripture foretells the sufferings of the Messiah and his rising from the dead on the third day, and declares that in his name repentance bringing the forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are to be witnesses to it all. I am sending on you the gift promised by my Father; wait here in this city until you are armed with power from above.’
Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.
A Reflection
on the Reading (a shortened version of the reflection on Youtube)
Repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out. So says Peter to the crowd in our first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles. A crippled beggar at the temple gate had asked the apostles Peter and John for money, but they had none to give him. Instead, Peter heals him: “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I say to you, get up and walk.” This man has been begging in the same place for years, so people are amazed to see him healed and walking, coming into the temple with Peter and John, and praising God.
So a crowd gathers round, and Peter takes his chance to preach to them. We haven’t healed this man through our own power, he tells them - he has been healed through Jesus whom you had put to death. God has raised him from the dead, and we are witnesses to this. In sending him to be killed you acted in ignorance - and in any case what happened was what was always supposed to happen. God’s plan has been fulfilled, and the Messiah suffered and died just as the prophets of old said he would. But, for you now: repent, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.
We started this service by asking God to forgive our sins, and most of our services begin with a prayer of confession. But, talking the other day with a very jolly and somewhat irreverent friend, he greeted me with a cheery “Heard any good confessions lately?” I replied that I’d be glad to hear his, to which he responded: “Chance’d be a fine thing. I’ve been locked down for a year. What chance have I had to sin?”
What chance indeed? There’s a serious point in there, though. I may talk to people about Christ having lifted from us the burden of our sin, but that doesn’t have much impact on someone who isn’t really aware of any burden of sin. “I’m glad the church is there for me when I need it,” said someone to me the other day; “It’s just that I don’t seem to need it all that much.” I think she spoke for quite a lot of people who are themselves in a fairly comfortable place, and are doing their best to be nice and kind, and certainly don’t do anything really bad.
I can understand that point of view, but for me life without faith and without church is life incomplete. And while I also do my best to be nice and kind, and don’t do anything horribly bad, I am still aware of the burden of sin in my own life, my own self, in three ways - firstly that I know I’m not the best version of myself that I could be and want to be and I suppose should be, secondly that I do do things that hurt other people, or maybe my neglect hurts them, and thirdly I’m aware there are times when I let people down who have a right to be able to rely on me - and if I’m letting my neighbour down I’m letting God down as well.
I think that modern secular society, if it thinks of sin at all, thinks of it in terms of some pretty specific things people do that are wrong, many of which are illegal (murder, rape, gbh, housebreaking etc), while the rest should be and probably will be in time (trolling, for example, or verbal abuse). Whereas in fact “sin” is really about missing the mark we should aiming at, falling short of the target - and it’s as much about the good stuff we don’t do as the bad stuff we do.
And because heaven is only for perfect people, the slightest featherweight of sin is enough to keep us locked out. Except that God loves me - and you, and a load of other folk, many of whom you might think don’t deserve his love. And you’d be right there, because in fact none of us does. The cross and the empty tomb, and the man who appears to his disciples and shows them his scarred and broken hands and feet, to prove that despite their confusion and alarm he is no ghost - here is where that undeserved love is revealed and displayed, and proved for what it is: God’s promise that his love wins out over all the bad stuff, and that death no longer has the last word.
Statement of Faith -
We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayers - Pray for the peace of the
world, and for all who are denied justice, freedom or the opportunity to learn.
In World Immunisation Week, pray for the work of making vaccines available
against many controllable diseases, and of course of making Covid vaccines
widely available. Pray for our Queen and the Royal Family in their loss.
Pray that the Church everywhere may be marked by a strong and active and welcoming faith. Pray for Christians in Ireland, and for the Church of Ireland within the Anglican Communion. Pray for our own Diocese, for Bishop Richard, and for the churches and communities of the Leominster Deanery.
Pray for all who are ill, in danger or in need today, and for their care, support and encouragement. Pray for the health and safety of all who work in the healing professions. Pray for all who live with MS, and for research into this disabling disease. Pray also for all who live with severe allergies.
Pray for our own communities and for our families and friends. May our faith bear fruit in witness, service and sharing. Give thanks for all who continue to be active helping others as volunteers, locally and nationally.
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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Prayer & Blessing
May the light of Christ, rising in glory, banish all darkness from our hearts and minds. Amen.
May God our Father, by whose glory Christ was raised from the dead, strengthen us to walk with him in his risen life. And may almighty God bless us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
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