St Ursula's Church
Berne, Switzerland
A Church of the Anglican Communion, welcoming all who seek the Lord Jesus Christ
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| St Ursula's Church A Church of the Anglican Communion, welcoming all who seek the Lord Jesus Christ | ||||||||
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Alleluia. Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
The paschal candle is lit
The light of Christ
Thanks be to God
May the light of Christ, rising in glory, banish all darkness from our hearts and minds.
1 Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once, upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!
2 Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!
Unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia!
Who endured the Cross and grave, Alleluia!
Sinners to redeem and save. Alleluia!
3 But the pains that he endured, Alleluia!
Our salvation have procured; Alleluia!
Now above the sky he’s King, Alleluia!
Where the angels ever sing. Alleluia!
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you
and also with you.
Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Alive, alive, alive for evermore,
Now Jesus is alive, alive for evermore;
Alive, alive, alive for evermore,
Now Jesus is alive!
Sing hallelujah, sing hallelujah;
Now Jesus is alive for evermore.
Sing hallelujah, sing hallelujah;
Now Jesus is alive!
Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed for us. Let us therefore rejoice by putting away all malice and evil and confessing our sins with a sincere and true heart.
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
we have sinned against you and against our neighbour
in thought and word and deed,
through negligence, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault.
We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us,
forgive us all that is past and grant
that we may serve you in newness of life
to the glory of your name. Amen.
Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent,
have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King,
almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.
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
1 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2 Thus says the Lord:
The people who survived the sword
found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest,
3 the Lord appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built,
O virgin Israel!
Again you shall take your tambourines,
and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
5 Again you shall plant vineyards
on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters shall plant,
and shall enjoy the fruit.
6 For there shall be a day when sentinels will call
in the hill country of Ephraim:
"Come, let us go up to Zion,
to the Lord our God."
34 Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ — he is Lord of all. 37 That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
Alleluia, alleluia. I am the first and the last, says the Lord, and the living one; I was dead and behold I am alive for evermore.
Alleluia
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John
Glory to you, O Lord
1 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. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 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." 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" 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." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). 17 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.'" 18 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.
This is the Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, O Christ
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, alleluia! This Easter Day is different from any other that we have known. Christians in many parts of the world, indeed perhaps most of the world, cannot meet together today to celebrate the heart of our faith. But as we celebrate separately in our homes, let us still rejoice, knowing that, though we celebrate at a physical distance from one another, we remain united in our worship of the Risen Lord.
The resurrection is right at the centre of our faith. If the story of Jesus was simply the story of an inspiring man who taught us to love one another and who ended up dying a cruel and painful death, there would be no Christian faith. It is because the early disciples and Christians down the centuries believed that Jesus is risen and alive amongst us that the Christian faith has grown and spread throughout the world to many different places and cultures. As Peter realises in our reading from Acts, the Risen Christ is Lord of all, and God calls people of every nation through him. When we say 'Christ is Risen!' we are joining millions of Christians, past and present, even when this year, we do so each in our separate homes.
The good news of the resurrection is a message of hope – surely a message of hope that we need to hear in these dark times. Many people are living with extreme grief and loss, with a sense of fear and uncertainty, and with little hope for the future. Not so different perhaps from Mary Magdalene as she went to the tomb early on that first Easter morning.
Mary had watched Jesus die, overwhelmed by thirst, heat and pain; reviled and mocked by those around him. This was the man Mary and others had begun to hope was the Messiah, the one who would bring a whole new future. Now Mary must have felt those hopes brutally cut off. It was all a mistake, a failure.
Yet, Mary comes to the tomb early in the morning to dress Jesus' dead body with spices and ointment, only to discover the stone has disappeared and there is no body. So Mary stands alone by the tomb, weeping. There must have been so much pent up grief in her; a sense of numbness and meaninglessness; but also puzzlement and anger – where is his body? How dare they touch it and take it away? Is she not even allowed to show respect to his dead body? An experience which is painfully true for many today who cannot see their dead relatives or pay their last respects in a funeral service.
For Mary, it is in the midst of her hopelessness, anger and grief that the Risen Jesus draws near, asking 'Woman why are you weeping?' Mary does not recognise Jesus and, thinking that he is the gardener, asks him if he has taken the body. We might think it is strange that she does not recognise Jesus at first; perhaps she is so overwhelmed by her grief. Perhaps there is something different about Jesus. There are other resurrection accounts where the disciples fail to recognise Jesus at first. Here, it is when Jesus calls her by name, 'Mary', that she realises who Jesus is. Jesus is the good shepherd who knows each of his sheep 'by name', and he calls Mary personally, speaking deeply into her heart, into her hopes and fears.
With what joy and delight Mary must then have recognised Jesus. 'Rabbouni!', 'teacher!', she cries. Her first impulse must have been to embrace him, for Jesus next words to her are: 'Do not cling to me' or 'do not hold on to me'. Words which perhaps have a special poignancy for us this year as many of us cannot hold on to, or embrace, those closest to us.
But why does Jesus say this to Mary?
I don't think it is because his resurrected body is a spiritual body and she must not touch it. The gospels emphasise that Jesus was not a ghost, but appeared with a real body. He ate and drank with his disciples several times after his resurrection, and he encouraged Thomas to touch his body, to put his finger in his wounds. The Risen Jesus is not a warm memory, a hallucination, or a ghostly spirit. The Risen Jesus appears in the body. The gospel accounts stress that this is both the same body which was crucified (as Jesus still bears his wounds), yet it is at the same time a transformed and glorified body (because Jesus can appear through closed doors). Jesus' risen body is different in some mysterious way. The resurrection of Jesus marks something completely new; a new act of God in the world, the beginning of a whole new creation.
Perhaps when Jesus tells Mary, 'do not hold on to me' or 'do not cling to me', he is gently telling her, that yes, he is here, he is Risen, but that things are different now. She cannot simply hold on to him as he was. Mary, in her outburst of joy, may have thought that history was now reversed. Jesus was back. Things could go back to the way they were. But the resurrection does not simply reverse the crucifixion and take us back in time as if Jesus' death never happened. As one commentator points out: 'The crucifixion has happened and both Jesus' friends and his enemies have made irrevocable decisions in the course of the events round it. Judas and Peter and Pilate will not wake up and find it was all a bad dream.'
The resurrection is something new; it is not simply the erasing of something painful and a return to life as it was. Jesus is the crucified and risen one; he still bears his scars. The cross was real. Jesus' death was real. Mary cannot hold on to Jesus as he was in his earthly ministry, or simply resume their past friendship. She cannot go backwards, she needs to go forwards. Jesus wants to lead her, and the other disciples, on into a new future and a new relationship with him and with God. Jesus tells Mary that he is 'ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'
The resurrection of Jesus has changed things for ever. Jesus' death and resurrection bring us into a new intimacy with God our Father. This is a personal relationship for each one of us; as Jesus knew Mary by name, so he knows each one of us. But the new intimacy we are drawn into is also a communal intimacy. God is 'our Father' and 'our God', not just 'mine'. Mary cannot keep her experience to herself, she must go and share what she has seen and heard with her brothers.
The resurrection is bigger than just 'me and God', it is also bigger than 'us and God'. It has implications for the whole world and the whole creation. The resurrection of Jesus marks the beginnings of God making everything new; the promise of new heavens and a new earth.
In this global crisis we face at the moment, many people are looking for hope for the future. But what kind of hope is it? What will post COVID-19 look like? Do we hope that when the crisis has passed we can then return to our old life and our old ways, as individuals, communities, nationally and internationally? That might be what many people hope for. But of course, life will not be the same for many people. Some people will have tragically lost family and friends, others will have lost their livelihoods and businesses, and many will suffer in the financial hardship that will follow.
Some people have expressed hope that this crisis might pave the way for a different way of life; that as human beings we might indeed move forwards and not seek to go backwards. That we might learn to live in a more sustainable way; be more thankful for small things; show more care for the most vulnerable. Perhaps there is a challenge to us all not to cling to what we have known but to be open to new possibilities; that we might learn through this painful experience, both as individuals and as societies.
The resurrection reminds us that there is a future and a hope. Not just the hope expressed in our reading from Jeremiah, that people will again build and plant, make music and dance, but much more than that. The resurrection promises a future even when we have passed through the darkest times and places, through the pit and out the other side. For those who have died and their grieving families, the resurrection of Jesus offers the assurance of a future life in God's presence when all things are renewed. Perhaps we all need to be reminded of this resurrection hope; that because Jesus has been raised to new life, so we too will be raised to new life. But the resurrection also has implications for how we live now. We are called to 'die to sin' and to live Christ's Risen life now. To allow God to transform us, our values and attitudes, our relationships; to be signs to our world of a different way of being and living.
Yes, we hope that post COVID-19, our world may become a kinder and more compassionate place, where resources are shared more fairly. But societies will not be transformed unless people are transformed. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we are offered a new future. To walk towards that future we need to let go of the sin that clings so closely; to let go of our own desire to hold on to God on our own terms, and instead to follow Jesus into the unknown, to let the Risen Jesus lead us into a deeper relationship with God, our Father, and with one another.
There is a future and a hope.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, alleluia!
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is,
seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of the sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Let us greet this day and our time of prayer with the Easter greeting:
Alleluia, Christ is risen
He is risen indeed, Alleluia
And so in the power of the Spirit and in union with our risen Lord, let us pray to the Father.
Blessed are you, Lord our God and Heavenly Father, on the first day of the week you raised your Son Jesus Christ, triumphant over death, sin and evil. In his death you have destroyed death and in his rising to life you have opened to us the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
As we bring you thanks and praise, we remember that many still walk in the valley of the shadow of death and pain. We pray for who suffer from the virus either physically, or from sheer fear and worry. We give thanks for all doctors, nurses and medical staff who nurse and care on the front line, bless and protect them.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Lord, we are a diverse community of many nationalities; we bring before you the countries from which we come. We pray for them that they may be governed in such a way that the environment is protected, the disadvantaged are cared for. the vulnerable listened to. Risen Lord, we pray for your peace in our war-torn world, for peace between nations and people, peace in our dealings with each other, peace in our hearts and homes.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
As you appeared to Mary in the garden and later to the disciples in the upper room come enter our homes, come enter into our fear and darkness, come into our enclosed lives, set us free to receive you as our risen Lord and help us to enjoy the glorious freedom you offer to the children of God.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
We come with all who weep by gravesides, with all who mourn the loss of a loved one, the many families world-wide that have been shattered and torn apart by the coronavirus, feeling lonely and deserted. We pray that the suffering world you died for may find new hope and joy in you.
In the quietness of our Easter prayer, we bring before you those whom we know who are in need of healing. May your blessing and protection be over Helen, David and Archana and all who minister and serve you in our community, over archdeacon Adèle and our bishops, Robert and David.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Risen Lord on this day when you were raised, teach us the joy and comfort of knowing that we have died with you and in the words of your apostle that our life is hidden with Christ in God. Thank you, that like Mary in tears before the tomb, we too are called by name to turn from death, tragedy and darkness to face you and know you in your risen glory. This we pray for our loved ones who are departed from us and share with all your saints in your risen Life
Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Peter Hawker
The Risen Christ came and stood among his disciples and said,
'Peace be with you.'
Then were they glad when they saw the Lord. Alleluia.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.
As our Saviour has taught us, so we pray
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.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours now and for ever.
Amen.
God of life,
who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son
to the death of the cross,
and by his glorious resurrection
have delivered us from the power of our enemy:
grant us so to daily die to sin,
that we may evermore live with him
in the joy of his risen life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you and remain with you now and always. Amen.
Go in the peace of Christ. Alleluia, Alleluia
Thanks be to God. Alleluia, Alleluia.