Prelude – Con Spirito by Thomas Arne Proclamation The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Welcome Good morning and welcome to Easter morning worship at Home Street. Welcome to the life-altering news that our Saviour has risen from the grave! Welcome to the life-shaping news that death is overcome by love! Welcome to the life-guiding news that our friend Jesus is alive, and still calling each of us to follow! As on every other morning when we are gathered as a community, we remind ourselves that we live and worship on holy ground. This is Treaty 1 territory, and we are grateful to all those with whom we share the Treaty and this land – especially to those from this land’s First Nations. We pray that this time of celebration honors the Creator and helps to bring healing and wholeness to Turtle Island. Song – Sing with all the saints (STS #92) Call to worship (Colossians 3:1-3) So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. We have come to the garden, and see that the stone is rolled away! Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. We have entered the tomb, but see only folded grave clothes! When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. We will rush to tell our friends that we have seen the Lord! Prayer Loving and saving God, It is our joy and our thrill and our delight to be gathered this morning as a community that finds its hope in you! As we remind ourselves that pain and suffering and even death are overcome by your eternal love, we find our hearts burning with the desire to know this love more deeply, and to share this love more freely. God, hear our songs of adoration and our words of praise. May all these things bring you glory and adoration. Amen. Easter Reverie – Jesus Christ is risen today arr. Noel Rawsthorne Scripture reading – Psalm 118:1-2; 14-24 This is God’s word to the people. Thanks be to God. Affirmation of faith (from the United Church of Canada) We are not alone, we live in God's world. We believe in God: who has created and is creating, who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh, to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit. We trust in God. We are called to be the Church: to celebrate God's presence, to live with respect in Creation, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our friend, our Saviour, and our hope. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. Amen Offertory – That Easter morn, at break of day God, we humbly and gratefully give back some of what has been entrusted to us. May our gifts be signs of our hope and optimism, and tokens of our conviction that you are alive and your love needs to be shared! Amen. (As you listen to the offering music you are invited to prepare a cheque or send an e-transfer to donate@hsmc.ca. We understand that some of you are experiencing reduced income during this pandemic time, and only want you to give as you are able.) Song – Low in the grave he lay (HWB #273) Scripture reading – Mark 15:33-39 and Mark 16:1-8 This is God’s word to the people. Thanks be to God. Meditation Good Morning and Happy Easter to one and all. Christ is risen and I am grateful for it and I trust you all are too. People like us have been gathering to commemorate this joyful event that is so central to our faith and hope in God. Except that we’re not “gathering” are we? Much as we’d love to be getting together to shout together “up from the grave he arose!” we aren’t. The peculiar demands of our time tell us that we shouldn’t and so we are far from each other in body. But the body of Christ is no less real this Easter than ever and I give thanks for each of you. May you experience blessing and peace and hope in the midst of your isolation, distancing and potential loneliness. Christ’s resurrection happened in confusing times and so we can, perhaps, identify just a bit closer with that confusion. When Jesus was on the cross a number of things were happening. People were gathered to watch. He received wine or vinegar on a sponge. People taunted him. Others came to console him. Soldiers squatted at the foot of the cross to gamble away his clothing. He was stabbed with a spear. The man who convicted him washed his hands of the matter. But there is one particular thing that happened that I’d like to focus on today: While Jesus was on the cross the veil or curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. I want to talk about this because I believe it has profound implications for how we understand the resurrection and how we live our lives in the light of Christ’s rising. First of all, let’s look at what the curtain in the temple was there for. It was a separation between where people could go in the temple and where they could not go. It separated people from the “most holy place” which was the core of the representation of God. The curtain itself was pretty substantial. It was many feet wide and tall. It was made of heavy material and supported by elegant posts. It was kind of like a heavy leather tarp that was a barrier between people and their God. The veil in the temple promoted mystery. After all, if people came to pray and worship they could experience wonder as to what was behind the curtain and imagine what the representation of the presence of God was like. Perhaps they felt encouraged to imagine the presence of God and not just the representation. The curtain also kept people safe. Because God was so holy and wondrous, it would not do for people to come “face to face” with God. The barrier meant that God was too holy for anyone except the designated priest on a designated day to offer incense. So what exactly did the curtain hide that was so important? Over the years they had kept the arc of the covenant behind it, stone tablets, Torah scrolls, incense table and more. All things that were precious, meaningful and powerful representations of God in the life of the people. But then in an unexpected moment this veil, this heavy curtain was torn from top to bottom and all of the secrets of the holy place were revealed for anyone to see. Given that Jesus was crucified at the time of Passover there were probably a lot of folks in the temple at the time. While some may have been taking in the spectacle of the crucifixion I’m sure that plenty were present at the temple doing their religious duty and praying and giving offerings to God. Surprise! God’s presence isn’t hidden any more! I’m sure that if I’d been there I’d have wanted to see that which had been hidden all those years. Some might have averted their gaze and not looked at what they weren’t supposed to. We don’t really know. In the text it says that the Roman centurian declared Jesus to be the Son of God in the next line of text. How he would have known about the veil-rending I’m not sure but we are given a pretty clear connection between Jesus death and authority and what just happened in the temple. So why did the curtain tear? Was it old and in poor repair and it’s time had simply come? Was this simply some sort of cosmic coincidence? We can’t say for sure but we get to imagine meaning into this peculiar drapery downfall. Jesus had been critical of the religious structure of the day and even said that the temple would be torn down. This may have been the beginning of that process. The old religious structure was no longer effectual and needed to be laid bare for the scam that it was. RIIIIIIIP. See? Nothing there. Just a dusty candelabra and some incense and other oddments. Time for a new religious order! Another very happy and plausible interpretation is that the tearing of the veil symbolized the breaking of the barrier between us and God. We no longer needed mediation to come before the presence of the divine. Some would add that Christ’s death was the new form of mediation between us and God and all we have to do is have faith in Jesus and we can know God for eternity. I would like us to think about a third possibility for why the temple veil was torn in this abrupt manner. I think that maybe Jesus was releasing God from a sort of confinement in the Holy of Holies. I wonder if Jesus realized that the time of limiting God’s presence to a small place in the temple was hindering people’s understanding of God and God needed to be let out into the bright light of day rather than remaining shrouded in temple mystery. Jesus consistently argued with religious authorities who were intent on controlling people’s access to God. Their rules and regulations, their purity laws, their labels of sinfulness, their profiteering from the sacrificial system all made Jesus quite irate so maybe he was just giving them their comeuppance. By tearing the veil through his death Jesus was saying “now what is the authority on which you base your oppression? See, God’s left the building!” We are left with a problem though aren’t we? If Jesus, God’s son, is now dead and God is no longer in the temple where is God? Actually, this isn’t our problem so much as our glorious opportunity. The tearing of the veil gives us limitless scope for discovering God in our hearts, in our lives, in our world, in each other and more. What Jesus did for us on the cross by ripping the temple curtain was to exchange a measly holy mystery confined to the temple for a cosmic, boundless mystery of love that can only be comprehended through the glory of life and an eternity of life at that. We can now look for God in all manner of mysterious places and courageously see the veils torn aside. I will point out a few veils that have been torn for me over the years. When I was younger I had an implicit understanding that the “man was the head of the household” and other such sexist talk. The discovery of mutuality in relationship helped tear down that veil. I once had some pretty racist understandings of relationships between white and non-white people. A variety of experiences tore down that horrible curtain for me and I am so glad for a more equitable spirit. I once had homophobic understandings that were handed to me by home and culture. Thanks be to God that curtain has been torn as well. It is important to note that tearing the veil doesn’t necessarily give you all that you need to get into the presence of God. Identifying the veils of sexism, racism and homophobia and seeing them torn didn’t transform me. But seeing God’s wisdom in the wisdom of women, seeing God revealed in people of all colours and races and seeing God revealed in all sexual orientations has helped explain much more what a dead and resurrected God is like. It's also important to note that the tearing of the curtain impacts both the individual and the community. As I mentioned, many people were probably in the temple when the curtain was ripped. Temple authorities among them. When we’re faced with challenges we are called to face them both individually and as a community. Currently we are in a pandemic situation where we are having to make choices between “business as usual” and social distancing practises. Voices are being heard from various perspectives but for now most community leaders and individuals are saying that saving lives – particularly those of the elderly – is more important than “the economy”. It will be interesting to see what we’ve learned by the end of this particular curtain-ripping experience. Easter is always about dying to the old and rising to the new. Old self, new self. Destructive patterns, healthy patterns. Life sucking relationships, to life-giving relationships. Jesus tore the veil so that we too could roll away the stones blocking us from newness of life. Jesus revealed God as so much more. More than laws. More than observances. More even than worship. God is all in all and our lives are to be about discovering that goodness now and forevermore. The curtain is torn and Christ is risen indeed! Song – Thine is the glory (HWB #269) Benediction: “Ascension” by Malcolm Guite We saw his light break through the cloud of glory Whilst we were rooted still in time and place As earth became a part of Heaven’s story And heaven opened to his human face. We saw him go and yet we were not parted He took us with him to the heart of things The heart that broke for all the broken-hearted Is whole and Heaven-centered now, and sings, Sings in the strength that rises out of weakness, Sings through the clouds that veil him from our sight, Whilst we our selves become his clouds of witness And sing the waning darkness into light, His light in us, and ours in him concealed, Which all creation waits to see revealed. Postlude – Christ is alive! Participants in this morning’s service: Meditation: Steve Plenert Worship leader: Phil Campbell-Enns |