This week’s Readings and Sermon for Easter Sunday
The Collect for This Week
Risen Christ, for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred: open the doors of our hearts, that we may seek the good of others and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace, to the praise of God the Father. Amen
The Post Communion Prayer for this week
Lord God our Father, through our Saviour Jesus Christ you have assured your children of eternal life and in baptism have made us one with him: deliver us from the death of sin and raise us to new life in your love, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
Psalm 16
1 Preserve me, O God, for in you have I taken refuge; I have said to the Lord, ‘You are my lord, all my good depends on you.’ 2 All my delight is upon the godly that are in the land, upon those who are noble in heart.
3 Though the idols are legion that many run after their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, neither make mention of their names upon my lips. 4 The Lord himself is my portion and my cup; in your hands alone is my fortune. 5 My share has fallen in a fair land indeed, I have a goodly heritage. 6 I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel, and in the night watches he instructs my heart. 7 I have set the Lord always before me; he is at my right hand; I shall not fall. 8 Wherefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices; my flesh also shall rest secure. 9 For you will not abandon my soul to Death, nor suffer your faithful one to see the Pit. 10 You will show me the path of life; in your presence is the fullness of joy and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever. Amen
The First Reading for this Sunday is taken from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2, verses 14 and 22 to 32
14
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
22 ‘You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— 23 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24 But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. 25 For David says concerning him,
“I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover, my flesh will live in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption. 28 You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.”
29 ‘Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying,
“He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.”
32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The New Testament reading for this Sunday is taken from the First Letter of St Peter, Chapter 1, verses 3 to 9
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7 so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from the Gospel of St John, Chapter 20, verses 19 to 31
Hear the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to Matthew Glory to You, o Lord
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 27 Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ 28 Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ 29 Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to You, o Christ
Note :All readings are shared from the Church of England Lectionary App and are subject to copyright . © The Archbishop’s Council
This week’s talk is delivered by Mike Black
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be now and always acceptable in Your sight, o God, our strength and our Redeemer.
Doubt and despair. Faith and hope. Two sides of the same coin.
Let me start by asking whether there’s anyone here this morning, who has never suffered from doubt.
I don’t just mean whether anyone who has had doubt about their faith, or the existence of God, but just doubt in any way.
Can anyone give me an example ?
I, for instance, doubted that Burnley would survive in the Premier League this season before a ball was even kicked. As things stand, it looks as though my doubts were well-founded.
What about doubting other people ? Perhaps doubting their motives or their reasons for doing (or not doing) something ?
Is anyone willing to admit to doubting God ?
Very often, when it comes to doubts about God, or lack of trust in Him, this can be at a time when we have recently experienced either a spiritual high or low – a time of great happiness or sadness, for example. These are the times when we face the biggest dangers of spiritual warfare – when Satan sows the seed of doubt into our minds that God doesn’t really care for us. It is at such moments, when we must remember St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (Chapter 6 v 12 & 13) : “12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
Faith, as I said, is the opposite side of the coin to doubt. It is what keeps us going in times of trouble. It is what gives us that inner peace and strength to face whatever adversities life may throw at us.
Today’s Gospel reading looks at probably the most famous voicing of doubt in the New Testament. (There are plenty of examples in the Old Testament, especially in the book of Psalms.)
Even people with little or no knowledge of the Bible will refer to someone who is uneasily convinced by something as being a “Doubting Thomas.”
I believe that we should thank God for the example of "doubting Thomas"! The famous story of the disciple Thomas is recorded in today’s Gospel. All Christians suffer doubt at one time or another, but the example of doubting Thomas provides both instruction and encouragement.
After His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus appeared alive and glorified to His disciples to comfort them and proclaim to them the good news of His victory over death). However, one of the original 12 disciples, Thomas, was not present for this visitation. After being told by the other disciples of Jesus’ resurrection and personal visit, Thomas “doubted” and wanted physical proof of the risen Lord in order to believe this good news. Jesus, knowing Thomas’s human frailty resulted in weakened faith, accommodated Thomas. In the same way, He will accommodate us today.
It is important to note that Jesus did not have to fulfil Thomas’s request. He was not obligated in the slightest bit. Thomas had spent three years intimately acquainted with Jesus witnessing all His miracles and hearing His prophecies about His coming death and resurrection. That, and the testimony Thomas received from the other 10 disciples about Jesus’ return, should have been enough, but still he doubted. Jesus knew Thomas’s weakness, just as he knows ours.
The doubt Thomas experienced in the face of the heartbreaking loss of the One he loved is not unlike our own when facing a massive loss: despair, heartbreak, and exceeding sorrow. Yet, although Thomas did in fact doubt the Lord’s resurrection appearance, once he saw the risen Christ, he proclaimed in faith,
“My Lord and my God”, Thomas exclaims in verse 28 of the passage.
Jesus commended him for his faith, although that faith was based on sight.
As an extra encouraging note to future Christians, Jesus goes on to say, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” He meant that once He ascended to heaven, He would send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who would live within believers from then on, enabling us to believe that which we do not see with our eyes. This same thought is echoed by Peter, who said of Christ, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls”.
Although we have the Spirit within us, we can still experience doubt. This, however, does not affect our eternal standing with God. True saving faith always perseveres to the end just as Thomas’s did, and just as Peter’s did after he had a monumental moment of weakness by denying the very Lord he loved and believed in three times on the night Jesus was betrayed. As St Paul says in the last verse of chapter 13 in his first letter to the church in Corinth, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.”
So how do we keep from doubting as Thomas did? First, we must go to God in prayer when experiencing doubt. That may be the very reason God is allowing a Christian to doubt—so that we will depend on Him through prayer. Sanctification is the process of growing in Him, which includes times of doubt and times of great faith. Like the man who brought his demon-possessed child to Jesus but was unsure whether Jesus could help him, we go to God because we believe in Him and ask Him for more and greater faith to overcome our doubts. We see an example of this in chapter 9 of St Mark’s gospel, where a man has brought his child, who is possessed by an unclean spirit, to Jesus for healing.
Jesus said “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Second, we must recognize, as I said before, that Christians fight a spiritual battle daily. We have to gear up for the battle. The Christian needs to daily be armed with the Word of God to help fight these spiritual battles, which include fighting doubt, and we arm ourselves with the “full armour of God”. As Christians, we must take advantage of the lulls in spiritual warfare to polish our spiritual armour in order to be ready for the next battle. Times of doubt will become less frequent if we take advantage of the good times to feed our faith with the Word of God. Then when we raise the shield of faith and do battle with the enemy of our souls, his flaming darts of doubt will not hit their target.
Doubting Christians have two things doubting Thomas did not have—the indwelling Holy Spirit and the written New Testament. By the power of both the Spirit and the Word, we can overcome doubts and, like Thomas, be prepared to follow our Lord and Savior and give all for Him, even our lives.
How we then use that faith is up to us. We can be selfish and keep it to ourselves, or we can share it with our families, our friends and our work colleagues. When and how ? That I can’t say. Just have faith to know that the Holy Spirit will give each and every one of us the words and the courage at the opportune time.
Let us pray
Father God, we thank you for the example of Thomas is overcoming his doubt in the risen Lord. So fill us with your Holy Spirit now and help us all to overcome our disbelief and be true messengers for You in this mixed-up world in which we live. We ask this in the name of our beloved Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen