(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, today shared on paper across our circuit and with the congregation at Thornton Methodist Church led by Jackie Marshall one of our Circuit Local Preachers.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Call to Worship: A very warm welcome to worship let’s join together in Spirit to praise God together.
Song – StF 94 – To God be the glory
Opening Prayers: We come to God in prayer.
Prayers for a Spring Morning
Loving God, who accompanies us through the changing seasons of our lives we come this Spring morning to worship you.
Creator God,
Early in the morning, we hear the dawn chorus.
The bird song heralding the gift of the creation of a new day.
The different calls of birdsong echoing the diversity and difference of the world in which we live.
The joyful sound reminding us that we are alive, that we have been given the opportunities and
promises this day offers as we wake up and enter a new stage of our lives as followers of Jesus.
Risen Jesus, who on the day of resurrection met with Mary in the garden, as we come to you at the beginning of worship we ask that you would meet us here. That you would meet us with gentleness and encouragement, that you would meet us with challenge and rigour.
We pray that we would open ourselves to you, ready to receive your love, forgiveness and grace. Remind us of our need of new life in you.
Dynamic Holy Spirit, breathe into us this spring morning.
Breathe into us the gift of new life in Christ.
Breathe into us the rhythm of prayer and praise that have sustained and encouraged Christians throughout the ages.
Breathe into us the passion to sing our faith using hymns that have inspired generations.
Breathe into us care and love for each other as we worship as brothers and sisters in Christ.
We thank you, Loving God, that as we come to worship you this morning we bring to mind the
ways in which we have experienced you this week.
As we celebrate and learn together let us be aware of you around us,
coming closer to us than our next breath,
uniting us in Christ that our worship may glorify you.
Amen
© Christine Dutton
Do You Believe Me?
Here at Thornton, the congregation includes a number of young people, so imagine you’re here with us, looking at a shopping bag I am holding up.
I’m asking everyone if they trust me, if they have faith in me to tell the truth about what is in the shopping bag?
(I am hoping everyone says yes, or I should probably resign from Local Preaching!)
I’m going on to say, so if I tell you there’s a packet of biscuits for after the service and a bag of sweets for Junior Church, you’d believe me?
But what if I told you that I have a live dinosaur egg in here?
That does stretch belief, doesn’t it? It sounds impossible, because we know dinosaurs are extinct – they’re dead, so how could I have a live egg?
How could you find out if I was telling the truth?
By looking in the bag – after all, seeing is believing, isn’t it.
Of course, it’s the biscuits and sweets in the bag!
Later on, we’re going to share from the Bible the story of one of Jesus’ friends and followers, Thomas, who wasn’t with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared to them, after he had risen from the dead. Although Thomas trusted the other disciples, he knew Jesus had been crucified and had died, so he just couldn’t believe they really had seen him alive again until he, Thomas, had seen Jesus, with the wounds of his crucifixion, for himself.
We’ll share more about Thomas and his doubts soon, but for now…
Song – StF 264 – Make way, make way, for Christ the King
Gospel Reading:
And here is the story of Doubting Thomas, in the words of St John, followed by a poem reflecting on the reading, which also recalls an important question Thomas asked Jesus.
Poem: A Sonnet for St Thomas the Apostle
“We do not know… how can we know the way?”
Courageous master of the awkward question,
You spoke the words the others dared not say
And cut through their evasion and abstraction.
Oh doubting Thomas, father of my faith,
You put your finger on the nub of things
We cannot love some disembodied wraith,
But flesh and blood must be our king of kings.
Your teaching is to touch, embrace, anoint,
Feel after Him and find Him in the flesh.
Because He loved your awkward counter-point
The Word has heard and granted you your wish.
Oh place my hands with yours, help me divine
The wounded God whose wounds are healing mine.
© Malcolm Guite
Song – StF 629 – God of my faith, I offer you my doubt
Reading
Our next reading from the New Testament is from Acts. In the time following the first Easter, Peter and the other apostles have been sharing the Good News and healing many people in Jerusalem and the surrounding villages, much to the jealousy and displeasure of the high priest. He and his associates had the apostles arrested and thrown into jail, under guard. But during the night, they were miraculously freed and instructed by God to go and preach in the temple courts – right under the noses of those in the temple hierarchy!
The, no doubt, very embarrassed captain of the temple guard and his officers rearrest the apostles and haul them before the chief priests and elders. Let’s see what happens next.
Reading
Our last reading is from Revelation, the final book of the Bible written by John of Patmos, traditionally believed to be the same John who was Jesus’ disciple and the writer of the gospel from which we read earlier. By now an old man, and a prisoner in a Roman penal colony on the island of Patmos, John barely seemed to notice the hard manual labour in the stone quarries and the poor conditions, except to note that trials were part of the journey with Jesus. His thoughts were with Jesus and with the believers on the mainland whose faith that God was in control was wavering under the rule of the mad Emperor Domitian, who really believed he was a god and dealt harshly with anyone who dared to disagree!
Reflection:
It does seem a bit unfair, doesn’t it, that Thomas’ time of doubt became his defining characteristic, when it seems all the disciples displayed human failings of one kind or another without acquiring a derogatory title! But in his doubt, Thomas does Jesus’ followers over the centuries, including us, a huge service. Thomas does our doubting for us and Jesus’ response demonstrates clearly that when we are plagued with doubts about him, Jesus understands and wants only to lovingly reassure us. We are shown that that the crucifixion was real, and so was the resurrection, that our faith is not based on a fable or fairy story, but has firm foundations in reality.
No matter how impossible the events of Easter might sometimes appear, Thomas has seen the proof for us. Take a look at this striking modern depiction of the scene, by the artist John Granville Gregory, and take some time for thankful reflection.
Song – StF 639 – Through the love of God our Saviour
Time of Prayer: Let us pray together.
Loving God, it’s a big step from doubt to belief. Our doubts are real, valid, sensible. We live in a world of science and technology, where things must be tried, tested and proved beyond doubt before they are given the seal of approval.
When we look around your world and see the pain, fear and poverty of so many millions of people, the dangerous posturing and self-interest of political leaders, the destruction wreaked by natural disasters and the sadness and suffering of those dearest to us, we can begin to doubt both whether you are God, and whether you re loving. Your promises seem unreal, impossible, foolish in the eyes of the world and certainly difficult to understand. It’s a tough challenge.
So what? We prove our love by doing loving things. So what if we cannot prove belief, at least let us live as if we believe it.
Lord we believe, help our unbelief.
Loving God, we want to follow Jesus, to say ‘Yes’ to the new challenges, but we are afraid.
Afraid that we will lose control of our lives, that too much will be asked of us – more than we are prepared or feel equipped to give. We are frightened of failure, looking foolish, being laughed at.
We know that in following Jesus, we too will have to speak up for those on the edges of our society, to speak out against injustice, check the racist remark, the unkind word, to give of ourselves and share all that you have blessed us with. It won’t be easy, but then you never promised that it would. Forgive us our doubts, our hesitancy and our self-centredness.
Lord we believe, help our unbelief.
Loving God, you meet us where we are, with all our fears, our anxieties and our human failings, and and love. Give us courage to say ‘Yes’ to your call and eyes to see you in all your glory.
Lord we believe, help our unbelief.
Therefore, believing in our Living, Loving God we bring before you, in a moment of quiet, all the people and situations around the world and in our own lives that weigh heavy on our hearts today. We ask that you will show us what we might do to help, and give us your reassurance that we can leave them in your loving care and know your Peace.
Silence
We offer these and all our prayers through the name of Jesus, our Risen Lord, as we pray together the prayer he continues to teach his followers;
Our Father who art in heaven…Amen
I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God. Our final hymn looks forward with faith and optimism to the time when Jesus returns and God’s kingdom is fully come,
Song – StF 185 – Sing we the King
Blessing:
Let’s close by blessing each other with the words of The Grace
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and evermore. Amen
