prepared by Chris Hancock – 27th April 2025
Prayer & Lord’s Prayer
Loving God, we come into your presence filled with wonder and awe because we know you are at work in our lives. You know each one of us by name, you know everything about us and you hold us in your great love and care always pouring out to us your limitless mercy and grace. We thank you for your resurrection power which gives us freedom and life.
Lord, we often fall short in the way we live our lives. In the things we say and do and in those words we choose not to say or things we choose not to do. Help us to set our eyes and our hearts on you afresh. We thank you that you are ever ready to forgive us for our failings. We rejoice in your glorious words of mercy that our sins are forgiven, and we may go in peace. Amen
Please share in the Lord’s Prayer in whichever version you find most helpful.
Hymn 297 – Christ is alive! let Christians sing
| 1 Christ is alive! Let Christians sing. The cross stands empty to the sky. Let streets and homes with praises ring. Love, drowned in death, shall never die. 2 Christ is alive! No longer bound to distant years in Palestine, but saving, healing, here and now, and touching every place and time. 3 In every insult, rift and war, where colour, scorn or wealth divide, Christ suffers still, yet loves the more, and lives, where even hope has died. | 4 Women and men, in age and youth, can feel the Spirit, hear the call, and find the way, the life, the truth, revealed in Jesus, freed for all. 5 Christ is alive and comes to bring good news to this and every age, till earth and sky and ocean ring with joy, with justice, love, and praise. Brian Wren (b.1936) |
Reading John Ch 20 v 19 – 29
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Reading Luke Ch 24 v 13 – 35
Due to space restrictions, I could not fit this reading onto the service sheet but please do read these verses.
Reflection
If I am honest with you, I could not decide which Bible passage to use for this service. I believe that they both bring us some vital insights to our own walk with God. So, I encourage you to read both the included passage from John and the additional one from Luke. Often, we are not sure whether God is with us or not. So, we like Thomas demand proof. Often, we walk with Jesus but we do not realise that we are doing so.
Thomas demands proof and receives it the passage ends with the great truth that the scriptures are written so that we will know our Saviour. The disciples on the road are provided with the answer to the finding of that proof when Jesus is no longer physically with the disciples.
In that journey he showed them how the scriptures foretold all that Jesus did, and all that he suffered, even how he would die – and what purpose it served. The scriptures are an amazing thing – they speak of God’s anointed one – of God’s suffering servant – they speak of God’s purpose and plan for the world how the world began – and how it will end.
The scriptures are a way to come to know God, to come to know Christ. We meet Christ through the scriptures we come to know him by what they said about him, they show God’s forgiveness and joy, the strength and the hope which Jesus offered, the wholeness and the salvation for which he came – and for which he died and rose again.
The stranger who walked with the two men on the road to Emmaus spoke of these things. He taught them about the mind of God and the purpose of God and how Jesus fit in with it all. In the record of that encounter we are told that their hearts burned within them as this stranger talked to them about these things, as he “opened the scriptures to them”. The reading of scripture and the study of scripture and the proclamation of the message of the scriptures is perhaps the primary way in which we meet God the primary way in which we meet Christ.
Prayer is equally important however. While we get to know Christ, while we meet him, through the Word of God, we commune with him, we conduct our relationship with him through prayer.
Prayer warms the heart, calms fears, and gives a basic assurance about the future. In prayer we feel God’s Spirit touch us – in prayer we hear him tell us what we should do – and what we should not do – in prayer we feel his forgiveness and experienced a joy that words cannot express.
Prayer is so precious – in it – the God we meet the Christ we meet – becomes ever more real to us his presence ever more immediate.
Scripture, study, and prayer are ways in which we meet God and get to know him better ways in which we meet Christ and come ever closer to him. Without them we cannot expect to know God, to encounter God, to commune with God.
But the story of the two disciples who walked on the road to Emmaus that first Easter Day tells us something more about how to get to know Christ – something more about how we might recognize him – how we might encounter him. It speaks to us of how Christ walks with us on our journey – and how, in the breaking of bread he comes to be known to us.
The Church has long taught us that we come to know God that we come to recognize God in the literal act of breaking bread and giving thanks. That we recognize God, and that we commune with God, that we fellowship with God, in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
I believe that is true – but I also believe that more is meant here in the story of the Road to Emmaus. I believe that this story is telling us that we too come to recognize Christ that we commune with Christ whenever we gather together whenever we meet with and share with another person our joy and our grief and offer prayer over the bread we break together or the cup that we lift up and share with each other. Even as with Thomas we share our struggle to believe and seek proof.
Jesus said – that where two or three gather in his name there he would be. When we gather in moments of intimacy. When we share the greatest gifts that we can share with one another: our homes – our tables – our bread and wine – our inner sanctums – Christ comes among us.
I have had great moments in reading scripture. I have had great moments in prayer. Moments in which I have been very much aware of the presence of God very much aware of his plan and his purpose for me very much aware of the closeness that he has to me – the love he has for me. But I believe that some of our most profound moments of contact most profound moments of recognition come in the breaking of bread with strangers and with our friends; in sharing our innermost hopes and fears, our griefs and joys with others who were willing to walk with us for a time and talk with us for a time and to share with us the few things that we can offer each other.
We get to meet Christ, we get to know him better, we recognize him – and experience his healing presence his challenging presence his assuring presence in those who are around us – whether they be strangers – or they be friends – as we share what is important with them as we honour them with our hospitality, our trust, our hearts.
If we would meet God – if you would encounter Christ and recognize him in that encounter read the scriptures and study them listen to them being proclaimed and pray over them with others – or alone.
And reach out to others Open your homes and your hearts to others as did the men who travelled the road to Emmaus. By doing so you may well be entertaining angels unaware By doing so you may well encounter the Risen Christ, where two or three are gathered in his name — he is there. Amen
Hymn 303 – I know that my redeemer lives
| 1 I know that my Redeemer lives — what joy the blest assurance gives! He lives, he lives, who once was dead; he lives, my everlasting Head! 2 He lives, to bless me with his love; he lives, to plead for me above; he lives, my hungry soul to feed; he lives, to help in time of need. | 3 He lives, and grants me daily breath; he lives, and I shall conquer death; he lives, my mansion to prepare; he lives, to lead me safely there. 4 He lives, all glory to his name; he lives, my Saviour, still the same; what joy the blest assurance gives, I know that my Redeemer lives! Samuel Medley (1738–1799) |
Prayers of Intercession
Loving God, we praise you for the resurrection of your Son Jesus. May our lives show that we believe in the triumph of the cross. Through our works of love let us continue to declare our Lord’s resurrection. Give us courage to speak boldly of you and strengthen us with your Spirit. (Short Silence)
Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer
We pray for peace in our troubled world. In the silence we speak our own prayers for the world remembering Israel and Palestine, Ukraine and Russia, Yemen and so many places where there is conflict and war…. (Short Silence)
Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer
Loving God we pray for those we know and love who need our prayers at this time because they are unwell in body, mind or spirit. Heal and strengthen weak bodies, calm confused minds and reassure the lonely with your company. We raise before you those names we have on our own hearts…. (Short Silence)
Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer
We remember before you those who have died and those of us left to mourn them. Help us to always remember that death could not hold your Son Jesus Christ and that new life for him means new life for all who believe in Him. (Short Silence)
Lord, in your Mercy: Hear our Prayer We offer these prayers in the all powerful name of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen
Hymn 313 – Thine be the glory
| 1 Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son, endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won; angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away, kept the folded grave-clothes where thy body lay: Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son, endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won. 2 Lo, Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb; lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom; let the Church with gladness hymns of triumph sing, for her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting: | 3 No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of Life; life is naught without thee: aid us in our strife; make us more than conquerors through thy deathless love; bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above: Edmond Budry (1854–1932) translated by Richard Birch Hoyle (1875–1939) |
Blessing
As we continue our walk with God, we offer him all our doubts and fears. What joy is ours when we hear those wonderful words of assurance that his blessing will rest upon us, now in this very moment, for the remainder of our lives and on into everlasting life. Hallelujah! Amen.
