This Sunday, 20 April, we mark Easter Day with a Dawn Service at 7am on Outwood Common, and services of Holy Communion at 9am in St Bartholomew, Burstow, at 10am in St Mary the Virgin, Horne and at 11am in St John the Baptist, Outwood.

This week’s online service is led by the Revd Alan Bayes. To follow the service, click on the arrow here and find the words below.

Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once, upon the cross, Alleluia!
suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!

Hymns of praise then let us sing, alleluia!
Unto Christ, our heav’nly King, alleluia!
Who endured the cross and grave, alleluia!
Sinners to redeem and save, alleluia!

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!

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
Tune: Easter Hymn, anon from Lyra Davidica (1708)

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Lord Jesus, you raise us to new life.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, you forgive us our sins.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, you feed us with the living bread.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

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.

The Collect
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.

Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
Alleluia.
He has defeated the powers of death.
Alleluia.
Jesus turns our sorrow into dancing.
Alleluia.
He has the words of eternal life.
Alleluia.

The readings
The first reading is from Acts 10:34-43
read by Peter Nye

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.
Glory to you, O Lord.

The Gospel reading is from John 20:1-18
read by Ginette Nye

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.

Talk
by Revd Alan Bayes

Today, the Church celebrates Easter, the highpoint of our liturgical year. With trumpets, with choirs, with candles, Easter lilies, and “Alleluias”, we proclaim the great triumph of Christ’s resurrection. The wilderness of Lent is behind us. The tomb is empty and a bright, new day has dawned. “Christ is Risen! He is Risen, indeed! Alleluia”.

Easter comes, of course, as the culmination of Holy Week. That rollercoaster of a journey that we have followed this week. We began with the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem which we marked at Outwood on Palm Sunday, through the final supper with his disciples on Maundy Thursday which we shared together in our Seder meal at Smallfield and all that took place at that meal, the betrayal of Judas, the desertion of the disciples, the sham trial and the agony of a cruel death of crucifixion on Good Friday. After all this we come to a garden in the quiet of the morning and an empty tomb.

The Feast of Easter celebrates the heart of Christianity. Every year every preacher and worship leader wonders how to resurrect the story of Jesus rising from the dead. How do we communicate the story in song and word, in visual spectacle, in prayer and liturgy so that it comes alive once more for each one of us in our worship? We have done this in so many different ways here this week from the simple acting out of the Passion Gospel on Palm Sunday, making Easter gardens with the children on Good Friday to the drama and musical heights of the liturgy. No matter how we struggle to understand this great mystery, Jesus’ resurrection is always about new life, new beginnings and hope beyond the grave.

As we give thanks for the joy of the resurrection it is interesting to reflect that this event first took place in darkness. In John’s account we hear that Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb
‘while it was still dark and saw that the stone had already been removed from the tomb’.
The fact is, the resurrection happened in total darkness. Sometime in the predawn hours of that Sunday morning, a great mystery transpired in secret. No sunlight illuminated the event. No human being witnessed it directly. Although as St Paul testifies in the second letter to the Corinthians the risen Christ appeared to ‘over 500 brothers and sisters most of whom are still alive.’ It is interesting to note that Paul’s account here is one of the earliest accounts of the resurrection of Jesus and was probably written as early as AD54. Even though Paul’s account doesn’t contain the story of the empty tomb that we read of in the Gospels there are clearly many witnesses referred to here of the Risen Lord. So how do we approach the resurrection of Jesus over two thousand years later. The first point to note is that no human narrative can ever totally contain it. It exceeds all our attempts to pin it down, because it’s a mystery known only to God. Whatever the resurrection was and is — physical, literal, metaphorical, symbolic, all of these and more— its fullness lies in holy darkness, shielded from our eyes. All we can know is that somehow, in an ancient tomb on a starry night, God worked in secret to bring life out of death, to bring hope out of despair. Somehow, in the utter darkness, God saved the world.

There comes a time when we all long for resurrection to take place in our lives, in our hearts. And we can be in any place or at any age when this deep longing comes upon us. When we feel or think we are stuck – or even imprisoned – in one of life’s dead places, when we experience pain and suffering, we long to rise again out of the mire, out of the chains, into a place of wholeness and freedom. Into new life.

My prayer for us all is that this year Easter will bring a sense of resurrection to us as individuals and as a Church community. Not because we finally have our doctrine of resurrection all figured out, but because we are willing to admit our deep longing for personal and communal resurrection to God. I pray that we willingly open our hearts and minds, especially the most painful, doubtful, hidden parts, to God’s resurrection Spirit. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead set him loose in the world and is always “recruiting for the Kingdom, God’s realm of love and justice,” as one commentator once said.

It is good to think of real-life stories in our world today that speak of resurrection and new life. We hear so much bad news of death and destruction yet there are many more unreported good news stories of hope and new beginnings in the midst of the darkness and confusion of our world . Just as the resurrection itself began in darkness, the new dawn brought the news of the empty tomb and the new life that transforms our lives and the life of the world.

What are these stories from our community, small stories and large ones, that speak of resurrection? Where is Jesus bringing new life and new hope to the people of the Windmill Benefice today – something for us all to ponder on this Easter Day.

I recently came across a remarkable story of hope and new life in Egypt, on the edge of Cairo, in a place known as Garbage City. This is where the Zabateen live, an ancient Coptic Christian community who make their living by collecting rubbish from the city, recycling it, and selling it in the markets. Every morning at the crack of dawn over 7,000 rubbish collectors leave Garbage City on horse carts or small trucks and move into the city of Cairo, where they collect over 13,000 tons of rubbish from nearly 17 million residents, and return to the narrow streets of Garbage City, bringing the refuse into their homes. Here the women and children sort it into piles of organic and inorganic garbage. Organic garbage is used to feed the livestock that roam the streets of the people’s homes and the rest of it is recycled and sold on to make a living.

There was a time when it seemed as though life would never change for these people. And no-one cared. Because they were doing a filthy task, a job no-one wanted. And then, nearly thirty years ago, one man did care – Father Samaan.

He felt called by God to be ordained as a priest and go to work among the Zabateen to bring the Gospel message of love and hope and new life.

He encouraged people to come and hear about God and how their lives could be transformed. The number of believers started to grow significantly and they began to look for a place to worship.

A cave was discovered and carved out to form a natural rock Church that could seat up to 7000 people. It is known as the Cave Church and it is possible to visit it today.

Over the last three decades many miracles have happened in Garbage City and the place has experienced new life. Tiny shacks have been replaced with brick buildings. The streets have been paved. The children still play amongst the rubbish, but now they have a future because true transformation is taking place. Signs of this transformation include the building of schools, clinic and churches, all right in the heart of Garbage City.

There are many other stories like this of hope and transformation and it is good to share these and draw strength from them this Eastertide.

Many of us go through difficult times of grief and pain in life as the women who came to the tomb of Jesus did on that quiet morning in the garden. We struggle to make sense of the loss of our loved ones, our families and friends. We struggle to understand why there is so much pain and suffering in the world and feel helpless to do anything about it, What matters isn’t so much about trying to make sense of it all — what matters is encounter. What matters is encountering the risen Jesus, and finding in the mystery of his resurrected life the hope we need for ourselves and for our world. Often, it’s only as we look back at the “gravesides” of our lives, that we find the beginnings of new life. The great Welsh poet R.S. Thomas describes the process this way in his poem, “The Answer”: There have been times/when, after long on my knees/ in a cold chancel, a stone has rolled/from my mind, and I have looked/in and seen the old questions lie/ folded and in a place/by themselves, like the piled/graveclothes of love’s risen body.”

This Easter may the Christ who rose in the darkness lead us into new life, new light, and new hope. May we know him in the half-lit places, the shadowy places, the hard places. May we dare to linger at the graveside until he calls our names. And may we always share with hope the news of God’s greatest mystery.

Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed. Alleluia!

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and 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 die daily to sin,
that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his risen life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Blessing
The God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the eternal covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight;
and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit be with you all evermore.
Amen.

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.

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 hast lost her sting.

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.

Edmund Budry (1854-1932)
Tune: Maccabeus, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Organist: Peter Nye.
Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England (2000), material from which is included in this service,
is copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2000.
CCLI Streaming Licence™ 1942313
PRS for Music Church Licence (CCLI) 1545501