Bulletin – Sunday, April 16, 2023 – Second Sunday of Easter / Baptism
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Second Sunday of Easter
Baptism
Approach
Lighting the Christ Candle
As we light this candle this morning, may we, our God, in the wake of Easter, ride a wave of irrepressible hope—rising from the deep following the trajectory of love over the turbulences of our living and through the currents of our lives. So within joy, may we sense your presence hovering ever with us this day—ever speaking of new creation—ever calling us into possibility of what might truly be possible.
Call to Worship
One: We gather as people on a journey.
All: We believe and we have doubts, we do good and we sin. We are imperfect humans, and still beloved by God.
One: Love and grace. Hope and faith. These are the essence of the one we call God.
All: We seek forgiveness and grace from the One and from those we’ve harmed.
One: Assured of that grace, we are ready to grow again.
All: We yearn for a new way, a new perspective, and a clear path.
One: Speak to us, God! Continue creating us!
All: Inspire our hearts. Enlighten our minds. Guide our actions.
One: Though we are full of trust and full of doubt, we are here.
All: We are here loved, forgiven, ready to be renewed, ready to worship.
(adapted from Tim Graves)
Hymn – “Praise to God, Your Praises Show”
Praise to God, your praises show, Hallelujah!
Saints within God’s courts below, Hallelujah!
Angels round the throne above, Hallelujah!
All that see and share God’s love. Hallelujah!
Earth to heaven and heaven to earth, Hallelujah!
Tell the wonders, sing God’s worth, Hallelujah!
Age to age, and shore to shore, Hallelujah!
Praise God, praise forevermore! Hallelujah!
Praise to God, great mercies trace, Hallelujah!
Praise this providence and grace, Hallelujah!
All that God for us has done, Hallelujah!
Praise to the all glorious One. Hallelujah!
Prayer of Approach and Confession
Lord Jesus Christ, the light of your love shines on, illuminating the places where you are present. As the bewildered disciples pondered the stories of your appearance, you penetrated the darkness of their fear and doubt with your word of peace. You showed them the appalling marks of evil pierced on your hands and feet. You opened their minds to understand why you had to die to defeat such evil and death. Creator God, we confess that at times we continue to be those skeptics. At times we doubt that you exist because of the evil we have seen in the world.
Oppression, marginalization, and plain hate still plague our world, and it is hard to see your love and light. Sometimes, even those who bear your name do not walk in your ways. Help us to see your goodness in this world. Help us to know your love. Fill us with your love and goodness, so that we might love one another, and lift up one another in faith. Amen.
(adapted from Moira Laidlaw and Rev. Mindi)
Words of Assurance
(adapted from Rev. Mindi)
Sacrament of Baptism
We are here to praise God for the life of Talia, our young friend, who in such a short time has brought so much joy. Through Talia we have experienced birth again in a new and more conscious way, in her, God has created the world again, opening us to wonder and possibility that we had forgotten. We live not for ourselves alone, but toward God and for each other. Our lives are bound in a covenant of love with Talia. We baptize Talia with our desire to show her a way of life that naturally displays love, respect, and justice. We baptize her with our intention to witness the unfolding of God’s creation as she grows and changes. We baptize Talia with our desire to see her grow in spiritual maturity, in wisdom, and in soulful service to others, following in the spiritual footsteps of all the great mystics and spiritual teachers of the world.
Questions of the Parents
Each of us here has a unique role in raising this beautiful child. Do you, Dan and Lindsay, Talia’s parents, commit yourself to raising her in a manner that inspires faithfulness, compassion, and spiritual growth? If so, please answer, I do.
Will you work, as best as you are able, to raise Talia in a family of love, compassion, acceptance, and hope, qualities that we understand to be gifts from God and lived out in Jesus? If so, please answer, I will!
Will you work, as best as you are able, raise Talia in a community of love, nurture, and encouragement, a Christian community, that will help her to be all that she was made by God to be? If so, please answer, I will!
Questions of the Godparents
Will you, as Talia’s Godparents, be a loving, caring support for Talia’s family as they work to fulfill the vows that they have made today? If so, please answer, I will!
Will you, as Talia’s Godparents, be a loving supportive presence in Talia’s life encouraging and challenging her to grow into all that God created her to be? If so, please answer, I will!
Congregational Commitment
One: And all of you, representing the Church Here, do you receive this child in the name of Christ?
All: Yes, we do.
One: Will you surround her and her family with love and look for ways of being Christ to them?
All: Yes, we will, we gladly welcome this child into our fellowship and we commit ourselves to deeper love and better service for the sake of all people.
I invite you to stand, as you are able, as we reaffirm our own faith as we sing our New Creed.
“The New Creed”
We are not alone,
We live in God’s world.
We believe in God:
Who had 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 judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.
One: God be with you.
All: And also with you.
One: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them up to God.
One: Let us give our thanks to God.
All: It is good to give God thanks and praise.
One: Water is a precious commodity…water is everything. Water is life. We claim the joy of water and the way it sustains and nourishes us.
All: Let it flow and pour and sprinkle for all people. That all may know each day the gift of God in water.
One: The biblical stories also talk of the preciousness of water. These stories remind us that water is a blessing and the source and strength of life. Without it humanity and all that is created could not survive. And our stories remind us that God’s way is the way of compassion and love. God’s love, like a shower of rain in drought, awakens the sleeping seed within the soul and lures it to blossom. God’s love, like a paddling pool, inspires the responsive love of children, jumping, splashing each other, shivering with wet delight. God’s love, like a hot shower after a long day’s work, cleanses us, reawakens us. God’s love, like waves crashing on the shore, breaks in on us and enfolds us, leaving us feeling vital and refreshed.
One: Let us prayerfully focus on this water, as it is poured into the bowl, and as we do, let each of us infuse it with our commitments to share with Talia the unique gifts that God has given us, gifts she will need from us as she goes along life’s way.
One: To paraphrase the scripture: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you, therefore this child shall be called holy, a child of God.
One: Talia Grace Carswell-Feniuk, with this water we baptize you, in the name of and with the love that is the Father, God the Creator, in the name of and love of Jesus the son, in the name of and love of the Holy Spirit who sustains us now and always.
One: Talia, may the presence of the Spirit of Love in you, be nurtured and constantly affirmed by your family, your friends, and by your church community. This candle represents the light of God found in all of creation and so may the sun and the stars and all creation delight and touch your heart with fire and so may you find passion to be creative in all that you do and may you know the joy of God’s blessing every day of your life.
One: I present to you, Talia, God’s gift to her family, and to the world! Amen!
Prayer after Baptism
We stand as witnesses to the commitment this family has made this day. And we pledge ourselves to their support and care as they discover the ways that the Spirit unfold for them. Amen.
The Word
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:4a, 22-32
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, 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.
Scripture Reading: John 20:19-31
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.
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God!
Hymn – “The Doors Were Locked”
The doors were locked, the voices hushed,
Confusion filled the air,
When suddenly the risen Christ
Appeared among them there.
“Peace be with you,” he greeted them.
“Come see my hands and side.
I send you now as I was sent,
The Spirit as your guide.”
Now one was absent from the room,
For Thomas was away.
When others told what they had seen
His judgement would not sway.
Unless I touch his wounded side
And feel the marks of nails,
Unless I see with my own eyes,
My sceptic’s mind prevails.”
Another night in the same room,
Disciples standing by,
“Peace be with you,” Christ said,
And the looked Thomas in the eye.
“Come see the nail marks on my hands,
Reach out and touch my side” –
And invitation to his friend
To put his doubts aside.
Did Thomas know the world had changed
One morning in a tomb?
He simply said, “My Lord, my God,”
Within that silent room.
Christ did not chide his doubting friend,
But offered him instead
God’s boundless and redemptive grace:
“Peace be with you,” he said.
Meditation – “To Trust in God”
Anthem – “Here We Stand, Lord”
We are gathered in this place, O Lord,
Joined in worship and in prayer.
Come and touch us with Your grace, O Lord;
Keep us always in Your care.
Help us show our faith and love
In all we say and do
As we follow in Your way, O Lord,
Help us put our trust in You.
Here we stand, Lord, Yours forever.
You have called us to spread Your Word.
Hand-in-hand, Lord, we’ll serve together,
Sharing Your light with all the world.
To this fellowship we come, O Lord,
Joined in gratitude and praise.
In Your spirit we are one, O Lord,
Blessed in many special ways.
Help us share the joy and peace
We find in knowing You.
May the wonder of Your Love, O Lord,
Show in everything we do.
Here we stand, Lord, Yours forever.
You have called us to spread Your Word.
Hand-in-hand, Lord, we’ll serve together,
Sharing Your light with all the world.
We will sing in glory,
Voices joined clear and strong.
We will go forth telling your story,
And all the world will hear our song.
This is our song.
Here we stand, Lord, Yours forever.
You have called us to spread Your Word.
Hand-in-hand, Lord, we’ll serve together,
Sharing Your light with all the world.
We are Yours, Lord.
Here we stand!
Offering / Response
Let trumpets sound and voices sing!
Let all on earth their praises bring!
For Christ has conquered sin and death
And given life eternal breath.
Amen.
The Response
Prayers of the People
One: Risen Christ, our eternal Saviour, like the disciples, we are gathered together the week after Easter wondering whether it is true, marveling at the possibility, and daring to hope.
One: Like the disciples, we are sometimes afraid, sometimes full of doubt.
One: But in your extravagant generosity, your boundless love, you appear to us in our fear and love us in our doubts and grant us the oceans of your peace. Thank you for loving us as we are.
One: Teach us not to hide from our doubt, but to recognize it as a door to mystery and to deeper faith. After all, the disciples’ fear became a visitation as they saw you among them, risen and triumphant. Thomas’ doubt became a moment of revelation as he saw and touched you, and finally believed.
One: This morning we pray for the many men and women in our society who have not faith at all. There are so many who live without hope, without knowledge of your resurrection, without your light in their lives. Grant us the courage to live as witnesses to your resurrection. Risen Christ, be light in our world.
One: We pray for those in our congregation this morning who find it difficult to believe. Lord knows that they are not alone, but in the best of company: even Christ’s own disciples struggled to believe all that they had seen and heard. Loving Christ, it is your presence that removes all fear and erases all doubts: so come, and grant the doubting Thomases in midst your presence and peace.
One: And grant to all of us, living Lord Christ, renewed faith, great courage, and your boundless peace.
One: Loving God, this day we pray for…
One: hear all our prayers this day, those we have spoken aloud and those we keep in the deep recesses of our hearts. In the name of your son, Jesus. Amen.
Hymn – “Thine is the Glory”
Thine is 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 the body lay.
Thine is 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 the Lord now liveth: death has lost its sting.
Thine is the glory, risen, conquering Son:
Endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.
No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of life;
Life is nought without thee: aid us in our strife;
Make us more than conquerors, through the deathless love;
Bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above.
Thine is the glory, risen, conquering Son:
Endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.
Benediction
Go forth in joy. You have God’s kingdom in your heart. Go forth in love. Live for God. Go with hope and forgiveness. The grace of God sustains. Go forth in peace. Go forth in light.
Response – “Amen, Amen, Hallelujah, Amen!”
Amen, amen, hallelujah, amen!
Amen, amen, hallelujah, amen!
