Sunday, April 9, 2023 - Worship Service
10:30 a.m. Worship Service
Order of Service
We continue our live broadcast this morning and welcome in-person worshipers into the Sanctuary (with socially distanced seating). Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this morning’s service, both online and in person.
Join us on our St. Andrew’s Guelph YouTube Channel, select the live service, and remember to invite your friends and families. You can also join us via Zoom by following the link in your Friday or Sunday morning email. If you’d like to begin receiving our weekly emails, you can sign up here.
Announcements
Introit - Glorious doth the day appear - German Chorale
Prelude – Chorale Prelude on “Glorious doth the day appear” J.S. Bach
Call to Worship - Liturgy from PWS&D
L: Christ is risen!
P: He is risen indeed!
L: The tomb is empty.
P: Life has defeated death!
L: Rising from the grave, Jesus brings life to all the wrong places.
P: Christ lives where death has ruled.
L: Rising from the grave, Jesus brings life to all the wrong people.
P: Christ welcomes those who are often overlooked.
L: Christ’s resurrection means that we are no longer lost in the wilderness.
P: He provides us with a living hope and travels with us to places where death had once prevailed.
L: The world has been turned upside down.
P: Life has defeated death! Hope has overwhelmed despair! Joy has conquered gloom!
Christ is Risen!
Every day that we respond to the poor, the hungry and the displaced, we discover God’s resurrecting power. The poor are raised up, the vulnerable are cared for, and the sick are healed.
Inspired by God’s promise of abundant life and rooted in the living hope of Jesus Christ, our church responds to the call to serve those in need with compassion, justice and love. Through PWS&D, we are working in some of the most vulnerable communities in our global village to restore human dignity, ease the pain of want and promote community cooperation that benefits all.
Thanks to your support and faith in action, we are creating positive change —with life saving and life transforming actions.
In a world filled with need, we are responding with food assistance, medical care, sanitation services and emergency relief. We are responding with educational opportunities, sustainable agriculture practices and skills training. Together, we are promoting human rights and supporting refugees.
Faithful to our calling, we respond together. This Easter, please support PWS&D. WeRespond.ca
Hymn #243 Jesus Christ is risen today - Easter Hymn
Prayer of Confession & Assurance of Pardon
Hymn #249 The day of resurrection - Ellacombe
(The Children are invited to go to their class with Julia)
Easter Canticle (Choir)
Chant: F. Gingrich
Alleluias: R. Woodward
Scripture Reading - John 20:1-18 (CEB) - Reader: Malcolm Orme
Reader: The Word of the Lord
Congregation responds: Thanks Be to God
Sermon: Who Are You Looking For?
A Time for Reflection
Poem: Lost and Found, written by Rev. Sarah Speed for Sanctified Art
Mary wept.
Standing in the garden,
soft dirt under her feet,
sun still tucked away,
sleeping under the horizon.
The other disciples left,
but Mary stayed.
Mary wept.
Shoulders shaking,
tears running down her face.
She said, They have taken my Lord away,
and I don’t know where they put him.
But here’s what Easter taught me:
if you think you’ve lost God,
if it feels like heaven has slipped through the cracks,
if you feel like the night will never end,
then know, there is no hide-and-seek with the divine
that doesn’t end in you being found.
Stay still.
Keep breathing.
God is closer than you think.
Hymn #205 O love how deep, how broad, how high? - Puer Nobis Nascitur
Invitation to Offering
You can still mail cheques to St. Andrew’s Guelph, 161 Norfolk Street, Guelph, ON N1H 4J8, Or you can donate to St. Andrew’s through CanadaHelps.
Click Here to Donate to St. Andrew’s via Canada Helps here.
You are also invited to sign up for Pre-Authorized Remittance (PAR). Instead of using offering envelopes or giving online, you can set up a regular donation through your financial institution. To learn more, click here.
Presbyterians Sharing is how we support our denomination as a whole. Your gifts the variety of missions and ministries that The Presbyterian Church in Canada supports throughout Canada. It also ensures that we are well resources by our National Office staff.
If you are able, the MOCC would encourage you to consider donating to Presbyterians Sharing. You can do so by clicking here. (Make sure that you indicate that you are from St. Andrew’s Guelph on the online form in order for it to count towards our commitment)
Or you can make a donation directly to Presbyterians Sharing through St. Andrew’s Guelph. Please mark your donation: Presbyterians Sharing.
We are making a difference TOGETHER.
If you’d like to make a donation to Presbyterian World Service and Development (PWS&D) you can do so by clicking here.
Offertory - Easter Medley arr. J. Krug
Bells of St. Andrew’s and Mark Garlough on piano
Offertory Prayer
Prayer of the People
Hymn #541 Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour - St. Osmond
Sacrament of Holy Communion
Choral Communion Setting - Missa Brevis in G - F. Gingrich
This service will include sung responses by the choir.
Invitation
Church, it would have been easy on that Easter morning for Jesus to roll away the stone, walk to the city centre, and declare that death had not won.
Instead, Jesus waited in the garden.
He waited for the people who needed him most.
He waited for Mary.
He called her by name.
He stopped her crying.
He gave her a reason to hope.
So, if you have ever doubted
that God’s love for you
is personal and specific,
may the truth of this day remind you otherwise.
The God you seek
will meet you in the garden on your hardest days.
And that same God
has a seat saved at this Table,
specifically for you.
So, come.
Come, whether you are dancing for joy,
or like Mary, still feeling a little lost.
Come with your questions.
Come with your hunger.
Come, whether this is your first time
or your hundredth.
Come, because this feast
is a reminder that God’s Table
is big enough for all of us.
Jesus Christ is risen today
and he rose for you.
So, come.
All are welcome.
***Kyrie (sung)
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Grace
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
All: And also with you.
Institution
Now let us hear the story of how this sacrament began.
On the night on which Jesus was betrayed, he sat at supper with his disciples.
While they were eating, he took a piece of bread, said a blessing, broke it
and gave it to them with the words, ‘This is my body. It is broken for you.
Do this to remember me.’
Later, he took a cup of wine, saying, ‘This cup is God’s new covenant or promise,
sealed with my blood. Drink from it, all of you, to remember me.’
So now, following Jesus’ example and command, we take this bread and this wine,
the ordinary things of the world which Christ will make special.
And as he said a prayer before sharing, let us pray:
The Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
One: The Lord be with you.
All: And also with you.
One: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them up to the Lord.
One: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
All: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Resurrecting God, Mary went to the garden looking for you.
Two thousand years later, we follow in her footsteps.
We seek after you, hungry for a garden moment
where we might hear you say our name or feel you in our midst.
So before the hallelujahs begin,
we empty our pockets of our prayers and remember where we’ve been.
[the prayer recalls Good Friday and Easter dawn]
And help us to join with our siblings, before us and beside us,
as we join in the song of your unending greatness, singing:
***Sanctus & Benedictus
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts:
heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Lord Jesus Christ, present with us now, as we do in this place
what you did in an upstairs room, breathe your Spirit upon us
and upon this bread and this wine, that they may be heaven’s food and drink for us, renewing, sustaining and making us whole, and that we may be your body on earth,
loving and caring in the world.
Our praise to you, Gracious God, would be the offering of ourselves
as living sacrifices, dedicated and fit for your acceptance.
May this be so, as we share in the body and blood of Jesus Christ
and know the ground of our faith:
ALL: Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
And now, as we come to the Table, just as Mary came to the tomb,
we ask that in every stage of our seeking, you would be near to us.
Pour out a double portion of your Spirit on this bread and cup
that we might see you as clearly as Mary did.
And may this meal nourish us to build your kingdom here.
Until that promised day,
we pray together using the words you taught us to pray, saying,
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,
and the power, and the glory, forever. AMEN.
***Agnus Dei
O Lamb of God,
that takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God,
that takest away the sins of the world,
grant us they peace.
The Peace
Many grains were gathered together to make this bread,
many grapes were mixed to make this wine.
So we who are many, and come from many places, are one in Christ.
May the peace of Christ be with you.
ALL: And also with you.
Breaking of the Bread
We do this in obedience to Christ’s example and command.
On the night when he was betrayed, Jesus took bread and after giving thanks to God
he broke it and said, “This is my body which is for you; do this in memory of me.”
Let us share the bread of heaven together.
(The Bread is shared with those gathered)
Taking the Cup
In the same way he took the cup and said:
“This cup is the new covenant sealed by my blood.
Whenever you drink it, do this in memory of me.”
Let us drink from the cup of salvation together.
(The Cup is shared with those gathered)
Anthem - Living Hope arr. L. Stutzman
Hymn #248 At the dawning of salvation - Nettleton
Blessing
Choral Dismissal - Go out with joy - Johnson/Gingrich
Postlude – Festal Flourish - G. Jacob
We gather on the traditional territory of the Wendat, the Anishnaabeg and the Haudenosaunee Peoples. We are also on lands that are part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum. We live and work, worship, learn and meet on lands that are the traditional territory of many different Indigenous Peoples who were here before the establishment of European colonies.
