​Today we rejoice and celebrate the Good News that God’s New Life has overthrown once and for all the powers of darkness, sin, and the grave.
 
Today we raise our voices to proclaim that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, who was crucified and died for us all, lives again! And His New Life will never end.
 
Today we gather to pray and to praise… to sing and to hear again the Holy Scriptures… to draw near to our Risen Lord in faith, and receive from Him the gift of New Life. 

Our Easter Sunday Service of Lessons & Hymns and Bulletin can be found here:

Here are some links to the Hymns listed in our service, found on YouTube: ​

Scripture Readings: Exodus 12:1–14 | Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19 | 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 | John 13:1–17, 31b–35

​“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:8, 34-35).
 
On this night, Jesus our Saviour shared a sacred meal with His disciples… inviting them not simply into His friendship, but into His own blessed life… the life He shared with His heavenly Father from before the beginning of time.
 
On this night, Jesus our Master washed the feet of His servants… showing them up close what His new life looks like: humility… vulnerability… kindness… love.
 
On this night, Jesus our King gave us a new commandment: that we should love one another just as He loved us… spelling out for us once and for all the core of what it means to share in His Kingdom.
 
“Just as I have loved you” Christ says, “so you should love one another.”
 
Not just try to play nice… but strive to put His own love for us all into practice.
 
Tragically, many today seem not too concerned with keeping this ‘new’ commandment.
 
Instead, caught up in our own concerns, we avoid and ignore one another…
 
Instead, in fear, and envy, and prejudice, we turn on one another…
 
Instead, we search for all sorts of ways to excuse our unwillingness to serve and be served… to care and be cared for… to forgive and to be forgiven… to love and to be loved.
 
And yet Christ’s commandment still stands:
 
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35).
 
How are you and I today to obey our Lord’s commandment?
 
Well, we can only share the love of Jesus if we have received the love of Jesus.
 
Christ is not asking us to bring something to the table… but first to be fed by Him… answering our Lord’s invitation to come and share in what He alone can give.
 
The holy love of God is not something we can simply conjure up within ourselves… it is His gift to us. A gift that grows in us.
 
And we can only continue to share the love of Jesus if we continue to receive the love of Jesus… like a branch can only bear fruit when it remains united to the vine.
 
Ongoing communion with God in Jesus Christ is the fount from which all of our life must flow.
 
What happened in us yesterday, a year… ten years… thirty years… fifty years ago has brought us to this present moment hear and now: to Christ’s Table where He offers His life and His love… to you, and to us all… again and again and again.
 
We must keep coming to Him together if we are to have any hope of sharing His love together.
 
And this is the only hope Christ Jesus our Lord gives to us that the rest of the world will come to see us as His own… and so come to know the love of Jesus: if His disciples will continue receiving and sharing His love with one another.
 
There are so many factors behind the current challenges that the Church and Christians are facing today. And there are many choices ahead of us as a community: many possibilities, which we might find humbling… and hard… exposing our own vulnerabilities… and fears… and calling us to walk uncomfortable and unfamiliar roads.
 
What Jesus our Lord gives to us today is not a silver bullet to avoid suffering, but this commandment… the way forward we must take up and practice if we are to follow Him:
 
We must receive His love… as undeserving of it as we may be… not just once, but again and again… His love sustains our life.
 
And we must offer this love to one another… again and again and again… as undeserving as we may feel they may be… His love shared through us sustains their life as well.
 
And we know this “one another” means more than just those of us sitting here in this room… those we find easy to love… those we already know… those we trust will love us in return.
 
Our Master Jesus calls us to love all of those who have been given a place at His table… who, like us, only have a place at His table because of what He has done for us all… NOT because we are good. Or interesting. Or healthy. Or friendly. Or wise. Or anything other than loved by Jesus.
 
We must love one another freely, just as Jesus our Saviour has first loved us.
 
That’s when, He tells us, the world will come to know that we share in His blessed life.
 
That’s when we will be more than a religious people, but the new family of God.
 
When through His Holy Spirit at work in us we receive and share His love… again and again and again…
 
When we allow ourselves to be cared for by our sisters and brothers, and care for them as well…
 
When we lay down our lives for one another, as He first laid down His own life for us…
 
That’s when we and the world will know that we are Christ’s own… when His love is growing deeper and wider and stronger in and between us.
 
On this night, Jesus Christ calls us to love one another just as He first loved us.
 
Let us receive and share together His life and holy love. Amen.

And our Songs can be found here:

​And our Songs this week can be found here:

Our At-Home service for Good Friday, Bulletin, and Songs can be found here:

​In addition, here is a link to our Stations of the Cross video, featuring the paintings of Fr. Sieger Köder:

Scripture Readings: Exodus 12:1–14 | Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19 | 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 | John 13:1–17, 31b–35

Tonight is a holy night: Maundy Thursday, where we gather to retell the story of Christ’s last moments with His disciples before His betrayal, arrest, condemnation, and crucifixion. On this night, our Lord Jesus shared the sacred Passover meal with His disciples… reliving the great story of God’s redemption of Israel from Egypt, centuries earlier… yet pointing ahead to a new and ultimate act of salvation: His own body to be broken. His own blood to be shed for all.
 
On this night, our Lord Jesus stooped down to serve His students… taking hold of their soiled feet, and washing their filth away. Taking on Himself the lowest status in ways that even Peter found hard to handle… and offering a new vision of it means to be great in God’s eyes.
 
And on this night, our Lord Jesus gave His followers a new command: that we love one another. “Just as I have loved you,” He says “you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35). On this night we have been given the heart of the Christian life: an essential characteristic of a Christian, our Lord tells us, is love for other Christians.

This isn’t an ideal to affirm, but not to really put into practice. Or an optional add-on, for those who want to go above and beyond. This is a commandment. A requirement from our Lord of all who would follow Him. Our “marching order”, so to speak, is to love one another.
 
This makes no sense at all if what we mean by love is our spontaneous and natural inclinations… our feelings of affection or attraction to others. That’s what much of our culture considers love: our desires for friendship, companionship, and a sense of belonging. But on this night Jesus our Lord gives us a clear definition of what He means by love: that is, commitment… compassion… care… and at the cross: the laying down of one’s life to lift up the life of another.
 
To live like this… to love like this will certainly shift and shape our desires, but at the heart of things this kind of love is not a feeling to follow… it’s a choice to make. It’s an act of will, and for us, an act of obedience to the one that we call Lord. To the one who laid His own life down for us.
 
The author and United Methodist Bishop, Will Willimon, recalls what’s going on in wedding vows: “Note that, in the Service of Marriage, the pastor doesn’t ask, ‘John, do you feel like you love Susan?’ The question is, ‘John will you love Susan?’ Love is here defined as an act of the will, something we decide to do, a gift that we promise to give”[1] This night, the new commandment we’re given is to decide to love one another… to choose to commit ourselves to our brothers and sisters in Christ. To give ourselves to one another. Not in the abstract, but in our every day relationships. With the brothers and sisters in Christ we know… those who share these pews… and those who join with us at Christ’s table.
 
Take a moment to look around the room. Think of those who are not with us this evening, but who have been a part of our Parish family. Think about those we know in other Parishes… those in other denominations. These are the actual people that Christ has commanded us to love “as He has loved us”.
 
And not only to them, of course… for the Good News of God’s kingdom is meant for all. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
 
But as the saying goes: “A glass can only spill what it contains.” We can only share with others what we have ourselves first received. We can only invite our neighbours into the new life of Christ’s kingdom, the new life of God’s family, when we are living it out ourselves… when we are practicing patience… forgiveness… humility… hospitality… mercy… faithfulness… not perfectly, of course… but choosing to practice this new life together all the same.
 
For it is precisely because God’s saving, self-giving love in Jesus Christ is meant to be shared with all the world that we are called to share it with one another. For if we who have received the love of God decide not to love one another… we are turning our back on the Good News that we Christians claims to believe. And how will the world believe us about God’s self-giving love offered to all in Jesus Christ if we chose not to practice it ourselves?
​
On this night, our Lord says to us: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35).
 
This love is God’s gift to the world in Jesus Christ, meant to be made known through the life of the Church… through Christians like us who are committed to putting it into practice. This love is what we’re created for, it is God’s life at work in us.
 
Again, Bishop Willimon has wisdom for us: “Lest you despair at his sweeping command to love, remember that it is within this setting that Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit who gives us what we need to be obedient to Jesus’ command. He does not expect us to love on our own.”[2]
 
This is what this night is all about: in Jesus Christ our Lord, the Living God offers Himself to us in love… and through His Holy Spirit, is working in us to draw us all together in Him. His new commandment is simply to share with one another the gift He offers to us all… God’s new life, the new creation Jesus has won for us at the cross.
 
So this night, as we draw near to Christ’s table together, and as we follow Him tomorrow to the cross… let us receive from Him God’s gift of love, and with the Holy Spirit's help, let us give it to one another. Amen.
 
 


[1] William H. Willimon, Thank God It’s Thursday: Encountering Jesus At The Lord’s Table As If For The Last Time (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2013), 58.

[2] William H. Willimon, Thank God It’s Thursday: Encountering Jesus At The Lord’s Table As If For The Last Time (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2013), 42.
 

This is the night that Jesus our Lord washed His disciples feet, shared with them the Last Supper, and gave to us a new commandment: “Just as I have loved you,” He says “you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,  if you have love  for one another.” (John 13:34-35). 

The word "Maundy" comes from the Latin mandatum, which means “commandment”, referring to this sacred commission Christ gave to all His followers. 

A few weeks back we shared a short video from the Bible Project exploring the Scripture's understanding of love. In case you missed it, here it is again: 

​Our At-Home service of Evening Prayer, Bulletin, & Sermon for Maundy Thursday can be found here:

And our Songs can be found here:

​And our Songs this week can be found here:

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 25:6–9 | Psalm 118:1–2, 14–24 | Acts 10:34–43 | John 20:1–18

“I have seen the Lord.” (John 20:18)

These words from Mary Magdalene, spoken around two thousand years ago, announce again to us today the Good News beyond all hope! The news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was crucified, died, and was buried… has been raised and lives again: the firstborn of the resurrection! Two days ago, with Mary, we looked and saw Him on the cross, bearing our sin and shame… suffering for the sake of the world… and pouring out God’s holy, reconciling love for us all.  Two days ago, we saw Him buried, but today we see and empty tomb. Today we know our Saviour lives, and will forevermore.
 
Today is the fulfillment of all that has come before it: the promises of God to renew and rescue His broken world; the mission of His Son to draw all people back to Himself; the suffering of the cross, to bring forgiveness and salvation. All the works of God come to a head today… to make all things new. Today, Jesus Christ has been resurrected, from the dead. And with His rising, the Living God has begun Life anew.
 
It’s impossible to capture all that Easter morning means in one sermon. A lifetime isn’t long enough to completely understand, never mind actually speak about, what the resurrection of Jesus entails. But when Mary first said those joyful words “I have seen the Lord”, God’s light has begun to open our eyes to the truth of this Good News, helping us to begin to grasp what the Risen Lord has done… what He’s been up to all along, and which He will one day bring to completion.
 
We heard more than hints of this work in our reading today from the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, who wrote these words at a time when Israel was heading towards disaster: towards losing everything, and being led into exile. And yet, God gave Isaiah even then these words of hope:   
And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 25:7-8)

Tied up with God’s promise to redeem and rescue His covenant people, Israel, is the promise to destroy that “shroud that is cast over all peoples… he will swallow up death forever.” The destruction of death. How can that be? How can we even imagine it? The end of that thing which comes to us all… which causes so much grief and fear. For that to happen, the world as we know it would have to be remade… yet this is exactly the hope that the Living God gives to His people, and which the Risen Christ brings to life in His own resurrected body: nothing less than New Creation breaking into the midst of our Old one… revealing God’s plan and power to raise up His people along with Him. To not abandon this world He loves to darkness and destruction, but in Christ to raise it up again to share in His own New Life.
 
This isn’t all a simple way of saying that we will go to heaven… escaping this physical place, in order to go somewhere else entirely. The picture the Bible paints for us, especially at Easter, is the hope that death itself has actually been overcome. That what happened to Jesus at the resurrection will one day happen for us. That we will be given new bodies, like His, that can never die again… ones perfectly fitted for life within God’s re-Created world. Today we echo Isaiah’s words that the Living God has swallowed up death forever in Jesus Christ, who is the Risen Lord of Life. Today, though we face death, we need not fear it as those who have no hope. Christ has conquered the grave for us and we will share in His victory.

If our passage from Isaiah points us to this New Creation, one set free from the fear of death in the hope of resurrection, our reading from Acts holds out the hope of a New Humanity… a new way to be God’s family, again through the Risen Lord.
 
In Acts Chapter 10, we heard St. Peter speaking about Jesus… about what He did in His life, His death, and that He was raised again from the dead. But if we know a bit more about who it is that St. Peter is speaking to we may come to see just how world-changing this message really is. St. Peter, like all the Apostles and early members of the Church, was Jewish… a descendant of Israel, God’s chosen covenant community. As a people set apart from all the other nations of the world, Israel had often assumed that God was mostly concerned about them… rescuing them, restoring them, bringing God’s kingdom to them.

But ever since Jesus, whom St. Peter knew to be Israel’s Messiah, was raised from the dead, God had been pushing His people further out into the world. At the time of our passage today, the Holy Spirit of God had led St. Peter to do something he had never done before: visit the house of a Gentile, someone who was not Jewish. And not only that, the man, Cornelius, was a Roman Army Officer. This was someone who represented the forces ruling over St. Peter’s people, even though Cornelius himself feared God, and was kind to his Jewish neighbours. Under normal circumstances, this Roman soldier was untouchable… there were too many barriers between him and the first disciples. And yet in this moment, with the Spirit’s help, Peter begins to understand… to see that Christ is not just Israel’s Messiah… but the hope of every nation… that the Risen Jesus is truly the Lord of all.
 
This was the watershed moment when the Holy Spirit of God began to break down the walls of hostility between Jews and non-Jews, drawing people from all cultures and races of the earth into God’s New Family, united together by faith in the Risen Lord of all. Through the work and witness of people like Peter, God’s Spirit continues to spread the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection throughout the whole world, so that people from every nation might look to Him as Saviour and Lord. We are here today (in body, or the Spirit) because that message has been passed down to us, and today we are just one part of the worldwide Christian Church. Today, we see everyone’s invited into God’s New Family.

Which brings us to our passage from the Gospel of John, to that first Easter morning when the resurrection of Jesus was first brought to light. For the turning point of all history… it’s a bit of a messy story: people running all over the place… confused, afraid, weeping… an empty grave, a pair of angels… and what seems to be a gardener. Yet in the midst of all the chaos, the Risen Lord is there, and He makes Himself known not by some grand spectacle… but by saying the name of one who felt lost, and who suddenly was found. The Risen Lord spoke to Mary, and the world was never the same.
 
Mary Magdalene is rightly known as the very first apostle… the very first eyewitness to the Risen Lord, and the first person sent by Him to share the Good News with others. In that moment, she went from a grieving, distraught disciple to someone with a mission: a new purpose, a new reality, a new identity. She had encountered the Risen Lord… God’s re-Creation in the flesh… and now she had a part to play in helping others encounter Him too. Today we see that the Risen Lord is drawing not just nations but people… people like you and I to be a part of His New Creation. That in the midst of the messiness of life, the Risen Lord still speaks to us, making His presence known, and empowering us to tell the world that Jesus Christ not only suffered and died; He rose again. To show that He is alive, by living as those, who through the Holy Spirit, are already being shaped by God’s New Creation today.
 
Today, like Mary, we’re given a New Identity: we’re a Resurrection People. Those who exist in the world as witnesses that Jesus lives… and who are beginning to put into practice God’s New Life even now. Through the eyes of faith: we see the Risen Lord of life, and the fear of death that grips our world begins to lose it’s hold over us. We see the Risen Lord of all, and the prejudices and self-interest that threaten to shatter our world begin to crumble and give way, to God’s reconciling, self-giving love. We see the Risen Lord, who calls each one of us by name, and all the confusion, isolation, grief, and sense of purposelessness begins to be transformed, by His compassion and grace, into our new and blessed life as God’s beloved children, and into our new calling to share this Good News with our world.
 
Today, in faith, the world-changing words of Mary are entrusted to us. We are called to proclaim through our actions and words that we too “have seen the Lord.” That we have believed the Good News that Christ is risen from the dead, and that God has begun His New Creation in our lives. So today, and always, let us be those who will say: The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! Amen!

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 52:13–53:12 | Psalm 22 | Hebrews 4:14–16, 5:7–9 | John 18:1–19:42

Don’t look away! 
Today we stand confronted with two hard realities which have the tendency to trouble and disturb us, tempting us to avert our eyes and do our best to ignore them: I’m referring to the words suffering… and sin. They both have many names, like anguish and rebellion… grief and wickedness… but whatever it is we call them, today they’re simply unavoidable. They are of course present in our daily lives, in all sorts of guises, but today they stand out in the open. Today the Scriptures lead us with Jesus to the very foot of the cross, where these two seemingly unescapable forces are exposed in all their ugliness. A good and innocent man suffers and dies before our eyes, and all the world turns on Him… or simply turns away.  

He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we… held him of no account. (Isaiah 53:3)

Don’t look away. As hard as it is… to see His awful pain, and remember our own.
As hard as it is… to see the guilt of those who killed Him, and remember our failures.
Don’t look away. Today, we are called to share in this sacred moment.
As hard as it is, we are invited to bear witness. To see.

To see that at the cross the Living God Himself does not look away. That the LORD does not ignore our suffering, standing by, unmoved. That the Holy One does not leave our injustices unanswered. That rather than leave us to fend for ourselves, Jesus, the Son of God, chose to bear the cross for us all because God refuses to look away from us… even when we could not, and cannot bear to look at Him.

For he did not despise or abhor / the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me, / but heard when I cried to him. (Psalm 22:24)
 
In Jesus Christ God endures all of our sin and suffering… and at the cross He draws infinitely close to us. Today we see there’s more going on than an innocent man suffering. This is more than simply a cruel tragedy… it’s the costly cure for all our transgressions. At the cross there are no cliché words of comfort… but rather we see Jesus embrace all our pain completely. At the cross there’s no brushing aside or excusing all our wickedness… but rather we see Jesus offer us all complete forgiveness.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)
 
Don’t look away from Christ at the cross, because that is where God’s love is found! God’s love which bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things… endures all things. God’s love which refused to look away… to let all our suffering and sin continue to separate us from Him any longer. God’s love poured out for us even while we were still his enemies… when our voices joined in with the crowd calling out “Crucify Him!”
 
Don’t look away because at the cross, as hard as it is to endure, Christ shows us the shocking depths of God’s love… just how far He has gone to redeem and rescue His sinful and suffering world. In Christ’s suffering and death at the cross God becomes Godforsaken for us… in order to rescue Godforsaken us. There’s nowhere we could go that His redeeming love can’t reach. There’s no darkness that the light of Christ at the cross cannot break through.
 
The Good News of Easter will remind us soon that the story, our story doesn’t end here. That the darkness of this day gives way to a glorious new dawn. But today… the Good News of the cross of Christ is that the Son of God has come to us suffering sinners… and has died to set us free. To take our place. To bear our shame. To give up His life to save ours. Precisely at the point where we deserved it the least… precisely at the point when we needed it the most.
 
It is precisely at the cross Christ shares God’s love with us, and it is also precisely where we see God’s love for our neighbours as well. For if God has loved us so completely, what’s stopping us from loving each other?
 
We cannot look away from the cross because that is where God helps us to see the suffering and sins, of ourselves… and also our neighbours… but instead of looking away from them in despair or disgust, we are empowered to see them with the eyes of God’s holy love. We cannot look away from the cross, because that is where God reminds us that the way forward for all of us comes only through forgiveness. We cannot look away from Jesus Christ on the cross, because that is where God opens our eyes to His longsuffering, reconciling love… and that is where Christ opens up the way for us all to find New Life in Him.

So today, let us look in faith to Jesus at the cross. And find in Him forgiveness, life, and God's longsuffering love. Amen.

Today we celebrate the joyous news that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead.
That though He suffered and died on the cross, death did not have the final say, but was itself overcome by the power and love of the Living God, and now Christ lives as the firstborn of God's New Creation.

This is the cornerstone of our faith, and a world-changing mystery.
​In the light of Easter, let us turn to LORD in worship, prayer, and praise.

Lord of life and power,
through the mighty resurrection of your Son, you have overcome the old order of sin and death and have made all things new in him. May we, being dead to sin and alive to you in Jesus Christ, reign with him in glory, who with you and the Holy Spirit is alive, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Happy Easter everyone. Alleluia!

​Rob+

Our service of Morning Prayer, Bulletin, and Sermon this week can be found here:

And our Songs for this week can be found here:

To mark the beginning of Easter on this the holy night when Jesus was raised from the dead, here is an At-Home Easter Vigil service prepared for households to celebrate together by the Diocese of Brandon.
​It is the same resource that we used as a Parish last year, intended to be used around the evening mealtime, as Easter officially begins this evening. 

The Gospel reading (found on page 6) is the only piece of the service which is out of order. Instead of Matthew 28:1-10, the Gospel reading for this year is Mark 16:1-8, which has been included below.

May the Risen Lord Jesus Christ bless you, and be with you always. Amen.

Here are our At-Home Worship resources for Good Friday:

Here are our Songs for this service:

And here is a link to our Stations of the Cross video, featuring the paintings of Fr. Sieger Köder:

Maundy Thursday is upon us:

The night in which our Lord Jesus Christ instituted Holy Communion
through sharing this sacred meal with His disciples.

The night He washed their feet, and taught them to love one another.

The night He was betrayed, and allowed Himself to be arrested.

The night He was abandoned, and yet remained faithful to the end.

Though we are not gathering together at St. Luke's Gondola Point this evening to celebrate this sacred night,
​we can still remember and mark this moment through worship and prayer.

Please find below our At-Home Worship resources for Maundy Thursday: 

​Here are our Songs for this service:

Traditionally, after a Maundy Thursday service and in preparation for Good Friday, the vessels, hangings, and other items in the Church would be removed. While this significant act is difficult to replicate for those using At-Home resources, here is a video recording of Rev. Rob clearing the Altar at St. Luke's Church. 

​(It may be worthwhile playing some contemplative / prayerful music if you wish to watch the video, as it is performed in relative silence).