Easter 6
Sunday, 10/05/2026
SENTENCE FROM SCRIPTURE:
Bless our God, you peoples; let the sound of his praise be heard. (Psalm 66)
HYMN-
GREETING
Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
COLLECT FOR PURITY
Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
SUMMARY OF THE LAW
Our Lord Jesus Christ said: The first commandment is this:
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”
The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION
God is love and we are God’s children. There is no room for fear in love. We love because God loved us first.
Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith.
SILENCE
God our Father,
we confess to you
and to our fellow members in the Body of Christ
that we have sinned in thought, word and deed,
and in what we have failed to do.
We are truly sorry.
Forgive us our sins,
and deliver us from the power of evil,
for the sake of your Son who died for us, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
ABSOLUTION
God, who is both power and love,
forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by the Holy Spirit,
and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.
GLORIA sung by Billy Riddick
COLLECT
O God, from whom all good things arise:
grant such grace to those who call on you,
that, by your inspiration,
we may ponder those things that are right,
and, by your guidance, do them;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end. Amen
PROCLAIMING & RECEIVING GOD’S WORD
[1st two readings this week by David Kerr]
FIRST READING Acts 17.22–31
22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him – though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we too are his offspring.” 29 Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.
30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’
SECOND READING 1 Peter 3.13–22
13 Who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14 But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; 16 yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.
18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20 who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21 And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you – not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
GRADUAL HYMN
GOSPEL John 14.15–21, read by Rev Dr Steven Ballard
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St John, chapter 14 beginning at verse 15
Glory to Christ our Saviour
Jesus said to his disciples: 15‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
18 I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’
Give thanks to the Lord for his glorious Gospel
Praise to Christ our Lord.
SERMON
Online Reflection
Each of today’s readings, in different ways, speaks of ‘knowing God’. The Gospel reading speaks of the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift which the world is not yet ready to receive “because it neither sees him nor knows him” [John 14 v 17] The challenge of our reading from the letter of Peter is to each follower of Christ, to us in our relationship with the world and those alongside whom we share this life, always to “… be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.” [1 Peter 3 vv 15 & 16]
And then, alongside those two passages, we have read the account from the Acts of the Apostles of Paul in Athens, of the altar “To an unknown God” and then, from that starting point , his affirmation that “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” [Acts 17 v 23]
So, how do we offer the hope which is ours to our world, to the society of which we are part and to those people around us with whom we share our daily lives? For me, the first question we need to ask ourselves is, do I myself know that hope which is God’s gift to us in Jesus, by His life, death and resurrection? Do I know myself loved, valued and accepted as I am by the God whose very nature is love and whose love I see made real in Jesus? For that is the truth, but I can only offer what I myself have received.
Then, it seems to me, that the model for our reaching out to our world and to those around us is given to us by Paul in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles. He engages with the Athenians by starting from where they are. They already have an altar to what they have termed an ‘unknown God.’ In other words they know that their faith system has a hole, a gap, in it and Paul seeks to fill that gap by offering to them his account of Jesus, only coming to the fact of resurrection (the element that the Greeks would have had the most difficulty accepting) at the end of his speech.
And we today, in our world, can only start from where people are. It is difficult to hear a message of hope if you have no food to eat, lack a roof over your head or live in a conflict zone where the reality of violent death is a daily occurrence. So, working for justice and peace in our world must be one starting point. For many in our world, there seems to be an acceptance, a belief in the spiritual – although they would probably not use that word – that there is more to each human being than the purely physical. People speak of ‘wellness’, ‘healing’, use meditation, and speak of feelings of low self-esteem, lack of worth of purpose or meaning in life. In all those areas of people’s lives, we surely believe that we have a message of hope in the love of God for each and all, which accepts us as we are that we might be loved into the people that we can be and become.
Even though the eyes of the world, and of so many people in our world, are closed to an unknown God, we are challenged first to open our own eyes, and then to seek to open the eyes of the world to the God of love who makes Himself known in Jesus, living, dying and rising. In Him is our hope and the hope of the world.
Amen.
THE CREED
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one substance with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father.
With the Father and the Son,
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
PRAYERS
Risen Lord,
you stand among your people and bring life and peace.
We turn to you in prayer for the world you love.
For your Church across the world,
that we may live as witnesses to the resurrection,
faithful, joyful, and full of hope
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
For the world you have made,
for places of conflict and division,
and for all who long for justice and peace
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
For those in need of care and compassion,
the sick, the anxious, the grieving, and the weary,
that they may know your healing presence
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
For our communities and those close to us,
for family, friends, and neighbours,
that your love may be seen in our life together
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
For ourselves,
that we may be people of peace,
carrying the life of the risen Christ into each day
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Risen Lord,
receive these prayers,
and fill us with your Spirit,
that we may serve you with joy,
now and always.
Amen
Merciful Father accept these prayers for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Do not bring us
to the time of trial
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.
BLESSING
Christ the Son of God gladden your hearts with the good news of his kingdom; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.
HYMN –
DISMISSAL
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ. Amen
