Easter Sunday
April 4, 2021
Before we begin, gather a candle or small light, your Bible, a cross, a piece of bread and a cup of juice or water. Place them at the center of a calm area in your home and gather comfortable seating for all who will join you. Place your phone, tablet or computer where you can see and hear it. You may want to connect a charger, rather than rely on battery.
What symbol of Easter lifts your heart? An Easter lily? The empty tomb? A butterfly or draon fly? The empty cross? Place something in your worship center today that lifts your heart with the Good News: Christ the Lord is risen today!!!!!
Welcome
Musical Meditation:
Focus: Romans 6:3-11 So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!
That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.
Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer captive to sin’s demands! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word.
When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.
-From the translation and paraphrase, The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
Lighting the Christ Candles We light our candles or lights.
Voice One: In the beginning, God said,
Voice Two: Let there be light, and there was light!
Voice One: We light these candles today,
Voice Two: Because God is with us in this time and in all these places!
Call to Worship
Voice One: How joyful it is, to celebrate the good news of God’s love!
Voice Two: We are called to be Easter people!
Voice One: Darkness cannot claim us!
Voice Two: Fear cannot bind us!
Voice One: Christ is risen!
Voice Two: Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Amen!
— written by Nancy C. Townley, and posted on the Worship Connection page of the Ministry Matters website.
Invocation
One Voice:On this holy day, God our Creator, our Savior and our friend,
we celebrate our new life in the risen Christ.
All Voices: Through the death of Jesus, the weight of our sin has been lifted from us.
Through His glorious resurrection, we have become sons and daughters of God.
One Voice: As sisters and brothers of your grace, hear us as we rejoice:
All Voices: Alleluia! Alleluia, alleluia!
come, let us praise the living God,
joyfully sing to our Saviour.
~ adapted from a piece posted on Wellspring Liturgies. http://www.wellsprings.org.uk/liturgies/easter_day_liturgy.htm
A Time for Hallelujah
Scripture: John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
-New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Special Music
Meditation
Invitation to the Table The bread and cup and placed on the table for the Lord’s Supper.
Prayer of Communion Elders this month are Judy Halstead and Kyle Sowers.
Words of Institution We break the bread and lift the cup as the words are spoken.
The Lord's Supper We share in the bread and cup as we hear the music.
Communion Meditation:
Prayer of Thanksgiving: 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 and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Prayers of the People
We praise you, living God,with songs and prayers and listening hearts
and lives trying to obey your will.
You have created and are creating, bringing life and hope and love.
You come in Jesus, your Word made flesh, to reconcile and make new.
We praise you, living God,with songs and prayers and listening hearts
and lives trying to obey your will.
In a culture where the power death gets all the headlines your Holy Spirit summons us to be people
shaped by your power to work resurrection.
We praise you, living God,with songs and prayers and listening hearts
and lives trying to obey your will.
We are not sure we believe as fully as we think we should.
We are not sure we trust as deeply as we think you require.
But we bring who we are and what we have become
into your presence, longing to know your grace and your love.
We praise you, living God,with songs and prayers and listening hearts
and lives trying to obey your will.
Forgive what has gone wrong.
Repair in us what is broken.
Reveal in us what is good and turn us toward it.
We praise you, living God,with songs and prayers and listening hearts
and lives trying to obey your will.
So may we follow wherever your Spirit may lead.
So may we love with the love of Jesus flowing through us.
So may we, body, mind and spirit,
be children of resurrection, children of hope, children of grace.
We praise you, living God,with songs and prayers and listening hearts
and lives trying to obey your will.
In Christ Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
~ adapted from a prayer posted on Christine Jerrett. https://christinejerrett.wordpress.com/
Challenge for Discipleship
Blessing We speak in unison.
The Light that was in one place and at one time, is now in all places and all times, for God has placed the light in us. We abide in peace! And we go forth into the world as children of God!
Postlude:
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