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Welcome: Rev. Paula Norbert
Opening Reading: John 20:1-18 -Rev. Lamar Robinson
Gathering Music: Doxology (by Phil Wickham) -Michelle Currie
Responsive Call to Worship:
L: Out of the earth Rises light, Rises life, Rises spring.
All: May we join with the miracle that is springtime and enter into life with
lightness and joy.
L: Out of the spirit Rises faith, Rises hope, Rises love.
All: May we join with the miracle that is Easter and enter into life with hope and love.
L: Let us resurrect with spring.
All: Let us resurrect with the spirit and enter into renewed life as we gather in our time of worship together this Easter morning.
Opening Hymn: Morning Has Broken -Michelle Currie
Opening Prayer:
Holy One, On this Easter Sunday, we are reminded of the resurrection of Jesus, the promise of a life anew. How even in the darkest of days, we can be raised up, broken open, and made new again – just like the promise given to us.
Lord, we hold in our hearts the fear, the sorrow, the worries and yes, the joy in our world today. Walk with us in our journey to resurrection. Break us open, give us new eyes and a new heart. Let peace be on the tip of our tongue and in the palm of our hands.
Holy One, you know our hearts. Heal our hearts and our heads. Use our hands to feed, give, and comfort. Raise us up, break us open, and breathe new life into us so that we may be reflections of your peace, love, and justice in the world today and forever. Amen
Lord’s Prayer
Awakening: Living Hope (by Phil Wickham) -Michelle Currie
Readings: Isaiah 25: 6-9, Love Overcame by Julie Palmer -Rev. Lamar Robinson
Sermon: Our Resurrection Stories Rev. Paula Norbert
Music: Meditative Instrumental ~ The Old Rugged Cross (by George Bernnard)
-Michelle Currie
Prayers of Gratitude and Hope:
Lifting our worries, our burdens, our hopes this day
A Litany of New Life
L: Jesus is resurrected–because his message of love, justice, healing, and liberation transcends time and space.
All: Jesus is resurrected—because in his story we hear our own stories of suffering and struggle and sorrow.
L: Jesus is resurrected—because we need to be called back to love our neighbor as ourselves, called back to see the inherent worth and dignity of every person, called back to fight for justice, called back to hope for a better life.
All: Jesus is resurrected—not only because he is The Messiah, the long awaited One—but because in his time, and our time, and all time, we need hope.
L: Jesus is resurrected—proving that hope is eternal.
All: Hallelujah. Jesus is resurrected. -Sharon Gaudin and Nancy Batchelor
Closing Hymn: Christ the Lord is Risen Today -Michelle Currie
Benediction:
May the stories of this day
inspire us in ways that bring us a hope-filled clarity
about who we are, what we can do, and what our lives
are about. As we walk this dusty path, may we see only
the love and passion of those who journey with us
and be inspired. Amen
Go In Peace:
Easter Readings
Opening Reading: 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.
This is the Liberating Easter Word of God for all the people of God! Thanks be to God!
First Reading: Isaiah 25: 6-9 (NRSV)
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
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.
It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Love overcame
Love overcame Emerging from a cold tomb
All the truth, majesty and creativity of a living God
Transforming a broken heart Making a quiet return, in a still and sorrowful garden
The grave stone rolled away, to release redemptive love
Jesus resurrected and restored Comforts a weeping woman Speaks with travellers on a journey Meets with his faithful friends
And they bow down before Christ alive And acknowledge that the saviour has arrived
That the word of God has come alive
And that the extraordinary transformation of heaven and earth
Is complete
“Love Overcame” poem by Julie Palmer © Copyright 2017 Capernaum Publishing, England. All rights reserved.
Morning Has Broken
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the world.
Sweet the rains new fall sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness on the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass.
Mine is the sunlight mine is the morning
Born of the one light Eden saw play
Praise with elation praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day.
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Christ the Lord, is risen today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia!
Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!
Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!
“To say ‘I believe in Jesus Christ . . . who rose from the dead,’ is to say I believe that the Resurrection goes on and on and on forever. Every time Jesus rises in our own hearts in new ways, the Resurrection happens again. Every time we see Jesus where we did not recognize him before — in the faces of the poor, in the love of the unloved, in the revelatory moments of life, Jesus rises anew. The real proof of the Resurrection lies not in the transformation of Jesus alone but in the transformation awaiting us who accept it. Joan Chittister
If we are to speak of miracles, the most miraculous thing of all is that God uses the very thing that would normally destroy you—the tragic, the sorrowful, the painful, the unjust—to transform and enlighten you. Now you are indestructible and there are no absolute dead ends. This is what we mean when we say we are “saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus.” This is not a cosmic transaction, but a human transformation to a much higher level of love and consciousness. You have been plucked from the flames of any would-be death to the soul, and you have become a very different kind of human being in this world. Jesus is indeed saving the world. Richard Rohr