Easter

PRAYER IN PREPARATION:  We gather today to rejoice, O God, we come to celebrate the power of life over death.  We gather in wonderment:  the empty tomb confounds our wisdom, and breaks our worldview.  We gather with a touch of fear:  fear of the death that comes before resurrection, fear of the transformed life that comes after it.   As we gather today, fill us with the promise of new life, and may we leave this place renewed in hope, ready to proclaim resurrection to the world around us.  Alleluia!  Amen.

CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Psalm 118)

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

         Alleluia!  Christ is Risen indeed!

O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good, God’s steadfast love endures forever.

         The Lord is my strength and my might; God has become my salvation.

Ring the chimes, make a joyful noise; join the dance of merrymakers!

         This is the day that the Lord has made: we will rejoice and be glad in it!

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

         Alleluia!  Christ is Risen indeed!

 

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Holy God, our hearts ache for hope, our souls crave some fresh word of grace.  Yet we are sophisticated people, and we are not easily surprised.  We come this Easter morning neither frightened nor amazed.  Our conclusions about the way the world works have long been made up, closed up, and sealed tight.  Have mercy on us, O God, forgive us.  Shake us with the astounding goodness of this day.  Crack open our hearts and minds to fresh possibilities of life made new.  Astonish us with your forgiveness.  Grant that we may come to know the depth of joy this day holds forth.  Amen.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH

We believe in Jesus Christ, born of Mary, who came healing the broken, serving the poor, liberating the burdened, and reconciling heaven and earth.  Condemned by the religious and crucified by the State, Jesus died forsaken.  No pain in our hearts or throughout the whole earth is unknown to Christ.

Yet, redeeming even death, God raised Jesus from the grave.  Christ ascended into heaven to be everywhere present so that nothing is beyond the reach of God’s healing touch.

Christ calls us by name to celebrate life, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen.  In life, in death, in life beyond death, we belong to God. Alleluia!  Amen.