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Worship
Service for April 9, 2023
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: Why do you look for the living among the
dead? He is not here; the Lord has
risen!
P: He has risen indeed!
L: The Lord has risen!
P: He has risen indeed!
L: Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting? Death has been swallowed up in victory!
P: Christ has risen indeed!
L: Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the
life. He who believes in me will live,
even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
P: Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through Jesus Christ
our Lord.
L The Lord has risen!
P: He has risen indeed! Alleluia!
Opening Hymn – Jesus Christ is Risen Today Hymn #123 Brown
Prayer of Confession
We have to admit it, Lord,
that we had our doubts. We have heard
the Resurrection story and for so many years it has remained just a nice
story. But, this time it is different. This time we have walked the path with
Christ. We have journeyed through the
wilderness and valley, to the mountaintops, to the courtyard, the garden and
the cross. Now you bring us to the empty
tomb and to the joyous news of the truth of Christ. Forgive us when we so easily doubt the truth
of his resurrection. Forgive us when we
feel we have to have absolute proof of everything. Your love in Jesus Christ is all the proof we
need. You conquered death and sin, you
brought us to new life. We praise your
holy name and sing our unending song of hope and thanksgiving. Christ the Lord is risen today. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: What a day! Easter Day!
God’s dawn of new hope, new mercy, new life.
P: On this first day and every day, we can
walk as God’s people, forgiven and made whole.
Thanks be to God. AMEN.
Gloria Patri
Affirmation of Faith/Apostles’
Creed
I believe in God the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius
Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day
He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right
hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick
and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the
resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
Holy God, on this
day of resurrection, may we see evidence of the new life You bring everywhere
we look. Let us look to the children and
see joy. Let us look to the old and see
wisdom. Let us look to one another and
see Christ. Let us look to the earth and
see beauty.
Even in the midst
of newness, we are painfully aware that our world lives in great need of your
renewal, and that new life has not come in its fullness. We ask to be your instruments in bringing
that renewal to our communities and those with whom we come into contact. May we reach out to those who need a hand for
friendship, a meal for strength, a roof for protection, or a peacekeeper for
safety. May the love of the one who
lives forever shine through our hearts, our words, and our acts in ever new ways.
This day we also
pray for….
And now, O Lord,
hear our heartfelt song of yearning in these moments of silence…
Through Your risen
Son, we make our prayer together saying... 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. Forgive us
our debts as we forgive our debtors. And
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and
the glory, forever. AMEN.
Hymn –
Thine is the Glory Hymn #122 Blue
Hymnal
Scripture Reading(s):
Old Testament Scripture
Reading – Jeremiah 31:1-6
Sermon –
Easter Sermon
(Based on John 20:1-18,
but story comes from all 4 gospel accounts)
Easter
is one of those occasions on which most of you come to church already knowing
the story. And the climax of the story
is this – the man named Jesus of Nazareth was hung on the cross in a style of
death called crucifixion for his sentencing of being a blasphemer, believing
that he was the Son of God, and that on the third day after being buried, rose
from the dead. This event was prophesied
from ancient times within the text of the Hebrew Scriptures, was something that
the Jewish people believed would one day occur, and that many witnesses spoke
about, saw, or came to believe. That’s
the story of Easter – that the Son of God was crucified, buried, and rose from
the dead, proclaiming victory over eternal death for all those who believe. Although Easter is a special day of celebration,
we in fact celebrate that glorious resurrection and this story each and every
Sunday we come here to worship.
But
how familiar are you really with the details of the story? Probably not as much as you might
think. So, here are a couple of
questions for those of you who like trivia.
I’m
not going to have you raise your hands and compare your answers to others, but
think about them in your own mind.
First
question: Who arrived at the tomb first?
Was it a group of women, Peter, John, or Mary Magdalene?
Second
question: Who greeted the person or
persons who arrived at the tomb? Was it
an angel, the gardener, the soldiers who were guarding the tomb, or Jesus
himself?
Third
and last question: What was told to the
visitor or visitors to the tomb? Go tell
the rest of the disciples and Peter, go tell everyone, don’t say a word to
anyone, or go meet Jesus at Galilee?
Well,
let’s find out. Each account in all four
of the gospels is a little bit different.
Read: Matthew
28:1-10
After
the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the
other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for
an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone
and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as
snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel
said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who
was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see
the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been
raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you
will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with
fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and
said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped
him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go
to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Mark 16:1-8
When
the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome
bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the
first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had
been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the
entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was
very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a
young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were
alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of
Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is
the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going
ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they
went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and
they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Luke 23:55-24:12
The
women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and
how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments.
On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
But
on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the
spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed
about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women
were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them,
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man
must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise
again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told
all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the
apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe
them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the
linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
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.
So,
how did you do in our earlier quiz before the gospel readings. You were probably all right, regardless of
what you answered based on the differences between these four gospels, because
it depends on which account you read, which answer you might have for those
questions. And I offer each of them to
you to consider the full story of our Lord’s resurrection from this variety of
story tellers and witnesses, but for this morning I’d like to concentrate on
the story from John, the last account we read.
In
John’s gospel Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb and sees that the stone has been
rolled away from it. With the news that
the Lord’s body is gone, she runs to Peter and John (or, as he’s called here,
“the disciple whom Jesus loved”). Deciding
that they need to see it for themselves, these two disciples run to the tomb
and find it empty, just as Mary said they would. The linen wrappings are lying right there
inside, but there is no body to be found.
One
thing we might miss because of our previous experience with this passage is
that Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John each have a different reaction to the
empty tomb.
The
text tells us that John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, “saw and believed” as
soon as he entered the tomb. Until this
point, the disciples had not understood what had been told to them–that Jesus
must rise from the dead. But apparently,
this is when it clicks for John, right away for him - as he sees the truth of
it right there.
Now
as for Peter, the scripture isn’t as explicit. Maybe he gets it. Maybe he doesn’t. Which is an odd thing for Peter. He is always so quick on the draw. If you remember all the stories about him
from the gospel accounts; he was the first to say that Jesus was indeed the
Messiah, he was the disciple that was willing to walk out on the water like
Jesus did, he was the first to come to Christ’s aid when Jesus was arrested and
used his own sword to cut off the ear of the guard who seized Jesus. But, a lot has happened in the last couple of
days. Jesus didn’t really meet Peter’s ideals
of becoming the kind of Messiah or Savior that he was expecting, and when it
was certain that Jesus was going to be crucified, for fear of his own death, he
denied even knowing Christ - three times.
It would seem as though, from his lack of enthusiasm at this turn of
events at the tomb, he has some more thinking to do. So, he and John both return home.
Mary,
on the other hand, doesn’t seem to get it at all. At least, not yet. And can she be expected to, amid the shock of
these pre-dawn hours? It’s no wonder she
remains at the tomb to weep. Thinking
his body has been carried away, she is left to lament the fact that she has
lost Jesus a second time.
It
can be tempting for us to try to identify with the major players in this or any
of our more familiar scriptures. In
search of a way to connect at a deeper level with prominent biblical figures,
we may find ourselves wanting to determine which ones we are most similar to
and why. This is the sort of thing we
do, if you remember, when we ask ourselves, “Am I a Mary or a Martha?” upon
hearing the familiar account of Jesus visiting the sisters’ home in Bethany.
There
is nothing inherently wrong with the desire to relate to a particular
individual in this or any other biblical passage. But by doing so, we may run the risk of
limiting our perspective when instead we are called to expand it–perhaps in
this case by finding points of connection with all three of these disciples.
Are we not, each of us, in some way, a combination
of John, Peter, and Mary Magdalene? It
might depend on the season of our life, or our time and location along the path
of our Christian journey.
We
are John when we see something and believe it immediately. We are John when the object of our heart’s
desire dawns on us in real-time, when the realization of it causes all the
puzzle pieces to fall right into place and we get it right away. We are John when we arrive on Easter morning
without one shadow of a doubt that Jesus is risen.
There
was a woman in a previous congregation of mine, whose husband of 60 years had
just died. When I arrived to console
her, she was in deep contemplation and there were quiet tears streaming down
her face. When I went to give her a hug,
she said quietly, “Thank you so much for coming, but I’m not crying for him,
I’m only crying because I’ll miss him so much.
But I know where he is. He is
already in heaven with our Lord.”
We
are John when we can rest in certainty and securely in the bonds of that
belief.
We
are Peter when we are not quite as certain, when life has thrown us a few
monkey-wrenches along the journey toward belief, when our expectations are
sometimes not what we’d hoped or dreamt about or immediately believed would
happen. We’re Peter when it takes just a
little longer to sort it all out.
The
story is told of a young girl, maybe three or four years old, who went to
Sunday School and church with her grandmother for the first time one Easter
morning. On the way, her grandmother
explained to her the story of Jesus’ resurrection, including his death on Good
Friday. “Then, early on Sunday morning,”
the grandmother said to her granddaughter, “he came back to life!” The little
girl stared up at her grandmother with a look teetering between innocence and
confusion . . . and thinking about it for a moment, she exclaimed with serious
doubt, “Yeah right!”
Apparently,
she needed a little bit more time to think it over, to get her mind wrapped
around the possibility - like Peter.
And
we are Mary when our grief overcomes our ability to make sense of this mystery
of eternal life. We are Mary when a
loved one dies and our grief overwhelms all our other senses. From time to time, and for good reason, we all
lose the ability to perceive something that is right in front of us, even if
that something is the presence of God.
You
know, each of us find ourselves in different places on our Christian journey at
different times. And that’s just fine. Even on Easter. You might well be able to run toward the empty
tomb with an undefended heart, predisposed to belief even before you get a look
at the evidence. Or perhaps once you
arrive, you’ll need to turn away in confusion. You simply might need to take some time to
sort out what’s happened and then come back later. And that would be fine, too.
The
Lord also knows there are those of us who will need more time to hang around
outside and cry, maybe just for the moment, but maybe for a long season of grieving.
None
of our possible responses change the truth of the matter–that whoever you are,
wherever you are, Jesus is right there by your side. You may not always perceive Him. But He is there, nonetheless. He is waiting to say your name, and–even when
you least expect it–to remind you of the faith you have deep inside. May the truth of today’s gospel story dwell in
you richly; for Christ is Risen. He is
Risen, indeed!
Offertory – Easter
Alleluia – Bethesda Choir
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
Living
God, as we are reminded today of Christ ultimate gift of new life, show us how
we may give ourselves for others. may
our gifts here today be used to ease suffering, to grant hope, to share in
peace, and to allow the work of this congregation to continue and
increase. Blessed be your Holy
Name. AMEN.
Closing
Hymn – All Glory, Laud, and Honor Hymn #300 Brown
Benediction –
All our problems, we send to the cross of Christ!
All our difficulties, we send to the cross of Christ!
All the devil’s works, we send to the cross of Christ!
And all our hopes, we set on the risen Christ!
Go now in service to the Lord. AMEN.
Postlude
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