Easter Sunday 2020
Easter Acclamation
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Although separated, we worship together and unite through the contributions we have all made.
[Sarah has found this prayer by John van de Laar.]
We Gather and We Celebrate
What are we to make of this day?
When graves are opened…
When the dead awaken…
When life refuses to be contained…
Then nothing is impossible!
Hope is never extinguished
and love is never conquered.
We celebrate You today, Jesus,
Because You have made it clear that death does not have the last word;
Because You have filled us again with hope and faith;
Because You have given us a vision of new possibilities, new realities, and new ways of being.
Open our minds to believe what we cannot explain;
Open our hearts to hope for what we cannot see;
Open our lives to live and to love in the midst of death and despair;
Let resurrection happen again in us today.
Amen.
We celebrate You today, Jesus,
Because You have made it clear that death does not have the last word;
Because You have filled us again with hope and faith;
Because You have given us a vision of new possibilities, new realities, and new ways of being.
Open our minds to believe what we cannot explain;
Open our hearts to hope for what we cannot see;
Open our lives to live and to love in the midst of death and despair;
Let resurrection happen again in us today.
Amen.
Let’s join together in this upbeat version of Thine be the Glory!
Singing the Faith 313. The words are included on the video.
[Words by Edmond Budry to the tune from Judas Maccabeus by Handel.]
Had we been all together in the church, we would now be decorating the cross. Instead, why not spend a few minutes reflecting on these Easter images with the accompanying music of “I know that my Redeemer liveth” from Handel’s Messiah.
[It is sung by Elly Ameling with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.]
Listening God,
It is hard not to know what will happen next.
Whether we are going to grieve or rejoice.
What good news might look like –
What bad news might imply.
Help us not to rush ahead but to live without knowing –
To dwell in your uncomfortable mystery.
Amen.
[Taken from a Methodist booklet, “9 Days.”]
The Lord’s Prayer – we pray this, inclusively, with many different kinds of worshipping people.
Let’s sing StF 306 – Now the green blade rises to the accompaniment played by Geraldine and Sarah.
[Words by John Crum to a traditional French carol.]
Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again.
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain.
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
Listen to the bible readings set for today.
Let’s now sing StF 305 – Low in the grave he lay to the accompaniment played by Geraldine and Sarah.
[Words and music are by Robert Lowry.]
Low in the grave He lay—Jesus my Saviour!
Waiting the coming day—Jesus my Lord!
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!
Vainly they watch His bed—Jesus, my Saviour!
Vainly they seal the dead—Jesus my Lord!
Death cannot keep his prey—Jesus, my Saviour!
He tore the bars away—Jesus my Lord!
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!
Vainly they seal the dead—Jesus my Lord!
He tore the bars away—Jesus my Lord!