We Receive and Hand On



[pic] St Stephens Williamstown Uniting Church in Australia

Service of the Word at Home - during Coronavirus Lockdown

Easter Sunday 12th April 2020

Prepared by Rev S. Juliette Maua’i

Place a cross and Bible on a table (if possible) on top of White/Gold cloth (or similar) which is today’s Liturgical Colour).

Prepare reflective music, hymns, songs to play as you feel prompted.

Readings: Acts 10:34-43 or Jeremiah 31:1-6; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Colossians 3:1-4 or Acts 10:34-43;

John 20:1-18 or Matthew 28:1-10

Song: Alleluia, alleluia, give thanks to the risen LORD

Call to Worship

Alleluia, alleluia, we come to this place, seeking Jesus in the familiar story of our faith.

Do not meet us only here, O Living Christ, but surprise us with Resurrection power in all the places of our lives!

We gather together in Spirit, O Lord, to sing and pray the story we know by heart, a story of loving triumph and powerful grace.

This story of “Alleluia!” means great joy for the One who lives and the ones who witness to this new life in all the places of our lives!

We rejoice and thank you for the life of your Son, resurrected by the power of your loving, vibrant Spirit, O God.

Let this same Spirit fill all the places of our lives, that we may know the truth of resurrection for the rest of our lives!

We join our hearts in song and sing “Alleluia! Gracious Jesus!”

for Christ is living and so are we!

Alleluia indeed!

Opening Prayer

God of Good News!

your angels appeared to the faithful women of Jesus’ company,

bringing them news more wonderful than they could imagine – Christ is Risen!

Surely your angels interrupt our lives, too, in this time of isolation,

breaking into our reality of restrictions, of losses and sorrows,

to shake us up and offering a message of tremendous joy to change our lives!

Come this Easter morning, we pray,

and fill us with the joy of the women disciples, the first witnesses to your resurrection,

that our lives may also be renewed in hope and glory.

Let us roll back the stone of the grave and let us shout for joy and sing Alleluia once again!

In Christ we pray, Amen.

Prayer of Confession

God of Good News, we confess to you

that while we know well the story of your victory over the grave, it is not a story we always live.

We are dragged down by all manner of death – whether it be alone or with our family around us at this time in lockdown.

Fear may suffocate us: the loss of dreams and hopes for what was, before COVID-19,

for ourselves, our families, our communities, our nation and the world.

Sorrow may wall us off like a grave, isolating us with anger, frustration, self-pity and grief.

Silence

Yet the stories of our faith are inscribed on our hearts, not with the marks of death,

but with the word, “Alleluia!”

So, on this Easter morning, we pray that you will fill us with “fear and great joy”

so that, like those women who came to the tomb expecting death,

we may instead find the radiant new life that is ever before us in your Resurrection! Amen.

Words of Assurance

Just as Christ did not come to condemn but to liberate, so too is Christ raised from death not to judge but to celebrate.

Cast off the yoke of sorrow and instead raise up the scepter of joy –

Christ lives! We live!

All is made new and will renew on this Resurrection morning! Alleluia! Amen!

Reflection: Why was Mary Magdalene the first disciple chosen to be the witness on that Resurrection morning?

I am drawn to wonder, the privilege and surely the mixed feelings that I imagine filled Mary’s whole being on that morning she hurried to the tomb. Why do you think Mary was chosen to be the witness to the Resurrection, rather than the other disciples?

Placing oneself in the context of John’s gospel this Easter Resurrection morning, following the stark realization of ‘Good’ Friday and who Jesus was, the king of the Jews (mocked the soldiers) as well as the one crucified alongside Jesus, ask yourself what you might be feeling this Resurrection morning? [ponder for a moment!]

Mary seems to be anxious and fearful when she runs to the disciples to raise the alarm that “they” have taken Jesus’ body. This contrasts with the male disciples, Peter and ‘the one Jesus loved’ whom, is often thought of as John, are somewhat in ‘disbelief’ and ‘excited’, by Mary’s discovery.

Perhaps, Peter and the one Jesus loved (often referred to as, John), sprinted to the tomb at the news Mary raised, in their eagerness and in the hope (possibly) that they could redeem themselves for having abandoned Jesus in his time of need!

We can note to some degree that “hope” was still within Peter, and the beloved disciple Jesus loved, in their actions and demeanor to race down to the tomb. Noting that in John’s gospel, John mentions three times that the other disciple got to the tomb before Peter. Yet, it seems that Peter’s denial three times of any association to Jesus is not removed from our listening and reading from John’s gospel this morning, for John reminds us that poor Peter has once again failed Jesus.

They arrive at the tomb to find no body, but the grave cloths Jesus was wrapped in but by no means was Jesus ‘bound’ by these!

Was Peter ‘bound’ in a sense; not yet willing to believe what he saw as he went into the tomb? For Peter “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.” Was ‘the disciple who Jesus loved’, ‘bound’? We are told that he “also went in, and “saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead”.

But what did the two men do? Peter and ‘the disciple who Jesus loved’ returned home. Mary, however, felt compelled to share the ‘good news’! What would you have done?

Perhaps, Mary Magdalene, was chosen to be the first witness on that life-changing, history-changing Resurrection morning, because Mary was by no means ‘bound’, to a degree, by the finality of the events of Good Friday.

Friends, are you still sitting with the events of Good Friday? If so, why? What are you looking for?

What would draw you to rejoice, to celebrate, and be raised in Jesus’ resurrection this Easter Sunday morning? And every morning?

In this situation where everyone is in isolation, like yourself and your families, are you willing to be of good courage like Mary and be witness to others you share with, via the methods of communication at your disposal, of the true meaning of our Christian faith in the Resurrection and steadfast hope of Easter Sunday morning every day in our lives?

Benediction

Do not look for the risen Jesus only here in the confines of our current lives nor in the confines of the impact of Coronavirus.

But seek the risen Jesus on the roads and in the streets of our reality, in all the pathways and byways of our lives.

Do not seek comfort in the familiar, but dare to risk the unfamiliar –

We know that Resurrection makes all things new!

Do not cling to all the old, expected notions about God, Jesus, Spirit, and what was the Church before now,

but go forth and celebrate this truly new Good News and be renewed constantly each day.

Because Christ lives, and new possibilities are ever before us!

Christ is Risen Indeed!

Alleluia and amen!

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