Develop a Discipleship System
Call to Worship
Beloved, Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Our Savior is risen!
Our Savior is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Steadfast Love is risen!
Steadfast Love is risen indeed! Alleluia!
This is the day that God has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad! Alleluia!
Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, September 2024.
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, today we come celebrating God, who looked beyond our faults and saw our needs. We come celebrating that victory is ours today. We come rejoicing that sin and evil did not get the last word. We praise you and we thank you for being a loving, patient God and for sending us Jesus Christ!
Thank you for giving sinners like us a second, third, and endless chances to right our wrongs and follow the Author of Grace. Thank you for giving the Good News of your Son’s resurrection to the dutiful Mary Magdalene. You called her name, and she finally believed and proclaimed that she had seen the Risen Lord!
Like Mary, time and time again, you have called our name. You have gotten our attention, and we stopped wallowing in despair, sin, and self-reliance. We turned, and there you were! Assuring us that God delivered you from death and God will deliver us also from sin and death.
Today, we put Mary’s proclamation in our hearts and on our lips. May our tears turn into laughter as we hold fast to the Easter knowledge that in Christ, all things are possible, if we will only believe.
Amen.
Adapted from Sherrie Dobbs Johnson in The Africana Worship Book, Year C (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2008), 127.
Prayer of Confession
Christ, we come to the empty tomb,
we see our own death,
we see our own tomb, we see our own emptiness.
And we remember how we have treated other people-
members of our family, friends, and neighbours.
Lord, we come to your tomb,
we see a hungry world before us,
the pain of starving children,
the guilt of war on our hands,
and we know that collectively we share in those injustices.
Lord, we come to the empty tomb,
we search within ourselves, and we cannot escape what we are,
people caught up in the pain of our own wrongdoing,
for some, a deep sense of loneliness
and a frustration of what we would be but are not.
Lord, when we come to the empty tomb,
we lay before you our pain,
our emptiness and look to you for hope.
People of God,
why do you seek the living among the dead in an empty tomb?
Are you afraid, are you uncertain, and are you uncomfortable here?
Our wounds are deep,
we have turned away from that man,
we have broken with him
and seek his fellowship.
Do not dwell on your wounds any longer
for he has risen to heal you,
he has risen to forgive you;
he has risen to change us all and bind us together now.
Christ has risen to forgive us.
Thanks be to God.
Excerpted from Service of Holy Communion 2010, posted on the River of Life website. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2012/02/easter-confession.html.
Benediction
May God’s abiding love and hope give us new life.
May God’s unmerited grace and mercy keep us hope-filled.
And may God’s restorative justice bring to us all, perfect peace.
For Steadfast Love is risen!
Steadfast Love is risen indeed! Hallelujah! Amen.
Adapted from Rev. Dr. Sheila Harvey Guillaume on the Worship Ways website at https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/easter-day-april-4/.
