Home Church Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021 Rev. Karen Hollis

Christ Church Gabriola A Collaborative Anglican – United Church Open to All

Home Church Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021 Rev. Karen Hollis

We acknowledge these lands upon which we worship are the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.

Preparing the Space Around Us

Whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here! Welcome if you are gathering on zoom or if you are worshipping at home with the bulletin. We are one community and all part of the body of Christ. I invite you to prepare the space around you so that for the next hour you can be fully in this worship experience, not to keep out the realities of the world, rather to focus us in the midst of it all on God. If you need to go and get something or shift something around you, feel free. During this season of Lent we are exploring the theme: Living Faith.

Preparing the Space within Us

Let us prepare now the space within us for a time of worship. I invite you to sit quietly, perhaps with feet on the floor, taking a couple of deep breaths and bring yourself into this moment. Open yourself to the presence of God who is with us and within us . . . as you intentionally open yourself to God, open yourself also to what you need from this time of worship.

Greeting
One:    Christ is risen!

All:      He is risen indeed!

One:    Stones roll away, tombs are open, new possibilities are born,

            and women stand in awe.

All:      Hope is alive and God’s love is eternal!

One:    The Easter joy of the living Christ be with you all.

All:      And also with you.

Opening Prayer

God of grace and power, we come rejoicing in Christ’s empty tomb. We come trusting in the good news that tells us Christ is with us. For the Risen Christ is living proof that You care about our lives, O God. The Risen Christ offers to us glimpses of hope, even in our tears. The tomb is not quiet. It speaks. It proclaims! It transforms! Praise be to the Living God! Amen.

Hymn: Christ the Lord is Risen Today     VU #157

1 Christ the Lord is risen today, hallelujah!

all creation join to say; hallelujah!

raise your joys and triumphs high; hallelujah!

sing, O heavens, and earth reply: hallelujah!

2 Love's redeeming work is done, hallelujah!

fought the fight, the battle won. Hallelujah!

Lo, our sun's eclipse is o'er! Hallelujah!

Lo! he dwells in death no more! Hallelujah!

3 Lives again our glorious King: hallelujah!

where, O death, is now your sting? Hallelujah!

Once he died, our souls to save: hallelujah!

where your victory, O grave? Hallelujah!

Prayer of Confession                                                    

You are the God from whom no secret can be hid,
And we are a people with many secrets,
That we want to tell for the sake of our lives,
That we dare not tell because they are deep and painful.
But they are our secrets . . . and they count for much;
They are our truth . . . rooted deep in our lives.
You are the God of all truth,
And now we bid you heed our truth,
About which we will not bear false witness . . .
The truth of grief unresolved,
The truth of pain unacknowledged,
The truth of fear too child-like,
The truth of hate, as powerful as it is deep,
The truth of being taken advantage of, and being used,
and manipulated, and slandered.
We trust the great truth of your wondrous love,
But we will not sit still for it,
UNTIL you hear us.
Our truth – heard by you – will make us free.
So be the God of all truth, even ours,
We pray in the name of Jesus,
Who is your best kept secret of hurt. Amen

Silent prayer of confession

Assurance of Grace

The Easter promise is for you: this assurance that God is not judging your missteps and darkest secrets, rather God loves you in your humanity. God loves you exactly as you are and is with you every step of the way, supporting and encouraging you. Thanks be to God!

Peace of Christ

The resurrected Christ is with each of us, and so is in the space between us – let us share with each other the peace he brings on this Easter day!

A-M:    The Peace of Christ be with you!

N-Z:     And also with you!

First Reading: Acts 10:34-43    Lisa Griffith

Listen for the word of God to you this morning . . .

Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

      

  One:  Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church

  All:    Thanks be to God

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24    NRSV  Lisa Griffith

O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, "His steadfast love endures forever."

The LORD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: "The right hand of the LORD does valiantly; the right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly."

I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. The LORD has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it.

I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Gospel Reading     Harold Jenner                     

One:      God be with you.       

All:        And also with you

One:      The Good News of Jesus Christ according to Mark

All:        Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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 any one, for they were afraid.

  One: This is the Gospel of Christ;

  All:    Praise be to Jesus Christ

Reflection:  Rev. Karen Hollis  (see attached)                               

Silent Reflection

Video: Behold    The Work of the People                                

Affirmation of Faith  Iona Abbey Worship Book

We believe that God is present

in the darkness before dawn;

in the waiting and uncertainty

where fear and courage join hands,

conflict and caring link arms,

and the sun rises over barbed wire.

We believe in a with-us God

who sits down in our midst

to share our humanity.

We affirm a faith

that takes us beyond a safe place:

into action, into vulnerability

and into the streets.

We commit ourselves to work for change

and put ourselves on the line;

to bear responsibility, take risks,

live powerfully and face humiliation;

to stand with those on the edge;

to choose life

and be used by the Spirit

for God’s new community of hope. 

Amen.

Prayers of the People   Mona Smart

One:    God of life and love,

All:      Hear Our Prayer.

Lord’s Prayer  New Zealand Prayer Book – Jim Cotter

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, Source of all that is and that shall be, Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven: The hallowing of your name echo through the universe! The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world! Your heavenly will be done by all created beings! Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth. With the bread we need for today, feed us. In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us. In times of temptation and test, strengthen us. From trials too great to endure, spare us. From the grip of all that is evil, free us. For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and for ever. Amen

Offering Prayer  Laura J. Turnbull, Gathering

God of Grace and Goodness, we stand before you with arms outstretched, ready to serve. We share our resources eager to herald the Good News. Receive the gifts of our hands and hearts and our very lives, and transform them into tangible signs of mercy and hope. Amen                                

Hymn: The Day of Resurrection      VU #164

1 The day of resurrection!

Earth, tell it out abroad;

the passover of gladness,

the passover of God!

From death to life eternal,

from earth unto the sky,

our Christ has brought us over,

with hymns of victory.

2 Our hearts be pure from evil,

that we may see aright

the Christ in rays eternal

of resurrection light,

and, listening to the accents,

may hear so calm and plain

his own "All hail!" and, hearing,

may raise the victor strain

3 Now let the heavens be joyful,

let earth its song begin,

the round world keep high triumph,

and all that is therein;

let all things seen and unseen

their notes in gladness blend,

for Christ indeed is risen,

our Joy that has no end.

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen.

Blessing    Iona Community

If you are with another person, you’re invited to bless each other, taking every other line.

One:      The Creator’s blessing be yours on your road, on your journey, guiding you, cherishing you.

N-Z:       The Son’s blessing be yours, wine and water, bread and stories, feeding you, challenging you.

A-M:      The Spirit’s blessing be yours, wind and fire, joy and wisdom, comforting you, disturbing you.

All:        The Angel’s blessing be yours, on your house, on your living, guarding you, encouraging you. Let us walk together, a community on a journey sustained in God’s blessing. Amen!

One:      Let us go now in peace to love and serve the Lord.

All:        Thanks be to God!

 

Thank you

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