"The Darkness Gave Way"

CALL TO WORSHIP

One: This is a new day! A day of marvels and miracles! A day to rejoice in what God has done! Yesterday was filled with too many worries and too little faith.

Many: On this Easter morning, we hear the old folks saying, “Mary don’t you weep!”

One: This is a new day! A day of marvels and miracles! A day to rejoice in what God has done! Yesterday was filled with too much criticism and too little affirmation.

Many: Today, Martha, don’t you moan!

One: This is a new day! A day of marvels and miracles! A day to rejoice in what God has done! Yesterday was filled with too many questions and too few answers.

Many: This is Easter morning: dry your tears and shout for joy! Jesus is not dead. He is Alive! God has conquered death and Jesus has canceled sin. This is, indeed, a new day! Leap for joy!

INVOCATION FOR EASTER SUNDAY

Dear God, this past week has been one of mixed emotions; of faith struggling to understand. We have greeted you with palm branches; we have sat at table with you to share a farewell meal. We have witnessed your death on a simple wooden cross. Yet on the third day, you come to us again in victory. By this we know that death is not the final word. As the sun boldly rises to meet a new day, rise in our lives this Easter morning, for you are our hope, our life, and our joy.

Offertory

Glorious God, we rejoice in Jesus' victory over death! You raised him up to live forever. He left behind his linen wrappings -- the shroud, his grave clothes. Robed in white, Christ leads us from darkness to light. Help us to follow him, leaving behind the things of our past that obscure our horizons. We dedicate these offerings as tokens of the breaking dawn of Christ. May our gratitude shine forth by our joyfully giving of our earthly goods.

PRAYER

Almighty and wondrous God, on this day of new beginnings, we offer our songs to proclaim your victory over death. All that you have done is marvelous in our eyes, and so we offer our praise to your holy and powerful Name. Receive the joyful thanksgiving which we offer to you and bless it as a declaration of your worthiness to be worshipped. This is the day that you have made; we rejoice in it and are glad to be yours. Receive what we ask and grant it in your mercy for the sake of him who is the first fruit, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

John 20:1-18New International Version The Empty Tomb 20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked inat the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is ityou are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Benediction

Lord, death could not hold You. And because of You, the resurrection, we, too, can live. Thank You that the grave is only a journey into the presence of God. You have removed the sting of death and empowered this thing called life. Now I will live in Your presence forever. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.