Worship Order for Sunday

Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Long Green & Kanes Rds., near Glen Arm, Md.
April 24, 2011
Worship 10:00 am              Sunday School 11:10am

Easter Sunday 

      He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”  (Matthew 28:6-7)

  Beginning with Praise (9:50 am)       "O sons and daughters, let us sing!"        274
  Announcements
  Prelude                                   "Christus Regnat"                                   Clokey

*Call to Worship                   Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24                          (see insert)

*Hymn                                     "The strife is o'er"                                        263

*Opening Prayer

  Visual Scripture                       Colossians 3:1-4

  Returning our Tithes and Offerings

  Offertory                              "Fairest Lord Jesus"              German folk melody
                                        (Please sign the attendance pad and pass it on)

  Hymn                             "In the bulb there is a flower"                               614

  For Children (mp3)

  Sharing a joy, a concern, a word of testimony or praise
                                 (please be brief, and aware of God's listening presence)

  Pastoral Prayer

  Scripture                                 Matthew 28:1-10

  Message                              "A Rising Prayer" (mp3)

*Hymn                           "Christ the Lord is risen today"                              280

*Benediction

*Postlude                                   "Christ is Risen"                                       Kolb


*Rise in body or in spirit

#'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book

Worship leaders - see basic guidelines

Call to Worship
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

On this joyous resurrection day, we begin worship with a portion of a Psalm often used in connection with the celebration of Passover. In the Jewish faith, Passover remembers the deliverance of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. In the Christian faith, Easter celebrates the deliverance of all people from slavery to sin and death. Please rise in body or spirit, and let us read responsively the Psalm of “Hallel” or “praise” found on your bulletin insert. May these ancient words lead us into our celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

One:       O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say,

All:        “His steadfast love endures forever.”

One:       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:

All:        “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly; the right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.”

One:       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.

All:        Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.

One:       This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.

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

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

All:        This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

One:       This is the day that the Lord has made;

All:        let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Text is from the New Revised Standard Version,
copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
  

Opening Prayer

We thank you and praise you, O Lord, for you are indeed good and your steadfast love endures forever. Yes, this is the day you have made, and we rejoice and are glad in it now. We sing our songs of victory today in this “tent,” this temporary dwelling place of those who have been restored to a right relationship with you through your Son Jesus, our Christ.
            You have opened the gate wide open, as surely as you rolled away the stone that held him in the tomb. Despised and rejected, though he was and still is – even by us, he has become central to who we are in you. Christ Jesus is the cornerstone of this church. He is the foundation upon which all else rests.
            Forgive us when we fail to get that straight, and come to rely solely upon our own misguided plans and our own feeble strength. Everything does not rest upon our shoulders, O Lord, it all doesn’t depend upon us. If it did, we would, like the children of Israel, still be making bricks in Egypt. But as you sent Moses to them, you sent Jesus to us as a deliverer – not just for some, but for all. Thank you, God!
            In rolling away that stone, you have removed the heavy weight of sin and death and have set us free. We live in Christ, and on this resurrection day recount your mighty deeds, O Lord. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen!
  

Visual Scripture

 

Colossians 3:1-4 will be read three times by three different persons while this is being shown
  

Returning our Tithes and Offerings

God, as we return our offerings at this point in our Easter worship, we seek to see our earthly possessions through the lens of your kingdom. It really is only “stuff” to which we can become so attached that we may keep wrapped in it all like a cocoon and not break out and spread our Spirit wings. Help us instead, Lord, to answer your invitation to seek first the kingdom by allowing our minds to be focused upon and full of what really matters, and to anticipate our lives being revealed with Christ in glory. This we pray in the name of the One who is, truly, the “ruler of all nature,” our “fairest Lord Jesus.” Amen.

Ushers?
 

For Children

Hopefully, the children’s imaginations were grasped by the video. Talk with them about caterpillars, chrysalises, and butterflies. Don’t force an analogy, just see where they go with it. Some possible questions:

Does a caterpillar, as it crawls around eating leaves, know that it will one day become a butterfly?

How hard do you think it is to

a)      make a chrysalis (not a cocoon – that’s for moths)?, or

b)      break open one? Does it hurt?

If you were a butterfly, what do you think it would feel like to spread your wings for the first time and fly?

If possible, talk about Jesus as if the tomb were a chrysalis. Just see where the children go with this.

 

Pastoral Prayer

 

written closer to the time (if not at the moment)

 

 

Benediction

            Listen, again, to what those women were to tell the disciples, after they had witnessed that Jesus wasn’t dead in the ground. The message wasn’t just for them, it’s for us as well:

                  "He has been raised from the dead,
                           and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee;
                                    there you will see him.

Or, to put it a bit different:

                  He is alive,
                           and wherever you go from this point on,
                                    he is already there ahead of you.
                                             So keep your eyes wide open.
                                                      All heaven is breaking loose.

 

(para traducir a español, presione la bandera de España)

 

Interested in Sunday School?
Below is a growing list of possible sites to visit. As you discover others, please let us know.

International Lesson:
Faith and Life Resources

Mennonite Publishing House

International Lesson:
Mennonite Weekly Review

(scroll down on left to "Sunday School lessons)

International Lesson:
Christian Standard
(one week ahead)

International Lesson:
Living Web Sunday School Project

 
International Lesson:
Adult Bible Studies
from The United Methodist Publishing House
(click "supplemental resources" and "current events supplement" under both the "Student" and "Teacher" sections in the left hand column)
  

While one of our adult classes follows the International lesson above (see also), using
A Guide for Biblical Studies,
published quarterly by our denomination,
another class often uses one of the
Good Ground series.

For children and youth, we use the new
Gather Round curriculum
(developed jointly by the Church of the Brethren and the Mennonite Church)

 

©2010 Peter L. Haynes
(unless otherwise stated, worship resources were written by him)

 

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