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)
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.
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: 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)