Worship at Home
Worship for Easter Day
To listen to the sermon and a hymn dial
01604 266000.
Sunday 4th April 10:30 AM
(or whenever you wish)
Our Easter message has been prepared by Rev Romeo Pedro
This short act of worship is for use from home. Pause to settle yourself in God’s presence, knowing that other people are sharing in worship with you.
Download other Resources
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd www.rootsontheweb.com. Reproduced with permission.
We Gather, and We Celebrate
What are we to make of this day?
When graves are opened…
When the dead awaken…
When life refuses to be contained…
Then nothing is impossible! Hope is never extinguished, and love is never conquered.
We celebrate you today, Jesus,
because you have made it clear that
death does not have the last word;
because you have filled us again
with hope and faith;
because you have given us a vision
of new possibilities, new realities,
and new ways of being.
Open our minds to believe
what we cannot explain.
Open our hearts to hope
for what we cannot see.
Open our lives to live and
to love in the midst of death and despair.
Let resurrection happen again in us today.
Amen.
StF 313 Thine be the glory.
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory
thou o’er death hast won;
angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave-clothes
where thy body lay:
Thine be the glory,
risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory
thou o’er death hast won.
Lo, Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
let the Church with gladness
hymns of triumph sing,
for her Lord now liveth,
death hath lost its sting:
No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of Life;
life is naught without thee: aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerors
through thy deathless love;
bring us safe through Jordan
to thy home above:
Stuart Townend & Keith Getty
Copyright © 2001 Thankyou Music
We decorate the cross
On Easter Sunday we bring flowers and place them on the cross. We transform the cross into something which speaks of life and beauty of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead (if you have a cross and flowers, create your own version).
Now say:
Christ is risen – He is risen indeed!
We Acknowledge Our Need
Let us turn from our sins and ask Jesus to forgive us as we pray together.
Loving Jesus,
we confess to you the wrong things
we have thought, said, and done.
We are sorry that we have not loved you
or loved other people.
Thank you that you died for us
and rose again.
Please forgive us and set us free,
for the glory of your name.
Amen.
Please listen to the Agnus Dei
Bible Reading
6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine –
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death for ever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
9 In that day they will say,
‘Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Bible Reading
Jesus has risen
16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, ‘Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?’
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, “He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”’
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Time to Reflect
This week, why not open yourself to God’s resurrection life at every moment, in every situation, and with every interaction you experience?
Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed! This is the greeting that will echo across the world today, as it has for centuries since that first Easter Sunday morning. Today is the day that we have been moving towards since the start of Advent, and it is the day that will guide our journey forward through the rest of the year.
The ending of Mark’s Gospel has been the source of much debate among scholars for a very long time. Today, though, most scholars agree that the Gospel originally ended at verse 8, with the final verses from verse 9 being added later by an unknown writer or editor.
This does not mean that the final verses are not Scripture or that God does not still speak through them. It just means that we need to recognise that the original writer’s thoughts only took him as far as the events in verse 8 and then others expanded his thinking into the verses that follow.
What is so challenging about today’s reading is that, where the other Gospels end with triumph and celebration, Mark’s ends abruptly and with fear. The women who have gone to the tomb to finish preparing Jesus’ body for burial (since things were so rushed when he was laid in the tomb before the Sabbath) are overwhelmed by his absence and by the young man who tells them that Jesus is risen.
They are fearful because they have never encountered such a thing before, and they don’t know what it means. They are awed by the magnitude of the events they are witnessing. The way verse 8 ends, it’s like the resurrection has interrupted their world, and they suddenly find themselves in a whole new reality, with a whole new mission – to share what they have seen with others.
This is exactly what resurrection is like. When we realise that this same resurrection life is at work in us, we cannot help but be overwhelmed. And, when we realise that God wants us to share God’s life with others, our personal agendas are interrupted, and we discover that we have a whole new mission.
How is God calling you to live the resurrection today? How is God calling us as a circuit of churches to live the resurrection during these times?
Amen.
We bring our concerns to the Risen Christ
Loving God,
resurrection is not what we expect in our world. On the face of things, life seems to be under threat. Our earth is grieving, our families are fracturing, our nations are at war, and the light of our hope is growing dim.
We need the stone to be rolled away again.
Forgive us and all who have failed to honour and preserve life in all its diversity and glory.
Forgive us and all who have allowed relationships to become less important than riches or recognition.
Forgive us and all who continue to exalt our needs and desires over those of others, and who are prepared to kill to prove it.
Forgive us and all who have grown blind to all the signs of resurrection that beckon us still.
We need the stone to be rolled away again.
We need life to break out within us again.
We need love to consume us again.
Resurrect us today, O Christ, and make us agents of Your life wherever dying and grief hold sway. For Jesus’ sake.
Amen.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
And deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours
Now and for ever.
Amen.
StF 309 See What A Morning.
See, what a morning, gloriously bright,
With the dawning of hope in Jerusalem;
Folded the graveclothes, tomb filled with light
As the angels announce, “Christ is risen!”
See God’s salvation plan
Wrought in love, borne in pain, paid in sacrifice
Fulfilled in Christ, the Man
For He lives, Christ is risen from the dead!
See Mary weeping, “Where is He laid?”
As in sorrow, she turns from the empty tomb
Hears a voice speaking, calling her name
It’s the Master, the Lord raised to life again!
This voice that spans the years
Speaking life, stirring hope, bringing peace to us
Will sound ’til He appears
For He lives, Christ is risen from the dead!
One with the Father, Ancient of Days
Through the Spirit who clothes faith with certainty
Honour and blessing, glory and praise
To the King crowned with power and authority!
And we are raised with Him
Death is dead, love has won,
Christ has conquered
And we shall reign with Him
For He lives, Christ is risen from the dead!
We give thanks
We thank You, O God, for Your life,
pulsing in creation, revealed in Jesus,
renewed in resurrection and
available to us now.
Filled with life, we now offer ourselves
to be life-bringers in the world.
Touched by resurrection we pledge
to resist death wherever we find it.
Filled with hope we embrace
the promise of eternity, and
the call to make it known at every opportunity.
Through us may graves continue to be opened, and may the dead continue to be awakened to new life. In Jesus’ Name.
Amen.
This week’s service prepared by Rev Romeo Pedro
Webpage: Paul Deakin