Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Welcome to the Mantua Center Christian Church on this blessed Easter Morning! Today is the day the Stone rolled away and we are so glad that you have joined us. We are part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) -- a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. We have no creed but Christ and ALL are welcome at the Lord’s Table. If you have any questions about our church or services, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Please also check out our website filled with wonderful information.
Today, we will conclude our series for Lent -- Seeking: Honest Questions for Deeper Faith. We have asked a lot of questions and explored our faith through worship, scripture, and prayer. Today, we bear witness to the power of the Resurrection story through the eyes of Mary Magdalene, who lingered long enough to encounter the Risen Christ. What can we learn from her story as we seek to Live the Resurrection in the world? God’s grace and peace be with you and welcome to worship!
Introit - “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” [Arr. from Lyra Davidica] - Sarah Park
Happy Easter! This is the Day that the Stone Rolled Away!
Welcome to Mantua Center Christian Church
-- a community seeking to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms.
Whether online or in the house this morning, we want to welcome you to the sacred Season of Lent as we walk with Jesus to Holy Week.
INVITATION FOR MISSION UPDATES:
Ministry Leaders and congregants are welcome to come forward to the mic, to give a mission update or share ways for people to get involved in missions and ministries.
Together, we believe in resurrection—
mysterious, beyond our understanding, and yet, like tulips after the snow: real.
We believe in Easter morning—
in the promise of a God who would roll back every stone to return to us.
We believe in Jesus— who calls us by name and asks,
“Who are you looking for?”
So we look—for justice, for mercy, for God in our midst.
And as we look, we sing, “Alleluia!” Amen.
Scripture - 1 Corinthians 15:54-58
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’55 ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
*Response - Weave #495
Weave, weave, weave us together, Weave us together, in unity and love.
Weave, weave, weave us together, weave us together, together in love.
*Call to Worship
One: What are you looking for?
All: The light before dawn and a reason to hope.
One: What are you looking for?
All: Joy after grief and flowers after winter.
One: What are you looking for?
All: A place to belong.
One: What are you looking for?
All: We are looking for the Messiah.
One: Good news! Come in. Love is alive!
All: Surely God is in this place! Alleluia!
*Opening Hymn - “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” #216, v. 1-4
1 Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia! All creation join to say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia! Sing, O heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!
2 Lives again our glorious king; Alleluia! Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Jesus died, our souls to save, Alleluia! Where your victory, O grave? Alleluia!
3 Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia! Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia! Christ has opened paradise. Alleluia!
4 Soar we now where Christ was led, Alleluia! Following our exalted head, Alleluia!
Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia! Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!
Invitation to Generosity
Invitation - Carol Buzbee
Offertory
Offertory Music: “Beautiful City” [Song by John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz] - Jon Bozeka
Response - “Give Thanks” #528
Give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy One,
Give thanks because he’s given Jesus Christ, his Son. Give Thanks!
Offering Prayer - Carol Buzbee
Children’s Moment - Rev. Chad Delaney
- Jelly Bean Poem
Anthem
“O Praise the Living King!” [By Lloyd Larson] - MCCC Choir
Pastoral Prayer & Lord’s Prayer - Rev. Chad Delaney
Holy Communion
Meditation - Beth Schabel
Hymn - “Because He Lives” #562, v. 1
God sent his Son, they called him Jesus. He came to love, heal, and forgive
He bled and died to buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives
Refrain:
Because he lives, I can face tomorrow; Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know he holds the future, And life is worth the living just because He lives
Prayer - Beth Schabel
Words of Institution - Rev. Chad Delaney
Music - “Low in the Grave He Lay” [by R. Lowry] - Sarah Park
Special Music
“In the Garden” - The Bozeka & Ryan Lind
Scripture - John 20:1-18
Prayer of Illumination:
Rabbouni, Teacher,
We have spent the past six weeks asking questions.
We have turned over every rock.
We have shined a light in every dusty corner.
We have opened the blinds. We have wrestled with truth.
We have sought after you.
So on this Easter morning, bring wisdom to our seeking.
Move through this room until the walls echo with the sound of alleluias.
Roll back the stones that might prevent us from drawing closer to you.
Calm our hearts. Say our names.
Awaken us to your presence in our midst.
We are here. We are listening. We are seeking after you.
Alleluia. Amen.
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11 But Mary lingered, weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Sermon - “Who are you Looking for?” - Rev. Chad Delaney
There’s an artist online named Vaskange who creates digital artwork and embeds more artwork within that artwork creating a Zoom effect. It only will take about a minute to show you if you haven’t seen it before.
Incredible talent to take that much time and detail and creativity.
What occurred to me about it is that each of those panels are works of art in themselves and would be a pleasure to explore just those. Also, unless you already knew where they were, I wonder how much perusing it would take to find those little portals to go deeper.
Our time in Lent has been a season of asking questions to go deeper in our faith in Christ.
Questions like…
- Who will you listen to?
- How do we begin again?
- Can these bones live?
- Where are you headed?
Each question, powerful on its own, drawing us deeper to some answers and hopefully even more questions to guide us on the journey. As Rev. Danielle Shroyer writes: “In every question, a picture of Jesus has been forming in your mind. Who is he to you? What is he capable of? What does he want?” On this journey, of course there will be times when we simply want to sit with Jesus and receive some answers--to rest in the grace and truth we know in his life and teachings. Other times we’ll go deeper--to really zoom in-- asking ourselves, “what does it mean to be his Disciple?”
Today, let’s go deeper into the story of when Mary discovers the Resurrected Christ.
On this beautiful Easter morning we walk with Mary Magdalene to the tomb where Jesus was laid. Mary had already seen so much. She was one of Jesus’ closest and earliest disciples. Jesus had healed her and she witnessed the blessings, the miracles, the confrontations, the teachings, the trial, and the crucifixion. Mary Magdalene was one of the very few who was with Jesus through thick and thin. And so it should not surprise us that she is here again wanting more time with Jesus.
She gets to the tomb and the stone has been rolled away. This is both thrilling and alarming. What does it mean? She goes and tells the others to see for themselves and a few do. They went in, saw the linens and astounded--the Disciples returned to their homes. All except for Mary. She stayed. Why?
The scriptures say she lingered there. She stood weeping at the tomb, devastated, staring into hopelessness. She stayed and when she looked closer…what did she see? There were two angels with a message (the other disciples didn’t see the angels). And then she notices the gardener who asks her: “Why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” When he says her name, she realizes the Gardener is Jesus, she cries out in loving recognition.
Just that little extra…bit of time. Would she have had this powerful experience if she hadn’t lingered there just a little longer? To stay and look and seek? To weep, to wonder, to watch?
Recently I read a quote from a study done in the Journal of General Internal Medicine:
“On average, patients get about 11 seconds to explain the reason for their visit before they are interrupted by their doctors.”
Now this isn’t to crack on doctors, but to help us reflect on what kind of time we actually give to the most important things in our lives. To stay with them, to linger a little longer and go a little deeper. How much time and earnestness--in this way--do we give to God, to our neighbors, to our children, our spouse, the problems of pain and injustice in the world? What will we find if we do?
Mary could never have imagined what she would find in the tomb. Staring into the darkness, feeling the cold air of the tomb, the rough edges of rock all around her...and incredibly…it is then that Risen Jesus comes.
What a blessing to our own spiritual journey if we can have just a little bit of that earnestness, that passion, that curiosity..if we --- as Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs sang in 1960 -- “Stay! Just a little bit longer!”
“This is the Day that the Lord has made, Let us Rejoice and be glad in it!” Every day an opportunity to seek and find the Risen Christ. We are always in so much of a hurry. There is always this and that to do. We take for granted the places and people in our life. Let’s linger a little longer, zoom in a little closer.
Who are you looking for? And for how long? You never know when and where and in whom the Resurrected Christ will show up.
Family of God! In our story this morning, we don't just witness how Jesus went from death to life, but also how Mary does. At the sound of her name, a new journey begins and a new calling is placed on her life. May the Joy of this Easter morning fully embrace you--may you hear Christ call your name. May you linger in this moment to experience the height and breadth of God’s love for each of us. As God brought Jesus back to life from the dark, cold, end of the tomb, may God’s Spirit bring us to life. AND…May we Live the Resurrection Story---to offer our hands and feet to be a part of God's holy work in the world…May it be so! Amen.
*Closing Hymn - He Lives! #226
1. I serve a risen Savior, he's in the world today; I know that he is living, whatever others say.
I see his hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer, and just the time I need him, he's always near.
[REFRAIN]
He lives (he lives) he lives (he lives), Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.
He lives (he lives) he lives (he lives), Salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart.
2. In all the world around me I see his loving care, and though my heart grows weary, I never will despair.
I know that he is leading through all the stormy blast; the day of his appearing, will come at last. [Refrain]
3. Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King!
The hope of all who seek him, the help of all who find; none other is so loving, so good and kind. [Refrain]
Benediction - Rev. Chad Delaney
Postlude - “Thine is the Glory ” [by G. F. Handel] - Sarah Park