Easter Sunday - A Time to Grow: Feast
Christ has Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Welcome to Mantua Center Christian Church on this glorious Easter morning. Today we celebrate culmination of Holy Week with the story of the Resurrection. Thank you so much for being here and we hope you are truly blessed and inspired today through the music, scriptures, and spoken word. God’s Grace, Hope, and JOY be with you! Welcome to worship!
Prelude - “Hallelujah! He is Risen” [by P.P.Bliss] - Sarah Park
Welcome to the Mantua Center Christian Church
Good Morning! Christ has Risen! He has Risen Indeed!
This is the Day that the Stone Rolled Away! Let us rejoice and be Glad in it!
We are a community seeking to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms.
This has been a Time to Grow and we continue to Grow in the Name of the Risen Christ!
Thank you for joining us here in the house and online. Welcome to everyone!
- ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Celebrations
- Served 50-100 at Loaves & Fishes Community Meal
- Serve over 190 kids everyday weekend and Raised over $20,000 at plunge for kids weekend meals
- We have serves dozens of families at our weekly Storytime
- Our smile team, prayer shawls, holding crosses, clothing giveaway bless so many.
- We are seeking to live out the resurrection spirit
- Baptism Class
- Holy Humor Sunday
- Camp Christian Registrations are OPEN
- April 21st Week of Compassion Offering
- WORSHIP TEAM BLESSINGS
- Egg hunt for kids
- Celebrations
Compassionate God,
Together we feel the breath of your Spirit bringing new life in our lives, calling us to grow in our faith, inviting all to the feast you have prepared. On this Easter morning, let our whole lives be filled by your Abundance:
what has lain dormant…open into bloom,
what has been cold and dark…burst into light
what looks like an end…be seen as a new possibility.
In the Name of the Risen Christ Amen!
Scripture Reading - 1 Corinthians 15:55-58 - Rev. Chad Delaney
55 ‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But 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 labour is not in vain.
Welcoming Song - Morning Has Broken #53, v.1
Morning has broken like the first morning, blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word!
*Call to Worship - Katie Baird
ONE: This new day is fresh with possibility to ENCOUNTER the Risen Christ.
ALL: With bright eyes, let us search.
ONE: This new day is fresh with possibility to UNDERSTAND the Risen Christ.
ALL: With compassionate hearts, let us feel.
ONE: This new day is fresh with possibility to RESPOND to the Risen Christ.
ALL: With eager devotion, let us follow.
ONE: This new day is fresh with possibility to SERVE the Risen Christ.
ALL: With humble intention, let us act.
ONE: This new day is fresh with possibility to PRAISE the Risen Christ.
ALL: With joyful praise, let us join the feast!
~ written by Rev. Christine Sobania Johnson
*Opening Hymn - Christ the Lord is Risen Today #216, vs. 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 - Katie Baird
Offertory
Music: “I Serve a Risen Saviour” [by A.H. Ackley ] - Sarah Park
*Response - Accept, O God, The Gifts We Bring #379, 2 lines
Accept, O God, the gifts we bring of spirit and of clay,
transform them into blessings on those we serve today.
Offering Prayer - Katie Baird
Children’s Moment - Rev. Chad Delaney
- Resurrection Plant demonstration
- Butterfly Seeds
- EASTER EGG HUNT
Special Music - “Beautiful City” [Song by John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz] - Jon Bozeka
Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer - Rev. Chad Delaney
One: God of New Beginnings!
Response: Help us choose the path that leads to resurrection.
We journeyed through the season of Lent, we grew together as studied the scripture, we feasted together at the Lord’s table, and we grieved together at Gethsemane and at the foot of the cross. And today we are here again celebrating the joy of Easter morning. God of New Beginnings…
Help us choose the path that leads to resurrection.
We, like Mary Magdalene, often fail to see the Risen Christ standing before us, shrouded in the ordinary moments of our lives. Open our eyes, Living God, to the signs of new life and hope that surround us, even in the midst of darkness. God of New Beginnings...
Help us choose the path that leads to resurrection.
Like the disciples running to the tomb, we sometimes struggle to believe the truth of your resurrection. Grant us the wisdom and understanding to grasp the depth of your love and the power of your victory over death. Help us to embrace the gospel with hearts full of faith and conviction. God of New Beginnings…
Help us choose the path that leads to resurrection.
We rejoice on this Easter morning, lingering in the radiance of Christ’s triumph over the tomb. We celebrate the stone that has been rolled away, revealing the promise that Life always finds a way. May this Easter be a reminder to us of your unending grace and the abundant life you offer to all your children. God of New Beginnings…
Help us choose the path that leads to resurrection.
As we stand on the threshold of a new day, fill us with a longing to grow as people of faith, to deepen our relationship with you, and to bear witness to your love in the world. May the joy of Easter inspire us to live lives of courage, compassion, and hope, reflecting the light of Christ in all that we do. God of New Beginnings…
Help us choose the path that leads to resurrection. Amen.
In your mercy, hear our silent prayers of celebration and sorrow…
Join us together now in your spirit as we pray the prayer Jesus taught us saying…
Communion
Meditation - Beth Schabel
Communion Hymn - In the Garden #227
1 I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses;
and the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses.
[Refrain]
And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own,
and the joy we share, as we tarry there, none other has ever known.
2 He speaks, and the sound of his voice, is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
and the melody that he gave to me within my heart is ringing. [Refrain]
3 I’d stay in the garden with him though the night around me be falling,
but he bids me go; through the voice of woe his voice to me is calling. [Refrain]
Prayer - Brian Hurd
Words of Institution - Brian Hurd
Music: “Low in the Grave He Lay” [by R. Lowry] - Sarah Park
Special Music
“Come and Praise the Risen Lord” [new words by Pamela Stewart, arr by Joseph M. Martin] - MCCC Choir
Scripture - John 20:1-18
In the bulb - #638 - The Garden theme
Prayer of Illumination
Living God, today’s Good News is so amazing
that we struggle to wrap our heads around it.
Give our hearts the wisdom to receive
that which our heads cannot fully understand.
Make us open to receive your promise and to live it.
Send your Spirit to fill our whole selves with your resurrection promise.
Help us to hear your word anew and help us grow in our faith. 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 stood 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? For whom are you looking?’ 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 - A Burst of Recognition - Rev. Chad Delaney
Last week we offered stories from Jesus's life and lessons from the garden. We ended the service in The Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was distressed and longing for his disciples to stay with him. They were falling asleep and soon the peace of the garden was interrupted with the sounds of marching soldiers ready to take Jesus away. One of his disciples betrayed him. One of them denied three times that he even knew him. The cross awaited him and Jesus was crucified. A lost dream and the cold Darkness of spiritual winter sets in. Little did those who loved him know that a seed had been planted…
1 In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;
in cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there's a spring that waits to be,
unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
And then on the third day on the first day of the week, while it was still dark. Mary came to the tomb and saw the stone had been rolled away. And--at first--this didn't bring joy but fear. She runs and tells the other disciples. They come and go with great uncertainty returning to their homes in fear.
But…Mary did not retreat. Filled with courage she goes back and stands outside the tomb surrounded by the beauty of its surroundings. She stays by Jesus even in the face of death, yet still overcome with emotion. She weeps. Weeps for her teacher, her friend, her dream for what could have been.
She peers into the tomb only to see the messengers of God who ask why she is weeping. For they know something she does not yet realize. And then he’s there…hidden in plain sight. “she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.”
This one whom she supposes is the gardener asks, “5‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ A question we might ask ourselves even today…in our lives…in our longing…in our striving…for whom or what are we looking?
Even amidst the grief and confusion and uncertainty…new life is stirring? What seems dormant is beginning to pierce the cold, darkness.
2 There's a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
there's a dawn in every darkness bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,
unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
What is hidden can’t remain hidden forever. We are blessed in Northeast Ohio to experience the cycle of life and seasons. Every spring we keep watch for the specks of green to come. We watch for the tulips and daffodils. Await the crocuses, the hostas, the butterfly weed. We trust they will come because Life always finds a way.
But, do we take the miracle of life for granted. Will we notice what is hidden in plain sight? Yes, Easter Sunday is an invitation to literally stop and smell the Roses. To take in the gift of life.
It really is not a surprise that Jesus went unrecognized. Most of the stories of the Risen Christ--he isn’t recognized straight away. Those closest to him don’t recognize him at first and perhaps we won't either.
Mary supposes him to just be the gardener.
The Disciples on the Road to Emmaus, suppose him to just be a passerby.
The Disciples walking by the sea of Galilee supposed he was a fisherman.
Today’s Christian may suppose him to be the cashier or the waiter.
May suppose him to just be the migrant or a refugee.
We may suppose him to be our teacher or nurse or our boss.
The stranger next to us in the pew.
We may suppose him to be a child or our enemy.
We may suppose him to just be the wind, a blooming flower, or a sunrise.
We may suppose him to just be our neighbor.
Unrevealed until its season…The Risen Christ in disguise all along.
Mary has her burst of recognition when Jesus calls out her name “Mary!”. It is the moment the flower blooms, the fruit ripens, the feast prepared…and hope is alive, new life is realized.
And then we see that however long we want to stay and enjoy its beauty. To freeze that moment in time. To perpetually taste and see that it is good. We cannot hold on to the Risen Christ for long. For the Risen Christ is on the move and we are called to share the Good News. Mary becomes the first Minister of the Gospel to share a message of grace and liberation.
To welcome ALL to the feast. To share what we have known, what we have seen, what we have tasted, what we have witnessed--To proclaim with our lives that death doesn’t have the final word. That Life finds a way. That we don’t give up on each other or on goodness. That we believe with the Apostle Paul, “...that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That Christ bids us come to the feast for which we wait. That in ends are always new beginnings.
3 In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
in our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity.
in our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
Family of God, may we keep an eye out for the Risen Christ.
To recognize his appearance in one another and the gift of Creation. May we follow in Mary’s footsteps and share the Good News. And may the Risen Christ live in our kindness, our generosity, our compassion, our LOVE for all the human family.
*Closing Hymn - Thine is the Glory #218, 1-3
1 Thine is 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.
[Refrain]
Thine is the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.
2 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 the Lord now liveth; death hath lost its sting. (Refrain)
3 No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of life!
Life is nought 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. (Refrain)
Benediction - Rev. Chad Delaney
- Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed
Together we have celebrated a Feast of Abundance. We have heard the Good News and Rejoice in God’s Saving Grace. And we mustn’t linger in the Garden, but set out to invite everyone to the Table.
As Christ burst forth from the tomb,
may new life burst forth from us
revealed in acts of love and healing to a hurting world.
And may the same Christ,
who lives forever and is the source of our new life,
keep your hearts rejoicing and grant you peace this day and always. Amen.
Christ has Died! Christ has Risen! Christ will come again!
And again and again and again in every act of love, kindness, and peace in the world. Go in Joy! Go in Peace!
Postlude - “God Sent His Son” [by W. J. Gaither]- Sarah Park