MORRIS-ROSENFELD ECUMENICAL SHARED MINISTRY
ORDER OF SERVICE FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 2024
RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD – EASTER SUNDAY
Due to copyright limitations, we are unable to print the words to many of the songs. However, our musicians have chosen music to fit the scriptures. We invite you to look up the words in your worship book and ponder them. If you do not have a worship book, ponder the words of one of your favourite hymns and listen for God’s voice. Those who have the internet may find the songs on YouTube.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Every religious tradition is rooted in mysteries I don’t pretend to understand, including claims about what happens after we die. But this I know for sure: as long as we’re alive, choosing resurrection is always worth the risk.
~Parker Palmer
BEFORE WE WORSHIP, WE REFLECT…
Literarily and theologically, Mark’s gospel ends awkwardly at 16:8. The women are astonished and afraid, and what most scholars consider the original ending of Mark seems more like the middle of the story than its end. What about appearances of the risen Christ? What about the joyful proclamation that death has not had the last word? Mark’s gospel is problematic for those anticipating the more complete story of resurrection recounted by other gospels. For some circumstances, however, Mark’s ending hits just the right note—especially for those who aren’t sure about resurrection themselves, or whose own lives are in an awkward, unresolved limbo.
In Mark’s version, all we have to depend on are Jesus’ earlier words, the realization that the women must have shared their experience eventually, and the intriguing possibility of the empty tomb. Somehow the women’s fear must have eventually become courage, but Mark leaves it up to his readers to wonder how. Still, Mark’s “ending” contains hope: even in times of uncertainty and fear, we can live the story of resurrection, depending on Jesus’ words, the church’s testimony, and the intriguing possibility of new life in Christ.
As we too are still in the middle of our life stories, Mark’s gospel is a good companion. Most of the time we live with an awkward, unresolved mix of fears and possibilities, in which resurrection is hinted at rather than completed. This is true for the church as well; this story may appear to be the end, but it’s really just the middle. The story of the risen Jesus continues in the mission of the church, Christ’s body. The possibility of resurrection draws us into a community that lives out the middle of its story in the hope and witness of Christ’s new life.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge we gather and worship on Treaty 1 Territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Anishininew, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.
God of Love, you are the Creator of this land and of all good things. Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history so that we may build a better future for our nation. Teach us to respect all cultures. Teach us to care for our land and waters. Help us to share justly the resources of this land. Help us to bring about spiritual and social change to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities, especially the disadvantaged. Help young people to find true dignity and self esteem by your Spirit. May your power and love be the foundations on which we build our families, our communities and our nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thanksgiving for Baptism
Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God, the wellspring of grace, our Easter and our joy.
Amen.
Look, here is water!
Here is our water of life! Alleluia!
Immersed in the promises of baptism, let us give thanks for what God has done for us.
We give you thanks, O God, for in the beginning your voice thundered over the deep and water became the essence of life. Adam and Eve beheld Eden’s verdant rivers. The ark carried your creation through the flood into a new day. Miriam led the dancing as your people passed through the sea into freedom’s land. In a desert pool the Ethiopian official entered your boundless baptismal life.
Look, here is water!
Here is our water of life! Alleluia!
At the river your beloved Son was baptized by John and anointed with the Holy Spirit. By the baptism of Jesus’ death and resurrection you opened the floodgates of your reconciling love, freeing us to live as Easter people. We rejoice with glad hearts, giving all honor and praise to you, through the risen Christ, our source of living water, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever.
Amen.
Look, here is water!
Here is our water of life! Alleluia!
CHILDREN’S SONG: VU 166 Joy Comes With The Dawn
KYRIE: WOV 671 Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks, verses 1, 3, 5
HYMN OF PRAISE: WOV 674 Alleluia! Jesus Is Risen, vs 1,3,5
CENTERING PRAYER:
God of mercy, we no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for he is alive and has become the Lord of life. Increase in our minds and hearts the risen life we share with Christ, and help us to grow as your people toward the fullness of eternal life with you, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
CHILDREN’S CHAT
Have you ever been so scared that you could not move? Have you ever been so scared that you ran, but found that you ran faster than you have ever run before, as if you were being chased? That is a whole lot of scared.
Mary, Salome and Mary go to the tomb with spices so that they can anoint Jesus’ body. There wasn’t enough time to do it on the Friday, and they couldn’t work on the Sabbath day, God’s holy day, so they went on the Sunday morning, only to discover that some strange young man was sitting in the tomb and Jesus wasn’t there.
Now this young man was an angel and he gave the women the good news that Jesus was alive. You would think this would make the women happy. Instead, they were terrified and ran away as if they were being chased! Why would they do that?
Well, first off, they were expecting to find Jesus’ body. Jesus’ dead body. Only, Jesus wasn’t there.
Then, there is this angel. Angels are God’s messengers. I don’t know about you, but I think I would be at least a little scared to be in the presence of a heavenly being! What if I said or did something foolish?! What would they think of me?! What would God think of me?!
I think the combination of Jesus, who was supposed to be dead, and now wasn’t, and a divine being who has been in the presence of God was too much information for the women’s minds to take in, so they gave into their fear and ran.
Here is the good news: they eventually stopped running and stopped being afraid because, in the end, we know what the angel said, so the women must have shared the angel’s message with the disciples and they in turn shared it with the world.
It is ok to be scared. It is ok to run. It is also ok to realize that we can trust God, who will be with us, and give us the courage to share the good news that Jesus lives! Alleluia!
MISSION AND SERVICE – An Easter Message on Education
Thank you for empowering Mission and Service partners in all forms of education.
Over the past few months, we have shared stories centred on traditional and non-traditional education. Mission and Service recognizes the profound connection between the Resurrection story and the transformative potential of education.
This Easter, we pause to think of great sacrifices and miracles. Just as Jesus emerged from the tomb, defeating death and showing us that we can be raised to new life, education opens the mind, dispels ignorance, and fosters a deeper understanding of Christ’s teachings and compassion.
Mission and Service, in its commitment to education, seeks to empower each partner to be a beacon of knowledge and compassion in the world. With your support, we engage in mutual learning, seeking opportunities to grow our understanding of the world through the eyes of our partners.
Thank you for empowering Mission and Service partners in all forms of education.
Blessings for Easter.
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION:
Almighty God, through your only Son you overcame death and opened to us the light of eternity. Enlighten our minds and kindle our hearts with the presence of your Spirit, that we may hear your words of comfort and challenge in the reading of the scriptures, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
READINGS AND PSALM
First Reading: Isaiah 25:6-9
More than 700 years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah proclaims the good news of God’s salvation and calls all people to rejoice! God will make a rich feast for all people. God will wipe the tears from their eyes. And most importantly, God will destroy death itself.
6On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
7And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations; 8he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take
away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
9It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Ps. 118:24)
1Give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good; God’s mercy endures forever.
2Let Israel now declare, “God’s mercy endures forever.”
14The Lord is my strength and my song, and has become my salvation.
15Shouts of rejoicing and salvation echo in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of the Lord acts valiantly!
16The right hand of the Lord is exalted! The right hand of the Lord acts valiantly!”
17I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. R
18The Lord indeed punished me sorely, but did not hand me over to death.
19Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter them and give thanks to the Lord.
20“This is the gate of the Lord; here the righteous may enter.”
21I give thanks to you, for you have answered me and you have become my salvation. R
22The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
23By the Lord has this been done; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. R
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
The core of the Christian faith and Paul’s preaching is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As the crucified and risen Christ appeared to the earliest of his followers, so we experience the presence of the Risen One in the preaching of this faith.
1Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.
3For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION: WOV 673 I’m So Glad, verse 1
Gospel: Mark 16:1-8
The resurrection of Jesus is announced, and the response is one of terror and amazement.
1When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint . 2And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 5As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” 8So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
HYMN: VU 155 Jesus Christ Is Risen Today
SERMON – written by Alyce M. McKenzie; the George W. and Nell Ayers Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
One Easter when we lived in Pennsylvania, I took our daughter Rebecca, then three years old, to an Easter egg hunt at a large United Methodist Church near our home. They had sent out a brightly colored postcard advertising the event to surrounding neighborhoods. We pulled up right on time and joined a big crowd of parents and children milling around in front of the church.
The organizers, surprised by the turnout, decided to avoid a mad rush by letting the children go searching one group at a time. Kind of like boarding an airplane one group at a time. I’m not sure why they chose the older group as the priority access group, but the result was that the older kids eagerly searched the bushes and grounds for chocolate, foil-wrapped eggs and came back with laden baskets. They were such efficient egg gatherers that, by the time the younger group started their search, there were few eggs left. The crew in the kitchen was coloring hard boiled eggs as fast as they could and had sent someone to the grocery store down the hill to buy more chocolate ones. But in the meantime, I had a very disappointed three-year-old with an empty basket. Normally a shy child, she walked right up to the church member dressed as the Easter Bunny. “You said this was an egg hunt,” she said. “But there are no eggs.” She gazed up at him imploringly, with her big hazel eyes while holding up the empty basket for his inspection.
“I know, honey, we ran out.”
“But you’re the Easter Bunny,” she said.
The Easter Bunny glanced at me through the eyeholes of what was, in retrospect, a rather creepy plastic face mask. His eyes had a desperate glint that said to me, “How about some help here?” I let him sweat it out. Just then a church helper came out with a couple of hastily painted hard-boiled eggs and offered one to Rebecca. “Here, honey. Here is an egg.” “It’s not chocolate,” she said. “They got chocolate eggs,” she gestured toward the older children seated on the grass, unwrapping their eggs.
I bought my girl a big chocolate bunny on the way home and let her eat more than I should have. My girl had made an excellent point. The Easter Bunny and his minions that morning should have known that when you promise people that if they show up at a certain time for something good, there better be enough for everybody. The Easter Bunny should also have known that children have very long memories.
Adults in the Gospel of Mark, not so much. Jesus sends out three postcards in the Gospel of Mark, each promising the disciples that after he was crucified and resurrected there would be some good news for them. He would be raised from the dead.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly (8:31).
The response? Peter contradicts and rebukes Jesus in 8:32.
After the Transfiguration, “As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead (9:9). They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”
The response? “They did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him” (9:30-31).
In an embarrassing and ridiculous juxtaposition, the next scene depicts them arguing about who was the greatest (9:33-37).
“They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him, and after three days he will rise again'” (10:32-34).
The response? “James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you . . . Grant us to sit, one on your right hand and one on your left, in your glory” (10:35-36).
Recent research shows that when the body undergoes great pain, the brain releases natural pain suppressant chemicals. They have an analgesic effect, the brain self-medicating. Every time Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, people can’t deal with the painful death part and so they numb themselves before they hear the joyful resurrection part.
“I’m going to be abused and killed but rise on the third day,” says Jesus. Peter self-medicates with denial. “Jesus, you must be joking” (8:32).
“I’m going to be abused and killed but rise on the third day,” says Jesus. The disciples self-medicate by changing the subject to something more pleasant: “Let’s talk about who is the greatest” (9:34) or, in the case of James and John, “Jesus, let’s talk about upgrading our seats for next season” (10:37).
If Mary Magdalene and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, had overheard Jesus’ bad news/good news predictions, it seems as if they, too, have blocked out the resurrection part. This puts Mary Magdalene and Mary the Mother of Jesus in the opposite role of three-year-old Rebecca on Easter morning. She came to an egg hunt presided over by the Easter Bunny expecting eggs. They came to an empty tomb party presided over by an angel, expecting death.
She came to a party thrown by the Easter Bunny fully expected what he had promised, an egg hunt that guaranteed a basketful of eggs. And she was disappointed. For some people, Easter boils down to an egg hunt. They are drawn to the annual celebration of springtime, hoping that the trumpets, the lovely Easter clothing, the flowers, and the chocolate eggs will bring them a momentary burst of hope. Something sweet to take the taste of life’s bitterness from their mouths for a few moments.
The women on Easter morning came to the tomb, having been repeatedly promised a Resurrected Lord, expecting to find his prone body, still in the tomb. They seek to anoint his body as a way of showing their last respects. For some people, Easter is just another day. They expect nothing from it, because they are too absorbed in the pain and struggle of their lives. Their focus on that pain has blocked the second part of Jesus’ message” and rise on the third day.”
The instructions by the angel are for anyone who comes to Easter expecting death when they have been promised life. It’s for them and it’s for us.
“You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here . . . Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you” (16:6, 7).
Some of the most ancient authorities bring the book of Mark to a close at the end of verse 8. If we end the book at verse 8, the women only do one of the things the angel instructs them to do. They go. They flee in fact. They flee in “terror and amazement.” But “they say nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”
Eventually, we assume, they did tell the tale. But, to linger on verse 8 for a moment this Easter Sunday, let’s not be too tough on the women’s initial response. Let’s not scold them, saying, “You should have known you wouldn’t find him in the tomb after his repeated promises of rising the third day. You should have come to Easter Sunday on a life hunt not a death hunt. You should have come expecting hope and life and joy to triumph over despair and death and sorrow. Today and in the days ahead.”
Let’s not be too tough on the women’s initial response to Easter Sunday. When you are on a death hunt and you find life, amazement is a natural response.
HYMN: VU 161 Welcome, Happy Morning
THE NICENE CREED: VU p. 920
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
Rejoicing that Jesus is risen and love has triumphed over fear, let us pray for the church, the world, and all those in need of good news.
Holy God, we pray for the body of Christ, the church. Where the church is persecuted, protect it. Where the church is privileged, grant it humility. Where the church is fractured, heal it. Guide us all to embody Christ’s love in the world. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
Life-giving God, we pray for the earth, your good creation. Join our prayers with branches lifted in praise and roaring waters of new life, that together we may proclaim Easter hope. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
Merciful God, we pray for all peoples and nations. Free oppressed communities from occupation, exploitation, and abuse. Teach leaders your way of justice. Empower peacemakers and all who work to end violence and strife. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
Liberating God, we pray for people everywhere who long for good news. Roll away the stones that keep people from living with dignity and wholeness. Breathe new life and hope into people struggling to make it through each day. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
Loving God, we pray for this community of faith and for your Spirit in our midst. Feed us at your Easter table and fill us with your wisdom, that we may serve and care for others. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
Eternal God, we remember those who have gone before us in death. Renew our trust in your promises, that we live with joyful courage and compassion. God of grace,
hear our prayer.
Into your hands, most merciful God, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your abiding love; through Jesus Christ, our resurrected and living Lord.
Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
SENDING SONG: VU 173 Thine Is The Glory
BENEDICTION
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The God of resurrection power, the Christ of unending joy, and the Spirit of Easter hope ☩ bless you now and always.
Amen.