Each of us is created in the image of God. Believe it!
God’s will for us is GOODWILL— always. Believe it!
We follow the Christ who lived to forgive. Believe it!
Jesus showed us a new way to connect with God by serving one another. We claim his mission as our mission, to bind up the broken hearted and proclaim release to those held captive by fear.
Jesus carried to the cross all that separated us from God. When he died those sins died with him. He promised that his death would not be the end and on the morning of the third day God raised him from the dead! Believe it!
Jesus opened wide the door that leads to the heart of God and invited everybody to enter in. Believe it!
God’s Holy Spirit is ever present, moving in our lives and speaking the truth to all who have ears to hear. Believe it!
We become the body of Christ living the as we strive to live out the commandment to love God and each other. Believe it! Amen!
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
Ever-Surprising and unfathomable Lord, what a glorious morning this is! Our hearts are triumphant. Our spirits are full and we rejoice at the news of Christ’s resurrection. Let our response to your promise fulfilled be unreserved and boisterously glad. Christ’s resurrection is your most wondrous, mysterious and wholly unchangeable gift of love. We held our breath with the disciples who witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion, afraid, paralyzed, waiting to exhale. Today you have revealed what lies beyond grief and mourning. Your message for all the world is clear. The tomb is empty, and life, with all of its ups and downs, has been touched by the promise of eternity. We can breathe again, no longer afraid. Our faith renewed, our spirits ignited we shall be your witnesses in and for the world. We’ll shout it from the mountain tops. “Today you have made all things new! Christ is Risen. Christ is Risen indeed.” We give you thanks and praise in his glorious name. Amen.
PREPARING FOR THE OFFERING
I was looking for some artwork to use in our Holy Week newspaper ad and came across this picture of an, obviously abandoned, plastic Easter Egg...emptied of its contents and left on the floor by a young egg hunter. For some reason this silly blue plastic egg spoke volumes to me. It reminded me, not of a bunny rabbit cavorting about with a basket of marshmallow, chocolate and colored eggs, but of the empty tomb. You see, before being opened the blue egg was a vessel containing a mystery. Nearby — face smeared with chocolate — is a child wondering if there might be something more in the egg. How will we tell them that the empty egg is everything! Our Special Easter Offering will go to support the efforts of the Imagine No Malaria campaign.
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