Rev. Rebecca (Becky) Kiser: Easter online April 12

JAMESVILLE COMMUNITY CHURCH

EASTER-A 4/12/2020

Preparation:

Have read the Passion Scriptures in MAtthew

Have your Alleluia butterflies all ready, and post pictures on our Facebook

group! Jamesville Community Church Network – ask to join if you aren’t

on, so we can see each other’s Alleluia Butterflies!

Have flowers & other Easter decorations.

Have your bread and juice/wine ready for each person

Have your candle to light at the start of worship.

EASTER CALL TO WORSHIP (Please read aloud the parts in bold print)

Christ is risen. Christ is risen, indeed.

God is alive.. New birth is given.

Hope is alive… A new age is dawning.

Joy is alive… Redemption is here.

Love is alive Death cannot harm us.

We are alive… New life is within us.

The church is alive… God’s spirit is within us.

God of life, we worship you. God of creation, we praise you.

God of revelation, we learn from you. God of resurrection, we come to celebrate you.

SCRIPTURE Matthew 28: 1-10 (Pastor Becky reads)

28After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ²And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. ⁴For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. ⁵But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. ⁶He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” ⁸So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. ¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

CENTERING PRAYER (Read in unison at home)

God of the resurrection, we gather this morning as a community of believers. We come with joy to greet one another and to tell again and again the amazing news: Christ is risen! Love is victorious over death! You have given us new life in the name of your Son! May our singing, praying, listening, and proclaiming be a testimony to the power of your love to make us a new creation as a community of faith. We pray in the name of the risen Christ. Amen.

CHILDREN’S TIME

When I was in school, I didn’t much get into science - I liked things like math & music & reading stories. Of course I had to learn about science anyway, some, but it wasn’t my fave. When I was older, I watched a TV show about how the world came to be, & for some reason I totally got into it. & have been intrigued by it ever since. I guess people can change! Or get interested in different things along the way,

So I got interested in how things like old orange peels and banana skins and coffee grounds and eggshells and things like that, can turn into compost. All dead things, peelings, sticks, leaves, all kinds of things we’d throw out - like their life is over and they’re no good anymore! BUT... But…. But little teeny tiny things in the air and soil go to work on them, and break down into little teeniest bits...and gradually, with some water and sunlight and heat, their little teeny elements become something new - compost. The stuff in compost becomes great food for the new plants around it - new plants get energy and food from the composted old dead stuff. It enriches the soil, It feeds the new life that’s growing. The energy that was in the banana peel, after changing form, becomes food and energy for new life.

In this world that God created, death is never the end of the story. I looked up some pictures of a volcano that erupted some years ago (July, 2008), called Mount Saint Helens, which is in our country. There haven’t been to many live volcanoes in my lifetime! The volcano spewed up hot lava, hot enough to burn anything it ran into and ran over, and totally wiped out all life forms that it touched in a range of miles. Then the lava hardened into rock, and even made the whole landscape a different shape. Yet if you look at pictures of Mount Saint Helens now, in 2020, grass is growing, trees have started, and the wiped out area is coming back. It won’t be the same shape as it was, yet even the destruction of the volcano is not the last word in God‘s world.

Part of the message of Easter is to tell us that in God‘s world, death is not the end of things. On Easter Sunday, God gave Jesus new life, too - evidently people could recognize him, but he could do new things, too. Because in this giant universe that God created, death is never the last word, God is life, and life always wins.

SCRIPTURE Colossians 3: 1-11

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, ³for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

⁵Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). ⁶On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. ⁷These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.

⁸But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. ⁹Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices ¹⁰and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. ¹¹In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

SERMON

So - how many Easter services have we been to in our lives? Type in a number… let’s see what we get….. I was brought to church when I was 1, so, unless I was sick one Easter, this makes 66 Easters for me...and for 30 or so of them, I’ve preached an Easter message!

Have we ever had an Easter like this one? Anyone here over 80? Do you remember an Easter in the Great Depression? Do you remember Easter during World War 2? Those are some times in our history when Easter was celebrated during a fearful time...I'd bet some of us remember that. We’re all probably going to all remember this Easter of 2020, the year we celebrated in our homes and by ourselves - the year of the covid 19 pandemic.

Several weeks ago, many clergy thought that we’d wait to celebrate Easter until we were all back in our church buildings and could gather together….maybe a couple weeks late, that’s all…. Gradually we realized this social isolation was going to go on awhile, and that the Easter message was needed at the right date, even if we observed it online.

It feels kind of odd to celebrate resurrection and new creation while we’re in the midst of a crisis that, while many are recovering, many are also dying, and families grieving. So far there’s been no miracle vaccine or miracle test or miracle treatment to come to the rescue - it looks like we’re going to be slogging through a long wait, and a long economic recovery time. And while we are seeing noble acts and sacrificial acts by our human neighbors, we’re also seeing humans plotting to come out of this richer than ever….. like humans have done in every crisis there’s ever been. How can we proclaim new life and renewal and resurrection at this time?

We can, because God is now and always will be, the God of Life itself. The God who creates, who births, who designs creation, who loves us and seeks us and finds us and walks here with us and in us - this is always true, despite outer circumstances. Maybe it’s good to proclaim God’s New Life in crisis times especially, because we need the hope that death is not the last word, and that God’s new life emerges, that God makes all things new.

When I was young, my faith in God was more centered in what comes after our human life, which we called going to heaven. Our hopes were very future- oriented; we struggled along here on earth until we finally got to go to heaven. Yes, we were saved here, and tried to live for God here; but the emphasis was on getting to go to heaven where we would have new life.

At some point, reading passages like we just read from the letter to Christians at Colosee, I realized that according to Scripture, we who believe are walking in the realm of God even now; we have stepped into Jesus’ kingdom, we are already beginning our eternal life, and we are already raised to a new life in Christ. We have begun our new, resurrected life even while we continue to live here. I’d always assumed that when I got to heaven, obeying and following Christ would be simple - my whole nature would be changed and it wouldn’t be any problem to be perfect.

But when we realize that our new resurrected life with Jesus has begun, it’s still a learning and a struggle to change our mindset to that of Christ; we still have to set aside the world-view we’ve had here, and ask the Spirit of God to help us seek that new world-view that Jesus taught. The writer to the Colossian believers tells them, “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. ” And in the next sentence, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, ³for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” And a little later, “you have stripped off the old self with its practices ¹⁰and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. ¹¹In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!”

It sounds to me like we are to work on thinking into this new way of being, learning to live in this new way, even now! Assume that we are being renewed right now, trust that God is even now clothing us with new life. We are being transformed even now, as we open ourselves to God and seek to follow Christ.

It takes consciousness of this process, friends, to join in God’s work in ourselves; it takes walking in prayer; it takes a willingness and an effort to let God’s Spirit move in us and “put on” this new life. It takes a willingness and a sensitivity to scripture, and the still small voice inside us - to listen and to heed it. Because the miracle is going on even now.

It may well be that our area here will see more deaths, and the virus may hit some of our friends and family with its worst aspects. All the numbers are still going up - the # confirmed cases, the # recoveries and the # deaths. We may be having some serious thoughts about death and dying, as the stories abound in the news. We may be praying for God to spare our own loved ones - of course that’s our hope. We may or may not be spared this virus - we don’t know. Even as believers, we are still among the human population, and mortal. Yet as believers, our new life has already started, and we belong to God in life and in death - nothing can separate us from the love of God. Presbyterians call the funeral service, “A Witness to the Resurrection” of the person. Not that we expect folks to not grieve the loss and the change in life without the presence of our loved ones - but that we affirm our faith, even in the face of death, that death is not the last word - New life is. And not that we know what that necessarily looks like - we do, however, know that nothing can separate us from the love and life of God, and we are in God’s hands eternally.

Well, that’s a rather sober Easter message! It’s a rather deeply faithful teaching of the Easter message, however. Let’s not be simplistic and trite about the power of God’s life triumphing over the power of death. Let’s not be sentimental about cute baby bunnies and chicks - and weirdly, baby goats seem to be all over facebook...and baby platypus and baby opossums…. Death is an awful power, and fear of death bothers us at a deep level. Affirming the power of God and the power of Life is no small affirmation of hope.

I hope we hear the challenge of this Easter message in a different way this year, and determine to seek the things that are above, set our minds on the teachings of Jesus and the call of God, and clothe ourselves with the renewal of life in God. AMEN.

PRAYER

CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER (Be ready to partake together when indicated.)

USE POWER POINT

Invitation

The Resurrection has begun! The Day of Celebration is here!

Alleluia!

We gather at the table to share in the Banquet of Life!

Here we meet all who share with us the hope for a brighter future!

All who wish to follow The Way of Life are welcome to eat and drink at God's table.

Let us eat together.

Thanksgiving

Christ is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed!

We should give thanks!

Thanks and praise to the One who brings life!

Gracious God, we raise voices hoarse from shouting alleluias,

we sing praises for the wonder of an empty tomb,

we give thanks for the gifts of life, of life that breaks the bonds of death.

We sing songs of praise for the world you have given us, for the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies.

As the spring deepens and the earth thaws, as green breaks through the brown of winter,

we sing songs of hope for new life springing from dead soil, for the promise held in every seed that is sown.

As people of faith we remember all those who have gone before.

People like Moses and Miriam, leading their people to freedom; like Sarah and Abraham, seeking a new life in a strange land; like Peter and Mary, proclaiming an empty tomb and life beyond the cross.

We remember these and many others, named and unnamed, who have embraced Your life, Your hope, and moved into a new age.

And we trust that in remembering and retelling their stories, we too can take the leap into New Life.

Deep among all those memories we remember the life of a Special One.

Jesus, Child of Mary.

Born of a woman, he grew to adulthood among people who struggled daily for life.

Baptized by John, he embraced the life to which You called him.

He taught and preached a vision of a world where all divisions were broken down, where all had what they needed for abundant life, where the Reign of God was as real on earth as in heaven.

And though the powerful in his world fought back, he stood strong.

When offered a chance to take the easy way he overcame his own fear and instead prayed “yet Thy will be done”.

Even though they put him to death you raised him to life, vindicating his vision and bringing hope and healing to the world.

As inheritors of that hope we join together in the cries the welcomed him into Jerusalem, the cries of hope for the world:

Hosanna! Hosanna! Holy One!

Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!

Remembering

As we gather at this table we remember a story told mere days ago

and yet also an age ago

We remember that Jesus gathered with his closest friends in an Upper Room to share the feast of liberation

And while sharing the ancient story of freedom, he called them to remember the promised freedom of God's Kingdom.

We remember that at that table he took the bread, gave thanks for it, blessed it, broke it and passed it among them saying:

This is my body, broken by and for the world. Whenever you eat it remember me.

Then later he took the cup of wine, blessed it and passed it among them saying:

This is the cup of the New Covenant, sealed in my blood. Whenever you drink it remember me, and look toward the fulfilment of God's Kingdom.

And so we break the bread and pour the cup and we remember with hope.

On this Easter Day we share in the Banquet of Freedom to celebrate Life Victorious!

Transforming

God of Life, in the beginning your Spirit hovered over the water, calling forth life, creating and inspiring.

Send Your Spirit upon we who gather to share this meal, infuse this bread and this juice with the Spirit's power,

As we eat and drink my we feel the power of Life Triumphant pulse in our veins, the fire of hope blaze in our hearts, and the joy of the Empty tomb dance in our souls.

Christ who died is now alive!

Alleluia! Amen.

And so, as children of a loving Parent, we pray together the words that Jesus, the Risen Christ, taught his friends

Our Father, who art in heaven...

Breaking and Pouring

Here at this table we break the Bread of Life

On this Day of Celebration we pour the Cup of Promise

These are Gifts from God for the People of God

Thanks be to God

Come and eat, for all is now ready.

Closing

We have eaten, we have drunk, we have embraced the beginning of the new age.

Grant, O God, that we who have gathered together on this Day of Resurrection, will move on as people of hope, people of life, people of the Kingdom.

May the meal we have shared today revive us in body and soul and energize us as we go out to share the Good News. Christ is Risen! Death is Defeated! Life Wins! Alleluia and Amen!

LITANY OF BLESSING

Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us a little child one of us, flesh and blood to share in our humanity -