Everything necessary to worship with us online Easter Sunday morning April 12, 2020
Preparations for Worship:
- Find a place in your home where you can eliminate distractions. Put phones on silent and turn off the TV.
- This order of service facilitates participation. If you are with others, we think you will get a lot more out of this service by reading the parts of this service aloud, the responses, lessons, and prayers.
- Families with children, this service is for them too. Children learn best by imitating. Lead them in this service. Help them participate. Maybe they are old enough to read one of the prayers or lessons. Take a moment to describe what’s happening. See if they have any questions. Encourage them to draw what they are hearing while you all listen. Take advantage of the opportunities to pause and encourage questions and discussions more so than an average Sunday in church.
- Load the YouTube video below and hit “pause” as soon as it starts. This will eliminate distracting ads when you get to that part of the service.
- Pause for a moment in private prayer and quietness.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let us rejoice and give thanks to God for the victory our Lord Jesus Christ won by his death and resurrection. It is for us that he has triumphed. Christ died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
For God, who created light to shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Almighty God, by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ you conquered death and opened the gate to eternal life. Grant that we, who have been raised with him through baptism, may walk in newness of life and ever rejoice in the hope of sharing his glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit be dominion and praise now and forever. Amen.
FIRST LESSON: Jonah 2:2-9
2He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the belly of the grave I cried out; you heard my voice. 3You threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas. The currents surrounded me. All your breakers and your waves swept over me. 4I said, ‘I have been driven away from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ 5Waters encompassed me to the point of death. The deep surrounded me. Seaweed was wrapped around my head. 6To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth with its bars was around me forever. But you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7When my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord. My prayer came to you, to your holy temple. 8Those who cling to worthless idols forsake the mercy that could be theirs. 9But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will indeed sacrifice to you. What I have vowed, I will indeed repay. Salvation belongs to the Lord.”
GOSPEL: Matthew 28:1-10
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 2Suddenly, there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and going to the tomb, he rolled away the stone and was sitting on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4The guards were so terrified of him that they shook and became like dead men. 5The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He is not here. He has risen, just as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7Go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead! And look, he is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him.’ See, I have told you!” 8They hurried away from the tomb, with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They approached, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go, tell my brothers that they should go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
EASTER DEVOTION
CONFESSION OF FAITH – The Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
OFFERING
Offerings may be given on-line at tithe.ly/risensavior, mailed to the church, or dropped off at the church during regular hours.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH
Holy Lord, mighty God, You have borne the sin of the whole world and given to those marked with death the promise of new and everlasting life.
Receive our thanks for Christ’s glorious resurrection, and bring us with Him to our own joyful resurrection and the grand reunion of all Your saints, prepared for us in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb without end.
Holy Lord, mighty God, You have established the Church as the instrument of Your saving purpose and endowed us with the gift of Your Word and Sacrament. Embolden us with Your Spirit, that we may be renewed in witness, sustained in trial and refreshed through the Means of Grace.
Bless those who bring us Your gifts and preach to us Your Word, and give us willing ears to hear and willing hearts to keep this Easter faith.
Holy Lord, mighty God, Your healing and strength are the hope of all the weary and afflicted. According to Your gracious will, give to all the sick and those who suffer healing and relief, and for all those named in our hearts.
Grant to all for whom we pray patience and hope until that day when they wear the new and glorious flesh Jesus now wears and all their afflictions cease.
Holy Lord, mighty God, death has been undone by Jesus’ resurrection, and Your Son now reigns over all our enemies. Recalling the saints who lived and died in Christ, we give You thanks for their witness in life, and we wait with them the glorious day when all are united before You, when the veil of death is cast off forever, and we shall know You face to face.
Keep us faithful unto that day when Christ shall come to usher in the new heavens and the new earth and reign eternally over all things.
We pray for all these things, holy Lord, and for all things needful, trusting that You will grant to us what will benefit us and our lives in faith and will keep from us all things harmful; through Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen Lord who taught us to pray…
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
THE BLESSING
Now may the glorious Father, who by his power raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, give you the Spirit of wisdom to know the hope to which he has called you. And may he preserve you in body, soul, and spirit until our own resurrection on the day of Christ Jesus. Let all God’s people say, Amen! Amen!
CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!