We are trying something new. This is our second attempt at a virtual service for FPCU. You will see that this post looks similar to a bulletin but with media. Please worship along with Pastor Dan, Steve and Jeanette Little, Amanda Riley and music from Alice Ploss.
Prelude
Announcements and Pastoral Welcome
Introit
*CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Hark. We begin in the dark.
People: Whispers of angels, mountain moving, stone rolling: Can you hear the mountain shout, the stone roll, the angels laugh?
Leader: Can you see the phases of light casting against the darkness?
People: Alleluia!
Leader: We once were blind, but now we see!
People: He is risen,
Leader: He is risen indeed!
*HYMN#122 “Thine Be The Glory”
Prayer of Invocation
The Psalm/Antiphon of Alleluias
Psalm 118, selected verses.
Leader: There are alleluia‘s in the air, skipping a beat, dancing over terms, pushing stones, revealing our savior, exploding with a slow beauty and the sunrise, waking the birds and tugging at dawn. It is God special word: alleluia! There are alleluia‘s in the air, filled with a voice of God, spoken aloud in the chambers of the house, breaking open hope for the poor, creating faith with a color of rainbows.
People: Alleluia!
Leader: O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his steadfast love endures for ever!
People: Alleluia!
Leader: Out of my distress I called on the Lord;
the Lord answered me and set me free.
People: Alleluia!
Leader: It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to put confidence in man.
People: Alleluia!
Leader: The Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
People: Alleluia!
Leader: Hark, glad songs of victory
in the tents of the righteous:
I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the Lord.
People: Alleluia!
Leader: The stone which the builders rejected
has become the head of the corner.
23 This is the Lord’s doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
People: Alleluia!
Leader: This is the day which the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
People: Alleluia!
Leader: Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
People: O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures for ever!
All: Alleluia!
The Easter Responsive Affirmation of Faith:
Leader: In the steadfast love of God,
The presence that never leaves us,
In the deepest moments of living,
Facing the place of life and death,
People: We travel together.
Leader: From isolation to common ground,
From torture to flogging,
For mock trial to burial,
From burial to grief,
People: We travel together.
Leader: From great grief to mystery,
From mystery to help,
From help to light in tomb,
From light in the tool to singing and speaking good news.
We travel together.
People: From dying to living,
From heartache to fear,
We travel together.
This is the path of life,
From tomb to resurrection.
All: Now we travel new paths in the new dawning of God’s kin-dom.
*HYMN #581
EASTER ANTHEM
*HYMN#233 Verses 1 and 3
SCRIPTURE READINGS:
NEW TESTAMENT READING
John 19:40-42; 20:1-18
40 They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews.
41 Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid.
42 And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
20 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.
2 So 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.”
3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.
4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached he tomb first.
5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there,
7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.
8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb;
12 and 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.
13 They 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.”
14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” 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.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew,[b] “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).
17 Jesus 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.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
”
OLD TESTAMENT READING
Isaiah 43:19-21
Pay attention to the new miracles that God is creating right before your very eyes.
“I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild animals will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
21 the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.
SERMON
STAYING WITH MARY MAGDALENE IN THE MYSTERY AT THE GRAVE
HYMN #250 Verses 1-3
PASTORAL PRAYER
UNISON PRAYER
The Easter Pastoral Prayer of the People
“On our own, we conclude, that there is not enough to go around
we are going to run short of money of supplies of love of years of life. We should seize the day, seize the goods, seize our neighbors’ goods because there is not enough to go around.
“And in the midst of our perceived deficit, you come. You come giving bread in the wilderness- you come giving homes to the exiled – you come giving futures to the shut-out; Easter joy to the dead.
“And we watch and while we wait those who are ill receive healing, new discoveries are made to fight against viruses, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor dance and sing.
“We watch and we wait and we take food we did not grow, we take life we did not invent and futures that is gift and families and neighbors who sustained us when we do not deserve it.
“It dawned on us that you ‘give food in due season. You open your hands and satisfy the desire of every living thing.’
“By you’re giving break our cycles of imagined scarcity. Override our presumed deficits. Quiet our anxieties of lack. Transform our perceptual field to see the abundance… mercy upon mercy, blessing upon blessing.
“Sink your generosity deep into our lives that you’re muchness may expose our false lack; that endlessly receiving we may endlessly give so that the world through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord may be made Easter new.
Walter Brueggeman
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; Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
MUSICAL OFFERING
DOXOLOGY
*HYMN #606 “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow”
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.
BENEDICTION
SENDING HYMN Refrain, v4, Refrain
Postlude
*”The Call to Worship, and Prayers of the People from The Whole People of God, ca. Jan. 2008.”
Jeannette
Thank you Pastor Dan, Kristin and Session for all your efforts and hard work to make the virtual Sundays happen. Thanks, also, to Marvin, Allison, Pam, and those who attended Sunday School Class, for all your efforts in pulling together an inspirational, educational class. Today’s class and service was very enjoyable and well done.
The pandemic has changed the way we do things and because we must stay settled and sheltered in, to see and hear these sermons and music keeps me attached to our church even more. A fantastic part of this virtual and separate recordings of words and music, is that I will be able to rehear and replay them as often as I want. And let me tell you now, I will replay Alice’s music over and over again.
Alice has been in the church since Steve and I started attending in 1998. I first sang with her Mother in choir at First Pres of Ithaca from about 1990 (not sure of beginning) – 1998. I loved Barbara, who welcomed me to the choir and always had a smiling face each Sunday, but the church was too large for this country gal even though I enjoyed the professional director and the music we sang.
We came to First Pres of Ulysses because we knew the Millers, and there I began to meet and know Alice.
I will not say that this is a sad day for me as Alice begins her “retirement.” No, I AM thankful for having met her, learned from her, been challenged musically by her (counting and timing has actually finally begun to sink in. Oh, I still have hurdles to jump with stinking 8th notes, triplets and cut cut timing.) and have shared with her. Her musical knowledge is of top quality and level. Her knowledge and use of technology has made these virtual meetings a wonderful, outstanding, well-done professional joy to listen to. Alice, I have also looked up to you and said “I want to be like Alice!,” because you are fun, highly talented and a professional. Cheers, my dear! Here’s to a new chapter in your book of life. THANK YOU for all the time it must have taken to get the musical records done. I can only guess at the process. I love how you harmonized with yourself. 🙂 Truly beautiful. Many, many thanks for all your years of service to the church and your friendship with me. Stay in touch. Love you.
Thanks again to everyone.
In Christ’s Love,
Jeannette