WORSHIP RESOURCES
Easter Day
Resurrection of the Lord
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Alive in Christ
Additional Scriptures
Isaiah 65:17-25; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-18 (A,B,C)
Preparation and Setting
A cross should be prominently displayed. Symbols will be used throughout the service. These symbols include palm fronds, coats, blankets, bread, juice, a cross, and a rock. These should be used as a worship center.
Upon entering the worship space, participants will be provided a rock and crayons to use in the Focus Moment.
As previously announced, donations of clothing, hygiene items, and shelf-stable food will be received during the Disciples’ Generous Response. You might want to provide extra donation items for those who don’t have them.
Prelude
Welcoming Hymn
“What Wondrous Love Is This” CCS 454
OR “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” CCS 457
Welcome, Joys, and Concerns
Call to Worship: Psalm 118:1-2, 14, 17, 19, 22-24
Easter Hymn
“I Danced in the Morning” CCS 23
OR “Crown Him with Many Crowns” CCS 39
Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their ow.
Invocation
Response
Focus Moment
Make sure all participants have a rock and crayons. Review the events of Holy Week, including Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter. As Palm Sunday is described, invite the participants to draw a picture of a palm, coat, or blanket on their rock. As Maundy Thursday is defined as the Last Supper, ask participants to draw a cup, bread, or grapes on their rock. As Good Friday is described, invite participants to draw a cross on their rock. As Holy Saturday is described, invite participants to draw a tomb. Last, in describing Easter and the Resurrection, have participants draw a lit (Christ) candle.
Prayer for Peace
Peace Hymn
“O Christ Who by a Cross” CCS 315
OR “He Came Singing Love” CCS 226
Light the peace candle.
Peace Prayer
Resurrected God,
Would we recognize you? Would we understand the incredible power you have over death? Grant us the peace that was present in the garden in those moments before your resurrection, and may we spread that peace as women who first saw you alive spread the news of your resurrection! Help us to recognize opportunities for peace that once seemed extinguished now as new soil for growing peace. Clear away our doubts that peace might not come to pass and show us how to work to create peace in places across the world. Amen.
—Tiffany and Caleb Brian
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Ministry of Music
“Since by Man Came Death” from Messiah by G.F. Handel
Listen to a recording of this chorus based on today’s scripture.
Ministry of the Spoken Word
Based on 1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Disciples’ Generous Response
Generosity Ministry of Music or Congregational Hymn
“Brothers and Sisters of Mine” CCS 616
OR “For the Life that You Have Given” CCS 619
Statement
God’s astonishing compassion and love in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate example of generosity. God loves us abundantly and unconditionally. As we open our hearts to courageously and generously share by placing money in the offering plates or through eTithing, we reflect the movement of God’s astonishing love and compassion for the world.
As part of your generosity today, also bring your donation items and place them near the cross.
If you have participants joining the worship online, remind them that they can give through www.CofChrist.org/give or through eTithing at www.eTithing.org (consider displaying these URLs).
Blessing and Receiving of Donations, Local and Worldwide Mission Tithes
Hymn of Exclamation: Alive in Christ!
“I Know That My Redeemer Lives!” CCS 34
OR “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” CCS 206
OR “Good Christians, All, Rejoice” CCS 479
Benediction
Recessional/Postlude
Ask participants to pass by the cross on their way out and place their decorated rocks at the foot of the cross. The cross and rocks can remain throughout the Easter season.
SERMON AND CLASS HELPS
Year C—Letters
Easter Sunday, Resurrection of the Lord
1 Corinthians 15:19–26
Exploring the Scripture
Today is Resurrection Day. Today is Easter sermon day—the sermon of the Christian year. All Sundays, from Advent to Christmas to Epiphany and through Lent and Passion Week, lead to this day. All Sundays after this Sunday—six more of Easter until Pentecost, followed by Ordinary Time, are measured from today. Easter is a “meridian of time,” movable feast day.
What can one say that is fresh and revitalizing on Easter Sunday? To preach today is an honor, though the assignment can weigh more heavily and instill more anxiety than on other Sundays. Let it not be so for you. Yes, accept the responsibility and challenge, but as you bear the weight and shoulder the “yoke,” know you walk beside the One through whom death shall be destroyed.
On all the Emmaus roads of life, he accompanies, he assures, he teaches, he breaks and shares bread with you.
We look back across the year and know death in family, congregation, and nation. “All die in Adam” (v. 22) we read in today’s text. Jesus died. Our beloved ones die. We will die. However, after those four sobering words, we find this standout Easter morning declaration: “all will be made alive in Christ” (v. 22). Resurrection has the final word. We are God’s Easter people.
First Corinthians, one of several letters Apostle Paul (with Sosthenes as scribe) sent to the saints at Corinth, was written about 53–54 CE. Chapter 15 includes Paul’s developing doctrine of the resurrection. Later letters suggest his evolving theology about its meaning.
We may struggle with statements or imagery in today’s text. Jesus crowned and seated on the throne at the right hand of God, for example. We might question the timeline of Christ’s return and the resurrection of believers—a timeline Paul understood differently in later years. His view of resurrection was one of several interpretations in the early church. The sermon is not the time to include this information (that’s for a scripture-study class), but it is helpful to study commentaries as you pray the text.
Paul’s encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus, followed by his years of transformative mission, is testimony to the reality of the resurrection. Paul’s “resurrected” life is more powerful than his words.
You will preach to a congregation with varying perspectives about the resurrection accounts and their meaning in the present. But, across that spectrum, much inspires hope and gives meaning and direction to each person and congregation.
This Sunday, above all Sundays, we pray worshipers’ hearts and minds, ears and eyes, may open to these truths:
· Christ is alive—He continues to heal, transform, and create a loving community in and around us today. He can turn our crucifixions into resurrections.
· Jesus is Lord—The earthly “lords” who oppressed the common folk, who crucified Jesus, may have won the day, but they did not win the past, the future, or the present. God said “no” to them and “yes” to Jesus. God says the same now.
· Easter is a symbol of hope that transforms hopelessness as we listen to the cries of the planet and its people. Hope is born from the belief that there is another way. Hope is shown in acts of love.
Central Ideas
1. Today is the Easter Sermon—The sermon of the year. Feel the weight, the responsibility, but trust that you are yoked with the Risen Christ, who yearns to bless you, those listening to you, and the world.
2. Christ is alive—a living reality today, healing, transforming, and creating. He is risen and can be found at work in the world.
3. Easter is hope—hope for a different world. “Easter is a defiant hope against the grain,” says one commentator. “It cannot be proved. It can only be tried” (billloader.com, Easter Day: 17 April 1 Corinthians 15:19–26).
Questions for the Speaker
1. Enter the biblical account(s) of Easter once again. Slowly. Deeply. What words and images from the text speak to you?
2. What does Paul’s doctrine of resurrection in today’s text offer you?
3. How has the Risen Christ changed, challenged, and blessed you in the past and now?
4. What is your deepest hope this Easter Sunday?
SACRED SPACE: A RESOURCE FOR SMALL-GROUP MINISTRY
Year C—Letters
Easter Day
1 Corinthians 15:19–26
Gathering
Welcome
Easter is the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter is the most important day in the Christian calendar as we rejoice in his eternal presence with us. Hallelujah!
Prayer for Peace
Ring a bell or chime three times slowly.
Light the peace candle.
Resurrected God, would we recognize you? Would we understand the incredible power you have over death? Grant us the peace that was present in the garden in those moments before your resurrection, and may we spread that peace as women who first saw you alive spread the news of your resurrection! Help us to recognize opportunities for peace that once seemed extinguished now as new soil for growing peace. Clear our doubts of peace not coming to pass and show us how to create peace in places across the world. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Hymn Meditation
Read the following aloud:
The story of death and resurrection constantly plays throughout life. We are not the same person we were five, ten, or twenty years ago. The Earth is not the same that it was five, ten, or twenty years ago. We all are constantly being reborn. Easter is a day we celebrate rebirth. In this spiritual practice we will read an Easter hymn aloud as a prayer. This will give us an opportunity to focus on the words and meaning of the text.
For today’s hymn meditation we will read Community of Christ Sings 478, “Woman, Weeping in the Garden.”
Read the hymn aloud together. Pause.
Ask the group to read the hymn silently. Pause.
Ask the following question and discuss: What stood out to you as the message of the hymn, and how did you sense God stirring within you as you experienced the text as a prayer?
Sharing Around the Table
1 Corinthians 15:19–26 NRSVue
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human, for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in its own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Today is Resurrection Day! All Sundays, from Advent to Christmas to Epiphany and on through Lent and Passion Week, lead to this day. All Sundays after this Sunday—six more of Easter until Pentecost, followed by Ordinary Time, are measured from today. Easter is a “meridian of time,” movable feast day.
We look back across the year and know death in family, congregation, and nation. “[I]n Adam all die,” we read in today’s text. Jesus died. Our beloved ones die. We will die. However, after those sobering words, we find this standout Easter-morning declaration: in Christ, all shall be made alive! Resurrection has the final word. We are God’s Easter people!
First Corinthians, one of several letters Apostle Paul sent to the saints at Corinth, was written about 53–54 CE. Chapter 15 includes Paul’s developing doctrine of the resurrection. Later letters suggest his evolving theology about its meaning. We may struggle with statements or imagery in today’s text—Jesus crowned and seated on the throne at the right hand of God, for example. We might question the timeline of Christ’s return and the resurrection of believers—a timeline Paul understood differently in later years. Just as Paul’s understanding of the Risen Christ changed over time, so, too, does ours.
Paul’s encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus, followed by his years of transformative mission, is testimony to the reality of the resurrection. Just like Paul’s “resurrected” life is more powerful than his words, our lives and their diversity of experiences, passions, and callings hold resurrective power for our communities.
This Sunday, above all Sundays, we pray worshipers’ hearts and minds, ears and eyes, may open to these truths:
· Christ is alive—He continues to heal, transform, and create a loving community in and around us today. He can turn our crucifixions into resurrections.
· Jesus is Lord—The earthly “lords” who oppressed the common folk, who crucified Jesus, may have won the day, but they did not win the past, the future, or the present. God said “no” to them and “yes” to Jesus. God says the same now.
· Easter is a symbol—Its hope transforms hopelessness as we listen to the cries of the planet and its people. Hope is born from the belief that there is another way. Hope is shown in acts of love.
Questions
1. What have you learned about the resurrection in the past year? How is your own understanding of and relationship with the resurrected Jesus changing?
2. Paul’s “resurrected” life is more powerful than his words. How might our lives hold resurrective power for our communities?
3. What is your deepest hope this Easter Sunday?
Sending
Generosity Statement
Faithful disciples respond to an increasing awareness of the abundant generosity of God by sharing according to the desires of their hearts; not by commandment or constraint.
—Doctrine and Covenants 163:9
The offering basket is available if you would like to support ongoing, small-group ministries as part of your generous response. You also may give at CofChrist.org/give.
This offering prayer for the Easter season is adapted from A Disciple’s Generous Response.
God of rejoicing, we share our gifts joyfully and with thanksgiving in response to the generous gifts you have given us. May the offerings we share bring joy, hope, love, and peace into the lives of others, so they might experience your mercy and grace. Amen.
Invitation to Next Meeting
Closing Hymn
Community of Christ Sings 475, “Lift Your Glad Voices”
Closing Prayer
Optional Additions Depending on Group
- Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
- Thoughts for Children
Thoughts for Children
Materials:
· box or basket
· palm frond or leaf
· piece of bread and small cup
· small cross
· a rock
· small rocks to give to children
Place all the items in the box.
Say: I have several items in this box that help tell the story of Easter.
First, Jesus entered Jerusalem, and people waved palm leaves. (Show the palm leaf.)
Jesus had dinner with his friends and told them to remember this whenever they shared bread and wine. (Show the bread and cup.)
Some people told lies about Jesus. They had him arrested, and he was put to death on a cross. (Show the cross.)
After Jesus died, his friends placed him in a tomb and closed it by putting a large rock at the opening. (Show the rock.)
On Easter morning the women went to the tomb. They discovered the rock had been moved, and Jesus had been raised to new life! (Show the rock.)
I have a rock for each of you. The rock helps us remember that Jesus was raised from the tomb and lives again in our hearts.
Give each child a small rock. Rocks for infants and toddlers under three years old should be given to parents.