Worship Service – April 4, 2021

The Building is Closed and the Church is Open

While we have restricted access to the building, Peace Church is very much open to ministry—working to respond to our own congregation, as well as the needs of our neighbors and community.  Please consider giving either to Peace Church general fund or the Gabriel Fund – which is used to meet the needs in the community.

We recognize that in this time, people’s financial situations may have changed. We ask you to prayerfully consider what you can give.  If you use electronic giving, we thank you for your constancy of support.  If you would like to give through our online form, we would be grateful. For all the contributions from our members and friends—whether financial, time, or prayer—we ask God’s blessings on those gifts that Peace Church may be healing balm in this time when we are living in our own Gilead.

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April 4, 2021 ⁂ 10:30am

Easter Sunday

Liturgists

The People of Peace Church
Doug Bowen-Bailey, ASL Interpreter
Gary Boelhower, Lay Reader
Jim Pospisil, Music Director
Nathan Holst, Faith Formation Minister
Rev. Greg Briggs, Interim Minister

Prelude

Announcements and Ringing of the Peace Bells

God is Revealed as We Gather

Opening Hymn   “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”   (#233)

*Responsive Call to Worship and Opening Prayer⌖

Lord God, Early in the morning, when the world was young, you made life
in all its beauty and terror; you gave birth to all that we know. 
Hallowed be your name,
Hallowed be your name.
Early in the morning, when the world least expected it, a new-born child crying in a cradle announced that you had come among us, that you were one of us.
Hallowed be your name,
Hallowed be your name.
Early in the morning, surrounded by respectable liars, religious leaders, anxious statesmen, and silent friends, you accepted the penalty for doing good, for being God: you shouldered and suffered the cross.
Hallowed be your name,
Hallowed be your name.
Early in the morning, a voice in a guarded graveyard and footsteps in the dew proved that you had risen, that you came back to those and for those who had forgotten, denied, and destroyed you.
Hallowed be your name,
Hallowed be your name.
This morning, in the multicolored company of your Church on earth and in heaven, in person and on live stream, we celebrate your creation, your life, your death and resurrection, your interest in us; so we pray,
Lord, bring new life, where we are worn and tired;
New Love, where we have turned hard-hearted;
Forgiveness, where we feel hurt and where we have wounded;
And the Joy and Freedom of your Holy spirit, where we are prisoners of ourselves.
(Silence)
To all and to each, on his community and on his friends, where regret is real, Jesus pronounces pardon and grants us the right to begin again. For the gift of new life,
Thanks be to God! Amen! 

Song of Praise   “Hallelujah”   (#236)

Story for All Ages by Sharon Dawson

Special Music

God is Revealed in the Word

God’s Word in the Epistles: Acts 10:34-43

God’s Word in the Gospel: Mark 16:1-8

Sermon by Greg Briggs

Hymn   “Now the Green Blade Rises”   (#238)

We Respond to God’s Presence

Sharing Our Prayer Concerns, Silent Prayer, Pastoral Prayer by Nathan Holst, Prayer of Our Savior 

(Prayer #11 in Praise & Worship Songbook)

from The Feminine Mistake by Mary Kassian, contributed to Peace Church Praise & Worship Songbook by Letty Russel

Our Mother/Father
who is everywhere,
Holy be Your names.
May Your new age come
may Your will be done
in this and every time and place.
Meet our needs each day and
forgive our failure to love
as we forgive this same failure in others.
Serve us in hard times, 
and lead us into the ways of love.
For Yours is the Wholeness and the Power 
and the Loving forever. Amen

Choral Amen

Sharing our Offerings

Offertory

*The Thanksgiving (Doxology)

*Prayer of Dedication⌖⌖

God of love, we offer our gifts of time, spiritual gifts, and financial gifts as a sign of our love for you and the world. We ask a special blessing on these gifts where you meet us in our suffering, and raise us up, so that all may come to know of your abiding love. O God, we give these gifts as you have given them unto us. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Closing Hymn   “Thine is the Glory, Resurrected One!”   (#253) 

Benediction

Postlude

⌖Call to Worship: copyright © WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow, Scotland. www.wildgoose.scot Reproduced by permission.
⌖⌖Invitation to Give and Prayer of Dedication: from UCC Worship Ways