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The Resurrection Of Our Lord

Worship
Acts 10:34-43
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20:1-18
Easter Day - A
Thom M. Shuman
Lectionary Worship Aids, Cradled in God's Heart
Series VIII, Cycle A
Call To Worship
One: This is the day
All: when healing touches the suffering,
when loneliness discovers a family,
when peace caresses the stressed.
One: This is the day the Lord
All: breaks free of death's clutches,
rolls away the stone,
folds the grave clothes into a neat pile.
One: This is the day the Lord has made,
All: the day of sin's defeat,
the day of resurrection,
the first day of the new creation.
One: This is the day!
All: Christ is risen! Hallelujah!

Prayer Of The Day
Surprising God,
early in the morning
before chaos was awake,
you tiptoed quietly past,
and whispered the word
that caused grace and
love to blossom into creation.

Early in the morning
while the disciples slept,
Jesus, Son of the Living God,
you prepared a feast
to fill their emptiness;
you rolled away their hardened hearts
to open them to your grace;
you whispered their names
to awaken them to new life.

Early in the morning
while we are still drowsy,
you sing your songs to us,
Holy Spirit --
hymns of hope, cantatas of compassion,
psalms of peace, litanies of love.

God in Community, Holy in One,
early this morning we bring our prayer to you
as Jesus has taught us, saying,

Our Father ...

Call To Reconciliation
It was early in the morning when God created all the good and beauty in the universe. It was early in the morning that a baby cried in a manger. It was early in the morning on that first day, when a voice told us that death has been defeated and Jesus is alive in our midst. Let us confess the fear, and the great joy, we bring with us, early in the mornings.

Unison Prayer Of Confession
This morning, Wonderful God, in the company of your church -- saints and sinners -- we gather to celebrate your life, your ministry, your death and resurrection, and your great love for us. Yet, we know we often leave the celebration here in the sanctuary, as we leave and go back to our homes, our jobs, our fears, our doubts, and our lives.

Bring us a new life, God of the Living, where we are tired and stressed; transform our hardened hearts into fountains of love; forgive us the hurts and harms we have caused; fill us with the joy of your Holy Spirit in the hollows of our souls.

Silence is kept

Assurance Of Pardon
One: God, our Creator, gives us new life;
Christ, our Reconciliation, invites us to a table;
Holy Spirit, our Teacher of the way, the truth, the life;
this is the good news: The tomb is empty,
death is conquered, sin has lost its power.
All: We are a new people, shaped by the risen Lord into new life forever! Thanks be to God. Amen.
UPCOMING WEEKS
In addition to the lectionary resources there are thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...
Proper 23 | OT 28 | Pentecost 18
30 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
30 – Children's Sermons / Resources
29 – Worship Resources
34 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Proper 24 | OT 29 | Pentecost 19
29 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
27 – Children's Sermons / Resources
20 – Worship Resources
29 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Proper 25 | OT 30 | Pentecost 20
34 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
32 – Children's Sermons / Resources
26 – Worship Resources
31 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Plus thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...

New & Featured This Week

The Immediate Word

Thomas Willadsen
Nazish Naseem
Dean Feldmeyer
Mary Austin
Katy Stenta
George Reed
For November 2, 2025:

CSSPlus

John Jamison
Object: This message involves roleplay. You will need a chair for Zach to stand on, unless it is ok for him to stand on a front pew. For the best fun, you will also want to have an adult volunteer play the role of Jesus and walk in when it is time. Whether he is in costume is up to you.

* * *
John Jamison
Object: You will need one or more pictures of people recognized as saints. You may find some pictures by Googling “public domain pictures of saints” and printing images from the results.

* * *

Emphasis Preaching Journal

Mark Ellingsen
Bill Thomas
Frank Ramirez
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 and Psalm 119:137-144
Walter Elwell in the Shaw Pocket Bible Handbook notes of righteousness that it is, “Right standing, specifically before God. Among the Greeks, righteousness was an ethical virtue. Among the Hebrews it was a legal concept; the righteous man was the one who got the verdict of acceptability when tried at the bar of God’s justice.” God is a righteous God, even when is people are not righteous.
Frank Ramirez
One of the features of Synagogue worship is the Shema. The Hebrew word is “Hear!” and is the opening for Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” God’s people are commanded to “hear” these words. They come from the Lord. And these three scriptures invite us to hear God and each other, something that is lacking in our society today.
Wayne Brouwer
Fred Craddock tells of a vacation encounter in the Smokey Mountains of eastern Tennessee years ago that moved him deeply. He and his wife took supper one evening in a place called the Black Bear Inn. One side of the building was all glass, open to a magnificent mountain view. Glad to be alone, the Craddocks were a bit annoyed when an elderly man ambled over and struck up a nosey conversation: “Are you on vacation?” “Where are you from?” “What do you do?”
Mark Ellingsen
Bill Thomas
Frank Ramirez
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18 and Psalm 149

StoryShare

John E. Sumwalt
Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, but your commandments are my delight. Your statutes are always righteous; give me understanding that I may live. (vv. 143-144)

When I was an associate pastor in Janesville, Wisconsin one of my responsibilities was to give a lecture on spirituality once a month at a drug treatment facility. The students who attended were persons who had been convicted of drunk driving and were required to attend the class as a condition of their sentence. Attendance was always good.
Frank Ramirez
Call them the good old days. Call it the Golden Age. It’s not unusual for people to look back in their youth, or to the youth of their country, as somehow more perfect, honorable, or simpler. C.S. Lewis was always skeptical about claims that chocolate was better in one’s youth. It wasn’t better. Our taste buds were stronger and more receptive.

The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
The Roman Catholic Church's canonisation of Edith Stein some years ago, fuelled considerable controversy. Edith Stein was born and bred into a Jewish family, becoming a Roman Catholic Christian at the age of 31. She was also a leading German intellectual in the early thirties, during the run-up to World War 2, although she gave up that career in order to become a Carmelite nun. But she didn't deny her Jewish roots, for in 1933 she petitioned the Pope, Pious XI to write an encyclical in defence of the Jews.
Janice B. Scott
Call to Worship:

Jesus didn't reject anyone, even those who were liars and cheats. By a simple act of friendship Jesus turned Zaccheus' life around. In our worship today let us consider friendship and all that it means.


Invitation to Confession:

Jesus, there are some people I don't like.
Lord, have mercy.
Jesus, there are some people I reject.
Christ, have mercy.
Jesus, there are some people I keep out of my circle of friends.
Lord, have mercy.


Reading:

SermonStudio

Carlos Wilton
Theme For The Day
The world offers many blessings, but none of these things will save us: only the blessing of God in Jesus Christ can do that.

Old Testament Lesson
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18
Daniel's Apocalyptic Dream
Perry H. Biddle, Jr.
Comments on the Lessons
John W. Clarke
This chapter of Luke brings us ever closer to the end of Jesus' public ministry. Jesus enters Jericho, just fifteen miles or so from the holy city of Jerusalem. It is here that Jesus transforms the life of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. This is one of the few stories that is peculiar to Luke and is a wonderful human-interest story. The fact that Zacchaeus is willing to climb a tree to see Jesus is a clear indication that he really wanted to see and meet the carpenter from Nazareth. His eagerness to see Jesus is rewarded in a very special way.
Scott A. Bryte
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
Mark Ellingson
This is a story written for people who had been or were about to be persecuted, if not enslaved. (The book of Daniel was probably written in the mid-second century B.C. during a period of Seleucid [Syrian] domination in Palestine.) It tells them and us how their ancestors had once faced a similar slavery under the oppression of the Babylonians centuries earlier. The implication was that if these ancestors could endure and overcome such bondage, so could they and so can we.
Gary L. Carver
Ulysses S. Grant fought many significant battles as commander of the Union forces in the War Between the States. He also served as President of the United States where he probably engaged in as many battles as he did while he was a general. Toward the end of his life he fought his toughest battle -- with cancer and death.
Richard E. Gribble, CSC
There is an apocryphal story told that after completing his masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, the famous Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci went to a nearby tavern to celebrate the event with his friends. While in conversation and sipping a little of the local wine, Leonardo noticed that many in the tavern were making sport of an ugly fool who made his living going from tavern to tavern, entertaining patrons for a spare coin or a crust of bread. This man truly was an ugly person; he seemed to be more of a troll than a man. His small beady eyes were not centered in his oversized head.

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