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The scripture for this sermon was primarily Acts 1:1-11.

When I was young my home church spent a great deal of time teaching us about the Second coming of Christ and the rapture.
In fact, it was a rare service when this topic wasn’t at the center of worship.
From Sunday School, Sunday morning worship, Sunday Evening worship, Monday evening prayer meeting, Wednesday evening Bible study and Friday Night Youth service – I attended them all.
And when my dad became a preacher,
I also went with him to the Saturday evening worship service at his new mission church in a nearby town.
Seven services, each running about two hours each, every week,
and at almost every service we learned about how Jesus was going to come back to earth soon and rapture his disciples back into heaven with him.

I remember some nights after the services, my dad, Brother Pat, Brother Bob and I (and sometimes my brother though he was never as faithful or as devoted as me) would head over to McCubbin’s grocery store,
which had a row of soda machines in front of it.
Once there, we’d pop a dime into one of the machines (yeah, soda was just a dime), pick out our drink,
and sit on the sidewalk and talk more about the church, about Jesus,
and especially about his imminent return.
These sessions would sometimes last as long as the church services or even longer, if you can believe it.
And we would often find ourselves staring up in the sky,
wondering when the trumpet would sound,           
Jesus would appear,
and we would be taken away to be with him in glory.

We’d pay special attention to the stars - debating whether one or the other of them was the New Jerusalem even now on its way to earth.
And when the moon was full and hanging low in the sky,
colored a deep red because of atmospheric conditions,
we’d recall how the Bible said the moon would turn to blood in the last days.
Comets, meteorites and other celestial phenomenon were a constant source of speculation for us,
and we were all in agreement that with the world being the way it was,
it wouldn’t be long before Jesus split the Eastern sky and called us home.
It’s a wonder we didn’t end up with a permanent crick in our necks from all the staring out into space we did back in the day.

Of course, we all know that Jesus did not come back,
and by now, at least according to our calculations back then,
Jesus is at least 30 years overdue,
and for some the delay has been almost 2000 years.
This long delay, however, has not stopped his disciples from stargazing.
There are plenty of people out there, who figuratively or literally, are getting cricks in their necks from all their looking up and staring out into space.
Waiting. Waiting for Jesus. Waiting for his return.

This has always been a temptation for Jesus’ followers.
In today’s reading from Acts we find eleven of the first disciples doing that very thing themselves.
I find Eugene Peterson’s translation of this passage especially enlightening.
When they were together for the last time they asked,
“Master, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?
Is this the time?”
Jesus told them, “You don’t get to know the time.
Timing is the Father’s business.
What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit.
And when the Holy Spirit comes on you,
you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
all over Judea and Samaria,  even to the ends of the world.”
And these were his last words.

As they watched, he was taken up and disappeared in a cloud.
They stood there, staring into the empty sky.
Suddenly two men appeared—in white robes!
They said, “You Galileans!—
why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky?
This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly—and mysteriously—as he left.”

Now there are a couple of points to be made about these verses.
The first is this:
While Jesus promises his return,
he clearly tells his disciples that it is none of their business to concern themselves about when this will take place.
To stand around gazing up in the heavens waiting for him to come back is not the task to which Jesus’ followers are called.
You have no doubt heard the saying that some Christians are too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good?
Well that could characterize many of Christ’s disciples,
not the least of which were the good folks I knew when I was younger.

The story is told of a pastor who one day visited an elderly church member.
While there, he decided to check on her salvation,
so he asked here,
“Miss Susie, do you believe in the hereafter?”
Her answer?  “Well preacher,” she said, “I think about it all the time.
I go to the kitchen and think to myself, ‘Now, what am I here after?’”

Our calling and mission as Christians is not set back and wait for and think about the hereafter,                       
but to consider, in the words of Miss Susie, what we are here after.
What is it that we are called to do in this time between Christ’s first and second advent?
And that is the second point I hope to make.

To answer this, I turn to the work of noted biblical scholar Elizabeth Achtemeier, who spends a little time talking about the differences between the various accounts of Jesus’ ascension.
Now as you probably know,
the book of Acts is the second volume of Luke’s writing.
In his Gospel, he tells us about Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection,
and in Acts he tells how the early church grew by the Holy Spirit’s power.

To begin his second volume, however,
Luke repeats some of the things he has said at the end of his Gospel.
Once again, he commands the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they receive God’s “power” in the form of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4).
Once again the apostles are told that they are to be Christ’s witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Lk. 24:48; Acts 1:8).
Once again Christ’s resurrection appearances are recounted..
And once again, Luke tells us that the risen Christ ascends into heaven is stated (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:10).
It’s as if he wants to doubly impress all of these facts on our minds.

But then Luke includes some new content in the text for this morning.
First. he tells about the apostles asking that question of Jesus before the Lord ascends into heaven:
“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (v. 6).
You see, Israel’s expectation for hundreds of years has been that God would finally come to establish his kingdom on earth,
and when he did,
all the enemies of God would be done away and the faithful in Israel would be exalted as leaders in God’s Kingdom.
So in today’s reading, the disciples want to know when God would bring human history to an end and usher in his rule over all the earth.

In the same way, Acts 1:10 tells of the appearance of the two men in white, who are angels, to the apostles, after Jesus has ascended.
“Men of Galilee,” the angels ask the disciples, “why do you stand looking into heaven?” (v. 11).
Then the angels give the promise of Christ’s second coming.
“This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven,
will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

In adding these additions to his story,
it is as if Luke knows we are going to have some questions,
and so he gives us the answers to them before we even have a chance to ask.
After all, there are many people, like the good church members from my past,
who spend a lot of time, standing around,
trying to figure out the date of the Lord’s second coming.
There have been countless times in human history when some so-called prophet has decided that such and such a date will mark the time when the final cataclysm takes place and Jesus will come again.
It still happens from time to time,
and maybe you have even read or heard about accounts of such people.
They sell all their goods and go out and stand on a hill top,
gazing into heaven, looking for Christ’s appearance.
Indeed, when the year 2000 drew near, many people believed that would mark God’s final battle with his enemies, the end of human history,
and the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth.

But to such speculation, the risen Christ replies,
“It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority” (v. 7).
On fact, Jesus said that repeatedly in the Gospel stories.
“Of that day or that hour no one knows,” Jesus taught, “not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32 and parallels).
Jesus himself did not know the time, and if people claim that they do,
they are saying that they know more than our Lord knows.

But that’s not the only question we have, however.
We also wonder what it means when Luke says Jesus ascended into heaven.
Is heaven up in the sky somewhere?
Such an idea doesn’t fit our scientific age.
How could Christ ascend to the Father?
Where is the Father?
Indeed, was Jesus really raised from the dead?
Did the apostles actually see him, or was that just some kind of psychological experience that they had after they mourned his death?
And so, as our questions go on and on,.
we too can become like those apostles,
standing and gazing up into heaven and wondering what it all means.
And the angels’ question in our text becomes a question addressed to us. “Why are you standing around, gazing into heaven, wondering, doubting, when there is a job to do?”

The good news, Luke tells us, is very clear,
Jesus Christ has ascended to the Father.
And so he is no longer limited by geography, by flesh, by time, and by space. Now he enjoys a universal rule over all people from the right hand of God.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him,
and now he has authority to rule over your sins and to forgive them and to do away with them.
Now he has the power to defeat the forces of evil and death in your life and to give you eternal life.
Now he has the love to send his Spirit into your hearts and to transform you and to make you a new person from the inside out.
Now he can give you the fruits of his Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness, gentleness and self-control
so that you have true life and have it abundantly.

The main point of our text, therefore, is that we are witnesses of these things.
We have not been called into the Christian faith as disciples of our Lord to stand around and to engage in idle speculation.
Rather, we have been called to tell about our new life in Christ to all people,
and in fact, to the ends of the earth.
We are called to go into all the world and to make disciples,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded us.
We are called by the way we live our lives and by the way we speak to testify in our homes and in our society and in our world that Jesus Christ is ascended to the Father and now reigns as Lord over all.
And we are called to witness to what Jesus has done in us and would do in every man, woman and child.

As one UMC colleague, Nancy Kollhoff, reminded me the other day,
for the past 10 days, the General Conference of the UMC has been meeting.
One of the many actions of General Conference was to change the liturgy we use when someone joins the church.
We used to say that we would faithfully participate “in the ministries of the church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service.”
The General Conference voted to add “witness” to the liturgy to highlight the mission and responsibility of every church member.
So in the future, people who join a United Methodist Church will promise to be faithful in their “prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness,”
and the congregation will share in that covenant with them.
When we’re faithful in that promise,
we will be carrying out the primary task that Jesus left us with.
This change recognizes that witnessing is something we’re all responsible for doing,
and this new liturgy now ties the promises we make upon coming into the United Methodist Church with the mission of the United Methodist Church,
which is to make disciples for Jesus Christ (for the transformation of the world)..
That’s really what we are called to do as the church,
and whet we are “here after” as followers of Christ.

There is a story told of a second-century angel who was sleeping and hadn’t noticed that Jesus had gone down to earth.
After his ascension the angel said to Jesus, “Where have you been?”
Jesus said, “I’ve been down on earth.”
       The angel asked, “How’d it go?”
       Jesus said, “They crucified me.”
       “You must have had quite an impact to elicit such a response.”
       “I had 11 followers.”
       The angel asked, “So your work, it was a failure?”
       Jesus said, “I’m not sure. I left it in their hands.”

And so he has.
Jesus was counting on his few friends—with the help of the Holy Spirit—to change the world.

According to noted preacher Barbara Brown Taylor,
“No one standing around watching [the disciples] that day could have guessed what an astounding thing happened when they all stopped looking into the sky and looked at each other instead…
With nothing but a promise and a prayer they consented to become the church and nothing was ever the same again,
beginning with them.
The followers became leaders,
the listeners became preachers,
the converts became missionaries,
the healed became healers.
They stopped looking up toward heaven,
looked at each other
instead and got on with the business of being the church.
And once they did that, surprising things began to happen.
They began to say things that sounded like him,
and they began to do things they had never seen anyone but him do before. They became brave and capable and wise.
Whenever two or three of them got together it was always as if there were someone else in the room with them whom they could not see—
the strong abiding presence of the absent One,
as available to them as bread and [cup],
as familiar to them as each other’s faces.”

So how about us?
The history of the church has shown that a faithful few,
following Jesus and witnessing to the Gospel, can change the world.
Today we can continue the world-changing work of the church,
if we dare.
If we dare to get our heads out of the clouds,
plant our feet firmly on the ground,
and get on with our job as witnesses to Christ and what he has done and what he can do.

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Welcome and Announcements

Prelude    Jubilate Deo    Silver

Lighting of the Altar Candles   
When you see a “ ✝” in the bulletin, please stand if able.

Choral Introit           Litany for Easter    Young

Call to Worship
The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God
and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
And also with you!
Christ is Risen!
He is risen indeed!
Come, all you nations, and glorify the Lord!
Let every man, woman and child tell of His Love! 
With angels and archangels, and all the company of Heaven:
Let all people glorify his holy name!
For today all our defeats are defeated, and death is swallowed up in Victory! 
Sing Alleluia!  All ye peoples!  Give praise to our God!
For now is Christ risen!
He is risen indeed!
Let the people say - alleluia!
Alleluia! Amen!

† Hymn – No. 302    Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

Opening Prayer                       
O God, You gave Your only Son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption,
and by His glorious resurrection,
You delivered us from the power of death.
Make us die every day to sin so that we may live with Him forever in the joy of the resurrection;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and forever. Amen.

Responsive Reading – No. 818    Psalm 98

Sharing of Joys and Concerns

The Morning Prayer

Passing the Peace

Alleluia Ringers    A Joyful Psalm    Helman

A Reading from Colossians 3:1-4  (Page 201, New Testament)

Giving of God’s Tithes and Our Offerings
Only our members and friends who have made a commitment to the church are obligated to support the ministers of First United Methodist Church.  Visitors should consider themselves our guests.

Offertory    He Is Risen, Alleluia!    Page

† Doxology – No. 94    Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow

† Prayer of Blessing
Loving God, we thank You for this Easter Day -
with its promise of new life, and new opportunities. 
Accept us as your faithful disciples. 
Receive the work we do, and the gifts we bring,
that they may become a blessing in Your sight. 
May all that we are, and do and say,
give evidence to the truth that Christ is risen!  Amen.

A Reading from Acts 10:34-43 (Page 129, New Testament)

Chancel Choir    On the Third Day    Pote

A Reading from Matthew 28:1-10 (Page 33, New Testament)

A Time with the Children

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, the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Hymn – No. 306    The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Won

Morning Message    Pastor Will

Hymn – No. 304    Easter People, Raise Your Voices

† Benediction
Rejoice, for Christ is risen! 
He is risen indeed!
He seeks us to rise with Him.
In Him is our hope, in life, in death and in all eternity.
Today the risen Lord has come to us with His gift of peace …
The peace of Him who triumphs over death,
The peace of Him who is the Lord of life,
The peace of the Lord be always with you …
And the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
dwell in you and remain in you now and forever.  AMEN.

† Choral Response               Litany for Easter    Young

† Chimes     

† Postlude     Toccata on “Duke Street”    Martin

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John Irving, writing about his novel “A Prayer for Owen Meany,” has this to say about his title character:
As a full-grown adult, Owen Meany will stand only five feet tall and weigh only one-hundred pounds –
the minimum acceptable size for the U.S. Army,
As a child,  he’s so small that the other children in his Sunday-school class can pick him up and pass him back and forth in the air – over their heads,
while they remain seated in their chairs.
They do this because they love to hear him complain.
Owen has something wrong with his voice:
his voice doesn’t grow either.
He speaks in a permanent, cracked falsetto,
a kind of strained squeak.
And although Owen takes himself very seriously,
it is extremely hard for anyone else to –
because he is so small and his voice is so absurd.

But Owen is a very serious character.
Owen believes that he is a chosen one;
that his life is following a Divine Plan,
a narrative authored by God.
To Owen Meany everything that happens to him happens for a reason –
he believes that he is small for a reason,
and that his voice never changes for a reason.
So says John Irving.

Now if you want to know what that divine plan is,
you will have to read the book,
I’m not going to give it away.
But I do want to say that Owen Meany has a profound impact upon his best friend, John Wheelwright.
We see this in the opening paragraph of the book when John writes:
“I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice –
not because of his voice,
or because he was the smallest person I ever knew,
or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death
[again, you have to read the book to understand this]
but because he is the reason I believe in God;
I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
I make no claims to have a life in Christ,
or with Christ –
and certainly not for Christ,
which I’ve heard some zealots claim.
I’m not very sophisticated in my knowledge of the Old Testament,
and I’ve not read the New Testament since my Sunday school days,
except for the passages that I hear read aloud to me when I go to church.
I make no claims to be especially pious;
I have a church-rummage faith –
the kind that needs patching up every weekend.
[But] what faith I have I owe to Owen Meany.,
A boy I grew up with.
It was Owen who made me a believer.

Now file those words away in the back of your mind for a few minutes.
Filed away?  Good.

Later in the book John is having a conversation with Owen about religion,
or rather John is listening to Owen pontificate on the Christian faith,
and it is this conversation which brings us to the theme of this day.
Owen in his cracked and squeaky voice tells John:
I find that Holy Week is draining;
no matter how many times I have lived through his crucifixion,
my anxiety about his resurrection is undiminished –
I am terrified that, this year, it won’t happen;
that, that year, it didn’t.
Anyone can be sentimental about the Nativity;
any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas.
But Easter is the main event;
if you don’t believe in the resurrection,
you’re not a believer.

Let me repeat that last part:
Easter is the main event;
if you don’t believe in the resurrection,
you’re not a believer.

Now that statement raises a question for me,
and if you will allow me to be blunt,
I will ask it.
All those for bluntness, raise your hands.
My question is this:
Do we believe in the resurrection?
Do we really believe in it?
Do we stake our lives on that belief?
Or even more close to home,
do we live our lives as though the resurrection is a reality and not just some warm and fuzzy ending tacked on to a sad and tragic story to make us feel better,
like some big Hollywood movie production.
All the big hits from Hollywood have to have happy endings,
so is this story of Easter just more of the same?
Or did it really happen?
Do we believe it happened?

I ask this because there are times, many times in fact,
when I find it hard to believe that we really believe.
Most of the time, in fact, it is hard to tell that we are an Easter people,
that we are a people of the resurrection.
Study after study has shown that when it comes to moral behavior Christians are almost always no better than non-Christians.
Christians cheat on their taxes at the same rate as non-Christians,
Christians get divorced just as much as non-Christians.
In almost every area of ethics and morality,
Christians are about the same as those who have never become disciples of Christ.
Is this the way it should be?
Shouldn’t our lives look different if we really believe?

Paul, in our reading from Colossians, seems to think so.
You remember what we read a few moments ago,
a passage that is often read at baptism services:
“For you have died,
and now you have been raised with Christ.
Set your mind on the things that are above.”

One preacher writing about his own coming to faith and baptism had this to say about Paul’s words:
I walked home [after my baptism] with my wet clothes wrapped in a wet towel under my arm,
and I tried to think about what [the words the preacher spoke] meant.
After you have been raised from the dead,
you do not look the same,
sound the same,
talk the same,
or behave the same.

But what do you do?
Should I dress a little better than I’ve been dressing?
It wouldn’t hurt.
How do you talk?
What do you sound like?
I went to school on Monday morning wondering,
“Is anybody going to know that I’ve been raised?
Do I talk another way?
Do I throw in a verse or two of scripture now and then?
What do I do at ball practice?
Are they going to say. “Well, it looks like he’s been raised from the dead”
How do you walk?
How do you relate?

How does it show that we have been raised with Christ,
that we believe,
not only in his resurrection,
but even in our own?
When you go to work,
when you go to school,
when you hang around with your friends,
how does it show?

Just beyond the verses we read in Colossians,
Paul gives his answer to the question.
He writes:
Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly:
sexual impurity, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).
These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.
But now you must get rid of all such things-
anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another,
seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self,
which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.
And in that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew,
circumcised and uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave and free;
but Christ is all and in all!

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
Bear with one another and,
if anyone has a complaint against another,
forgive each other;
just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Above all, clothe yourselves with love,
which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

So you want to know what the life of a person who really believes in resurrection looks like?
This is what it looks like:
It is compassionate, kind, humble, meek, patient, forgiving and filled with love.

We must live our lives like we believe Jesus rose from dead.
We must live as though we too have been raised to new life in Christ.
Why?
Well, for one, because people look at our lives to see if the living Christ is a part of who we are;
to see if our lives are informed by the power of Jesus’ resurrection or not.
Second, and even more important,
because we have something the world and the people in it really need – hope.

There are, of course, many sources of hope in this world,
but most of them provide little more than false hope.
Politicians and politics or government.
Doctors and medical science and the hope for a miracle cure.
The search for that one person who will fulfill all our dreams and desires.
Money and material possessions,
which are perhaps best symbolized by the quixotic power of these:
(Hold up some lottery tickets.)
I was at the 7-11 last night,
and even though the jackpot wasn’t 230 million,
the line for lottery tickets was quite long,
and we all know how long the odds are for hope being realized in these slips of paper,
don’t we?
And yet millions of people place their hope in things like these and other pursuits that will prove just as futile.

But, my friends,  we have real hope.
A hope that comes from the power of resurrection.
Another of my favorite books is “Cold Sassy Tree” by Olive Burns.
I’ve used this quote before,
but it bears repeating today.
In her novel Burns has one of the characters in her book ask his grandfather about Jesus rising from the dead.
“Gosh Grandpa, You mean you don’t Jesus rose from the dead?”

“I’m a sayin thet did he or didn’t he ain’t important son.
What’s important is thet when the spirit-a Jesus Christ come down
on them disciples later,
they quit settin round a-moanin and a-tremblin,
and got to work,
They wairn’t scairt no more,
and the words they said and the things they did had fire in’m.
Compared to a miracle like thet,
Jesus rollin’ back a dang rock and flyin off to heaven ain’t nothin.

And thet same miracle is still a happenin right here in Cold Sassy,
in July of nineteen aught-six.
A crippled person or a invalid, or the meanest thief of most
despairin misfit,why, if can ketch aholt of the spirit of Jesus Christ,
he can quit bein scairt and be like risin from the dead.
Once his soul gits cured,
no matter what his body’s like,
why he can start a new life.”

We have this hope to offer, my friends.
New life.  Resurrection life.
In Jesus sin has been conquered.
He is the alpha and the omega,
the beginning and the end
He holds the keys to hell and death
In Jesus, death has died.
This is the hope that the world needs.
That every man, woman and child needs.

And this thought, this truth, brings me back full circle to Owen Meany and his friend John Wheelwright.
John Irving says that Owen Meany was an instrument of God,
that God used Owen to do his work, to do his will.
Isn’t that what God does with all of his children?
Isn’t that what Jesus expects of his disciples?
Not only to live our lives as though we believed in Easter, in resurrection.
and in their life-transforming power,
but also to be his instruments and to share the hope we have in Christ with everyone we meet?

John Wheelwright said,
I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice –
not because of his voice,
or because he was the smallest person I ever knew,
but because he is the reason I believe in God;
I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
What faith I have I owe to Owen Meany.,
A boy I grew up with.
It was Owen who made me a believer.

If we believe, really believe in Easter and in resurrection,
don’t we owe it to God,
don’t we owe it to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
don’t we owe it to those who are not here this morning,
and who are not in any church today,
to share our faith, our love, and our hope with them?

When the angel met the women at the tomb on that first Easter,
his words to them were simple and to the point:
Go and tell, he said.
And when Jesus met them on their way back to the city,
his words were the same:
Go and tell.
Go and tell my disciples.
And later in this same chapter he will repeat and add to these words:
Go and tell,
Go and make disciples.
Help others to believe so that they too may live,
that they too may have hope,
and that they too may know my love.

This morning we have told each other that Christ is risen.
When we leave here,
let us tell the world,
everyone we meet, the same,
showing them by our words and with our lives that we really and truly believe.

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Call to Worship
And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world
And we loved darkness rather than the light.
God sent Jesus into the world,
not to condemn the world,
But that the world, that we,
might be saved through him.
Come let us worship God our Creator and Christ our Savior through the Holy Spirit and in truth.

O Sacred Head Now Wounded
O sacred head now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded
with thorns thine only crown:
how pale thou art with anguish,
with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish
which once was bright as morn.

What thou, my Lord, hast suffered
was all for sinners gain.
Mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
‘Tis I deserve thy place;
look on me with thy favor,
vouchsafe to me thy grace.

What language shall I borrow
to thank thee dearest friend,
for this thy dying sorrow,
thy pity without end.
O make me thine forever;
and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
outlive my love to thee.

A Reading from Isaiah 53

Unison Prayer
Gracious and Holy God, on this night we gather to remember with love and tears the suffering and death of Jesus.
We believe that this despised and rejected man of sorrows has borne our griefs and has been wounded for our transgressions.
We come in deep repentance for our sins,
seeking your face and spirit while it may be found. 
Almighty God, graciously behold this your family, 
for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed
into the hands of sinners,
and to suffer death upon the cross;
have mercy upon us, most merciful God,
for it is in Christ’s name we pray.  Amen

A Reading from Psalm 22

Ah, Holy Jesus
Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,
that we to judge thee
have in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted!

Who was the guilty?
Who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason,
Jesus, hath undone thee!
‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee;
I crucified thee.

Lo, the Good Shepherd
for the sheep is offered;
the slave hath sin-ned,
and the Son hath suffered.
For our atonement,
while we nothing heeded,
God interceded.

For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation,
thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation;
thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
for my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus,
since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,
think on thy pity
and thy love unswerving,
not my deserving.

A Reading from Hebrews 10:16-25

Response: He Will Walk with Wonder and Stare (Sing Wonder and Stare between sections of He Will Walk)
(From resources by the Iona Community)

Wonder and stare, fear and beware,
heaven and hell are close at hand,
God’s living word, Jesus the Lord,
follows where faith and love demand.

He will walk a little in front of us towards Jerusalem.   
He will not be scared even though we are apprehensive. 
If we try to discourage him he will recognize the devil in our voice,
and he will tell us so in no uncertain terms,
and he will go on again in faith towards Jerusalem.
                               
He will walk a little in front of us into controversy.
He will not be scared though we are apprehensive.
He will argue with the intelligent, contradict the self assured,
embrace the untouchable,
upset bank balances by his outlandish behavior in the sanctuary and weep in public.
Then he will go again in faith towards a garden.


He will walk a little in front of us into Gethsemane.
He will not be scared though we are apprehensive.
He will sweat blood and ask God if there is another way,
and when God says no, he will take the traitor’s kiss, the soldier’s spit,
the bile and venom from the princes of religion,
and he will go on again in faith towards the cross.


He will walk a little in front of us towards Calvary.
He will not be scared; no, he will not be scared. 
He will feel the pain of wood and nails.
But more than this he will feel the weight of all the evil, 
all the malice, all the pettiness,  all the sin of the world heaped on his shoulders.
He will not throw off that weight though he could.
He will not give back evil for evil, return malice for malice,
take revenge on the petty minded,
obscuring hate on all who have despised and rejected him.
He will not give back the sin of the world.
He will take the weight into death, into hell,
so that he can lead us into heaven.
Then he will go on in faith towards what lies ahead.


He will walk a little behind us through the graveyard. 
He will wait until we are sure he has died and admit our complicity in his life’s ending.
and he will come up behind us and say our name so that we can say his forever.

Go to Dark Gethsemane - Verse 1
Go to dark Gethsemane,
ye that feel the tempter’s power;
your Redeemer’s conflict see,
watch with him one bitter hour.
Turn not from his griefs away;
learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

A Reading from John 18:1-27

Go to Dark Gethsemane - Verse 2
See him at the judgment hall,
beaten, bound, reviled, arraigned;
O the wormwood and the gall!
O the pangs his soul sustained!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss;
learn of Christ to bear the cross.

A Reading from John 18:28-19:16a

Go to Dark Gethsemane - Verse 3
Calvary’s mournful mountain climb;
there, adoring at his feet,
mark that miracle of time,
God’s own sacrifice complete.
“It is finished!” hear him cry;
learn of Jesus Christ to die.

A Reading from John 19:16b-42

A Time of Silent Reflection

Closing - O Love Divine, What Hast Thou Done . . . Pastor Will
O Love divine, what hast thou done!
The immortal God hath died for me!
The Father’s co-eternal Son
Bore all my sins upon the tree.
Th’immortal God for me hath died:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!

Is crucified for me and you,
To bring us rebels back to God.
Believe, believe the record true,
Ye all are bought with Jesus’ blood.
Pardon for all flows from His side:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!

Behold and love, ye that pass by,
The bleeding Prince of life and peace!
Come, sinners, see your Savior die,
And say, “Was ever grief like His?”
Come, feel with me His blood applied:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!

Then let us sit beneath His cross,
And gladly catch the healing stream:
All things for Him account but loss,
And give up all our hearts to Him:
Of nothing think or speak beside,
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!

Silent Meditation and Prayer

+  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +

Note:  There will be no benediction; no postlude.  With the death of Christ, there
is nothing more to be said until Easter.  The congregation will please remain seated until the back lights are turned on.  Those wishing to remain in prayer and meditation are encouraged to do so, while those who leave are asked to depart in silence.

A PRAYER OF SUPPLICATION
by William Barclay
God of love, we remember today all that our blessed Lord endured for us.
Let us remember how Jesus was betrayed,
and given up into the hands of wicked men …

Lord Jesus, we remember today that it was one of
Your own familiar friends who betrayed You,
and we know that there is nothing that so breaks the heart as the disloyalty of one whom we call friend.
Grant that we may not betray You.

Save us:
From the cowardice that would disown You when it is hard to be true to You;
From the disloyalty that betrays You in the hour
when You need some one to stand by You;
From the fickleness that blows hot and cold in its devotion;
From the fair-weather friendship that,
when things are difficult or dangerous,
makes us ashamed to show whose we are and whom we serve.

Let us remember how Jesus suffered death upon the Cross …
Lord Jesus, help us to remember the lengths
to which Your love was ready to go;
That having loved Your own You loved them to the very end;
The love than which none can be greater,
The love that lays down its life for its friends;
That it was while people were yet enemies that You died for them.

Let us remember how Jesus now lives and reigns …
Help us to remember,
That the crucified Lord is the Risen Lord;
That the cross has become the Crown.

So grant unto us,
to trust in His love and to live in His presence;
that we may share in His glory.
This we ask for Your love’s sake. Amen.

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WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

PRELUDE    Gethsemane    Ritter

LIGHTING OF THE ALTAR CANDLES

WORDS OF GREETING FROM SCRIPTURE
Jesus said, “Listen, I am standing at the door, knocking;  If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

CALL TO WORSHIP (People’s Response in Bold and Italic)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
And also with you.

Tonight we continue our journey to the cross.
Tonight we hear the stories that make us God’s people.
Tonight we are a people about to be freed from slavery.
Tonight we are a people who come with dirty hands
and become clean by water, the Word, bread and wine.
Let us taste and see that the Lord is good.
Christ has prepared for us a feast of love.

Hymn - No. 618 (Verses 1,2,3) Let Us Break Bread Together

CONFESSION AND PARDON
Let us declare our need of forgiveness and cleansing.
Jesus, our hands, feet and hearts are dirty from the journey.
We have not loved one another as you have loved us.
Callousness and violence stain our hearts and lives.
How will we become clean again?
We see the table there,
but who will make us clean and ready for the meal?
Where will we find water for our soiled souls?
Restore us to the joy of God’s salvation. Amen.

The lamb of God takes away the sins of the world.
Believe the good news.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
Glory to God. Amen.

PRAYERS FOR CHRIST’S CHURCH

READING FROM EXODUS 12:1-14

A RESPONSIVE READING – PSALM 116:1-16
I love the Lord because he hears my prayers
and answers them.
Because he bends down and listens,
I will pray as long as I live. 
What shall I give to the Lord for all he has done for me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of
all his people.
O Lord, you have freed me from bondage.
I will serve you forever.

A READING FROM I CORINTHIANS 11:23-26

OFFERTORY Ballade Walters

RESPONSE When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
When I survey the wondrous cross,
on which the Prince of Glory died.
My richest gain I count but loss.
and pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

PRAYER OF BLESSING

CHANCEL CHOIR  Scenes from Gethsemane Martin

A READING FROM MATTHEW 26:17-30

HYMN In Remembrance of Me

MEDITATION Pastor Will Humes

INVITATION
You that do truly and earnestly repent of your sins,
and are in love and charity with your neighbors,
and intend to lead a new life,
following the commandments of God,
and walking from this time forth in God’s holy ways:
Draw near with faith and take this Holy Sacrament to your comfort.

THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up unto the Lord.
Let us give thanks unto the Lord.
It is right and good to give our thanks and praise.

The Pastor Continues the Prayer of Great Thanksgiving until . . .

Therefore with angels and archangels,
and with all the company of heaven,
we laud and magnify thy glorious name,
evermore praising thee and saying
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts:
Heaven and earth are full of thy glory!
Glory be to thee, O Lord most high!
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!

The Pastor Continues the Prayer of Great Thanksgiving until . . . .

And so, in remembrance of these thy mighty acts
in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a holy and living sacrifice,
in union with Christ’s offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

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. Amen.

BREAKING THE BREAD

PRAYER OF HUMBLE ACCESS
We do not presume to come to this thy table,
O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness,
but in thy manifold and great mercies.
We are not worthy so much as to gather up
the crumbs under thy table,
But thou art the same Lord,
whose property is always to have mercy.
Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord,
so to partake of this Sacrament of thy Son Jesus Christ,
that we may walk in newness of life,
may grow into his likeness, and evermore dwell in him,
and he in us.  Amen.

O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world,
grant us thy peace.

TAKING THE BREAD AND THE CUP

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen
and keep you in his grace.
Amen

Let us pray.
Lord God, in a wonderful Sacrament you have left us
a memorial of your suffering and death.
May this Sacrament of your body and blood so work in us
that the way we live will proclaim the redemption you have brought;
for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, 
one God, now and forever.  Amen

CLOSING HYMN In Memory of the Savior’s Love

DISMISSAL WITH BLESSING

RESPONSE - No. 292 (Verses 1, 2) What Wondrous Love Is This

POSTLUDE O Darkest Night Bach

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What therefore shall we say about what Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, discovered  For if Abraham was made righteous by works, he has reason to boast, though not to God. For what does the scripture teach? "Abraham trusted in God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Now to the worker, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something owed.  But to one who who does not work, but who trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

For the promise that Abraham and his descendants would inherit the world came, not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those of the law are to be the heirs, faith is empty and the promise is useless.  For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, there is no violation.

Therefore it all depends on faith, so that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to those who keep the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us (As it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") — in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

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So Abram departed, as the Lord had commanded him.

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As I mentioned previously, some of the images I used for creating these slides are from Hermanolean Clipart. This site allows the use of its material for nonprofit purposes and features both color and black Hand white images suitable for bulletin covers and slides.

Here goes . . .

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The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work and attend to it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree in the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Now the serpent was more cunning than any land animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?’” And the woman said to the serpent, “God said, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, you shall not eat, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, “You shall not surely die, for God knows that on the day you eat of it, you eyes shall be opened, and you shall become like God, knowing good and evil.

The woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasing to the eyes, and a tree to be coveted to make one wise; so she took from its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. The eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves clothes.

Technorati tags: Genesis 2:15-17, Genesis 3:1-7, Lent 1A, paraphrase

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