He is Risen ... He is Risen Indeed !!!

(today I've posted the bulletin and the meditation for Easter Sunday's 11am service. This year the service was held in the Band Pit of the Elementary School here in town: Tanners' Crossing. I would be remiss not to say thank you to Cal Frost, one of the school custodians for all the work he put in yesterday helping us with the various aspects of the service. And thanks to the staff and adiministration of TCS and Rolling River School Division for allowing us to use the Band Pit for our services ... Things went very well. The services flowed well, and the brunch hosted by the AOTS was delightful. We may have another Easter Sunday on the road - but wherever we meet, we remain an Easter People who together proclaim in faith the certainty that: He is Risen ...)

Sunday April 16th 11am service:

SCRIPTURE READING: John 19:31-42

CHOIR ANTHEM Who Is The Man?

SCRIPTURE READING: John 20:1-10

CALL TO WORSHIP
One: Early in the morning,
While the dawn is just breaking
Three women appear
ALL: WHILE THE WORLD SLEEPS,
THEY BRAVE THE DARKNESS…
One: The sun begins to rise
The light is growing
Shadows shrink and flee
ALL: LOOK, THE TOMB IS EMPTY.
HE IS NOT HERE.
WHERE CAN HE BE?
One: Why look for the Risen One among the dead?
He is not here.
He told you what would be.
ALL: HE HAS BEEN RISEN?
One: The sun warms the earth.
Somewhere a bird sings.
ALL: HE HAS BEEN RISEN
THE GOOD NEWS HAS COME TO PASS.
CHRIST IS RISEN!

HYMN #155 Jesus Christ Is Risen Today

PRAYER OF APPROACH:
One: This is the season of Easter:
ALL: THE CELEBRATION OF RESURRECTION,
One: the festival of hope,
ALL: THE PROMISE OF NEW BEGINNINGS,
One: the dance of faith,
ALL: THE SONG OF JOY,
One: the music of gladness,
ALL: THE HYMN OF LOVE.
One: Sing praises to God, you faithful,
give thanks to God’s holy name!
ALL: WEEPING MAY LINGER FOR A NIGHT,
BUT JOY COMES IN THE MORNING.
One: God turns our weeping to dancing
and clothes us in gladness.
ALL: MAY WE PRAISE GOD AND NOT BE SILENT!
THANKS TO YOU, O GOD, FOREVER! AMEN.

HYMN #166 Joy Comes with the Dawn

SCRIPTURE READING John 20:10-18

PRAYER FOR WHOLENESS:
One: 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,
ALL: HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME.
One: Early in the morning,
When the world least expected it,
A newborn child crying in a cradle
Announced that you had come among us,
That you were one of us.
Hallowed be your name.
ALL: HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME.
One: Early in the morning,
Surrounded by respectable liars,
Religious leaders,
Anxious statemen
And silent friends,
You accepted the penalty for doing good,
For being God:
You shouldered and suffered the cross.
Hallowed be your name.
ALL: HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME.
One: Early in the morning,
A voice in a guarded graveyard
And footsteps in the dew
Proved that you had risen,
That you had come back
To those and for those
Who had forgotten, denied and destroyed you.
Hallowed be your name,
ALL: HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME.
One: This morning,
In the multi-coloured company
Of your Church on earth and in heaven,
We celebrate your creation, your life,
Your death and resurrection,
Your interest in us;
So we pray,
ALL: 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)
One: To all and to each,
On his community and on his friends,
Where regret is real,
Jesus pronounces his pardon
And grants us the right to begin again.
Thanks be to God!
ALL: AMEN.

CHOIR ANTHEM: Christ Is Arisen

SCRIPTURE READINGS: Psalm 118 (parts 1,2,3), pg 837 V.U.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11

HYMN #179 Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Give Thanks

THE STORY STOOL:

EASTER PRAYER:
One: Jesus Christ, you meet us;
Your hands still holed,
But your breath warm,
And your conversation engaging.
ALL: DEATH HAS NOT CHANGED YOUR ACCENT
OR DIMINISHED YOUR LOVE.
One: And though the world
Should still show signs of its imperfection,
The good news is that you have destined it
And all its people to be made whole.
ALL: SO, AS ON THIS EASTER MORNING
WE ARE GATHERED IN YOUR HOUSE
AND CHEERED BY YOUR GOSPEL,
JOIN US,
AS YOU JOINED YOUR FIRST DISCIPLES.
AMEN.

HYMN #175 This Is the Day That God Has Made

SERVICE OF CONFIRMATION:
QUESTIONS TO CONFIRMANDS:
One: On behalf of Minnedosa United Church,
I present the following persons
whom we welcome into the membership
of this community of faith:

Will you join with us
as together we celebrate God’s presence,
live with respect in creation,
love and serve others,
seek justice and resist evil?
RESPONSE: I WILL, WITH GOD’S HELP.

CONGREGATIONAL COMMITMENT
One: Dear friends in Christ,
let us pledge to these persons our support and care.
ALL: AS YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST,
WE REJOICE IN THE GIFTS YOU BRING TO US.
WE PLEDGE TO YOU OUR LOVE AND OUR SUPPORT.
WITH GOD’S HELP, WE WILL TOGETHER LIVE OUT
THE MISSION AND MINISTRY OF CHRIST’S CHURCH.

THE NEW CREED (in unison) pg. 918 V.U.
One: In the name of Jesus Christ,
we welcome you to the privileges and responsibilities
of membership in this congregation.
We give thanks to God for your witness among us.
HYMN #509 Here I am, Lord

REFLECTION:
I discovered the Winnie the Pooh stories late in life … it came one weekend when as a university student, I was among a group of us who had met the year previous on a study tour to Israel, and decided to have a camping weekend in the Green Mountains of Vermont. At night, sitting around the campfire we took turns reading to each other the AA Milne stories … I remember my friend Wayne not being able to finish the story of Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in Rabbit’s hole after having made a bit of a pig of himself … The absurdity of the story and the poetry of the language combined to offer wonderful stories for children of all ages …
What struck me that night as I moved beyond the Disney images of Winnie the Pooh and his friends, images I was very familiar with – was the simple realization that in Winnie the Pooh and his circle of friends, we can see ourselves …
So today as we stand on the edge of the empty tomb and ponder what the empty tomb and the whispers of resurrection mean, and how we shall speak of such things … it’s worth considering which character we are most like in the Winnie the Pooh stories … As we share our faith and prepare to tell the world around us about the resurrection, will we do it like Winnie, like Tigger, or perhaps Eeyore, or maybe Piglet, or Rabbit ??? Which character are we in our faith journey ??
Winnie the Pooh is the anti-hero. He is kind and naïve and somewhat dim witted … he tends to focus on food rather then any other tasks, and he is known to sing little ditties to comfort himself while embarking on onerous and stressful tasks … doesn’t Winnie sound like the Church in the modern era? Gatherings for food often take presidence, and of course our hymns and worship are about comfort and familiarity …
Or perhaps we are more like Tigger: bouncy, energetic, somewhat thoughtless, and totally oblivious to others … Tigger launches into STUFF, and wreaks havoc as he literally bounces through life – think of Rabbit’s reaction to Tigger?
Of course some of us are like Rabbit – steadfast and loyal, but uptight and overly concerned with the details and the perfection of the things he’s trying to do … his dominant emotion is a mild anger (usually directed at Tigger) that quickly gives way to outrage and frustration …
Or we could be like Piglet – loyal and gentle, but overwhelmed with fret and worry about ALL things … Piglet, being small and vulnerable spends his time worrying over things that he has no control over to begin with …
Perhaps we are like Owl – wise, foolish old Owl … Owl is the wise figure, but his fault lies in his inability to realize that he’s NOT as a smart or as wise as he thinks he is … He is too caught up in maintaining his reputation to realize his own short comings … he is wise and able to share his counsel – just not have insight for himself …
Or maybe we are like Kanga or Roo. Kanga, the mother – caring, nurturing and protective. Roo – the scamp and adventurer, a companion for the foolhardy Tigger. Roo is often the one who encourages Tigger onto bigger and more outrageous adventures …
Or perhaps we’re like Christopher Robin – the wise god like figure of 100 acre woods. Silly Old Bear rolls off his lips. He takes in the scenes around him and with disdain waves off the foolishness of his friends living in a place where reality is elastic and unpredictable …

So, how shall we speak of the Resurrection??
Will we focus on other things? Will we sing our ditties and divert our attention? Will we bounce our way along, or will we allow the seriousness of the moment overwhelm us ??
The parallels between us and the characters of the Winnie the Pooh stories can (if we open ourselves to it) be startling … in those small fuzzy characters we can and do find ourselves … The challenge for us, for the Church in the modern era is to share our stories – our faith – with the people around us in a way that celebrates the story and retells it in a fresh new way …
None of us know what happened in that moment in Jerusalem (I have shelves of books that debate what the resurrection really was – trust me – I’ve moved them a couple of times in the last couple of months) but none of us can say for certainty – this is what happened. The job of the Easter Church is to draw our own conclusions – find our place in faith where we understand and experience the Resurrection, and then to go out into the world and embody and share the resurrection … tell the story and give to our community – to our world – to ourselves the hope and the certainty that says boldly – He is Risen – we will rise – the world will be recreated, again and again and again …
Death and destruction and darkness will NOT have the final say … Resurrection will come and it will recreate the reality around us … It may NOT be an easy journey from here to the moment when the words “He Is Risen” become real – but they WILL become real … they are real.
We are an Easter People. This year we may not have the resurrection of our losses that we’ve experienced in the last couple of months, but we are making our way slowly, step by step to that moment of resurrection when we will be able to look back and see only life … and hope …
I know in my life I tend to be more like Eeyore then I care to even think about … the ho-hum woe is me approach to life is one that I am most comfortable with … the challenge for me – and for all of us, is to see in ourselves our shortcomings and our strengths and to over come the things that would trip us up …
Today, as we move from the empty tomb and we struggle, along with the disciples, to make sense of the Easter story unfolding around us, our calling is to share our journey, our struggles and our discoveries in a way that builds community – a way that makes us laugh until tears roll down our cheeks – in a way that brings us comfort when we are weeping – in a way that lives, proclaims and embodies hope …
Somedays we just put one foot in front of another … other days we can bounce through life like Tigger … other days we’ll sing our ditties as we hunt the huffalumps … every day we move forward one step, one moment at a time … That’s the journey of faith. That’s the call we’ve heard as we stood at the empty tomb and pondered where we’ll go from here …
AA Milne ends his stories of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin with the words: wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and His Bear will always be playing …
Today, our enchanted place is found in the simple words: “He is risen … He is risen indeed!” What we do with this proclamation is what will determine where and how and when we live out the Resurrection in our community and in our world …
May we have the courage and the boldness to embrace without fear, the stories of our faith, and to tell of the resurrections we’ve lived …
And may we form and embody the enchanted place where Christ lives in us as a risen presence … now and always …

May it be so – thanks be to God … let us pray …

OFFERING
OFFERTORY
PRAYER OF DEDICATION

SPECIAL MUSIC Sing a New Song by: Aaron Hutton and David Comrie

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE LORD’S PRAYER

HYMN: (insert) Every Morning Is Easter Morning

COMMISSIONING/BENEDICTION:
One: In life, in death,
In life beyond death,
ALL: JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.
One: Over powers and principalities,
Over all who determine, control,
Govern or finance the affairs of humankind,
ALL: JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.
One: Of the poor, of the broken,
Of the sinner against and the sinner,
ALL: JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.
One: Above the Church,
Beyond our most excellent theologies
And in the quiet corners of our hearts,
ALL: JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.
One: Thanks be to God.
ALL: AMEN.

SUNG RESPONSE: HYMN #649 (vs 3,4) Walk With Me

The worship has ended…
…the work of God’s people has just begun
Go in peace