You can watch the bible readings and sermon here, or scroll down to read the rest of the Sunday prayers and content, and watch this video at the point it occurs during worship.
WE GATHER TOGETHER TO WORSHIP GOD
Play the first 27 seconds
Let us Pray, It has been an anguished 2 days & nights LORD. All our hopes, all our memories, all our love was found in you, yet you are dead. We feel dead inside. But we still honour you. We are the women from Galilee come to your tomb to remember and anoint your body. We found the stone rolled away, the tomb empty. But your body is not here, LORD. And then an angel appeared & said…
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY
God of new beginnings, Creator of all that is and is yet to be. We gather this day on sacred land because all land is sacred today, for it bears the footprints of our Risen Saviour. It is the land of the Dharawal people beloved by you. The place where they find identity, purpose and their very being.
We honour them.
CHRIST CANDLE
We are not the light. Christ is. We are not God, Christ the Son is. Christ died. We will die. Christ rose from the dead. By his grace and mercy we will live too. Christ Jesus is our Resurrection Hope & Peace. For on this day, he conquered death. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Christ is Risen!
The Christ candle is lit.
HYMN
Myrrh – bearing Mary from Magdala came
Seeking her Jesus, with spirit a flame
He had commanded her sickness depart
She now would thank him for newness of heart.
Myrrh – bearing Mary to Bethany came
Seeking her Jesus who called her by name
There she anointed his feet and his head
With precious oils that were meant for the dead.
Myrrh – bearing Mary to Calvary came
Seeking her Jesus who hung there in shame
And as the careless and heedless passed by
Hopeless and helpless she watched her Lord die.
Myrrh – bearing Mary to death’s garden came
Seeking her Jesus who’d borne the world’s blame
Heart sick, she stood, till she heard the Lord’s voice
‘Mary!’ he said, ‘I am risen, rejoice!’.
Rae E Whitney 1927 – 2023 Words and permission GIA Publications, Chicago Used with permission CCLI # 31951
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS
GOSPEL READING
LUKE 24: 1 – 12 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the angels said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again”. Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, wondering to himself what had happened.
HYMN
Halle, halle, halle, le lu-jah!
Halle, halle, halle, le lu-jah!
Halle, halle, halle, le lu-jah!
Hallelujah, halle-lu-jah!
Wild Goose Publications. Permission WCC 1994 CCLI # 31951
NEW TESTAMENT READING
1 CORINTHIANS 15: 19 – 21, 35 – 38, 42 – 44, 55 – 57 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 being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being… But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body… So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body…Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? But thanks be to God! God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
In this is found words of resurrection Life. Thanks be to God!
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Few words are needed today, LORD. You know us as you did Simon Peter, Judas, John the beloved, Mary & Martha, Mary of Magdala, Joanna and all the others. You know we love you but we often fall short in our thoughts, with our words and with our actions and inactions.
Before God, with the people of God, I confess to my brokenness:
To the ways I wound my life, the lives of others and the life of the world.
May God forgive you, Christ renew you, and the Spirit enable you to grow in love. Amen.
Before God, with the people of God, we confess to our brokenness:
To the ways we wound our lives, the lives of others and the life of the world.
May God forgive you, Christ renew you, and the spirit enable you to grow in love.
In the name of Christ our saviour and Risen Lord! Amen.
MESSAGE – Rev Paul Bartlett
HYMN
Yours be the glory, risen, conquering Son
endless is the victory over death you’ve won;
angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away
kept the folded grave-clothes, where your body lay.
Yours be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory over death you’ve won.
See, Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
let the church with gladness hymns of triumph sing
for the Lord is living, death has lost its sting.
Yours be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory over death you’ve won.
No more we doubt you, glorious Prince of life;
life is naught without you: aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerors through your deathless love;
bring us safe through Jordan to your home above.
Yours be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory over death you’ve won.
Edmond Louis Budry 1854 – 1932. Words by permission WSCF. Used by permission CCLI # 31951
OFFERING & PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE & LORD’S PRAYER
HYMN
There’s a light upon the mountains and the day is at the spring
When our eyes shall see the beauty and the glory of the King;
Weary was our heart with waiting, and the night-watch seemed so long
But His triumph-day is breaking, and we hail it with a song.
There’s a hush of expectation, and a quiet in the air;
And the breath of God is moving in the fervent breath of prayer;
For the suffering, dying Jesus is the Christ upon the throne,
And the travail of our spirit is the travail of His own.
He is breaking down the barriers, he is casting up the way;
He is calling for His angels to build up the gates of day;
But His angels here are human, not the shining hosts above,
For the drum-beats of His army are the heart-beats of our love.
Henry Burton 1840 – 1930 Words and Music by permission Methodist Publishing House UK CCLI # 31951
BLESSING & BENEDICTION All Together OK 412
Sent by the Lord am I
my hands are ready now
to make the earth the place
in which the kingdom comes.
Sent by the Lord am I
my hands are ready now
to make the earth the place
in which the kingdom comes.
Caribbean traditional. Used with permission CCLI # 31951
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