WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.479 Hallelujah, Christ is risen. 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:04.719 The Lord is risen indeed. 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:06.000 Hallelujah. 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:07.759 Let's pray together. 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:16.480 Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:29.440 Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord. 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:30.399 Amen. 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:32.240 The Lord be with you. 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:34.960 Let us pray. 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:45.840 O God, for who our redemption gave your only begotten Son the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy. 00:00:46.399 --> 00:01:00.320 Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:01.359 Amen. 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:15.680 He is Lord of all. 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:26.319 That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced. 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:35.120 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:43.439 How he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:46.080 For God was with him. 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:54.159 We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. 00:02:55.599 --> 00:03:18.400 They put him to death by hanging on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people, but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:31.759 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:45.520 All the prophets testify about him, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. 00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:50.879 Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people. 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:59.360 A reading from the book of Psalms. 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:10.159 Give thanks to the Lord who is good, whose mercy endures forever. 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:17.199 Let Israel now proclaim the mercy of the Lord endures forever. 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:24.160 The Lord is my strength and my song and has become my salvation. 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:31.600 There is sound of exaltation and victory in the tents of the righteous. 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:35.439 The right hand of the Lord has triumphed. 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:39.199 The right hand of the Lord is exalted. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:42.399 The right hand of the Lord has triumphed. 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:50.079 I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:57.199 The Lord has punished me sorely, but did not hand me over to death. 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:01.920 Open for me the gates of righteousness. 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:03.839 I will enter them. 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:06.720 I will offer thanks to the Lord. 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:10.000 This is the gate of the Lord. 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:13.199 Those who are righteous may enter. 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:22.639 I will give thanks to you, for you answered me, and you have become my salvation. 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:30.399 The same stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:37.360 This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:41.360 On this day, the Lord has acted. 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:45.360 We will rejoice and be glad in it. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:41.839 And in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaim to you, unless you have come to believe in vain. 00:06:42.800 --> 00:07:02.399 For I handed on to you as of first importance that I in turn had received, that Christ died for your sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:13.120 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:23.519 Then he appeared to James, then to the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:32.560 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:40.480 But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and in his grace toward me has not been in vain. 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:49.839 On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:56.800 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim, and so you have come to believe. 00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:00.560 Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people. 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:12.399 Isn't it a delight to remember that even in church we're subject to technical difficulties and the mistake of everyday life? 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:15.439 And one of those has happened now where we left down to him. 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:21.920 So I invite you to stand with me as you're able, and we're going to sing the first verse of Christ the Lord is risen today. 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:33.600 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:46.639 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:51.039 And then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:56.639 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:02.960 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:07.279 Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:16.799 He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:28.480 Then the other disciple who reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:35.679 Then the disciples returned to their homes, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:48.000 As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:52.399 They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? 00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:59.039 She said to them, They've taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:06.799 When she'd said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus. 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:11.440 Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:13.440 Whom are you looking for? 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:22.480 Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've laid him, and I will take him away. 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:26.159 Jesus said to her, Mary. 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:32.879 She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabuni, which means my teacher. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:39.919 Jesus said to her, Do not hold on to me, because I've not yet ascended to the Father. 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:48.000 But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:53.519 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord. 00:11:53.759 --> 00:11:56.639 And she told them they said these things to her. 00:11:58.159 --> 00:12:00.000 The gospel of the Lord. 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:02.559 Praise to you, Lord Christ. 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:06.240 Please be seated. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:13.759 Hallelujah. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:15.440 Christ is risen. 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:18.000 The Lord is risen indeed. 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:19.200 Hallelujah. 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:22.799 And so I am grateful to wish you a joyful Easter. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:26.720 And I think the word actually matters in this space. 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:36.159 Because if we're honest and intentional, this first Easter story is not completely happy. 00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:46.960 Because of today, Jesus has new life, but that does not erase what has happened the last two days. 00:12:47.519 --> 00:13:03.840 And if we jump and discount the suffering and the pain and the isolation, sometimes I'm afraid we impose a false narrative on what this story means for us. 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:10.240 It's invitation for joyful and faithful living. 00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:30.399 Today the assurance is that death with a capital D, that isolation, separation from God, will not be our reality after we die. 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:43.039 Today is the certainty that God will in fact catch each and every one of us. 00:13:46.399 --> 00:14:01.840 And yet, if we're honest, today does not take away the experiences of suffering, of pain, of isolation, which continue to characterize our lives. 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:10.720 We continue to live like the folks in this story, in that in-between. 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:22.000 In between God fully catching us, which is the promise of our faith, and living into that reality. 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:30.240 And so we pray this week after week, God, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:45.360 And here is our invitation this Easter and each Easter to embrace God's grasp of us and to do it now and not just to wait. 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:50.399 What happens when we skip to the end? 00:14:51.279 --> 00:15:00.000 We make mistakes like saying, because Jesus has risen, we don't have to wear masks anymore, and it's a mistake, and you know it. 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:08.320 We make mistakes when we jump to the end of saying, mission accomplished, therefore all travails are gone. 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:15.039 And of course, that is out of sync with the reality that most homeless people in the United States are veterans. 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:25.919 They came back, they were told mission accomplished, and have we made space for their own Fridays and Saturdays? 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:37.120 And our invitation as an Easter people is in fact to make space for one another. 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:58.080 It is not to deny suffering, it is not to deny inequity, it is to work with God so that God's will, which will be accomplished later, doesn't have to wait. 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:10.000 Now there's some interesting bits in the story, and it's helpful to put ourselves literally in the story. 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:14.960 Because of course the people in this story didn't know what was happening. 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:20.879 And not only were they somewhat surprised, they were bamboozled and perplexed. 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:34.960 And I don't know if you notice this, but the people who knew Jesus the best, like spent real time with the real embodied person, didn't recognize him on Sunday morning. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:40.159 He was not who they expected. 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:46.559 Mary, about whom we know, Jesus drove out unclean spirits. 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:55.279 We read in the Gospels that Jesus was perhaps one of the first people who dared to touch this woman, that nobody else would dare come near. 00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:08.319 Mary has come to mourn, perhaps the only person in recent years who has dared to believe her worthy of being touched and addressed like a human being. 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:15.359 And she doesn't see him when he stands right in front of her. 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:24.640 She says to Jesus, Where did you take my Lord? 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:28.400 She holds on to him. 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:56.319 Sometimes we hold on to notions of who Jesus is that might actually be dead. 00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:06.000 We might be holding on to versions of Jesus that belong in that tomb. 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:12.400 Within the risen Christ calls us out from those dead places. 00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:18.559 The risen Christ says, Do not hold on to me. 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:22.640 I am not here to comfort you. 00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:33.039 I am not here to be your individualized blanket of security, but rather the resurrected Jesus bids us to follow him. 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:39.920 Curious element in the story, two thoughts. 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:45.920 Mary sees the resurrected Jesus, thinks he's the gardener. 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:48.480 I have gardeners at my house. 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:52.480 They show up about once a week, sometimes every other week. 00:18:52.559 --> 00:19:01.839 There's usually about three or four of them, and in 20 minutes, they completely mow the grass, do the edging, blow off the clippings. 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:03.279 It's really phenomenal. 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:04.799 I don't have to talk to them. 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:06.640 In fact, usually I don't. 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:10.640 If I'm really honest with you, I'm not always sure that I can. 00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:13.440 There's a language barrier. 00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:18.880 Mary sees the resurrected Jesus and thinks he's the gardener. 00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:22.000 She thinks he's the hired help. 00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:26.720 If this is not a challenge to our faith life, I don't know what is. 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:34.000 Because you are probably better than I am, but often I like to get things done. 00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:44.160 So much so that I will go to a checkout line and sometimes be on my phone accomplishing important relational work. 00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:52.559 And I will put my items on the conveyor belt, and the person will scan them, and I'll check out whatever I'll ever have to say any other word. 00:19:52.640 --> 00:19:58.160 Maybe I'll melt, I'm sorry, or I'll nod or something like this. 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:10.960 And I, like Mary, miss the opportunity to see the resurrected Jesus working at that cash register. 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:21.200 We are invited, challenged to see the embodied resurrected Jesus and whoever we think are the hired help. 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:38.960 And we are invited and challenged to treat those people we consider the hired help with dignity and equity and humanity, which means if you're looking for something to do for Easter, join me in getting off your phone. 00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:44.640 The gardener. 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:46.079 Take two. 00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:57.759 Maybe after all, the resurrected Jesus is a gardener who would desperately like to tend to us plants. 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:01.599 And of course, you know what the master gardener does. 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:08.880 The master gardener looks for ways in which the plant is spending its life that go nowhere. 00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:21.119 The master gardener looks for those branches that have no fruit in them, or looks for those variants that come out even of fruit trees that have thorns. 00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:23.279 I don't know if you know this. 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:27.680 Sometimes orange trees, they grow branches that have thorns. 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:36.559 The master gardener trims those off because if they're not trimmed, they will overtake the plant and choke the fruit. 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:41.839 God is not out to trim people out of God's family. 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:48.480 God is out to trim those parts of us that take our energy and result in death. 00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:56.559 And God would trim them for our sake so that we can produce fruits. 00:21:57.119 --> 00:21:59.759 And the scripture calls them love, joy, peace. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:08.480 Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control so that we can produce fruits that nourish the world. 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:19.759 Now I grew up, I'll tell you, with my father as a botanist, and he had a private nursery, and I spent many of my days in high school as the hired help, and I mean that literally. 00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:32.000 Day after day I would come and tend to plants and pots, and I would pull weeds, and one day my dad asked me, What's a weed? 00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:35.200 Do you know the answer? 00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:38.240 A weed is any plant you don't want. 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:48.079 And what's interesting is that if you don't want a rose, it's a weed, and you'll pull it up. 00:22:49.359 --> 00:23:00.000 The Master Gardener insists that we not pull up God's beauty because we can't see it. 00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:14.480 The Master Gardener begs us to open our imaginations to find the risen Christ embodied not only in the hired help, but the people you'd rather not look at. 00:23:15.599 --> 00:23:22.559 That's our commission for the day to live into resurrection. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:32.640 Today does not take away Friday, but it does remind us of this. 00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:38.559 There are parts of us that will not live on. 00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:40.400 Thank God. 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:48.160 Those parts are things like pettiness and fear and enmity and self-righteousness. 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:55.279 But our reminder of the day is that these fruits love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. 00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:04.319 No matter how wounded they appear to be, they do not in fact ever die in God. 00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:23.279 In fact, I would suggest to you that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control, these things are the ones that are able to absorb things like anger and fear and live on. 00:24:27.119 --> 00:24:38.000 Just to be radically, radically in sync with Easter, I invite you to consider Paul's testimony this morning. 00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:40.319 We heard it. 00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:52.880 The resurrected Jesus goes around appearing to people, bidding them to live into the larger life that God will accomplish with or without us. 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:56.960 But God hopes will join into so that we can enjoy it now. 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:00.480 And Paul doesn't repent. 00:25:01.200 --> 00:25:04.000 He is not intellectually converted. 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:07.440 We don't know his politics. 00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:12.799 Except we know he goes around persecuting the resurrected Jesus. 00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:16.960 And apparently that's not enough to put the resurrected Jesus off. 00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:23.359 Talk about a way of life that is bigger than what I settle for. 00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:27.839 The resurrected Jesus loves and includes people who want nothing to do with him. 00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:34.160 And that's our call on Easter. 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:41.039 To join the resurrected Jesus and including people that don't even want to be included. 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:53.279 And all of this, don't you see, is not because God is interested in us earning some more grace. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:58.240 God's not out for you to put more jewels and some heavenly crown. 00:25:58.400 --> 00:26:01.119 If you read the scriptures, you don't even get to wear that crown. 00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:03.119 You throw it down as soon as you get it. 00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:04.880 God's not interested in that. 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:18.160 God is interested in these things because God is convinced we will enjoy our lives more if we don't wait. 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:24.160 God is convinced that this will happen when we die. 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:30.480 And so why should we wait for what God intends for us now? 00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:38.559 The Lord is risen. 00:26:39.440 --> 00:26:41.440 The Lord is risen indeed. 00:27:01.759 --> 00:27:10.640 We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:27.920 We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light and light, true God and true God, begotten and not made, of one being with the Father. 00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:30.480 Through him all things were made. 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:35.119 For us is for our salvation, he came down from heaven. 00:27:35.440 --> 00:27:42.000 By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man. 00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:46.079 For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. 00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:48.640 He suffered death and was buried. 00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:53.359 On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures. 00:27:53.680 --> 00:27:58.240 He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. 00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:04.720 He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. 00:28:05.279 --> 00:28:12.559 We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. 00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:16.400 With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified. 00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:18.960 He has spoken through the prophets. 00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:23.039 We believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. 00:28:23.279 --> 00:28:27.039 We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. 00:28:27.279 --> 00:28:32.000 We look for the resurrection of the dead and the light of the world to come. 00:28:32.559 --> 00:28:33.200 Amen. 00:28:35.759 --> 00:28:40.000 The socially distanced peace of the risen Lord be always with you. 00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:42.079 And also with you. 00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:54.799 Please be seated. 00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:05.039 Peace and a joyful Easter, and grateful that you've chosen to worship here at St. 00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:06.240 Thomas this morning. 00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:11.200 In a few minutes, I'll be offering nourishment both for your body and spirit from the Lord's table. 00:29:11.359 --> 00:29:13.039 We'll do this in sections. 00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:20.240 The common cup has been closed temporarily from COVID, but I will be offering you bread or a blessing. 00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:25.279 If you'd like to receive bread when it's your sections' turn, you can come forward with your hands open. 00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:29.039 If you'd like to receive a blessing, just come with your arms crossed. 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:32.799 I do have gluten-free uh wafers upon request. 00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:37.759 And as you'll hear in a moment, all of course are welcome at God's table. 00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:39.519 Just a few announcements. 00:29:39.839 --> 00:29:48.720 One is that this coming Saturday is an opportunity to help us be good stewards of our most valuable asset here in the community, which is our building. 00:29:48.880 --> 00:29:53.839 And so we're going to have a parish workday at 9 o'clock, or 8 o'clock. 00:29:54.160 --> 00:29:58.079 8 o'clock in the morning until noon, and we'll be offering food as well. 00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:02.480 Sometimes people come in and out of the building and they notice something that could be fixed. 00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:03.599 This is your chance. 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:09.119 We'll take good care of this building, which we share as often as we can with the community this coming Saturday. 00:30:09.279 --> 00:30:12.960 I also want to invite you to consider on your calendars May 1st. 00:30:13.279 --> 00:30:26.880 That is the first Saturday in May, and it is our next mobile flesh food distribution whereby the Galveston Food Bank brings a truck of food that we serve to people in the community who find themselves in need. 00:30:27.039 --> 00:30:40.480 There's more information for that on our website, but basically we serve from 7:45 in the morning until 10 in the morning, and normally that represents more than 450 persons getting fresh groceries that day. 00:30:41.839 --> 00:30:42.960 Walk in love. 00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:05.359 So come. 00:33:05.839 --> 00:33:14.559 You who have much faith and you who have little, you who have been here often and you who have not been for a long time or ever before. 00:33:15.039 --> 00:33:18.799 You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come. 00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:23.200 Not because the church invites you, it is Christ. 00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:25.759 And he invites you to meet him here. 00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:41.279 We gift up you hoods. 00:33:41.839 --> 00:33:46.079 We gave unto the Lord. 00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:26.559 And to give you thanks, for you alone are God living and true, dwelling in light, inaccessible from the for time and forever, fountain of life and source of all goodness. 00:34:27.679 --> 00:34:32.159 You made all things and fill them with your blessings. 00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:41.280 You created them to rejoice in the splendor of your radiance. 00:34:42.800 --> 00:35:15.519 Countless throngs of angels stand before you to serve you who night and day, and beholding the glory of your presence, they offer to you who unseasing praise, joining with them and giving voice to every creature under heaven, then we are claim you and glorify your whole name as we sing. 00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:54.000 Your mighty works reveal your wisdom and love. 00:35:54.320 --> 00:36:04.079 You formed us in your own image, giving the whole world into our care, so that in obedience to you, our Creator, we might shepherd and serve all your creatures. 00:36:04.480 --> 00:36:09.519 When our disobedience took us far from you, you did not abandon us to the power of death. 00:36:09.760 --> 00:36:14.639 In your mercy you came to our help, so that in seeking you we might find you. 00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:21.280 Again and again you called us into covenant with you, and through the prophets you taught us to hope for salvation. 00:36:22.159 --> 00:36:28.320 Father, you love the world so much that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Savior. 00:36:29.039 --> 00:36:35.199 Incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of us, yet without sin. 00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:43.039 To the poor, he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners freedom, to the sorrowful joy. 00:36:43.679 --> 00:36:52.880 To fulfill your purpose, he gave himself up to death, and rising from the grave this morning, destroyed death and made the whole creation new. 00:36:53.599 --> 00:36:58.480 And that we might live no longer for ourselves, but for the one who died and rose for us. 00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:09.119 God sent the Holy Spirit, God's own first gift for those who believe, to complete Jesus' work in the world and bring to fulfillment the sanctification of all. 00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:17.840 When the hour had come to be glorified by you, his heavenly Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 00:37:18.639 --> 00:37:20.960 Supper with them, he took bread. 00:37:21.599 --> 00:37:28.239 And when he given thanks to you, he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat. 00:37:28.480 --> 00:37:31.119 This is my body which is given for you. 00:37:31.519 --> 00:37:33.679 Do this for the remembrance of me. 00:37:37.119 --> 00:37:40.400 After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine. 00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:45.360 And when he'd given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all of you. 00:37:45.840 --> 00:37:52.000 This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins. 00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:55.599 Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me. 00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:19.679 Father, we now celebrate this memorial of our redemption, recalling Christ's death and his descent among the dead, proclaiming his resurrection and ascension to your right hand, awaiting his coming in glory, and offering to you from the gifts you've given us, this bread and this cup, we praise you and we bless you. 00:38:20.320 --> 00:38:27.760 We praise you, we bless you, we give thanks to you, and we pray to you, Lord our God. 00:38:28.079 --> 00:38:45.840 Lord, we pray that in your goodness and mercy, your Holy Spirit may descend upon us and upon these gifts, sanctifying them and showing them to be holy gifts for your holy people, the bread of life and the cup of salvation, the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ. 00:38:46.320 --> 00:38:55.360 Grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your name. 00:38:55.920 --> 00:39:09.920 Remember Michael, our presiding bishop, Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, our bishops, the priests in our community, Mike, Craig, Jim, Bill, and Lillian, and all who minister in your church. 00:39:11.280 --> 00:39:20.800 Remember all your people and those who seek your truth, especially Chris, Sean, Jerome, Mark, Janice, and Leslie. 00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:26.320 The congregation is invited to name their own celebrations or petitions silently or aloud. 00:39:33.519 --> 00:39:39.280 Remember all who have died in the peace of Christ, and those whose faith is known to you alone. 00:39:39.760 --> 00:39:48.960 Bring them into the place of eternal joy and light, and grant that we may find our inheritance with all the saints who have found favor with you in ages past. 00:39:49.440 --> 00:39:55.119 We praise you in union with them and give you glory through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:39:55.840 --> 00:40:13.119 Through Christ and with Christ and in Christ, all honor and glory are yours, Almighty God and Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. 00:40:45.920 --> 00:40:54.960 Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. 00:40:55.360 --> 00:40:59.840 Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 00:41:00.079 --> 00:41:05.920 For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. 00:41:06.400 --> 00:41:07.039 Amen. 00:41:10.400 --> 00:41:13.440 Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. 00:41:13.920 --> 00:41:16.320 Therefore, let us keep the feast. 00:41:18.320 --> 00:41:23.119 These are the gifts of God for you, the people of God. 00:41:23.519 --> 00:41:27.920 Feed on them in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving. 00:41:28.159 --> 00:41:40.480 And I invite you to receive bread or a blessing by coming to the aisle closest to your right, coming down in socially distant intervals and returning to your seat on the far side. 00:42:43.519 --> 00:42:49.440 We the dark many days as late. 00:42:50.639 --> 00:42:56.719 Love lives again and with the dead as bad. 00:42:57.679 --> 00:43:03.599 Love is gone again, like we that's green and free. 00:43:05.280 --> 00:43:24.000 With the grave all the time, the white light in the earth, like green that sweet. 00:48:23.679 --> 00:48:25.440 Let's pray together. 00:48:26.239 --> 00:48:36.320 Eternal God, Heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. 00:48:36.559 --> 00:48:42.079 And you have fed us with spiritual food in the sacrament of his body and blood. 00:48:42.559 --> 00:48:45.039 Send us now into the world in peace. 00:48:45.199 --> 00:48:54.000 And grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart through Christ our Lord. 00:48:54.559 --> 00:48:55.199 Amen. 00:48:57.440 --> 00:49:00.559 Do not pray for an easy Easter. 00:49:01.039 --> 00:49:03.440 Pray to be more faithful people. 00:49:04.159 --> 00:49:08.880 Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. 00:49:09.440 --> 00:49:13.199 Pray for powers equal to God's tasks. 00:49:14.239 --> 00:49:17.360 Then the living of your faith will be no miracle. 00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:19.760 You will be the miracle. 00:49:20.159 --> 00:49:25.679 Every day you will be assigned to the world of God's imagination for us all. 00:49:26.639 --> 00:49:33.119 The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you this day and remain with you always. 00:49:33.840 --> 00:49:34.480 Amen.