SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah, Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is risen indeed.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02: Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_02: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: He is Lord of all.
SPEAKER_07: That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced.
SPEAKER_07: How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.
SPEAKER_07: How he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.
SPEAKER_07: For God was with him.
SPEAKER_07: We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_07: 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.
SPEAKER_07: 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.
SPEAKER_07: All the prophets testify about him, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
SPEAKER_07: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_07: A reading from the book of Psalms.
SPEAKER_07: Give thanks to the Lord who is good, whose mercy endures forever.
SPEAKER_07: Let Israel now proclaim the mercy of the Lord endures forever.
SPEAKER_07: The Lord is my strength and my song and has become my salvation.
SPEAKER_07: There is sound of exaltation and victory in the tents of the righteous.
SPEAKER_07: The right hand of the Lord has triumphed.
SPEAKER_07: The right hand of the Lord is exalted.
SPEAKER_07: The right hand of the Lord has triumphed.
SPEAKER_07: I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: The Lord has punished me sorely, but did not hand me over to death.
SPEAKER_07: Open for me the gates of righteousness.
SPEAKER_07: I will enter them.
SPEAKER_07: I will offer thanks to the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: This is the gate of the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Those who are righteous may enter.
SPEAKER_07: I will give thanks to you, for you answered me, and you have become my salvation.
SPEAKER_07: The same stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
SPEAKER_07: This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
SPEAKER_07: On this day, the Lord has acted.
SPEAKER_07: We will rejoice and be glad in it.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.
SPEAKER_00: Then he appeared to James, then to the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
SPEAKER_00: For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
SPEAKER_00: But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and in his grace toward me has not been in vain.
SPEAKER_00: On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
SPEAKER_00: Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim, and so you have come to believe.
SPEAKER_00: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't it a delight to remember that even in church we're subject to technical difficulties and the mistake of everyday life?
SPEAKER_02: And one of those has happened now where we left down to him.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: And then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.
SPEAKER_02: The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
SPEAKER_02: He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
SPEAKER_02: Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Then the disciples returned to their homes, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?
SPEAKER_02: She said to them, They've taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.
SPEAKER_02: When she'd said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?
SPEAKER_02: Whom are you looking for?
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said to her, Mary.
SPEAKER_02: She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabuni, which means my teacher.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said to her, Do not hold on to me, because I've not yet ascended to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.
SPEAKER_02: Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And she told them they said these things to her.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_06: Praise to you, Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is risen indeed.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: And so I am grateful to wish you a joyful Easter.
SPEAKER_02: And I think the word actually matters in this space.
SPEAKER_02: Because if we're honest and intentional, this first Easter story is not completely happy.
SPEAKER_02: Because of today, Jesus has new life, but that does not erase what has happened the last two days.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: It's invitation for joyful and faithful living.
SPEAKER_02: Today the assurance is that death with a capital D, that isolation, separation from God, will not be our reality after we die.
SPEAKER_02: Today is the certainty that God will in fact catch each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: We continue to live like the folks in this story, in that in-between.
SPEAKER_02: In between God fully catching us, which is the promise of our faith, and living into that reality.
SPEAKER_02: And so we pray this week after week, God, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: What happens when we skip to the end?
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: We make mistakes when we jump to the end of saying, mission accomplished, therefore all travails are gone.
SPEAKER_02: And of course, that is out of sync with the reality that most homeless people in the United States are veterans.
SPEAKER_02: They came back, they were told mission accomplished, and have we made space for their own Fridays and Saturdays?
SPEAKER_02: And our invitation as an Easter people is in fact to make space for one another.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Now there's some interesting bits in the story, and it's helpful to put ourselves literally in the story.
SPEAKER_02: Because of course the people in this story didn't know what was happening.
SPEAKER_02: And not only were they somewhat surprised, they were bamboozled and perplexed.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: He was not who they expected.
SPEAKER_02: Mary, about whom we know, Jesus drove out unclean spirits.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: And she doesn't see him when he stands right in front of her.
SPEAKER_02: She says to Jesus, Where did you take my Lord?
SPEAKER_02: She holds on to him.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we hold on to notions of who Jesus is that might actually be dead.
SPEAKER_02: We might be holding on to versions of Jesus that belong in that tomb.
SPEAKER_02: Within the risen Christ calls us out from those dead places.
SPEAKER_02: The risen Christ says, Do not hold on to me.
SPEAKER_02: I am not here to comfort you.
SPEAKER_02: I am not here to be your individualized blanket of security, but rather the resurrected Jesus bids us to follow him.
SPEAKER_02: Curious element in the story, two thoughts.
SPEAKER_02: Mary sees the resurrected Jesus, thinks he's the gardener.
SPEAKER_02: I have gardeners at my house.
SPEAKER_02: They show up about once a week, sometimes every other week.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: It's really phenomenal.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have to talk to them.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, usually I don't.
SPEAKER_02: If I'm really honest with you, I'm not always sure that I can.
SPEAKER_02: There's a language barrier.
SPEAKER_02: Mary sees the resurrected Jesus and thinks he's the gardener.
SPEAKER_02: She thinks he's the hired help.
SPEAKER_02: If this is not a challenge to our faith life, I don't know what is.
SPEAKER_02: Because you are probably better than I am, but often I like to get things done.
SPEAKER_02: So much so that I will go to a checkout line and sometimes be on my phone accomplishing important relational work.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe I'll melt, I'm sorry, or I'll nod or something like this.
SPEAKER_02: And I, like Mary, miss the opportunity to see the resurrected Jesus working at that cash register.
SPEAKER_02: We are invited, challenged to see the embodied resurrected Jesus and whoever we think are the hired help.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: The gardener.
SPEAKER_02: Take two.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe after all, the resurrected Jesus is a gardener who would desperately like to tend to us plants.
SPEAKER_02: And of course, you know what the master gardener does.
SPEAKER_02: The master gardener looks for ways in which the plant is spending its life that go nowhere.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you know this.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes orange trees, they grow branches that have thorns.
SPEAKER_02: The master gardener trims those off because if they're not trimmed, they will overtake the plant and choke the fruit.
SPEAKER_02: God is not out to trim people out of God's family.
SPEAKER_02: God is out to trim those parts of us that take our energy and result in death.
SPEAKER_02: And God would trim them for our sake so that we can produce fruits.
SPEAKER_02: And the scripture calls them love, joy, peace.
SPEAKER_02: Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control so that we can produce fruits that nourish the world.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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?
SPEAKER_02: Do you know the answer?
SPEAKER_02: A weed is any plant you don't want.
SPEAKER_02: And what's interesting is that if you don't want a rose, it's a weed, and you'll pull it up.
SPEAKER_02: The Master Gardener insists that we not pull up God's beauty because we can't see it.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: That's our commission for the day to live into resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: Today does not take away Friday, but it does remind us of this.
SPEAKER_02: There are parts of us that will not live on.
SPEAKER_02: Thank God.
SPEAKER_02: Those parts are things like pettiness and fear and enmity and self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: But our reminder of the day is that these fruits love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.
SPEAKER_02: No matter how wounded they appear to be, they do not in fact ever die in God.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Just to be radically, radically in sync with Easter, I invite you to consider Paul's testimony this morning.
SPEAKER_02: We heard it.
SPEAKER_02: The resurrected Jesus goes around appearing to people, bidding them to live into the larger life that God will accomplish with or without us.
SPEAKER_02: But God hopes will join into so that we can enjoy it now.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul doesn't repent.
SPEAKER_02: He is not intellectually converted.
SPEAKER_02: We don't know his politics.
SPEAKER_02: Except we know he goes around persecuting the resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And apparently that's not enough to put the resurrected Jesus off.
SPEAKER_02: Talk about a way of life that is bigger than what I settle for.
SPEAKER_02: The resurrected Jesus loves and includes people who want nothing to do with him.
SPEAKER_02: And that's our call on Easter.
SPEAKER_02: To join the resurrected Jesus and including people that don't even want to be included.
SPEAKER_02: And all of this, don't you see, is not because God is interested in us earning some more grace.
SPEAKER_02: God's not out for you to put more jewels and some heavenly crown.
SPEAKER_02: If you read the scriptures, you don't even get to wear that crown.
SPEAKER_02: You throw it down as soon as you get it.
SPEAKER_02: God's not interested in that.
SPEAKER_02: God is interested in these things because God is convinced we will enjoy our lives more if we don't wait.
SPEAKER_02: God is convinced that this will happen when we die.
SPEAKER_02: And so why should we wait for what God intends for us now?
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is risen.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is risen indeed.
SPEAKER_06: We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.
SPEAKER_06: 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.
SPEAKER_06: Through him all things were made.
SPEAKER_06: For us is for our salvation, he came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_06: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man.
SPEAKER_06: For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
SPEAKER_06: He suffered death and was buried.
SPEAKER_06: On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures.
SPEAKER_06: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_04: He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
SPEAKER_06: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_06: With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.
SPEAKER_06: He has spoken through the prophets.
SPEAKER_06: We believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
SPEAKER_06: We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_06: We look for the resurrection of the dead and the light of the world to come.
SPEAKER_06: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: The socially distanced peace of the risen Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_06: And also with you.
SPEAKER_02: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_02: Peace and a joyful Easter, and grateful that you've chosen to worship here at St.
SPEAKER_02: Thomas this morning.
SPEAKER_02: In a few minutes, I'll be offering nourishment both for your body and spirit from the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_02: We'll do this in sections.
SPEAKER_02: The common cup has been closed temporarily from COVID, but I will be offering you bread or a blessing.
SPEAKER_02: If you'd like to receive bread when it's your sections' turn, you can come forward with your hands open.
SPEAKER_02: If you'd like to receive a blessing, just come with your arms crossed.
SPEAKER_02: I do have gluten-free uh wafers upon request.
SPEAKER_02: And as you'll hear in a moment, all of course are welcome at God's table.
SPEAKER_02: Just a few announcements.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're going to have a parish workday at 9 o'clock, or 8 o'clock.
SPEAKER_02: 8 o'clock in the morning until noon, and we'll be offering food as well.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes people come in and out of the building and they notice something that could be fixed.
SPEAKER_02: This is your chance.
SPEAKER_02: We'll take good care of this building, which we share as often as we can with the community this coming Saturday.
SPEAKER_02: I also want to invite you to consider on your calendars May 1st.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Walk in love.
SPEAKER_02: So come.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come.
SPEAKER_02: Not because the church invites you, it is Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_01: We gift up you hoods.
SPEAKER_03: We gave unto the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: You made all things and fill them with your blessings.
SPEAKER_01: You created them to rejoice in the splendor of your radiance.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Your mighty works reveal your wisdom and love.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: When our disobedience took us far from you, you did not abandon us to the power of death.
SPEAKER_02: In your mercy you came to our help, so that in seeking you we might find you.
SPEAKER_02: Again and again you called us into covenant with you, and through the prophets you taught us to hope for salvation.
SPEAKER_02: Father, you love the world so much that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Savior.
SPEAKER_02: Incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of us, yet without sin.
SPEAKER_02: To the poor, he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners freedom, to the sorrowful joy.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: And that we might live no longer for ourselves, but for the one who died and rose for us.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Supper with them, he took bread.
SPEAKER_02: And when he given thanks to you, he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_02: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_02: Do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_02: After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.
SPEAKER_02: And when he'd given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_02: This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_02: Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: We praise you, we bless you, we give thanks to you, and we pray to you, Lord our God.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Remember all your people and those who seek your truth, especially Chris, Sean, Jerome, Mark, Janice, and Leslie.
SPEAKER_02: The congregation is invited to name their own celebrations or petitions silently or aloud.
SPEAKER_02: Remember all who have died in the peace of Christ, and those whose faith is known to you alone.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: We praise you in union with them and give you glory through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
SPEAKER_02: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
SPEAKER_02: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, let us keep the feast.
SPEAKER_02: These are the gifts of God for you, the people of God.
SPEAKER_02: Feed on them in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_05: We the dark many days as late.
SPEAKER_05: Love lives again and with the dead as bad.
SPEAKER_05: Love is gone again, like we that's green and free.
SPEAKER_05: With the grave all the time, the white light in the earth, like green that sweet.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02: Eternal God, Heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And you have fed us with spiritual food in the sacrament of his body and blood.
SPEAKER_02: Send us now into the world in peace.
SPEAKER_02: And grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Do not pray for an easy Easter.
SPEAKER_02: Pray to be more faithful people.
SPEAKER_02: Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.
SPEAKER_02: Pray for powers equal to God's tasks.
SPEAKER_02: Then the living of your faith will be no miracle.
SPEAKER_02: You will be the miracle.
SPEAKER_02: Every day you will be assigned to the world of God's imagination for us all.
SPEAKER_02: The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.