Join us online for worship
Easter, April 12
To access our worship service online, please visit our website at www.umcw.org/sermons
(The service has been pre-recorded.)

(Join us in the "Love Feast" by gathering bread/wafer and drink prior to starting the service.)
On this most holy day in the Christian church, the message is not just about happy endings or finding and regaining something. The message is about a continued going and looking and searching for Jesus beyond the confines! The women go to the tomb to keep vigil but discover in a series of dramatic happenings that he is not there. He has risen and has “gone on ahead of you.” This day we praise the Risen Jesus and remember that he is always inviting us, not to conclusions, but to the next chapter!
Order of Worship
Easter
April 12, 202
Prelude - "Thine Be The Glory" - UMH #308

Welcome
 
The Passing of the Peace
I invite you to pass the peace of Christ with others, saying “This
is the day of your resurrection! The Christ is risen to you!”
 
Gathering Words - John 20 ( Jill and Liv Lohmeier)
Liturgist:  Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?
People: We don’t know where to find Jesus.
Liturgist:  The days have been dark. The news has been sad.
People: We don’t know what to do with our grief.
Liturgist: The cross has claimed his life. The tomb has shrouded our hope.
People: We don’t know where to turn for comfort.
Liturgist:  Who has stolen him from us? Why are we alone at the tomb?
People: We don’t know where to look for answers.
Liturgist:  Tears and sorrow blind us in our grief.
People: We don’t know where to find Jesus.

Introit - ”He Is Alive” - Buryl Red
© 1972. Renewed 2000 Van Ness Press, Inc. (Admin: Music Services, Inc.)
 
Opening Hymn - “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”
UMH #302 (vss 1-4)
(UMCW Adult Choir and Congregation, Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019)
 
Call to Worship - 1 Corinthians 15, John 20
(Jill and Liv Lohmeier)
Liturgist:  Remember the good news that Jesus promised.
People: We will not be left alone.
Liturgist: Death cannot contain the purpose of God.
People: We will rise and live with this hope.
Liturgist:  Tears and weeping will be no more.
People: We will know joy and laughter again.
Liturgist:  This is the day that the Lord has made.
People: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Liturgist: Rejoice for Christ is risen.
People: Christ is risen indeed!
 
Opening Prayer - John 20
(Jodie Kruger)
Risen Christ, Lord of life, breathe new life into us this day. Inspire us with confidence, and open our hearts anew, to receive your promise of resurrection. Speak to us once more, that we might hear your voice and recognize your presence in our midst. From the darkness of doubt, guide us into the glorious light of faith and love. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.
 
Scripture Readings - Genesis 2:7-9; John 20:19-23
(Preeti Wesley)
 Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (NRSV)

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (NRSV)

Liturgist: The word of God for the people of God.
People:  Thanks be to God.        

Special Prayer for the Pandemic
 
Message - “Living with the Risen Christ: Breathing”
(Pastor Seok-Hwan)

The Easter Love Feast
(Mumma Family)
 
Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!  
Let's celebrate this irrepressible life; let's open our hearts to the joy and wonder of infinite possibility, of unquenched hope, of eternal resurrection.
 
We celebrate, we raise our voices and our hearts in worship and thanksgiving to the God who lives.
 
Resurrection happened because Christ was first prepared to die. Defying death, He refused to release His hold on life and love. So now, as He encouraged us, we choose to remember so that we too can truly live. At supper on the night before He died Jesus took bread and blessed it. Then He broke it and gave it to His disciples saying: 

This is my body, broken so that you may know life. Eat it and remember Me. So we celebrate the life of the risen Christ that is given to us today as the bread of life!
 
After the meal Jesus took wine and blessed it. Then He gave it to His disciples saying:
This is my blood, shed so that you may know life. Drink it and remember Me. So we celebrate life together by drinking the water today because Jesus said, “I am the life and living water.”
 
So, now, Lord of Life, we share in this meal, we celebrate together, and we remember You.
And we will continue to do this until resurrection has flooded the whole creation. Amen.

May this meal become for us in this moment your life-giving gift,

And may we who share this meal, be joined with you, and with one another, as one body united in resurrection life, and sharing with all of creation in your eternal life.
Amen.
 
As we share the love feast meal, we celebrate Christ's life who is the bread of life and living water. In all our diversity, in all our individuality, as we share this one loaf we are one. (The Love Feast meal is shared.)

Prayer together
Father of earth and heaven,
Thy hungry children feed,
Thy grace be to our spirits given,
That true immortal bread.

Grant us and all our race
In Jesus Christ to prove
The sweetness of thy pardoning grace,
The manna of thy love.
 ( Charles Wesley, written especially for the Love Feast)

Offertory Prayer
With gratitude and joy, O God, we bring forth these gifts and ask for your blessing. Live in and through these gifts and the ministries of this church, that we may bring new life into a world ready to embrace the spring.
 
Closing Hymn - “Because He Lives” - UMH #364
 
The Blessing and Sending Forth

Response - “Hallelujah Chorus” (The Messiah) - G. F. Handel
(UMCW Adult Choir & Congregation; Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019)
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“The United Methodist Church of Westford is an open and welcoming community of Christian Faith. Without any exceptions, we welcome anyone who seeks to love and to serve God.”
Please click here for “A Statement of Our Openness”.