Life After Easter – John 20.19-31
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GATHERING
Announcements:
With the number of vaccines being distributed and the rate of test-positivity decreasing, we are looking into the possibility of reopening for limited in-person worship. If you have been vaccinated, or will soon be vaccinated, and are available to help with in-person worship, please contact the church office via cokesburyumc@gmail.com
Until then, will continue to offer worship online only and we will continue to offer mid-week prayers, live videos, and email devotionals.
Online giving can be made on our About page on the church website, cokesburyumc.church, which will be linked in the video description for live worship as well as checks through the mail.
Hymn 249 – Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in his wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of his glory and grace.
Prayer:
Lord, you know who we are: People with good and bad consciences; satisfied and dissatisfied, sure and unsure people; Christians out of conviction and Christians out of habit; believers, half- believers, and unbelievers. Lord, you know where we come from: our circle of relatives, friends, and acquaintances, or from great loneliness; from our lives of easy leisure, or from distress; from wonderful, fine, or destroyed family relationships; from the inner circle or from the fringes of the community we call church. But now we all gather before you: in all of our inequality we are equal in this, that we are in the wrong before you and among one another; that we must all die some day; that we would all be lost without your grace; but also in that your grace is promised to all of us through your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. So speak your Word to us today Lord, for we, your servants, are listening.
Our own joys and concerns…
And as you taught us, so now we pray… Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
PROCLAIMING
John 20.19-23:
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; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Hymn 304 – Easter People, Raise Your Voices:
V1. Easter people, raise your voices, sounds of heaven in earth should ring.
Christ has brought us heaven’s choices; heavenly music, let it ring.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Easter people, let us sing.
V2. Fear of death can no more stop us from our pressing here below.
For our Lord empowered us to triumph over every foe.
Alleluia! Alleluia! On to victory now we go.
V3. Every day to us is Easter, with its resurrection song.
When in trouble move the faster to our God who rights the wrong.
Alleluia! Alleluia! See the power of heavenly throngs.
Sermon: Life After Easter
RESPONDING
Prayer:
We thank you Lord, that you have delivered us from the dominion of sin and death and brought us into the kingdom of your Son; and we pray that, just as he found his disciples in the upper room, your Son might continue to find us where we are, forgive us of our sins, and send us on the journey that leads to life and life everlasting. Amen.
Offering – Reminder for online giving, through the mail, or the drop slot at the church.
Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the
communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
SENDING FORTH
Blessing and Benediction