EASTER LITURGY TO CELEBRATE JESUS, THE
LIVING ONE
Presider
1:
Welcome to our liturgical gathering. Our liturgical style is highly inclusive
and you are invited to participate in the words of consecration. We are happy
you are here with us today. All are welcome to share in our simple Eucharistic
meal around this friendship table. We begin our liturgical celebration today by
lighting our Easter Candle and our individual candles – a symbol of Jesus,
alive and with us.
As
our individual candles are lighted from the Easter Candle, we sing three times,
each time on a higher note:
Cantor: RISING SUN OF JUSTICE
All: Thanks Be to God!
Easter Proclamation
[adapted by Jim Marsh ARCWP]
Rejoice, heavenly powers!
Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation in God’s presence!
Jesus, the Anointed One, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of life renewed!
Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of our God!
Christ has risen!
Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes forever!
Rejoice, O
Mother Church!
Exult in glory!
The Risen One shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the song of all God’s people!
My dearest friends,
standing with me in this holy light,
Join me in praising God,
as we sing this Easter song.
When
all our candles are lighted, we sing the joyful song which proclaims the feast:
Opening
Song: Bright
Morning Stars (traditional, words adapted)
Refrain:
Bright morning stars are rising, bright
morning stars are rising, bright morning stars are rising, light is breaking in
our world!
The
dawn of first creation, new earth, new sky, new creatures, and humans, male and female, light was
breaking in our world.
God's
people lost in slavery, no hope, no light no freedom, then Moses clearly
calling: “Come, my people, come be free!”
Refrain
The
light of servant Jesus, A sense of godly vision, no bonds, no fear, no lying,
death defeated through this love.
The chains of death lie broken: new hope for new creation, all living as one
family, Light re-kindled in our lives. Refrain
So,
now we sing of Easter, of spring, of resurrection, and of renewed commitment:
Lives embracing everyone. Refrain
Renewal of Baptismal Promises
Presider 2: (Presider asks the following questions and
the assembly answers: We promise)
Do
you promise to see what is good for your sisters and brothers everywhere,
rejecting injustice and inequity and living with the freedom and responsibility
of children of God?
All: We
promise.
Do
you promise to work for the realization of God’s vision of harmony and right
relations among people and peoples, rejecting the idols of money and property
and color and sex and position?
Do
you promise to seek peace and live in peace in one human family, rejecting
prejudice and half-heartedness in every form, and all barriers to unity?
Do
you promise to cherish the universe, and this precious planet, working
creatively to renew and safeguard the elemental sacraments of air, earth,
water?
Do
you believe in God, the great Spirit of Creation, in Jesus, the simple servant
of justice and love who lived among us so that all might live with abundant
fullness; in the breath of God’s center, the Spirit who continues the work of
forgiveness and reconciliation, birthing and blessing, challenge and hope, so
that together we can continue the work of creation?
Sprinkling with Water
Presider 3: (prays the following while sprinkling the
assembly with water)
May
you live as a child of God and may your name be a blessing in our time.
Assembly
is invited to place their lighted candle on the friendship table.
A Statement of Faithfulness
Presider 4:
Please stand and proclaim our statement of faith.
All: We believe in one God, a
divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding,
the heart of all that has ever existed,
that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of God's Word,
bringer of God's healing, heart of God's compassion,
bright star in the firmament of God's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of God's love,
a source of God's wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of God's peace in the world.
We believe that God's kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen. Amen.
LITURGY OF THE WORD
Presider 5:
Please be seated. The first Reading is the Story of Salvation History (adapted
from the books of theHebrew Scriptures)
In
the beginning, there was only chaos and a void. God breathed life into it and
said, "Let there be light." And there was light: sun and moon and
stars in the heavens. There emerged vast bodies of water filled with live
creatures. Then, birds flying across the breadth of the skies, and on the
earth, reptiles and animals of every kind, color and shape. And all had a
purpose. God saw what had come to be, and God found it very good.
God
then said: "Let us make human beings in the divine image; women and men
together to take care of all of this, and one another! When this was done, God
viewed the whole of creation, and loved it, for it was very, very good.
Presider 1: But
human beings did not take care of creation and each other. Human beings
corrupted the good-ness of what God had made. Rain fell, a torrential,
purifying rain, covering the earth and washing away all the corruption to which
people had given birth. Only Noah, his family, and living creatures from every
species on earth floated above the flood in an ark made of wood.
After
forty days, the rain subsided, so that the water was no longer a flood, and the
ark came to rest on high, dry ground. The people and the animals looked up into
the sky and saw something beautiful. God said: "That is my rainbow, the
sign of my presence with you and my love for you. It will forever be the sign
of my relationship with you, and your responsibility to take care of creation,
and each other."
Presider 2: From
these survivors of the flood, creation was begun all over again. Many, many
years went by and there were many gatherings of people all over the face of the
earth. One of these was the people, Israel, and among all of God's precious
people, the Jews were very precious. During a time of famine, the Jews were
invited by the Egyptians, their neighbors, to share their land and their food.
But some centuries after this hospitality, a cruel leader in Egypt forgot the
old relationship and made the Jews into slaves.
They
lived this way for a long time, until Moses came among them and risked his
safety and security to convince the Jews that God loved them and wanted them to
be free. So, they left Egypt, filled with the Spirit of God, led by Moses and
Miriam through the desert in search of a new home where they could be free
again.
During
this difficult journey, they were often disillusioned and resentful, and they
complained bitterly. Moses asked God for help, and God offered the ten commandments,
so that the people might know the simplest possible way to love God and their
fellow human beings. And from these survivors of oppression, Israel began all
over again.
Presider 3: But
the people forgot the simple way of God and were not always faithful, and at
times they were as oppressive to each other and to strangers as the Egyptians
had been to them. They paid lip service to God, but their hearts were very far
from God, and therefore, from justice and compassion. People of wisdom came from
among them to remind them of the rainbow of their journey to freedom, and of
their promise to God about caring for creation and each other. These were the
prophets, and like Moses, they risked everything to convince the people to come
home to freedom and responsibility, compassion and justice, faithfulness and integrity.
The
prophet Isaiah said: "God is displeased with your prayers and your
liturgies because the hands you lift in prayer are covered with blood. God
wants prayer from the heart. God
wants justice for the oppressed. God wants food for the hungry. God wants true
peace!"
Presider 4: The
prophet Amos said: "Some of you have grabbed power and made your own
people no better than slaves. You have stripped people of their dignity as
God's children, buying and selling them as if they were groceries or sandals.
Greed is your god and selfishness, your liturgy!"
The prophet Micah said: "My people, you struggle
blindly to know what God wants, and you act as if you remember nothing from
your history, as if you know nothing. From the beginning of time, there has
been one message from God. What God wants is this, ONLY this: That we live justly, that we love tenderly,
that we walk with integrity in God's presence!
These are the inspired words of our
prophets.
Responsorial: Sung Alleluia
Presider 5: The Gospel according to John (20:1 –
18)
Early
in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary
Magdalene came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been rolled away from
the entrance, so she ran off to Simon Peter and the other disciple – the one
Jesus loved – and told them, "the Rabbi has been taken from the tomb! We
don't know where they have put Jesus!"
At
that, Peter and the other disciple started out toward the tomb. They were
running side-by-side but then the other disciple outran Peter and reached the
tomb first. He didn't enter, but bent down to peer in and saw the linen
wrappings lying on the ground. Then Simon Peter arrived and entered the tomb.
He observed the linen wrappings on the ground, and saw the piece of cloth that
covered Jesus’ head lying not with the wrappings, but rolled up in a place by
itself. Then the disciple who had arrived first at the tomb went in. He saw and
believed. As yet, they didn't understand the Scripture that Jesus was to rise
from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.
Presider 1: Meanwhile,
Mary stood weeping beside the tomb. Even as she wept, she stooped to peer
inside, and there she saw two angels in dazzling robes. One was seated at the
head and the other at the foot of the place where Jesus' body had lain.
They
asked her, "Why are you weeping?"
She
answered them, "because they have taken away my Rabbi, and I don't know
where they have put the body."
No
sooner had she said this than she turned around and caught sight of Jesus
standing there, but she didn't know it was Jesus. He asked her, “Why are you
weeping? For whom are you looking?"
She
supposed it was the gardener, so she said, "Please, if you're the one who
carried Jesus away, tell me where you’ve laid the body and I will take it
away."
Jesus
said to her, "Mary!"
She
turned to him and said, "Rabboni!" - Which means "Teacher."
Presider 2: Jesus
then said, “Don't hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to Abba God.
Rather, go to the sisters and brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my
Abba and your Abba, my God and your God!’"
Mary
of Magdala went to the disciples. "I have seen the teacher!" she
announced. Then she reported what Jesus had said to her.
This
is the inspired word of John, disciple of Jesus.
Dialogue Homily – Presider 1 begins
EUCHARIST PRAYER
Presider 3:
As we prepare for this sacred meal, we stand in solidarity with our sisters
and brothers and we bring our many needs and concerns to the table.
(Please feel free
to voice your concerns beginning with the words, “I bring to the table….”)
Presider 4: We pray for all who have asked for our
prayers and for all who need our prayers. Amen.
Presider 5:
Let us pray our Eucharistic prayer together.
(Easter
Preface adapted from a poem by e.e. cummings)
All: We
thank you, God, for this most amazing day/ for the leaping, greenly spirits of
trees/ for the true, blue dream of sky/ for everything which is natural, which
is infinite, which is yes. We who were dead are alive again today/ and.today is
the sun's birth-day, the birth-day of wings/ in all of this wonder, how could
we human merely beings/ lifted from the no of all nothing/ doubt unimaginable
you? Now the ears of our ears awake/ now the eyes of our eyes are open/
awakened, quickened, alive, we join with all living creatures, and we sing:
Holy, Holy, Holy
(Words and music by
Karen Druker)
We are holy, holy, holy,
We are holy, holy, holy,
We are whole.
Spirit Divine, Come to Me,
healing Love, healing Me.
Open my heart, allow me to see,
Beauty and love, lives in me.
You are holy, holy, holy…
All:
Holy One, what we can ever say about you is revealed in the harmony of nature
all around us, and all right-relations. We have been taught that it can be
found within us and among us, as well.
We
give thanks for all your visionaries throughout our history, in so many
traditions, who have enacted your peace in the fragile vessel of their
humanity.
We
are grateful for our brother Jesus, whose life forever shows us the truth of
your love and our own capacity for loving in a godly way, to create with you a
place of peace for everyone.
He
lived what he taught, and in him, as in the emergence of your springtime, we
understand that death has no final dominion. Through this recognition comes our
own rebirth to freedom, courage, and encouraging love.
On
the night before he died, Jesus gathered for the Seder supper with his friends.
Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet, so that they would
know how to remember him. Back again at the table, he lifted up the bread of
freedom, spoke the grace, broke the bread, and offered it them, saying:
(presider lifts the bread)
Take and eat; this is my very self. (pause)
Then
he lifted up the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered them the wine,
saying: (presider lifts the
wine)
Take and drink of the covenant made new
again through my life, for you and for everyone, that all captivity might
cease. Whenever you do this, you re-member me. (pause)
We
will never make peace if we do not re-member, if we do not realize that your
light and life and love are a heritage for all of creation, and that you see
each of us as precious, bearing your image.
We
can only make peace if we are passionately doing the work of justice and
right-relations, working skillfully to eliminate the illusion of separateness
so that we can live in communion, and rise up from our slavery: the dominion of
death, and the attitudes, structures, and weapons of death.
We
will learn to trust you, God of creation, liberation, rainbows and life. We
will learn to trust creation and ourselves and each other enough, to open
ourselves and our small circles until they are as wide as your own love.
We remember our
brothers and sisters who have gone before us and all the saints who have done
your will throughout the ages. We praise you in union with them, and give you
glory through Jesus, our brother.
(Presiders hold bread and
wine)
All:
Through him, we
have learned to how to live.
Through him, we
have learned how to love.
Through him, we
have learned how to serve.
AMEN.
Presider
1: Let us pray together the prayer of
Jesus
Oh
Holy One, who is within, we celebrate your many names. Your wisdom come. Your
will be done, unfolding from the depths within us. Each day you give us all
that we need. You remind us of our limits, and we let go. You support us in our
power, and we act with courage. For you are the dwelling place within us, the
empowerment around us, and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen.
The
Prayer of Jesus as interpreted by Miriam Therese Winter
Presider 2: God’s peace is with you always. As we share
our joy, let us share God’s abundant peace. Please share a sign of peace.
Peace Song: Peace is Flowing Like a River # 41
Presider 3: Please join in the prayer for the breaking of the bread.
All: Loving God, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice. We will live justly.
Loving
God, You call us to be Your presence in the world. We will love tenderly.
Loving
God, You call us to speak truth to power.
We will walk with integrity in your presence.
COMMUNION
Presider 4: This
is Jesus, the Bread of Life. How blessed are we who are called to the table.
All: What we have heard
with our ears, we will live with our lives; as we share communion, we will
become communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.
Presider 5: Please join in singing our Communion
Song.
Communion Song: #22 Morning Has Broken
ANNOUNCEMENTS
(Presider 1 begins
announcements and recognition of special events during the month, etc.)
BLESSING
Presider 1: You are
light for the world, you are salt for the earth. It is God’s own Spirit alive
with you Who animates you, consecrates you, and blesses you. Let us go now and
live the Gospel!
All: Amen.
Closing
Song: #59 Glory to God
