April 5, 2026 Easter Sunday
CHIMING OF THE HOUR
WELCOME
PRAYER
Living God, on the first day of the week
you brought to birth a new creation
through the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Fill us with the hope and joy of new beginnings,
so that we may share the good news
of your liberating, life-giving power
with all the world;
through Christ our Savior, who is alive
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
now and always. Amen.
PRELUDE “Trumpet Fanfare” Fender Groden
CALL TO WORSHIP
Through God’s miracle of grace,
we have come through the night
and arrived at this glorious dawn.
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
All doors are open, all creation sings,
all that was broken is made whole,
and we have new life.
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Let all that has life and breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
*HYMN No. 232 “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today”
1 Jesus Christ is risen today,
Alleluia!
our triumphant holy day,
Alleluia!
who did once upon the cross,
Alleluia!
suffer to redeem our loss.
Alleluia!
2 Hymns of praise then let us sing,
Alleluia!
unto Christ, our heavenly King,
Alleluia!
who endured the cross and grave,
Alleluia!
sinners to redeem and save.
Alleluia!
3 But the pains which he endured,
Alleluia!
our salvation have procured.
Alleluia!
Now above the sky he’s King,
Alleluia!
where the angels ever sing.
Alleluia!
4 Sing we to our God above,
Alleluia!
praise eternal as God’s love.
Alleluia!
Praise our God, ye heavenly host,
Alleluia!
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Alleluia!
COMMISSIONING OF THE CONFIRMATION CLASS
PRESENTATION
The following youth are presented by the Session to make their public profession of faith in Jesus Christ and to be commissioned as active church members: Jordan Hill, Jax MacIntyre and Anthony Payne
These young people have studied God’s Word and have learned the beliefs and practices of the church. They have been examined by the Elder and approved for membership by the Session. They now desire to publicly profess their faith, confirming the covenant into which they were baptized, and to be commissioned as active church members, assuming greater responsibility in the life of the church and its mission in the world.
We rejoice that each of you desires to declare your faith, to become an active member of Christ’s church, and to share with us in our common ministry. In baptism you were grafted into this church family. In the community of the people of God, you have learned of God’s purpose for you and for all creation. You have been nurtured at the table of our Lord and called to witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Hear these words from Holy Scripture:
From Ephesians 2:19-21: You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. In Christ the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together in the spirit into a dwelling place for God.
And from Matthew 5:14-16: You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but on a stand; and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
PROFESSION OF FAITH
Now, as you publicly declare your faith, I ask you to reject sin, to profess your faith in Christ Jesus, and to confess the faith of the church, the faith in which you were baptized.
Please answer the following questions:
Do you renounce evil, and its power in the world, which defies God’s righteousness and love?
I RENOUNCE THEM.
Do you renounce the ways of sin that separate you from the love of God?
I RENOUNCE THEM.
Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Lord and Savior?
I DO.
Do you intend to be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying his Word, and showing his love, to your life’s end?
I DO.
With the whole church, let us confess our faith using the Apostles’ Creed
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH The 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 Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on 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 Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
You have publicly professed your faith. Will you be a faithful member of this congregation, share in its worship and ministry through your prayers and gifts, your study and service, and so fulfill your calling to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
I WILL, WITH GOD’S HELP.
THE BLESSING AND ANOINTING
Let us pray. Gracious God, through water and the Spirit you claimed these your servants as your own. You cleansed them of their sins, gave them new life, and bound them to your service. Renew in them the covenant you made in their baptism; send them forth in the power of the Holy Spirit to love and serve you with joy, and strive for justice and peace in all the earth, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Will the Elder Buddies, please stand with their youth. As the elders lay hands upon each candidate and anoint them with oil signifying the anointing of the Holy Spirit, I ask the congregation to pray silently for the candidates.
CONCLUDING PRAYER:
Ever-living God, guard these your servants with your protecting hand, and let your Holy Spirit be with them forever. Lead them to know and obey your Word that they may serve you in this life and dwell with you in the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
ANTHEM “Now, O Death, Where Is Thy Sting” Russel Nagy
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE
UNISON PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Living God, with joy we celebrate
the presence of your risen Word.
Enliven our hearts by your Holy Spirit
so that we may proclaim the good news
of eternal and abundant life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
SCRIPTURE Matthew 28:1-10
28After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”
8So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.9Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Pause…
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!!
SERMON “Let me tell you a MYSTERY”
The following sermon begins with the worst opening illustration in Woodbury Church history. How many of you remember the TV show ALF? See—I wasn’t kidding. For those of you who missed ALF—and honestly, it’s probably an exaggeration to say you “missed” it—the premise of this sitcom was that and Alien Life Form—an ALF—crash lands into the garage of a typical American family, and the furry, Muppet-like character who gets out of the spaceship takes up residence in the attic. I am telling you this for one reason only. It illustrates, albeit in very rudimentary form, a storytelling technique that has been used to great effect in many times and places. On the show ALF, the family is normal in every respect—and then an alien crashes into their garage. This is not a fantasy world like the Smurfs or The Lord of the Rings. It’s a world where everything else is normal, and one thing happens no one can explain.
Some of the world’s greatest authors have made use of this technique. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is known for what has been called magical realism—a story in which one magical event enters into otherwise normal circumstances and changes everything. In Marquez’s stories it is often one character who lives an extraordinarily long life or ghosts who visit the living. Franz Kafka used a similar strategy in his story Metamorphosis. In that story, a man gets sick and dies as his family looks on. Because we are so desensitized to the events of illness and death, Kafka’s main character does not die of an accident or cancer. Kafka turns him into an insect, and through that twist of reality, we see with new eyes how dehumanizing it can feel to lose one’s health. The point is that the presence of one unexplainable event in the midst of otherwise normal life is enough to change anything; it’s enough to make us question everything. Obviously, that’s where I want us to go today as we consider the resurrection.
When trying to make sense of miraculous stories, it’s important to remember we are not really interested in things we can easily understand or explain. The human heart and spirit is captured and stimulated by the things we cannot explain. We’d much rather hear a story we can’t explain than one we can. Look no further than the disappearance of Savannah Gutherie’s mother – Nancy. This story have completely consumed the news for weeks because we cannot understand or explain it. We are endlessly fascinated by the conspiracy theories, the failure of technology, the corruption and intrigue that might have been a part of it. But mark my words—if we ever find this woman and figure out what happened, the story will disappear. As soon as we can explain it, we’ll lose interest, because that’s the way human beings work.
Easter is like that. This is not, and never has been, a day that needs an explanation. I am not here today to explain it away. I have no desire to tell you a story about how Jesus just “seemed” to appear to the disciples but really didn’t. I am not interested in stories about the historical likelihood that the body was stolen. Some people prefer to pay attention to the moral teachings of Jesus and would rather not consider the resurrection. If that’s you, I appreciate your perspective, but there may be little in today’s sermon that you will find helpful.
I believe this story is the greatest mystery in the history of humanity, and I believe it is supposed to be. And it happens in the midst of life that is otherwise normal.
In Matthew’s account of the story, two women, Mary Magdalene and another named Mary, go to the tomb. Hearing from men who appear to be angels that Jesus has been raised, they run to tell the other disciples. The version in the Gospel of John tells it a little differently: Mary, afraid when she sees the stone rolled away, goes for help. The two disciples she tells break into a footrace to the tomb. Everyone is running. Can you remember the last time you were in a footrace (and I’m not talking about the Broad Street Run or the Pitman Turkey Trot; I’m talking about an all-out sprint)? Obviously, something unusual has happened; this thing that has taken place makes no sense to them. I make that point because it’s tempting to read this story and assume that, because it happened so long ago, these people reacted somehow differently than we would, but that just isn’t true. These people lived a long time ago, yes, and they lacked the scientific sophistication that is now commonplace for us. But they were not foolish people, nor were they naïve. In their world, just like in ours, dead people did not get up again. There was no explanation for it; there never has been. This story is a mystery, and that’s why they started to tell it. That’s why we tell it still today.
Mysterious stories are of value to us not just because of the mystery in the story but because of the effect it has on the rest of us. ALF is an interesting TV show in only one respect: it’s fun to watch the family and ask ourselves, how would life be different if an alien moved into my attic? When Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s characters encounter ghosts, suddenly they ask different kinds of questions about their own lives: “How much time have I been given on earth?” What will I do in order to give value to the time I have?” Any mystery, if it is told well, causes us to ask what about our own lives might be different now that we have heard the mystery. In the story of Jesus, the implications are huge, because in this story, death—the great equalizer, the one and only thing in life that is common and inescapable and final for every last one of us—death is suddenly off the table. And if that’s true, what else in the world could possibly be out of the question?
Think about your own life and about the things that have come to be “givens” for you—things that simply are the way they are and aren’t going to change. Are you stuck in a relationship that you think can’t possibly change or improve? Do you arrive at work most mornings convinced that you’re going to have a bad day before it even begins? Is there something about your family that has frustrated you for years, but you’ve decided that’s just the way it is? The good news of the resurrection is that those things can change; all of the possibilities are back on the table. The world is changed by people whose lives are marked by resurrection thinking, by the confidence that nothing is out of the question. Communities are transformed when individuals come to believe that gun violence really can be stopped and that in a city where there is plenty of wealth, no child should attend a failing school or go to bed hungry. People who work for these things are resurrection people, because in a world that is otherwise normal, they are convinced that nothing is impossible, and so that is how they live. Mysteries are frequently interesting, but they are important because of the way they change us.
One of my favorite stories is Carl Sagan’s novel Contact. You might know the movie version with Jodie Foster. The main character, Ellie Arroway, is an astronomer who spends her time not sending up satellites or studying weather patterns but looking for signs of alien life. Everyone thinks she’s crazy until one evening when she’s scanning the galaxy, evaluating the messages she’s sent, she suddenly she gets an answer. A short message becomes a longer one, and blueprints emerge for a spaceship. The world community mobilizes to build it, and by the climax of the story, Ellie, who everyone thought was crazy, is ready to launch into space and find the answer to the mystery she’s been waiting to know her whole life. The launch takes place, the engines of the ship are deafeningly powerful, and in the midst of the launch, Ellie passes out and is shaken into a beautiful spiritual experience that is far beyond anything she can understand or explain. When it is over and she wakes up in a hospital bed, the people who were outside the spaceship claim that the mission failed, the ship never took off, she didn’t go anywhere.
At first, Ellie is devastated. She can’t believe that no one understands, that they doubt the extraordinary experience she had. We are all left feeling a little unsatisfied—wanting to know if anything happened, or not. And the story never reveals if the journey actually took place. In the midst of that story, though, there’s a subplot. At the beginning of the movie, when Ellie is a little girl, her father dies. They were very close. He loved her very much, and for reasons she can’t understand or explain, her father is taken away from her. The emptiness and pain in Ellie’s life is profound. She is unable to commit to loving anyone for the fear that they too will be taken away, and her obsession with astronomy, with “Contact,” is a metaphor for her need to have closure with her father and let go of her grief. During Ellie’s trip in the spaceship, the trip that no one believes, she meets her father and speaks to him again. After that, it’s clear that it doesn’t really matter if she can prove whether or not the trip happened or whether she actually spoke to her long-lost father. What is important is that because she believes that she did, she is finally able to let him go, to fall in love, and to regain her own life.
The resurrection is meant to be a mystery. Did it really happen? Is it true? Past or present, a mystery. But believe this: we keep telling this story because we cannot explain it. We keep telling this story because as long as we do, every other story we need to tell is still on the table. The world that surrounds us, the way we understand it, and our very own lives are only limited by the things we decide are out of the question. As it was told to the disciples long ago, so I tell it to you. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! What do you believe?
*HYMN No. 249 “Because You Live, O Christ”
1 Because you live, O Christ,
the garden of the world has come to flower;
the darkness of the tomb
is flooded with your resurrection power.
Refrain:
The stone has rolled away
and death cannot imprison!
O sing this Easter day,
for Jesus Christ has risen,
has risen, has risen, has risen!
2 Because you live, O Christ,
the spirit bird of hope is freed for flying;
our cages of despair
no longer keep us closed and life-denying.
Refrain:
The stone has rolled away
and death cannot imprison!
O sing this Easter day,
for Jesus Christ has risen,
has risen, has risen, has risen!
3 Because you live, O Christ,
the rainbow of your peace will span creation;
the colors of your love
will draw all humankind to adoration.
Refrain:
The stone has rolled away
and death cannot imprison!
O sing this Easter day,
for Jesus Christ has risen,
has risen, has risen, has risen!
THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION
Invitation
On this day, we celebrate the risen Christ
On this day, we celebrate resurrection in our lives.
On this day, we embrace the grace which reaches from the tomb.
On this day, we embrace faith by committing to love in action.
One: On this day, we shout Hallelujah!
On this day we shout, Christ is risen! Alleluia!
Prayer of Communion
It is through our neighbors and creation that we see the rising of Christ, O God.
Creator of Our Earth: We celebrate the shifting of seasons from one to the next. As the earth sheds its snow, it begins to drink in the warm rains and creation comes alive once again.
And so in this spirit of brightness and life, we celebrate. We celebrate the risen Christ in our midst. We celebrate the table in which we can join together with friends and strangers, loved ones and enemies.
Through this meal which has stood the test of time, we covenant to love you, God. We covenant to love as Jesus the Christ loved us- loving our neighbors as ourselves. Through a simple meal of grain and grape, we, your children, unite.
As we enter this season of Easter, we ask that the warm winds of the Spirit encircle this table and accompany us on our journey. May this Spirit help us to recognize the Christ-presence in our midst. May the Spirit open our souls in order for us to see humanity, God and creation through the eyes of Jesus.
It was Jesus who introduced this meal to his followers. Even though Jesus knew he would be betrayed and deserted by those at this supper, he still continued to join them at the table, sharing time and space with whom he grew closest.
As the night lengthened, Jesus took a simple portion of bread. He blessed it and broke it, and shared it with the disciples. He urged them: Remember me.
Afterwards, Jesus took the cup. During his blessing, Jesus reminded them how he would go to the ends of the earth in his love for them.
Today, we celebrate this earth-shaking love of Jesus – a love that sent him to the cross and a love that lives eternally with us, encouraging us to live a resurrected life.
The Bread of Life and the Cup of the Covenant: Gifts to unite the Body of Christ.
LORD‟S PRAYER
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 debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Distribution of Elements
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Through this space and time together today, we celebrate the covenant that ties us with God, Jesus the Christ, our neighbors and creation. Thank you, Divine Crafter of the Table, for fashioning us a holy meal unites us with the Body of Christ. Send us into the world resurrected, refreshed and ready to share Christ’s unconditional love. Amen.
PASSING OF FELLOWSHIP PADS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
TITHES & OFFERINGS
Good friends, since by his resurrection we have new life in Christ, let us live as new people, bound to each other by cords of compassion, attentive to the needs of neighbors far and near, committed to the earth and every living thing, eager to serve and share. For the sake of this ministry, we gratefully receive the Easter offering.
OFFERTORY ANTHEM
*RESPONSE N0. 248, v.3
“Christ Is Risen! Shout Hosanna”
Christ is risen! Earth and heaven
nevermore shall be the same.
Break the bread of new creation
where the world is still in pain.
Tell its grim, demonic chorus:
“Christ is risen! Get you gone!”‘
God the First and Last is with us.
Sing Hosanna everyone!
*PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
God of great gifts:
This morning we give you praise,
we give you glory,
we give you thanks!
With resurrection humming in our hearts,
our minds are tuned to your song of peace!
We joyfully present these gifts to you,
a tangible chorus of thanksgiving,
a harmony of hope for your kingdom come!
Amen.
*ANTHEM WITH CONGREGATION
“We Live with Christ” Lee Dungler
Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon the throne. Hark, how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who dies for thee and hail Him as thy matchless King through all eternity.
Crown Him the Lord of love, behold His hands and side, rich wounds, yet visible above, in beauty glorified. No angels in the sky can fully bear that sight, but downward bend their burning eyes at mysteries so bright.
Crown Him the Lord of life, who triumphed over the grave. He rose victorious in the strife for those He came to save. His glories now we sing who died, and rose on high, who died, eternal life to bring and lives that death may die.
*BENEDICTION
As you go out into God’s world this week, be Easter people! Be those who say, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? Jesus is not here. He is risen.” Be ready to be surprised with what God will do next. Look for the risen Christ in those you meet. Let the Holy Spirit nudge and guide you. The tomb is empty because Jesus is out in the world, and now we must go out into the world too! May the joy and wonder of that first Easter morning live in your hearts today and every day. Amen.
*POSTLUDE “Fling Wide The Gate” John Stainer