The following links will provide you with additional information, activities and resources for the whole family for Easter Sunday:
https://cdn.sjruc.ca/2020/04/AlleluiaPoster_8.5×11.pdf
https://cdn.sjruc.ca/2020/04/Easter.pdf

Welcome!
Welcome to worship!
We hope it will be a quiet space for you as you prepare
to spend time with God amid life’s busyness and storms.
We honour each other’s desire for peace as we gather.
We’re glad you’re here!

WE GATHER IN GOD’S HOPE
VU: Voices United      MV: More Voices
* Please rise in body and/or Spirit as you are able.

We would like to acknowledge that we are on the Haldimand Tract, traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples.

Opening Hymn Morning Has Broken           VU409
Morning has broken like the first morning,
blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word!

Sweet the rain’s new fall sunlit from heaven,
like the first dewfall on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
sprung in completeness where God’s feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight! Mine is the morning
born of the one light Eden saw play!
Praise with elation, praise every morning,
God’s recreation of the new day!

Call to Worship      adapted from a prayer by Ann Siddall
One:
For those who first went out
into the early dawn, when the sky was grey,
taking spices to the tomb,
there was terror, and surprise.

For us, resisting the impulse to sleep in
as part of a long weekend,
and being over-familiar with the Easter story,
there is the risk of complacency.

This year, we cannot help but hear the story anew,
new challenges, new insights,
new hope reminds us that life can break out
at any moment!

Easter’s surprise comes in the depths of death,
mired in despair and fear,
and today we cannot help but declare,
Jesus Christ is Risen!

For far beyond the walls of our churches,
and beyond the walls of our homes,
the life of Jesus Christ
is already making things new again.

So let us celebrate
the irrepressible power of God
breaking out with life
where we least expect it!

Opening Prayer      adapted from a prayer by James Taylor
One: Christ is risen.
All: Christ is risen, indeed.
One: God is alive..
All: New birth is given.
One: Hope is alive…
All: A new age is dawning.
One: Joy is alive…
All: Redemption is here.
One: Love is alive
All: And death is not the ending.
One: We are alive…
All: New life is within us.
One: The church is alive…
All: God’s spirit connects us even we are apart.
God of life, we worship you.
God of creation, we praise you.
God of revelation, we learn from you.
God of resurrection, we celebrate you.

Silence

Hymn      I Danced in the Morning      VU 352
I danced in the morning when the world was begun,
and I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun,
and I came from heaven and I danced on the earth;
at Bethlehem I had my birth.

Refrain: 
Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the dance, said he,
and I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
and I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he.

I danced for the scribe and the pharisee,
but they would not dance and they would not follow me;
I danced for the fishermen, for James and John;
they came with me and the dance went on.      Refrain

I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame;
the holy people said it was a shame;
they whipped and they stripped and they hung me high,
and left me there on a cross to die.      Refrain

I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black;
it’s hard to dance with the devil on your back;
they buried my body and they thought I’d gone,
but I am the dance and I still go on.      Refrain

They cut me down and I leap up high;
I am the life that will never, never die;
I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me;
I am the Lord of the dance, said he.      Refrain

Scripture John 20
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. 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.”  Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. 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. 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. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. 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. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Prayer      adapted from a prayer by Michael Morwood
We believe that death is not the end,
but rather a transformation into new possibilities.
Nothing that exists is ever completely destroyed.
A star exploding or a leaf falling:
both offer new possibilities and will ‘live on’
in ways unknown to stars and leaves
Winter gives way to Spring;
what seems lifeless now abounds with life,
new possibilities and delights.
We, too, experience new possibilities
arising from our failures
or disappointments
or what has come to an end…

We give thanks for all the influences in our lives
that have helped us see beyond the present
and those who have called us to live in hope and trust
knowing whatever experiences, whatever endings,
that have come our way…

We give thanks for the Spirit of New Life
active in all lives
as it was revealed to us in the life of Jesus of Nazareth

For in life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us, we are not alone. Thanks be to God.

Music      Here Comes the Sun (Son)      (The Beatles)
Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun
And I say, it’s all right
Little darling
It’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling
It seems like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun
And I say, it’s all right

Little darling
The smiles returning to the faces
Little darling
It seems like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say, it’s all right
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes (x4)

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been clear
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
And I say, it’s all right
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
And I say, it’s all right
It’s all right