Easter Vigil 2023

Rejoice now, heavenly hosts and choirs of angels, and let your trumpets shout salvation for the victory of our mighty king.

Rejoice and sing in all the wonder why the glory of darkness hath been vanquished by eternal king.

And let your holy courts in radiant light reason with the praises of your people.

Through Jesus Christ, his Son and Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

It is truly right and good, always and everywhere, with our heart and mind and voice to praise you, the invisible mighty and the eternal God, and your only begotten Son Jesus Christ the Lord, for he is the true past who at the feast of the Passover paid for us the death of Adam's sin, and by his blood delivered your faithful people.

And rose victorious from the grave.

You gave us this night when wickedness is put to flight and sin is washed away, it restores innocence to the fallen and joy to those who mourn.

It casts out pride and hatred and brings peace and home.

Holy Father, accept the reading sacrifice, the offering of this candling arm May it shine continually to drive away all times.

He who gives his light to creation and bliss and raise forever.

Let us hear the record of God's saving deeds in history.

How God saved God's people in ages past, and let us pray that our God will bring each of us to the fullness of redemption.

Please be seated.

A reading from Genesis.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.

And there was evening and morning the first day.

And God said, Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.

So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome.

And so, and it was so.

God called the dome sky.

And there was evening and there was morning the second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the sky be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land appear.

And so it was.

God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas.

And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.

And it was so.

The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it.

And God saw that it was good.

And there was evening and there was morning the third day.

And God said, Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.

And it was so.

God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars.

God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.

And God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning the fourth day.

And God said, Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.

So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind, and God saw that it was good.

God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters and the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.

And there was evening and there was morning the fifth day.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind, cattle and creeping things, and wild animals of the earth of every kind.

And it was so.

God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind.

And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

So God created humankind in his image.

In the image of God, he created them.

Male and female, he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

God said, See, I have given you every plant-yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.

You shall have them for food.

And to every beast of the earth, and every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.

And it was so.

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good.

There was evening and there was morning the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.

And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

And in your life we see life.

Let us pray.

O God, who wonderfully created and yet more wonderfully restored the dignity of human nature.

Grant that we may share the divine life of the one who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

A reading from the book of Exodus.

As Pharaoh grew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them.

In greatest fear, the Israelites cried out to the Lord.

They said to Moses, Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?

What have you done to us bringing us out of Egypt?

Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt?

Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians.

For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.

But Moses said to the people, do not be afraid.

Stand firm and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today.

For the Egyptian that you see today, you shall never see again.

The Lord will fight for you, and you shall only keep still.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry out to me?

Tell the Israelites to go forward.

But you lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground.

Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they go in after them.

And I will again glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.

And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.

The angel of God, who was going before the Israelite army, moved and went behind them.

And the pillar of cloud moved them in front of them and took its place behind them.

It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel.

And so the cloud was there with the darkness and lit up the night.

One did not come near the other all night.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.

The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land.

And the waters were divided.

The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.

The Egyptians pursued and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and chariot drivers.

At the morning, watched the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud look down upon the Egyptian army and threw the Egyptian army into panic.

He clogged their chariot wheels, so they turned with difficulty.

The Egyptians said, Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.

So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth.

As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea.

The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers.

The entire

Let us pray.

O God, whose wonderful deeds of old shine forth even to our own day.

You once delivered by the power of your mighty arm, your chosen people from slavery under Pharaoh, to be a sign for us of the salvation of all nations by the water of baptism.

Grant that all peoples of the earth may be numbered among the offspring of Abraham, Adar and Sarah, and rejoice in the inheritance of Israel through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness.

And from your eyes I will cleanse you.

A new heart I will give you.

And a new spirit I will put within you.

And I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes, and be careful to observe my ordinances.

And you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors.

And you shall be my people.

And I will be your God.

Therefore, you shall come over with me.

For the great one, this one is holy for his strength.

Surely this God saves me.

I will trust in him and must be afraid.

For the Lord is my strong and my shortness, and he will be my save.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, by the Passover of your Son, you have brought us out of sin into righteousness and out of death into life.

Grant to those who are sealed by your Holy Spirit the will and power to proclaim you to all the world through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Through the Paschal mystery, dear friends, we are buried with Christ in baptism into death and raised with him to awareness of life, to newness of life.

I call you therefore now that our Lenten observance is ended, to renew the solemn promises and vows of holy baptism by which we once renounce Satan and all his works and promise to serve God faithfully in the Holy Catholic Church.

Over it, the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation through it.

You led the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt into the land of promise.

In it, your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us through his death and resurrection from bondage to sin into everlasting life.

We thank you, Father, for the water of baptism.

In it, we are buried with Christ in his death.

By it we share in his resurrection through it.

We are reborn by the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, in joyful obedience to your Son, we bring into His fellowship and perpetually renew those who come to you in faith, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

By the power of your Holy Spirit, that those who here are cleansed from sin and born again may continue forever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Savior.

To him, to you and to the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory now and forever.

Amen.

Please join me as we renew our baptismal covenant.

Do you reaffirm your renunciation of evil and renew your commitment to Jesus Christ?

I do.

Do you believe in God the Father?

I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of all heaven and earth.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

I believe in Jesus Christ, whose only Son of the Lord.

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again.

He descended to heaven, and was seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Do you believe in God, the Holy Spirit?

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.

Will you continue in the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers?

I will with God's help.

Will you persevere in resisting evil?

Whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord.

I will without help.

Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?

I will without help.

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

I will without help.

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?

I will without help.

May Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us a new birth by water in the Holy Spirit, bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sin, keep us in eternal life by God's own grace, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

And I'm going to invite you, if you would like to receive water as you remember your baptism or embrace God's unconditional love for you, and the invitation to love one another unconditionally, to come forward if you would like to receive this token of your baptism and be splashed with this holy water so that you might more fully and bodily renew your vows.

So if you'd like to do this, there's no pressure, just come along front or come into the chancel, and I will splash you during the hand.

Of course, we don't do that, but to change your light.

To change it, you can blow it to change it, and then you will see it rise even as we see the risen Christ.

So this is your cue.

Alleluia.

The Lord is risen to me.

The Lord be with you.

And the let us pray.

Almighty God, who for our redemption gave your only begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy.

Grant us so to die daily to sin that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection.

Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

Therefore, we've been buried with him by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

For whoever has died is freed from sin.

But if we've died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, he will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over him.

The death he died, he died to sin, once for all.

But the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

On the first day of the week at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body.

While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.

The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for the living among the dead?

He is not here, but has risen.

Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.

Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.

Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.

But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in.

He saw the linen cloths by themselves, and then he went home amazed at what had happened.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Please be seated.

It's a different service.

We call it the vigil because we're keeping watch, because we know what was going to happen.

But please do consider, I'm not sure we always are quite as right as we think we are.

Often we approach this story and we think, what a neat thing that happened a long time ago, and we forget that we are in fact invited to pattern our lives and our hope around a story like this.

So consider how we start this morning.

We start with a story that, frankly, has been so often abused and misunderstood.

I wish we could start over.

We can't quite, but we are invited each vigil to consider how we might start anew.

In the beginning, there was a mess.

That's how it starts.

I know we'd all like to know what happened at the very beginning.

The Bible isn't concerned with that.

The Bible says when God starts to create all that we now see and enjoy, there was something there.

A watery mess.

Something like this.

When my daughter was two, we went to a park that was about half a mile away so she could play on the playground.

This was our daily journey.

And I had a dogging stroller, but I also had my shoulders.

For some reason, she preferred that.

So I pushed the stroller empty, and I brought the dog, who, if you knew her, was absolutely the perfect animal.

This being my Maggie.

She was not interested in cars or other dogs.

She found them rather beneath her.

Possums and cats and skunks, even more so.

So here we are on our walk with the jogging stroller empty and Maggie on the side.

And my girl sees an orange cat in a yard.

That was her lack of a better word.

That was what her spirit would have embodied out if she'd had the choice.

So, of course, we parked the stroller, put the handbrake on, or the footbrake, tied the dog to the stroller.

She was very content to have a break.

I put my daughter on the ground, who begins to approach the cat as all two-year-olds.

Children are animals understand to be afraid of small children.

So the cat was having none of it.

But I coaxed it.

I coaxed the cat.

My daughter came slowly, and right at the moment of contact came watery chaos.

The dog lunged for the cat.

This was new.

And then the dog became very surprised that she was in fact tied to a stroller.

She turned it over.

This did not make her pause.

No, she fled more furiously than I had ever seen her move before, dragging the stroller in tow, and to her surprise, it continued to follow her.

She started urinating uncontrollably.

My daughter, who at this moment of delight saw the watery chaos began.

She put her hands to her face like Kevin in Home Alone, and she began to scream.

The world was like that when God started.

And please notice what God does.

And this is what the rabbis say.

The rabbis say the scriptures are not interested in the very beginning.

No, the scriptures are interested in telling us what it is that God does with a mess.

God creates order and beauty out of a mess.

I don't know how we conceive of this in our mind's eye, but light and darkness were once the same.

This is the reading.

And God separated them out.

Water, sky, and ground were somehow once the same.

And God separated them out so that there could be well room.

And I would tell you, part of the resurrection message for us is that God can do some beautiful things if we'll allow for some separation.

You see, often we have voices in our head, and one voice is usually louder than the others.

It comes more often than not from the part of our brain that we call the limbic system, and it says things like, fight, flee, freeze.

Loud voices.

What do the voices in your head tell you?

Do they ever tell you sometimes you're just no damn good?

And God would step into the chaos of our minds and separate those voices out so that we can hear not simply the loudest one, but all of the others that say, amidst that feeling which is very real, it is not true.

Our feelings are real and they're not always true.

Do we allow God to separate the voices in our head, or do we simply listen to the loudest one?

God would help us hear the choir and not just the melody.

What's the choir singing today?

The choir is singing that in Genesis chapter 1, God decides to make human beings in God's image and likeness.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And do you read human beings, plural, female and male, God creates them?

Have you heard this before?

Female and male, God creates them.

So if I asked you, who has more share of God's image and likeness, I hope you will say neither.

That's what I hope.

And yet we often find ourselves in the middle of some watery chaos.

Did you read the scriptures?

Did you hear them today?

The women are the ones who are faithful.

The men are afraid of their own skins.

The women go to the tomb and they say, he isn't there, he's risen.

By the way, do you notice they meet some people with some sequined garments?

They meet RuPaul's drag show at the tomb.

And they come back and they say a thing you only say to a woman, I have never heard this applied to a man.

They consider it an idle tale.

You ever told a man it was an idle tale?

That's because we live continually in the chaos of structural misogyny.

I know perhaps the church that raised me said, well, you know, there was all this fruit business.

So the man's the head of the house now, and this is a very interesting thing to say, isn't it?

Because God's view of perfection is female and male as bearers of image and likeness of God.

So I ask you, why would we want to return to chaos when God's vision of perfection is that we mutually bear God's image and likeness?

Why would we want to say to women who say there is new life available?

That's an idle tale.

The reason I think we do this is because we have accepted the I D O L tales, tales of idolatry.

And there is this mighty deliverance at the Sea of Reeds.

Sometimes we might say, Take that, enemies of God.

This is what God does to those who don't give up the program, drowns them in the sea of reeds.

I'd like to share with you a story from our Jewish brothers and sisters in Midrash.

Every nation on earth has an angel, goes to Midrash.

There is an angel of the United States.

It represents the ethos, the character.

There is an angel of Israel and Egypt.

And so here at the brink, God says, I am going to do this.

And all the angels in heaven protest.

They say, God, you cannot drown the Egyptians.

You cannot do this.

The angel Michael.

Good name.

Goes down to the treasure city of Pithum and removes a brick from the city in which is interred the bones of a Hebrew baby.

Brings the brick before the panoply of angels in heaven, and they are silent.

The sea of reeds happens.

The angels of the nations begin to rejoice.

God, you show them.

God says, be silent.

I have just lost my children, and I deserve silence to grieve their death.

When we put religious language behind conquest, it is an idle tale of the worst ilk.

I'd like to pretend we've learned our lesson, but we have not.

When we hear Ezekiel speak of a new heart, one that is soft instead of one that is hardened for stone, there is an idle tale, I do L, that we have told ourselves in the church for almost 2,000 years.

It is, Jewish people are legalist.

Jewish people killed Jesus.

It is an idle tale of the worst making.

Instead, as the Romans reading says, we are called to die to our idolatry.

And take the chance that there can be resurrection in this life.

The story does not say this happened once upon a time and it is so neat.

Let me tell you another idle tale I grew up with.

I'm gonna do it bombastically like I always do.

I was just at an Episcopal gala called Half Shears Will Travel.

We were supposed to dress in casual 50s attire.

One of the friends who went with us said, Let's dress up in costumes, period, pieces.

And I didn't want to buy anything, so I didn't.

Instead, I wore a white t-shirt and I rolled some cigarettes up in the sleeve, put one behind my ear, and I had some jeans and some converts.

My wife, she wore a polka dot dress and put this scarf in her head.

She was really lovely.

She looked very much like a lady from the 50s.

And I looked exactly like the kind of man that a father would say, get away from my daughter.

I was arguably the worst dressed person at the event.

We got name tags.

Mine said Reverend Mike Stone.

At checkout, we were standing in line.

The ten of us who went.

And a man walked by me with an idle tail.

He said, I have this for you, and I hope to God you've never seen one of these.

But I'm gonna call this exhibit A.

That's a million-dollar bill.

Of course it's fake currency.

As soon as I got it, I knew exactly what it was.

Because I used to wait tables at the Cracker Barrel in Gaffney, South Carolina, and let me tell you what would happen on Sundays.

People would come in and they would say, We'd like to give you a tip, but we gave all our money to the Lord this morning.

I can't think of a greater disservice to the name of Jesus Christ than saying that to your waiter.

You know what was even worse than that?

Getting the million-dollar bill.

You know what's on the back of it?

If you died today, would you go to heaven or hell?

And if you died today and God said, Why should I let you into heaven?

What would you say?

Sinner, repent.

Now my brain likes to do this thing like everybody else does.

I was at an episcopal event as a member of the clergy, and a man walked by and he picked me.

He didn't pick anybody else in our group.

He picked me to give me a million-dollar bill.

He handed me this and he walked away immediately.

He decided that my soul was so important he didn't get to, he didn't need to know my name.

He decided my soul was so important he didn't need to stay around and answer any questions I might have about this damning million-dollar note.

That kind of evangelism is an idle tale.

And God would deliver us from that chaos.

Because, of course, I'm no different from anybody else that gets one of these because I'm a priest.

We are human beings created in God's image and likeness, regardless of whether we have ink on our arms or cigarettes behind our ears, or just because we were the one who made eye contact with somebody.

God would deliver us from idolatry that says that you don't matter, only your soul does.

God would deliver us from idle tales that say God votes the way I do.

Let me tell you an idle tale.

God does not vote Democrat.

I know this is going to be shocking.

God doesn't vote Republican either.

God doesn't even vote libertarian.

Putting God behind our political preferences is idolatry.

God would deliver.

Us from the chaos of idolatry so that we might hopefully vote the way God does.

How does God vote?

With justice, with compassion, and with humility.

I did a confession this week, and I want to tell you another idol I idol too.

I did more confessions this week than I have done in the past four years.

It's pretty lovely.

One of the people who came had done something actually very wrong.

We knew that.

And said in this moment of tenderness the thing that kept this person in shame and guilt for more than two years.

This person said to me, To whom much is given, much is required.

This was the voice in his head that damned him for two years.

To whom much is given, much is required.

You heard this before?

With great power comes great responsibility.

God helps those who help themselves.

These are idioms, but they are full of idolatry.

Do you know what the Lord requires of you?

To do justly.

To love, compassion, and to walk humbly with God.

This man said, My life is over.

No, we come this morning and say, Life as we knew it is over.

Life as we knew it is over.

Make me ready, Lord, to walk into new life with you.

Part of the beauty of confession that you see is that you get to hear another human being hear the sickest secret in your life, and as we know, you are only sick as sick as your secret.

And say, I hear you're worried about that, and God isn't anymore.

So how will we go forward instead of how can we live back then?

What does the Lord require of you?

To live your life.

You are perfectly messed up life.

To live it with a capital L.

We sometimes vacillate between which sort of tale we will tell ourselves and which one we will believe.

And so I leave you with one last story.

There was a member of my family, my father, whose pattern of speech was always beautifully exhorting in the presence of friends and family.

But who, when we were left alone, could only air our disappointments.

So if I brought home a 98 on the calculus test, what I would hear is, what did you miss?

What my father would tell the neighbor is, my son is better than yours.

There was something in my dad that could not lavish praise upon his children because doing so we might settle instead of pushing on.

I actually understand that because that's a loud voice in my head.

And there was this moment of resurrection that I had.

It was the gift of all thoughts.

The last three years of my father's life when I saw him, of course, he did not recognize who I was.

He thought I was his brother.

What he would say to me was even when I said, hey dad, he would say, You know you're perfect.

You tell me which is the idle tale.

The ID L.

ID L E.

Some two years later, I'm asked to consider, will I consider that speech pattern my father a symptom of his dementia or a gift from it?

That he was able to say finally for the first time in his life what he always wished he could, but never had the ability to.

You tell me which is the idol.

That there can be no lie.

That even in the middle of nothing fire, there can be this beauty of resurrection.

Or do we tell ourselves that it's just beauty?

You tell me.

Whether the driver who cuts you off in traffic thinking perhaps they just are hard off today.

What kind of idle tale is that?

Is it idolatry?

Or is generous intent and assumption proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ over the chaos we find ourselves in?

And here we're reminded that what the Christian life looks like, it looks like dying.

It feels like dying to I D O L Tales.

So we come to the vigil every year saying, could we possibly let go of what we have so we can make room for what God has for us next?

Hallelujah.

Christ is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed.

Hallelujah.

We've already said the creed.

It was in the baptismal covenant.

If you're worried about your sins, don't.

God isn't worried about them today.

So we stand in full assurance.

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

The peace of the risen Lord be always with you.

And all with you.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Good morning, Pete, and thank you for worshiping with us today.

Obviously, there was a great deal of work to put into the beauty here.

So huge thanks to our Albert Guild, to our flower team, of course, to the choir who has practiced for weeks, and to our drumline who joined us again to stimulate that great noise.

Thank you everybody for wonderful.

And just a few things I'd like to announce.

This coming Friday, we are opening a new art exhibition.

This is Barbara Abel from Archway Gallery.

She'll be here to speak to her work with a small reception from 6 to 7 p.m.

Now I know you might think, hey, isn't the clergy supposed to like not do anything after Easter?

It's a privilege to serve you and celebrate beauty with you, especially this week of all weeks.

So I hope you will make time for this on Friday evening from 6 to 7.

Of course, we're having two more services this morning at 8.30 and 10.30, and a reminder for our little ones that we are doing an egg hunt on the playground at 9.30.

I do pray and hope for you this Easter season.

Do you know how many days this is?

Easter?

It's 50.

You got a long time.

You thought Lent was long.

I pray you will join our Lord these next 50 days in the Easter discipline of helping God create beauty and order, even if it seems an idle tale, out of the chaos in your family life, your work life that you find inside your heart.

This is the invitation of Easter.

So walk in love.

As Christ first loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God is colleagues, see the sky, that's the flower, the flowers, and the same.

This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.

It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more.

So come, you who have much faith and you who have little.

You who have been here often and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.

You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come.

Not because the church invites you, it is Christ.

He invites you to meet him here.

And our service continues on page 372 in your red prayer book.

Page 372.

We give them to God.

It is right to give thanks and praise.

It is truly right to glorify you, Father, and to who give you thanks, for you alone are God living and true, dwelling in light inaccessible from before time and forever, fountain of life and source of all goodness.

You made all things and filled them with your blessing.

You created them to rejoice in the splendor of your radiance.

Countless throngs of angels stand before you to serve you who night and day, and beholding the glory of your presence, they offer for you who unceasing praise, joining with them and giving voice to every creature under heaven, then we are claim you and glorify your whole name as we sing.

Your mighty works reveal your wisdom and love.

You formed us in your own image, giving the whole world into our care, so that in obedience to you, our Creator, we might shepherd and serve all your creatures.

When our disobedience took us far from you, you did not abandon us to the power of death.

In your mercy you came to our help so that in seeking you we might find you.

Again and again, you called us into covenant with you.

Through the prophets you taught us to hope for salvation.

Father, you love the world so much that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Savior, incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of us, yet without sin.

To the poor we proclaim the good news of salvation, to prisoners freedom, to the sorrowful joy.

To fulfill your purpose, he gave himself up to death, and rising from the grave destroyed death and made the whole creation new.

And that we might live no longer for ourselves, but for the one who died and rose for us, God sent the Holy Spirit, God's own first gift for those who believe, to complete Jesus' work in the world, and to bring to fulfillment the sanctification of all.

When the hour had come for him to be glorified by you, Heavenly Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

At supper with them he took bread, and when he given thanks to you, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, Take, eat.

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this for the remembrance of me.

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.

And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all of you.

This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sin.

Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.

Father, we now celebrate this memorial of our own redemption, recalling Christ's death and his descent among the dead, proclaiming his resurrection and ascension to your right hand, awaiting his coming in glory, and offering to you from the gifts you've given us, this bread and this cup.

We praise you and we bless you.

We praise you.

We bless you, we give thanks to you, and we pray to you, Lord our God.

Lord, we pray that in your goodness and mercy, your Holy Spirit may descend upon us and upon these gifts, sanctifying them and showing them to be holy gifts for your holy people, the bread and life, the bread of life and cup of salvation, the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ.

Grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise and glory of your name.

Remember, Lord, your one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, redeemed by the blood of your Christ.

Reveal its unity, guard its faith, and preserve it in peace.

Remember our bishops Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, the priests in our community, Mike, Craig, and Jim, and all who minister in your church.

Remember all your people, and those who seek your truth, and the congregations invited to name their own celebrations or petitions silently or aloud.

Those whose faith is known to you alone.

Bring them into the place of eternal joy and light.

And grant that we may find our inheritance with Thomas, Mary, with matriarchs and patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and all the saints who have found favor with you in ages past.

We praise you in union with them and give you glory through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Through Christ and with Christ and in Christ, all honor and glory are yours, Almighty God and Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever.

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to 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 and ever.

Amen.

Hallelujah, Christ is risen today.

Therefore, let us keep the feast.

These are the gifts of God for you, the family of God.

Receive them in your hearts with thanksgiving, and be surprised to find the new life of Christ in the wine.

Let's pray together.

Eternal God, Heavenly Father, you have greatly accepted us as living members of your God, our spirit of the God, and you are spiritual food, in the background of the Lord of God.

Turn us now into the world we wrap up and encourage God and serve you with gladness and with a little heart through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, make you perfect in every good work to do God's will, working in you that which is well pleasing in God's sight.

And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be upon you this morning and remain with you forever.

Amen.