The Day of Resurrection is the day of joy! Flowers, music, and celebration mark our festive Easter service. And yet, it begins in darkness… in the walk of a grieving woman towards the tomb that holds someone she loves.
You are invited to join us on Easter Sunday in our beautiful sanctuary, or by watching our livestream (or the video of the service that will be posted afterwards). All are invited! All are welcome.
Easter Sunday: Believing!
Acts 10:34-43; John 20:1-18
Union Presbyterian Church
April 20, 2025
Sharing the Light of Christ, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Liturgist: Carlton Sackett Preacher: Rev. Pat Raube
Prelude Chris Bartlette
“Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” Lloyd Larson
©2015, Lorenz Publishing Company, All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.
License #A-728112. All rights reserved.
* Call to Worship Carlton Sackett
This is the day that the Lord has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Alleluia! The Lord is risen indeed!
This is the good news we have received,
in which we stand, and by which we are saved:
Alleluia! The Lord is risen indeed!
O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good!
God’s steadfast love endures forever!
Alleluia! The Lord is risen indeed!
* Hymn # 288 W & R
“Christ the Lord is Risen Today”
(Public Domain)
Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
All creation, join to say Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!
Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!
Christ has opened paradise. Alleluia!
Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!
Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies. Alleluia!
* Call to New Life
On this Easter Sunday we are invited to join Christ in the risen life, a life of love, justice, and peace. Let us pray.
* Easter Prayer
God of all grace, we no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for Christ is alive, and has become the Lord of life. From the waters of death you raise us with him and renew your gift of life within us. Increase in our minds and hearts the risen life we share with Christ, and help us to grow as your people toward the fullness of eternal life with you, through Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
* Assurance of God’s Love
Hear the good news of God’s promise:
I will pour out my Holy Spirit upon all humanity.
Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and made whole once again.
God’s love is from everlasting to everlasting! Alleluia! Thanks be to God.
* Sharing of the Peace
In Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead,
the peace of God is made possible for all God’s creation,
and for all God’s children.
May the peace of God, Creator, Christ, and Spirit, be with all of us.
And also with you.
Let us offer one another a sign of God’s peace.
Scripture Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 (NRSVUE)
A reading from Psalter, selected verses from Psalm 118.
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his steadfast love endures forever!
Let Israel say,
“His steadfast love endures forever.”
The Lord is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.
There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of the Lord does valiantly;
the right hand of the Lord is exalted;
the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.”
I shall not die, but I shall live
and recount the deeds of the Lord.
The Lord has punished me severely,
but he did not give me over to death.
Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Time for Young Disciples Rev. Pat Raube
Music: “Open Your Ears, O Faithful People”
©2006, Augsburg Fortress, All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.
License #A-728112. All rights reserved.
Anthem Choir; Salome Lomidze, violin
“Who Is He?” Vicki Wright
©2006, Beckenhorst Press, All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.
License #A-728112. All rights reserved.
Who is He in yonder stall,
At whose feet the shepherds fall?
Who is He in deep distress,
Fasting in the wilderness?
Who is He the people bless
For His words of gentleness?
Who is He to whom they bring
All the sick and sorrowing?
‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
‘Tis the Lord! the King of glory!
At His feet we humbly fall,
Crown Him! crown Him Lord of all!
Who is He that stands and weeps,
At the grave where Lazarus sleeps?
Who is He the gathering throng,
Greet with loud triumphant song?
Lo! at midnight, who is He
Prays in dark Gethsemane?
Who is He on yonder tree,
Dies in grief and agony?
Who is He, that from the grave
Comes to heal and help and save?
Who is He that from His throne
Rules through all the world alone?
‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
‘Tis the Lord! the King of glory!
At His feet we humbly fall,
Crown Him! crown Him, Lord of all!
‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
‘Tis the Lord! the King of glory!
At His feet we humbly fall,
Crown Him! crown Him, Lord of all!
At His feet we humbly fall,
Crown Him! crown Him, Lord of all.
Scripture John 20:1-18 (NRSVUE)
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’s 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 touch 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.
Response Holy Wisdom, Holy Word:
Thanks be to God!
Sermon Rev. Pat Raube
* Affirmation of Faith 1 Corinthians 15:1-6; Mark 16:1-9; Matthew 16:16;
Revelation 22:13; John 20:28
This is the Good News which we have received,
in which we stand, and by which we are saved, if we hold it fast:
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day,
and that he appeared first to the women, then to Peter, and to the Twelve,
and then to many faithful witnesses.
We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Jesus Christ is the first and the last, the beginning and the end;
he is our Lord and our God. Amen.
* Hymn # 311 W & R
“Now the Green Blade Rises,” J.M.C. Crum
©1928, Oxford University Press, All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE.
License #A-728112. All rights reserved.
Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again that with the dead has been;
Love is come again like wheat arising green.
In the grave they laid him, love by hatred slain,
Thinking that he would never wake again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen;
Love is come again like wheat arising green.
Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Raised from the dead, my living Lord is seen;
Love is come again like wheat arising green.
When our hearts are wintery, grieving, or in pain,
Your touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been;
Love is come again like wheat arising green.
Prayers of the People
The 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.
Prayer Response # 299 W & R (verse 3)
(Public Domain)
O Jesus, strong in gentleness,
Come now yourself, our hearts possess,
That we may give thee all our days
The tribute of our grateful praise.
Call for Offering
Doxology # 23 W & R (verse 5)
(Public Domain)
Let all things their Creator bless,
And worship him in humbleness,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
And praise the Spirit, Three in One,
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Dedication of Offering
* Hymn # 298 W & R
“The Day of Resurrection”
(Public Domain)
The day of resurrection!
Earth, tell it out abroad;
The Passover of gladness,
The Passover of God.
From death to life eternal,
From sin's dominion free,
Our Christ has brought us over
With hymns of victory.
Our hearts be pure from evil,
That we may see aright
The Lord in rays eternal
Of resurrection light;
And, listening to his accents,
May hear, so calm and plain,
His own "all hail" and, hearing,
May raise the victor strain.
Now let the heavens be joyful!
Let earth its song begin!
The world resound in triumph,
And all that is therein;
Let all things seen and unseen
Their notes of gladness blend;
For Christ the Lord has risen,
Our Joy that has no end.
* Benediction
Postlude Salome Lomidze, violin
Ludwig van Beethoven, Spring Sonata, final movement
(Public Domain)
Where an * is indicated, please rise in body and/or in spirit.
“W & R” ~ the red Worship and Rejoice hymnal.
“PH” ~ the blue Presbyterian Hymnal
Liturgy and Affirmation of Faith taken or adapted from the PCUSA Book of Common Worship, 2018.