Worship at Home – Easter Sunday – Sunday 17th April 2022
This short act of worship has been prepared for you to use at home. We invite you to spend a few moments with God, knowing that other people across the Methodist Connexion are sharing this act of worship with you.
Opening Prayer
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
As we come to worship, may we, like the women at the empty tomb, celebrate and share the joyous news of your rising, of love, hope, forgiveness, and freedom.
Risen Christ, draw close as we worship. Amen.
Hymn: StF 298 Christ the Lord is risen today
Sing/ Read /pray /proclaim the words or listen to it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRmDIB_w5BY
Christ the Lord is risen today;
Alleluia!
All creation joins to say:
Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high;
Alleluia!
Sing, you heavens;let earth, reply:
Alleluia!
Love's redeeming work is done,
Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won;
Alleluia!
Vain the stone, the watch, the seal;
Alleluia!
Christ has burst the gates of hell:
Alleluia!
Lives again our glorious King;
Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now your sting?
Alleluia!
Once he died our souls to save;
Alleluia!
Where's your victory, boasting 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!
King of Glory! Soul of bliss!
Alleluia!
Everlasting life is this,
Alleluia!
You to know, your power to prove,
Alleluia!
Thus to sing, and thus to love:
Alleluia!
Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
Let us pray together
Glory to you, O God:
you raised Jesus from the grave,
bringing us victory over death
and giving us eternal life.
Glory to you, O Christ:
for us and for our salvation
you overcame death
and opened the gate to everlasting life.
Glory to you, O Holy Spirit:
you lead us into the truth
and breathe new life into us.
Glory to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
now and for ever. Amen. (MWB p.160)
Today’s Reading from the Old Testament Isaiah 25:6-9
Today’s Gospel Reading: Luke 24:1-12
Time to Reflect
‘Why do you look for the living among the dead, he is not here, but has risen…remember how he told you.’ How could the women at the empty tomb remember? With weeping and sorrow, they had shared his agony on that Friday, witnessing him cry ‘it is finished’ and the last breath of their beloved as he hung on a cross. So, they run back and tell the disciples, who think this is an idle tale, or as one translation puts it, ‘nonsense’.
Today we celebrate that ‘nonsense’ or idle tale, beyond human imagining. We celebrate the message of resurrection, forgiveness, and abundant grace beyond measure. Our lives are touched by hope, astounded by the love of Christ. Love that bore nails hammered through flesh and bone. Love that was rejected, betrayed and abandoned. Love that was too strong to be bound and held by death. Love that burst forth from a tomb with the rising sun.
The joy of Easter is perhaps not only that God has raised Christ from the dead. Easter joy is also about the possibility and the promise that, regardless of what our lives are like now, new life is available to each one of us today. Nothing is the same, everything has changed, Of most significance as we celebrate Easter, is perhaps not what we do today, but what we do tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that. How will we now live differently in the light of the resurrection? Jesus did not die and rise again so that we might continue life as usual. If this new life and freedom do not change us, perhaps, we might as well put the stone back over the entrance to the tomb, and let the women’s story remain an idle tale.
Take a time to sit quietly
A time of prayer
In our time of prayer there is an opportunity to bring before God the things on our hearts and minds using the following themes:
Holy God,
we come to you today with our prayers:
We pray for our world…
We pray for the Church…
We pray for all those striving for justice…
We pray for those who are unwell…
We pray for those grieving the loss of loved ones… (Time of silence)
We offer all our prayers in and through the name of the risen Christ, Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father…
Hymn: Singing the Faith 313 Thine be the glory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjz4yXUJrgU
Thine be the glory,
risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory
thou o'er death hast won;
angels in bright raiment
rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave-clothes
where thy body lay:
Thine be the glory,
risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory
thou o'er death hast won.
Lo, Jesus meets us,
risen from the tomb;
lovingly he greets us,
scatters fear and gloom;
let the Church with gladness
hymns of triumph sing,
for her Lord now liveth,
death hath lost its sting:
No more we doubt thee,
glorious Prince of Life;
life is naught without thee:
aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerors
through thy deathless love;
bring us safe through Jordan
to thy home above:
Edmond Budry (1854-1932)
translated byRichard Birch Hoyle (1875-1939)
A prayer of blessing
God the Father, by whose glory Christ was raised from the dead, strengthen us to walk with him in his risen life; and may almighty God bless us, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. (MWB, p.173)
Original Materials by Rev Miriam Moul, Oxford Circuit
All Hymns reproduced under CCLi 1144191.
Local Churches please insert CCCLi No here here3382 / 761
We are grateful to all the Ministers and Local Preachers from around the Connexion who have contributed to Worship at Home. This resource is administrated by Ministries: Vocations and Worship in the Connexional Team.
For more worship resources see
Singing the Faith Plus (methodist.org.uk)