April 20, 2025
Resurrection Sunday C
Luke 24:1-12 | At Early Dawn

Opening Meditation 
"Jesus of Nazareth was a brilliant community organizer who built collective power.  He began at the margins, tending to those most impacted by the toxic power of the occupying Roman empire.  He transgressed boundaries that were racial, geographical, religious and class-based, and formed a coalition across difference, even including some who were complicit in upholding the status quo.  After building relationships with the people, hearing their stories, tending to their pain, and preaching a vision of liberation, he turned to face the center of toxic imperial power to challenge the roots of oppression alongside the people" (Ayanna Johnson Watkins and Lucy Waechter Webb, “Power Analysis for Powerful Congregations,” 51).

Call to Worship
Leader:       	At early dawn,
		when the light was just emerging and the shadows still long and deep
		the earth began to sing a tender and persistent hallelujah.  
Assembly: 	And the resurrection smelled like death and dirt.
		Christ, the Power of Love, is risen indeed.  Hallelujah.
Leader:       	At early dawn,
		with the salt of tears still crusting their eyes
		the women began to sing a grieving and faithful hallelujah.
Assembly: 	And the empty tomb sounded like weeping and questions.
		Christ, the Wounded One, is risen indeed.  Hallelujah.
Leader:       	At early dawn, 
		when no one could remember the sound of hope 
		or the promise of a new day rising
		the world began to sing a fierce and determined hallelujah.
Assembly: 	And the rising up tasted like bread and rejoicing. 
		Christ, the Way of Truth and Life, is risen indeed.  Hallelujah.
Leader:       	At early dawn, 
		as each day brings forth new agonies and injustices 
		we gather to sing a grateful and liberating hallelujah.
Assembly: 	And this Easter feels like protest and praise. 
		Christ is risen. 
		Christ is risen indeed. 
		Hallelujah.  Hallelujah.  Hallelujah. 

Invocation
Resurrecting God, we meet you in the empty tomb where our griefs and joys, despairs and hopes intermingle. Through our prayers and praise this Easter day, open our hearts to remember that the power of love and life will overcome every death-dealing force, no matter how pervasive or persuasive.  In this troubling and joyful time, dazzle us with good news, Holy Rising Up One, in whose path we follow and name we pray.  Amen.  

Invocation Alternative/Spiritual Practice: Centering Prayer
Leader:	Take a moment to choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to open to God’s resurrecting presence and action within. You could use words like: liberation, power, hope, justice, flourishing
Take a few deep breaths and let your bodymindspirit settle into prayer.  In the silence, call to mind the sacred word you chose.  If other thoughts interrupt, return gently to your sacred word. Notice what the Holy may be offering to you in this moment.
[Hold silence for 2-3 minutes]
With gratitude for the presence of God’s resurrecting spirit in and among us, and acting through us, we offer our prayers.  Amen. 

Prayer for Transformation and New Life
Call to Prayer
Leader: There can be no resurrection without facing the power death, the daily crucifixions that we experience and participate in continuing.  So, centered in our resurrection hope and trusting in God’s grace, let us turn unflinchingly toward these truths, and open ourselves to transformation and new life.

Prayer of Transformation and New Life
Returning from the empty 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. – Luke 24:9-11
Leader:       	How many times have we succumbed to the despair and distraction sown by the chaos machine and forgotten God’s prophetic promises, unable to remember the power of steadfast Love and persistent Justice.  
Assembly: 	God, have mercy.
Leader:       	 How many times have we reacted with disbelief to the truths testified by those we perceive as less powerful, treating the ones who know death-dealing oppression best as untrustworthy, uninformed, and insignificant.
Assembly: 	Christ, have mercy.
Leader:       	How many times have we dismissed the visions and wisdom of marginalized voices as idle tales, and failed to recognize this witness to a new future of flourishing for all?
Assembly: 	God, have mercy.

Words of Grace
Leader:       	How many times does God greet our failures with grace and mercy!
Assembly: 	Hallelujah. Praise our Resurrecting God!
Leader:       	How many times will God forgive us and call us beloved!
Assembly: 	Hallelujah. Praise our Rising Up God!
Leader:       	How many times will God free us in love to begin anew!
Assembly: 	Hallelujah.  Thanks be to the God who makes all things new. 

Embodied Practice
Introduction
On Easter, on Resurrection Sunday, we celebrate and rejoice in the power God’s love has, even over death.  We lean into the fervent hope that we know in our bones: nothing can separate us from the Love of God, not powers and principalities, not governments and rulers, not ICE raids or birth certificates, not even death. Hallelujah indeed.
But in our world, we most often encounter power as the power of domination, the power of oppression, the power to bend things to our will.  Jesus’ power was of a (w)holy different order.  His is the power of love, of care, of building relationships, of collective liberation. 
So on this Easter, on this Resurrection Sunday, we are inviting you to experience what Jesus’ power, the power of God’s Love-made-flesh, feels like in your body, so that you might come to know the truth of this power in your bones. 
I’m going to read a short passage from Philippians and I invite you to listen for the power of Love, to notice in your body what the power of Jesus feels like. 
Then I’m going to read it a second time, and invite you to consider a gesture that embodies that power of Love, that Jesus power that you are hearing and experiencing. 
Finally, I read it one more time and as I do, you are invited to make your gesture over and over again, repeating it throughout the reading so that we might all bear witness to the truth of the power of love alive in and among us. 
Practice
Read Philippians 2:5-11.
As I read the passage again, consider a gesture that embodies the power of Love, the Jesus power that you are hearing and experiencing.   
Read Philippians 2:5-11.
As I read the passage one last time, make your gesture over and over again, repeating it throughout the reading.  Let us bear witness to the truth of the power of love alive in and among us. 
Read Philippians 2:5-11. 
Christ is risen.  Christ is risen indeed.  Hallelujah. 

Invitation to Generosity
Leader:       	As resurrection people, every moment offers us an opportunity to divest from the power of death and invest in the power of new life. How are you being called in this moment to use whatever resources you have to build up a new world of flourishing for all?  You are invited to bring your life-affirming, resurrecting intentions to this offering so that together we might roll away every stone of injustice, oppression, and harm until all know the true power of Love.  

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication
To the witness of new life emerging, God open us.
To the work of new world building, God commit us.
To the power of love persisting, God dedicate us.
For the calling of faith rising up, God equip us.  
Amen.

Benediction
This blessing comes at early dawn
when the day has not yet emerged
and the night lingers on our skin.
Hallelujah.  Even now, new life.
This blessing emerges through grief
when the sorrows have not yet left us
and the hope has not yet found us. 
Hallelujah. Even now, resurrection. 
This blessing calls from emptiness
when we have more questions than answers
and fear turns to amazement turns to joy.
Hallelujah. Even now, rise up.  
Christ is risen indeed.
Go in peace to rise up in protest and praise
until new life is witnessed, known, and enjoyed
by all creation.  Amen. 

Building Up a New World - At Early Dawn Service Prayers for Resurrection Sunday C was written by Dr. Sharon R. Fennema, who serves as Join the Movement toward Racial Justice Curator with UCC National Ministries.