Trinity-St. Stephens United Church 1 Ratchford St., P.O. Box 413, Amherst, NS, B4H 3Z5

Email: tssuc@eastlink.ca Web: www.tssuc.com

Nigel Weaver (902-667-8443)

Jeff Joudrey

Erika Benjamin (902-667-8483)

Terry Lawless

Intentional Interim Minister:

Director of Music:

Administrative Assistant:

Custodian:

Worship on the Easter Sunday

March 27, 2016

Easter sketch by TSSUC Youth - Hannah Jolly

Todays bulletin is given in loving memory of

Paul Cullen by Daphne and family.

mailto:tssuc@eastlink.ca

Prelude: Sonata Prima (movements 1 & 4) Giovanni Viviani Curtis Dietz - Trumpet

Lighting the Christ Candle and Welcome

We stand for the trumpet fanfare (Abblasen Fanfare J.S. Bach) and remain standing to sing:

Red Hymnbook 155

We sit and say:

ONE: Long before ever there was a long ago

ALL: God spoke.

ONE: Yes. Spoke words of love

ALL: and all creation came to be.

ONE: But soon God found

ALL: words were not enough.

ONE: God acted.

ALL:

ONE: Looking, and sounding,

ALL: thinking and feeling,

ONE: working and playing,

ALL: laughing and crying,

ONE: dreaming and sighing,

ALL: like one of us.

ONE: Gods love came.

ALL: Yes. Jesus came and lived with us.

ONE: Lived with us, and died like us.

ALL: Lived with us, and died like us.

ONE: But lives again.

ALL: Yes. Lives again.

ONE: The stone is rolled away.

ALL: The tomb is empty.

ONE: Grave wrappings lie folded.

ALL: Angels appear.

ONE: Friends to find

ALL:

ONE: News to share

ALL: Music to make, songs and hymns to sing.

Easter Music Memorials

We gratefully acknowledge the following memorial gifts

which support this mornings celebratory Easter music:

Susan Taylor and Gil Collicott

By Wanda McSorley

Lionel & Ruth Naylor, Ken Drury and James & Dorothy Trueman

By Ian & Kathy Naylor

Dorothy MacNeil

By Kathy Curtis and family

Ron Faulkner

By Vera and family

Gil Collicott

By Bruce Baxter

In memory of loved ones

By Treva and Peter Hebb

Eugene Gene Mooney

By Nancy and children

Walter & Courtenay Purdy

By Anne Purdy

Della Joudrey and Russell Garraway

By Jeff & Susan Joudrey and family

Phil Joudrey & Martin Provost

In memory of his parents, Lillian Broomhead & Leonard Weaver

By Rev. Nigel Weaver

p. 3 p. 3

ONE: Lord God, early in the morning, when the world was young,

ALL: you made life in all its beauty and terror;

you gave birth to all that we know.

ONE: Early in the morning, when the world least expected it,

ALL: a newborn child crying in a cradle

announced that you had come among us,

that you were one of us.

ONE: Early in the morning,

surrounded by respectable liars, religious leaders,

anxious statesmen and silent friends,

ALL: you accepted the penalty for doing good,

for being God:

you shouldered and suffered the cross.

ONE: Early in the morning, a voice in a guarded graveyard

and footprints in the dew proved that you had risen,

ALL: that you had come back

to those, and for those

who had forgotten, denied, destroyed you.

ONE: Lord God, early in the morning,

ALL: in the multi -coloured company of your Church on earth and in heaven,

we celebrate your creation, your life,

your death and resurrection,

your interest in us.

Music - text and melody - printed in the bulletin is used by permission, all rights reserved,

and is licensed for our congregations use under Onelicense.net License No. A-725866 and

LicenSingOnline License No. 626270.

words and music: Natalie Sleeth 1976 Hinshaw Music, (VU 175);

words and music Jim Strathdee 1985 Desert Flower Music, (VU 974)

Liturgy: For the Darkness of Waiting, Janet Morley, All Desires Known 1988, 1992 Morehouse Press.

Other liturgy Nigel Weaver

Notes of thanks: We extend a warm welcome to guest trumpeter, Curtis Dietz and thank

him for contributing to the Ministry of Music this Easter Sunday. Curtis plays trumpet with

Symphony Nova Scotia and has participated in our last three Easter Sunday services - last

year with the Maritime Brass Quintet. He has been playing trumpet for over 30 years (even

though he doesn't look that old!) and is the proud father of two wonderful daughters Greta

and Kate, and a son Peter with wife Gina Patterson. We again express our appreciation to

Curtis for travelling from Hackett's Cove to share his music with us this Easter Sunday.

ONE: Jesus stood among them and said,

ALL:

ONE: Then he breathed on them and said,

ALL: Receive the Holy Spirit.

ONE: If you forgive someones sins they are gone for good.

ALL: If you don't forgive sins,

ONE: The Peace of Christ be with you.

ALL: And also with you.

We share this greeting with one another then sing:

ONE: And we pray:

ALL: Bring new life

where we are worn and tired;

new love

where we have turned hard -hearted;

forgiveness

where we have been hurt

and where we have wounded. Amen.

ONE: For the darkness of loving

in which it is safe to surrender

to let go of our self-protection

and to stop holding back our desire,

ALL: we praise you O God

for the darkness and the light

are both alike to you.

ONE: For the darkness of choosing

when you give us the moment

to speak, and act, and change,

and we cannot know

what we have set in motion,

but still we have to take the risk,

ALL: we praise you O God

for the darkness and the light

are both alike to you.

ONE: For the darkness of hoping

in a world which longs for you,

for the wrestling and the labouring

of all creation

for wholeness and justice and freedom,

ALL: we praise you O God

for the darkness and the light

are both alike to you.

Hymn: Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise Red Hymnbook 189 (tune: Llanfair pg. 875)

We stand for the Sending Forth and Blessing and remain standing to sing:

Postlude: Marc Antoine Charpentier

Curtis Dietz Trumpet

The postlude concludes worship; it is not a performance. Applause is not required. p. 4

p. 5

ONE: Let us present our offerings with prayer and praise. Let us pray:

ALL: Out of love and duty,

faithful women brought perfume and ointment

to a garden tomb.

Intending to preserve the dead,

they found new life, instead.

Now, out of love and duty,

we bring our gifts.

May they bring life to us and to others. Amen.

We stand and sing while the Offering is brought to the front:

O Jesus, risen now to bless,

do thou thyself our hearts possess.

Sing praises, hallelujah!

So we shall give you all our days

the willing tribute of our praise!

Sing praises, hallelujah! Sing praises, hallelujah! Hallelujah!

A Reading from the Prophets Isaiah 65.16b-25

ORD

The former troubles are to be forgotten,

and they will be hidden from my eyes.

For I am about to create

new heavens and a new earth!

The things of the past

will not be remembered or come to mind!

Be glad and rejoice forever and ever in what I create,

because I now create Jerusalem to be a joy

and its people to be a delight!

I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people;

no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it

or the cry of distress.

No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,

or old people who do not live out their days.

Gospel Reading Luke 24.1-12

On the first day of the week, at the first sign of dawn, the women came to the tomb bring-

ing the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled back from the tomb; but

when they entered the tomb, they didnt find the body of Jesus. While they were still at a

loss over what to think of this, two figures in dazzling garments stood beside them. Terri-

fied, the women bowed to the ground. The two said to them, Why do you search for the

Living One among the dead? Jesus is not here; Christ has risen. Remember what Jesus

said to you while still in Galilee that the Chosen One must be delivered into the hands

of sinners and be crucified, and on the third day would rise again. With this reminder,

the words of Jesus came back to them. When they had returned from the tomb, they told

all these things to the eleven and the others. The women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna,

and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them also told the apostles, but the

story seemed like nonsense and they refused to believe them. Peter, however, got up and

ran to the tomb. He stooped down, but he could see nothing but the wrappings. So he

went away, full of amazement at what had occurred.

Ministry of Music: Glory to God G. F. Handel

Sermon:

Hymn: The Risen Christ Red Hymnbook 168

ONE: For the darkness of waiting

of not knowing what is to come

of staying ready and quiet and attentive,

ALL: we praise you O God

for the darkness and the light

are both alike to you.

ONE: For the darkness of staying silent

for the terror of having nothing to say

and for the greater terror

of needing to say nothing,

ALL: we praise you O God

for the darkness and the light

are both alike to you.

p. 8

They die as mere youths

who reach but a hundred years,

and those who fall short of a hundred

will be thought accursed.

At last they will live in the houses they build,

and eat the fruit of the vineyard they plant.

They will not build for another to inhabit;

they will not plant for another to eat.

For the days of my people

will be like the days of a tree,

and my chosen ones will enjoy t

he fruit of their labors.

They will not labor in vain

or bear children doomed to die;

for they and their descendants

are a people blessed by God.

Even before they call upon me, I will answer;

and while they speak, I will hear.

The wolf and the lamb will feed side by side;

the lion will eat straw like an ox.

Serpents will be content to crawl on the ground;

they will not injure or destroy in all my Holy mountain,

says YHWH.

Psalm of Response Psalm 118.1-2, 14-24

We remain seated:

ONE: I thank you, YHWH (LORD), for your goodness!

Your love is everlasting!

Let Israel say it:

ALL:

ONE: God is my strength and my song;

God has become my salvation!

ALL: Raise shouts of joy

and victory in the tents of the upright:

ONE: YHWHs (the LORDS) right hand is doing mighty acts!

YHWHs (the LORDS) right hand is winning;

ALL: ORD S) right hand is doing mighty acts!

ONE: No, I will not die

I will live to proclaim the deeds of YHWH (the LORD);

ALL: though YHWH (the L ORD ) has disciplined me often,

I am not abandoned to Death.

ONE: Open the gates of justice for me,

let me come in and thank you, YHWH (LORD)!

ALL: This is the gate of YHWH (the L ORD ),

and only the upright can enter!

ONE: Thank you for hearing me,

for saving me.

ALL: It was the stone which the builders rejected

that became the keystone;

ONE: this is YHWHs (the LORDS) doing, and it is wonderful to see.

ALL: This is the day YHWH (the L ORD ) has made

let us celebrate with joy!

p. 7