Theme for the Season of Easter
Resurrected: Renewed for Life
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
We celebrate the resurrection every Sunday of the year, but it is something that holds a special place during the season of Easter. The party continues through the seven weeks of the Easter season. We shake off the shadows and celebrate the new life and creation that is ours through Jesus Christ.
In the not-so-distant past, we had to send in a little card to renew a magazine subscription for another year. Now, we subscribe to streaming services, music libraries, and even shaving supplies that come in the mail every month. The companies that provide these services happily renew our subscriptions automatically. We don’t even think about it, at least until it shows up on next month’s statement.
With the gift of new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our subscription to eternal life in the Kingdom of God is automatically renewed. God is the one doing the renewal: We simply live and bear witness to the overwhelming love and grace that fulfills our every need and strengthens us to do the work of God’s Kingdom. We are called to love our neighbor, feed the hungry, care for the sick, and visit the prisoner. Not for any gain on our part, but that God’s love and grace might be felt everywhere, right now, with a lifetime renewal that has no end.
Scripture for April 17, 2022 – Easter Sunday
Introduction
“The last enemy to be destroyed is death,” Paul writes. Today Christ is risen, and we gather together with astonishment and joy. Christ is risen, and we have been set free from the bonds of death. Christ is risen, and we are forgiven. Christ is risen, and with the women at the tomb and Peter, we are amazed. Let us rejoice: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Prayer of the Day
O God, you gave your only Son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption, and by his glorious resurrection you delivered us from the power of death. Make us die every day to sin, that we may live with him forever in the joy of the resurrection, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Scripture for Sunday, April 17
Acts 10:34-43
Reading Introduction: Peter’s sermon, delivered at the home of Cornelius, a Roman army officer, is a summary of the essential message of Christianity: Everyone who believes in Jesus, whose life, death, and resurrection fulfilled the words of the prophets, receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Reading Introduction: This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Ps. 118:24)
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Reading Introduction: Paul describes the consequences of the resurrection, including the promise of new life in Christ to a world that has been in bondage to death. He celebrates the destruction of evil and the establishment of God’s victorious rule over all.
Luke 24:1-12
Reading Introduction: Evidently expecting to find Jesus’ corpse, some of the women among his followers go to the tomb with embalming spices. After a perplexing encounter with the empty tomb and angelic visitors, the women become the first to proclaim the amazing news of resurrection.