GATHERING TO PRAISE GOD Sunday, April 9, 2023

EASTER

Prelude

Choral Introit Gloria in Excelsis Deo Vivaldi

Welcome

Praise Songs

The People Gather
L: This is the Good News – the grave is empty, Christ is risen.
P: HALLELUJAH!
L: This is the Good News – the light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never put it out.
P: HALLELUJAH!
L: This is the Good News – once we were no people, now we are God’s people.
P: HALLELUJAH!
L: Christ is our peace, the indestructible peace we now share with each other.
P: HALLELUJAH!

Hymn Christ The Lord Is Risen Today UMH 302 vs. 1-3

The People Pray
L: This morning in the multicolored company of your Church on earth and in heaven, we celebrate your creation, your life, your death and resurrection, your love for us; so we pray,
P: Lord bring new life, where we are worn and tired; new love, where we have turned hard hearted forgiveness, where we feel hurt and where we feel wounded; and the joy and freedom of your Holy Spirit, we are prisoners of ourselves.
L: To all and to each, on his community and on his friends, where regret is real, Jesus pronounces his pardon and grants us the right to begin again. THANKS BE TO GOD! Amen.

Special Music Glorious Day

Children’s Moment

Special Music Instrumental

The Word of God for the People of God

Scripture
Jonah 2:10-3:10
10 Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land.
3 The Lord’s word came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and declare against it the proclamation that I am commanding you.” 3 And Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s word. (Now Nineveh was indeed an enormous city, a three days’ walk across.)
4 Jonah started into the city, walking one day, and he cried out, “Just forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant.
6 When word of it reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, stripped himself of his robe, covered himself with mourning clothes, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he announced, “In Nineveh, by decree of the king and his officials: Neither human nor animal, cattle nor flock, will taste anything! No grazing and no drinking water! 8 Let humans and animals alike put on mourning clothes, and let them call upon God forcefully! And let all persons stop their evil behavior and the violence that’s under their control!” 9 He thought, Who knows? God may see this and turn from his wrath, so that we might not perish.[a]
10 God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior. So God stopped planning to destroy them, and he didn’t do it.

Matthew 12:38-44
38 At that time some of the legal experts and the Pharisees requested of Jesus, “Teacher, we would like to see a sign from you.”
39 But he replied, “An evil and unfaithful generation searches for a sign, but it won’t receive any sign except Jonah’s sign. 40 Just as Jonah was in the whale’s belly for three days and three nights,[a] so the Human One[b] will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. 41 The citizens of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it as guilty, because they changed their hearts and lives in response to Jonah’s preaching. And look, someone greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will be raised up by God at the judgment with this generation and condemn it because she came from a distant land to hear Solomon’s wisdom. And look, someone greater than Solomon is here.
43 “When an unclean spirit leaves a person, it wanders through dry places looking for a place to rest. But it doesn’t find any.44 Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the place vacant, cleaned up, and decorated.

Message Sign of Life

Pastoral Prayer

The People Bring Their Gifts
The Baskets will be passed by the ushers or use your online app

The People Offer Praise Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow UMH 95

The People Go into The World

Hymn Easter People, Raise Your Voices UMH 304 vs 1,2

Benediction