News & Updates — Wayne Community Church

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Worship with Wayne Community Church – Live!

April 20, 2025- Easter Sunday

(Today’s music is livestreamed by permission through ONE LICENSE #732935-A, CCLI license #22104930 and #22104923, or via public domain. Message by Rev. Marcos Juliao. Scripture passages from NIV – New International Version of the Holy Bible.) *Please stand as you are comfortable.

We Gather…

Welcome

Welcoming the Light of Christ and Introit: Now is Christ Risen

Call to Worship: (Psalm 118.1-2, 14-24)

O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, "His steadfast love endures forever." The LORD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.

There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: "The right hand of the LORD does valiantly; the right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly."

I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the LORD. The LORD has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it.

We thank you LORD that you have answered us and have become our salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

*Hymn of Praise: Christ the Lord Is Risen Today UMH 302 v. 1-4

(Words: Charles Wesley, 1739. Music: Lyra Davidica, 1708. Both held in the public domain.)

…To Pray,

Opening Prayer:

Lord Jesus, today we come celebrating you, who looked beyond our faults and saw our needs. We come celebrating Your victory that is ours today. We come rejoicing that sin and evil did not get the last word. We praise you Lord and we thank you for being a loving, patient God and for sending us your son Jesus Christ!

Thank you for giving sinners like us a second, third, and endless chances to right our wrongs and follow the Author of Grace. Thank you for giving the Good News of your Son’s resurrection to the dutiful Mary Magdalene. You called her name, and she finally believed and proclaimed that she had seen the Risen Lord!

Like Mary, time and time again, you have called our name. You have gotten our attention, and we stopped wallowing in despair, sin, and self-reliance. We turned, and there you were! Assuring us that God delivered you from death and God will deliver us also from sin and death.

Today, we put Mary’s proclamation in our hearts and on our lips. May our tears turn into laughter as we hold fast to the Easter knowledge that in Christ, all things are possible, when we only believe. For Christ and in Christ. Amen!

Prayers of the Community/Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

…To Hear the Word,

*Hymn of Preparation: The Day of Resurrection UMH 303

(Words: John of Damascus; trans. by John Mason Neale, 1862. Music: Henry T. Smart, 1835. Both words and music held in the public domain.)

Scripture Readings: John 20: 1-18

1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

11Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

16Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

17Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Our Holy Scripture. A Holy Gift.

Thanks be to God.

Children’s Moment: Mostly What God Does is Love You by Savannah Guthrie. Used with permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Published February 2025.

Message: I Have Seen the Lord

…To Respond to the Word,

Invitation to the Offering

Anthem: Once Upon a Tree

*Blessing Our Gifts: Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow UMH 95

(Words: Thomas Ken, 1674. Music: Attr. to Louis Bourgeois, 1551. Both words and music held in the public domain

…To Go Into the World.

Getting Strong & Holding On (Announcements)

Go For It!

Commission & Benediction: Beloved Jesus give us your presence and your power throughout our acts in faith. Today and forever, Amen.

Christ is Alive UMH 318 v. 5

Postlude: Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah (Words and Music by Georg F. Handel. Arranged by Larry Pugh. © 1984 Lorenz Publishing Company, a division of The Lorenz Corporation. Livestreamed under ONE LICENSE #732935-A.)