Joy is the gift of the creator and the power that can move the world

READING

Psalm 148

Alleluia! Praise God from the heavens; sing praise in the heights.

Praise God, all you angels; sing praise, all the heavenly host.

Praise God, sun and moon; sing praise, all you shining stars.

Praise God, heaven of heavens and you waters above the heavens.

Let them praise the Name of God, by whose command they were created.

God made them stand fast for ever and ever, and gave them a law which shall not pass away.

Praise God from the earth, you sea-monsters and all deeps;

Fire and hail, snow and fog, tempestuous wind, doing God’s will;

Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars;

Wild beasts and all cattle, creeping things and winged birds;

Sovereigns of the earth and all peoples, leaders and all rulers of the world;

Young men and maidens, old and young together.

Let them praise your Name, O God, for your Name only is exalted; your splendor is over earth and heaven.

You have raised up strength for your people  and praise for all your loyal servants, the children of Israel, a people who are near you. Alleluia!

MUSIC

All Creatures of our God and King, Nathan Drake

Glory, Glory, Roger McGuin

Hallelujah, Factories and Alleways

Jesus is the good shepherd; so what does that mean for us as we walk in death's shadowed valley?

READING

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not be in want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures
and leads me beside still waters.

He revives my soul
and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me;
you have anointed my head with oil,
and my cup is running over.

Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

MUSIC

Now the Green Blade Riseth, Minnesota Choral Singers

What Wondrous Love is This? Arnold Singers of Rugby School

Ain’t got Time to Die, Acapella Spirituals

The story of Paul's conversion opens our eyes to the transformational possibilities of God's love

READING

Acts 9:1-6

Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."

MUSIC

Come Ye Faithful Raise the Strain, Carver Blanchard

We Walk By Faith, St John’s, LA Choir

Ye Sons and Daughters, Christendom College Choir and Schola Gregoriana

image: image by Roy Ruiz Clayton

Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Faith is a powerful mystery whose true opposite is certainty.

READING

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

MUSIC

Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee, Reawaken Music

Here is Love Vast as the Ocean, Abby Scott & Chris Eaton

Jesus is the Lord of All, Olly Knight

It's the Easter episode and we can hardly contain our joy

READING

Luke 24:1-12

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Then they remembered his words, and returning from the 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. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

MUSIC

Christ the Lord is Risen Today, NCC Worship

Loves Redeeming work is Done, High Street Hymns

Come Away to the Skies, Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band

Generosity is the willingness to give from God has entrusted to your careto further God's mission to restore the goodness of Creation.

READING

2 Corinthians 9:6-8

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

MUSIC

The King of Love My Shepherd Is, IKOS

Bi Thusa Mo Shuile, Maire Brennan

Jesus on a Greyhound, Mark Fosson

image from lightstock.com

Palm Sunday is a disorienting mirror on the work of darkness in our own lives

READING

Luke 19:28-40

After telling a parable to the crowd at Jericho, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'" So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" They said, "The Lord needs it." Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven,and glory in the highest heaven!" 

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."

MUSIC

I Love to Tell the Story, Chris Rupp

Hold On, DEM

O Death, Emlyn Regan

image: Palm Sunday procession from St. Paul's Chapel to Trinity Church, Sunday March 25, 2018, in New York. from WTOP

Sabbath isn't just about not working, it's about recentering our relationships with God, with each other, and with creation

READING

Exodus 20:8-11

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it. 

MUSIC

Hyfrodol

Slane, Bobby Horton

Jefferson, St. Paul's Chamber Choir, conducted by John Smedstad

Whatever rewards the world offers us as individuals pale in comparison to the joy of joining together in the body of Christ.

READING

Philippians 3:4b-14

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

MUSIC

Seek Seek, Swan Silvertones

Fix Me Jesus, Fools For Christ

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, Hillbilly Thomists

We learn God's story so we can see God at work all around and within us

READING

Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4-9, NRSV

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

MUSIC

Amazing Grace, Kevin McLeod

Holy, Holy, Holy, Norton Hall Band