Easter Sunrise Service Pastor Hines

Bethel UMC April 12, 2020 Sunrise Easter Service

Welcome to Sunrise Easter Service

We have heard the story from the gospel of Mark many times of that first Easter morning. Very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, Mary Magdalene and a couple others went to the tomb to care for Jesus’ body, but he was gone.

Today is a brand new day for us, too. We are blessed with a fresh start. We have arrived to this day with a plan to do right by Jesus, but it seems he is nowhere to be found. We have come, as New York’s governor said this week, “Searching for solace in all this grief.” And, Jesus is not where we expected him to be.

There is nothing else left for us to do except what Mary Magdalene and her friends did that morning. They did two things. First, put their preconceived notions and fears aside and stopped long enough to listen. When they entered the tomb they saw a young man dressed in Easter white. He told them not to be afraid. He told them to go tell the disciples that Jesus would meet them in Galilee. They listened.

It is good to stop and listen. These days many of us have a few more minutes to stop and listen. Now more than ever we are likely to hear the voice of an angel, calming our fears, fueling our hopes, directing our steps. It is good to stop and listen to God and to one another.

The second thing Mary and her sister seekers did was to do what God wanted them to do. They told the disciples where they could find the risen savior. That’s what God wants all of us to do, to point the world to a Jesus who is alive, who saves, who heals, who delivers.

And when they ask us how we know he lives, we can say he lives within our hearts. We have been saved from our sins. Have we not?  We have been healed of disease and distress. Haven’t we?  We have been delivered from death and destruction. He lives!

He lives even on this more solemn of Easters. Rev. Carolyn Wynfree Gillette a Presbyterian minister from Philadelphia wrote a touching hymn for this occasion. 

This Easter celebration is not like ones we’ve known.

We pray in isolation, we sing the hymns alone.

No gathered choirs are singing. No banners line the way.

O God of love and promise, where’s joy this Easter day?

Our joy won’t come from worship that’s in a crowded room.

But from the news of women who saw the empty tomb.

In all the grief and suffering may we remember well:

Christ suffered crucifixion and faced the powers of hell.

We thank you that on Easter your church is blessed to be

A scattered, faithful body that’s doing ministry.

Let us pray: Thank you God that we are still the church in spite of it all, that you are working mightily in our lives. We love you. We worship you. We praise you and we thank you that you have not forgotten the least, the last, and the lost. Send us. Use us to accomplish your will. Amen.

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Go forth in peace and let the son rise in your heart this Easter and forever more.