Ascension Evangelical Lutheran Church
4768 Union Deposit Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111
And Grace Through Christ
Lutheran Church
204 S 4th Street, Lewisburg, PA
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
Email: ; Church’s Website:
Pastor Green’s office:652-8285; home:732-2631; cell:319-5424;
Pastor Robert Green. Officers: President: Mike Nowaczyk; Elders: Mike Neff, Chuck Thompson, Ralph Buehler, Daniel Sellers and Glenn Larson; Evangelism: Steve Lange; Fellowship: Ron Althoff; Treasurer: Rick Grove; Properties: Terry Reilly; Public Relations: Vince Stritt; Youth Ministry: Vacant Christian Education: Ralph Buehler; Stewardship: Franklin Stauffer; Secretary: Mike Neff. Organists/pianists: Vyonne Stephenson, Marge Metz, Scott Salesky, Jodie Roberts and Brook Larson; Willing Workers: Co-chairmen: Barb Buehler and Jodie Roberts; Secretary: Linda Graf; Altar Guild: Barb Buehler and Lila Collins; LWMS Reporter: Jodie Roberts
April 4, 2010
Easter Service
We welcome out friends and visitors to worship as we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
our Lord and Savior
Resurrection 2 by Carl Bloch
“He is risen!”
We welcome our friends, and visitors to worship as we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior
“Do not be afraid, for I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.”
PASTOR: He is risen!
CONGREGATION: He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
PASTOR: Where, O death, is your victory? Where O death, is your sting?
CONGREGATION: Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our risen and living Savior, Jesus Christ!
Our Ascension Choir sings the first three verses and the congregation joins in verse 4 of Hymn 157"Jesus Christ is Risen Today"accompanied by Marge Metz- keyboard, Christine Althoff- Bb Clarinet and Steven Nowaczyk- Bb Trumpet.
Hymn 157: Jesus Christ is Risen Today
Pastor: O come let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation.
CONGREGATION: We come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and songs.
Pastor: Christ has risen from the dead!
Prayer: (All) O living and risen Savior Jesus, we come before you today to worship and praise you for delivering us from sin, death and the devil. We thank you for allowing us to live a full and joy filled life free from the fear of eternal punishment and free from the fear of death itself. Bless our worship this morning and strengthen our faith, increase our love and joy. Amen.
Hymn: 149 Christ the Lord is Risen Today
First reading: The song of Moses and the Israelites foreshadows our song of joy on this day. The evil foe sought to pull us back into the slavery of sin. Yet the hand of the Lord has saved his people. Just as he rescued the Israelites through the waters of the Red Seas, so he has rescued us from sin and death through water and the Word. He has connected to the sacrificial death and victorious resurrection of his one and only Son through the waters of baptism.
Exodus 15:1-11 (NIV)
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:
“I will sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea.
2 The Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
3 The Lord is a warrior;
the Lord is his name.
4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his army
he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh’s officers
are drowned in the Red Sea
5 The deep waters have covered them;
they sank to the depths like a stone.
6 “Your right hand, O Lord,
was majestic in power.
Your right hand, O Lord,
shattered the enemy.
7 In the greatness of your majesty
you threw down those who opposed you.
You unleashed your burning anger;
Itconsumed them like stubble.
8 By the blast of your nostrils
the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood firm like a wall;
the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 “The enemy boasted,
‘I will pursue, I will overtake them.
I will divide the spoils;
I will gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword
and my hand will destroy them.’
10 But you blew with your breath,
and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead
in the mighty waters.
11 “Who among the gods is like you, O Lord?
Who is like you—
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
working wonders?
Psalm 118 In this psalm, the Church sings of the wonderful victory God gives to those who believe, “I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done.”
The Lord is my strength 'and my song;*
he has become my sal'vation.
The Lord's right hand is 'lifted high;*
the Lord's right hand has done 'mighty things!
I will not 'die but live,*
and will proclaim what the 'Lord has done.
Refrain
I will give you thanks, for you 'answered me;*
you have become my sal'vation.
The stone the builders rejected has become the 'capstone;*
the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous 'in our eyes.
This is the day the 'Lord has made;*
let us rejoice and be 'glad in it.
Glory be to the Father and 'to the Son*
and to the Holy 'Spirit,
as it was in the be'ginning,*
is now, and will be forever. 'Amen.
Refrain:
Refrain, Tune and setting: Marty Haugen. c 1983 GIA Publications, Inc., Chicago IL. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Psalm Tone *Tune and setting: c 1993 Kermit G. Moldenhauer. Used by permission.
Second reading: The message of the Gospel, Christ crucified for our sins and raised to life for our justification, is the power of salvation for everyone who believes. Let there be no doubt: Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Not just in our minds and hearts, he has risen in the flesh. Paul appeals to eyewitnesses who still lived and told what they had seen. Christ resurrection had no doubt; so neither does its power. The power of this message enters our hearts by the grace of God and fills us with resurrection joy.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (NIV)
Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
Hymn 143: He's Risen, He's Risen
Confession of faith: Luther’s Explanation of the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed:
I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord. He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death. All this he did that I should be his own, and live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, just as he has risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally. This is most certainly true.
Gospel reading: With the women, we have traveled along with Jesus through his Passion and watched as he was laid in the tomb. But the final trip to the tomb doesn’t reveal the finality of death. Rather, it reveals the finality for death. What a change! No doubt Peter was confused, wondering what had happened. Do not look for the living among the dead. Death has been swallowed up in victory; Christ has risen just as he said! Death no longer has mastery over us. Easter means that death ends in life!
Luke 24:1-12 (NIV)
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words.
9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
The Ascension Choir sings “Thank You, Lord" words and music by Paul Baloche and Don Moen
The Easter Message: based on Luke 24:13-32
Let your heart burn with the Good News of the Resurrection;
- do not be foolish and slow of heart to believe it;
- for is in fulfillment of all Scripture!
The congregation joins in singing the first three verses of Hymn 152, I Know My Redeemer Lives.
Rite Confirmation of Barbie Lange
Barbie B. Lange, daughter of Kathy and Duane Lange, having completed the adult confirmation course will now be received into membership.
At the end of the Rite of Confirmation we pray:
Prayer
M:Lord Jesus, Author and Perfecter of our faith, in mercy you joined these brothers and sisters to your Church when they were born again of water and the Spirit. In mercy you taught them your saving truth. Grant that they may offer themselves as living sacrifices to you as their spiritual act of worship. Transform them by the renewing of their minds so that they will not conform to the pattern of this world. Help us live in love and harmony with one another, and work together in serving you. Keep us united in your Spirit and bring us at last to your eternal kingdom where you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
C: Amen.
Offering: A time to give to the Lord out of thanks for what he has given us: eternal life! During the offering we sing verses 4, 5, and 8 ofHymn 152 I Know that My Redeemer Lives.
The Prayer of the Church for Easter
Pastor: O Lord God, our strength, our song, and our salvation, you fulfilled your promises by the resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ, from the dead.
Congregation: Thanks be to God! You give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor: In your compassion you sent Christ, the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life to rescue the lost.
Congregation: Drive out all doubt and gloom that we may delight in your glorious triumph.
Pastor: Lift our eyes heavenward to see him who lives to make intercession for the saints, and grant us confidence in the greatness of his power. Keep before us the vision of your redeemed people standing before your throne and singing the song of victory.
Congregation: Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive wisdom and power and honor and glory and praise.
Pastor: Make us instruments of your peace as we bring the good news of the empty tomb and hope and new life to those around us. Guide us in the use of all that you have entrusted to us: our time, our talents, and our treasures.
Congregation: Risen Lord, live in us that we may live for you.
Pastor: Merciful Lord Jesus, grant healing to the sick, and strengthen the faith of the suffering and dying. Assure them of your abiding presence, and comfort them with the hope of eternal life.
(Special prayers are now offered)
Hear us Lord, as we bring you our private prayers this Easter morning.
A moment to offer your silent prayers.
Pastor: Gracious Father, you have restored to us the joy of your salvation. With happy hearts, we come before you and say:
Congregation: Alleluia! Thanks be to God! Amen.
Please stand
The 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 trespassesas 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 and ever. Amen.
The Sacrament
Preface
M: It is truly good and right that we should at all times and in all places give you thanks, O Lord, holy Father, almighty and everlasting God, through Christ, our Lord, and we praise you especially for the glorious resurrection of your Son, the true Passover Lamb, who by his sacrifice took away the sins of the world and by his resurrection restored everlasting life.
Therefore, with all the saints on earth and hosts of heaven, we praise your holy name and join their glorious song:
Holy, Holy, Holy
Sanctus
Words of Institution
M: Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, “Drink from it all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
M: The peace of the Lord be with you always.
O Christ, Lamb of God
Agnus Dei
Please be seated
The Distribution
During the distribution the congregation joins in singing hymn 148 The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Done
Song of Simeon
Nunc Dimittis
M: O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
M: We give thanks, almighty God, that you have refreshed us with this holy supper. We pray that through it you will strengthen our faith in you and increase our love for one another. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Prayer for peace
Pastor: Lord God, all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works come from you. Give to us, your servants, the peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments. Defend us also from the fear of our enemies that we may live in peace and quietness, through the merits of Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.