An Easter Prayer

Risen Lord, we come today to celebrate

to lift up our praises for what you did for us,
for the love that you've shown us and for the hope that it gives us for the future.

God we might not all feel like celebrating this morning,
we might not all be to that resurrection in our own lives, 
but regardless, we join together today because we believe. 
We believe that you lived, you suffered and died and that your rose again and that your story, the story of resurrection and redemption and restoration will be our story too.

This morning as we stand in awe of the ways that you redeem us, we remember the journey that we took to get here. 
We remember how you came to us, 
you came and you were like us, 
you met us where we were, 
on our own terms. 
You lived and walked among us and taught us about God's desire for this world, 
what it looks like for God to be among us, 
how things would be different.
We remember our excitement just last Sunday that you were with us, Hosanna!
that God did indeed have a plan to save us. 
We remember the confusion, the sin that separated us from you on Good Friday, 
the hopelessness and shame and heaviness that we felt in that day. 
The waiting, the suspense the uncertainty of Saturday, 
the fear that maybe, just maybe you had abandoned us.
All of that, all of those parts of your story that we live out in our lives too, 
all of that to find ourselves here in this place today.
God we fall before you with relief, with joy that Friday was not the end, that Saturday didn't last too long and that all along, your plans was better than we could have imagined. 
We bask in the light of Jesus resurrected, 
we bask in the hope that evil, that sin, that pain and death do not have the last word, 
that there is more for us. 
Thank you God, thank you for this time to remember all of those things, to open ourselves up once again to the mystery and the power and the awe of Easter.

We claim this story this morning, 
we say that yes, we believe, evil does not have the last word. 
We claim that promise for us here today, we claim it for those in our lives who are experiencing suffering, pain, addiction, loneliness, hopelessness, death. 
We pray for all those who need to know that those things are not the end, 
we pray that you send your Holy Spirit to remind them of that today, that they would feel your presence and know that this is true.

We pray for our church, for our community that we will remember that we are an Easter people, that evil does not win here and that we are a part of your redemption. 
Show us the way to be your church, 
a church that lives in hope,
 that gives others hope, 
that makes the world around us look more like your kingdom. 
God we want others to know that joy of Easter too, we want to be part of the work that you're doing in and through and around us.

This morning God we know that you meet us where we are, 
whether we're still on Friday or fully present to your resurrection today. 
Meet us where we are God and continue to guide us, 
to be a part of our story,
 to weave the resurrection through our lives.
 And as we claim your promises of hope and new life and resurrection we remember those disciples that went before us, 
the ones that got to ask Jesus face to face, "how are we supposed to pray?" So we join together as God's family in that prayer saying:

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. 

Pastor Jen Hibben