Liturgy

Let us begin our liturgy with prayer.
Your responses are highlighted in yellow.
Easter is past, and we are surprised to find you still with us.
Like your followers then, we are startled by your presence.
We don’t have your flesh and bones to prove it.
We cannot touch you or give you food to eat.
Give us eyes to see the Risen One,
Hearts to hold your words of comfort,
Ears to hear your offer of peace.
We are here, then, wondering whether you are all we thought.
Doubts arise in our hearts, and we are frightened not of ghosts,
But of being ghost-ed by the very author of life.
Sometimes we feel alone and bereft even after the resurrection.
Give us eyes to see the Risen One,
Hearts to hold your words of comfort,
Ears to hear your offer of peace.
You arrived in human form, hungry, to those who had lost you.
Even in their joy, they were disbelieving and wondering.
We too bring you all this: disbelief, wonder, joy.
We ask you to bless all of it, to meet us in the complexity of hope.
Give us eyes to see the Risen One,
Hearts to hold your words of comfort,
Ears to hear your offer of peace.
In the name of the God of comfort,
Jesus, the Risen One,
And the Spirit of peace.
Amen.

(Vox Prayer Team)

Scripture Reading

We invite you to hear from the Gospel according to Luke 24:36-48

36 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them
and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are
you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Look at my
hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a ghost
does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he
had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 Yet for all their
joy they were still disbelieving and wondering, and he said to them, “Have
you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43
and he took it and ate in their presence.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!
The grass withers and the flower fades,
but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Amen.

Homily and Reflection

Podcast: Embodying the Tension of Resurrection

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How are we invited to live from our vulnerabilities and scars?

How might we embody peace to make room for our full range of emotional responses?

What is our embodied life bearing witness to and what story are we telling?

Resources

1. Book: This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Ust by Cole Arthur Riley

Benediction

May our minds be opened to understand all we need to know.
Let us have faith in resurrection after loss,
Find hope even in the midst of despair,
Notice the blossoming of a long-dormant garden.
May we believe that joy comes in the morning.
Our nights may feel long, but we are not alone.
We will sit with those who suffer
And be held by ones who care.
May we show up in all our uncertainty.
We will be surprised by the ways God meets us,
The flesh and bones God takes on these days,
The divine hands and feet we become.
In the name of our ever-present God,
Christ risen indeed,
And the Spirit of understanding.
Amen.

(Vox Prayer Team)

[Photo by Samura Silva]