April 5, 2026
EASTER SUNDAY
A Service of Prayer, SonG, AND OF CELEBRATING NEW LIGE!
Lead Minister: The Rev. Jope Langejans
Music Director: Cody Obst
Minister Emeritus: Rev. Gerry Scharff
Honorary Associate Ministers: Rev. Clint Mooney & Rev. Kelley Warner
Licensed Lay Worship Leaders: Bob Gibbenus & Fiona Hayes
Chair of Council: Vacant
“Take your first step this EASTER Sunday morning, take your first step into the faith…you don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take your first step (Martin Luther King, Jr.)…because, if EASTER says anything to us today, it says this: You can put truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there. You can nail it to a cross, wrap it in winding sheets and shut it up in a tomb...but it will rise!!”
PRELUDE
Gathering
(*Indicates that you may stand if you are able…)
*PROCESSIONAL HYMN VU # 155 “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today!”
WELCOMING
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: As on that first Easter morning, many years ago, we are all gathered, just as the disciples did then. They were not sure what to expect or where to go or what to do. Maybe this also is us sometimes as we sit in wonder.
ALL: So, the questions which come to us are how do we take the teachings of Christ into our daily lives and share in the resurrection?...how do we be the body of Christ in our time and place?
Leader: We are called to rejoice and to proclaim the Good News, for we are an Easter people!...Yes!…we are!!
ALL: This is our daily quest – daily we invite the risen Christ to walk the road with us, to bless us with peace and to open us to our God-given calling.
Leader: This morning let us worship God in whom we live and move and in whom we have our being.
ALL: So, Easter, apparently, has just begun and we can now raise our Alleluias to the ceilings of the world!!
OPENING PRAYER (Unison)
O God of such amazing surprises who puts a catch in our breath and places wings on our hearts, we truly praise you for this most wonderful joy of resurrection…too great for words but not for tears and songs and sharing; for this mercy which blots out our betrayals and bids each of us to begin again, to limp on for some of us, to hop-skip-and-jump for others, to mend what is broken in and around us and to continually teach each of us to forgive for this brings on resurrection – brings on newness. So, lure us into elation…revive our silent hopes…coax our dormant dreams…raise up our neglected gratitude…give life to our faltering relationships…roll back the stone of our indifference… unwrap the deadness in our spiritual lives… Awaken us!...May we become ever more convinced that your presence lives on, and on, and on, and on…Awaken us!…Amen
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“A JOURNEY TO HOPE” by Joseph Martin
A musical telling and using traditional spirituals
of Christ’s ministry, passion, and resurrection.
Prelude
The Call to Faith
The Call to Follow
Peace for the Journey
Ride On, King Jesus
Come to the Welcome Table
Gethsemane
Jesus Walked to Calvary
They Crucified My Lord
Great Day! The Lord Is Risen!
MUSIC DIRECTOR Cody Obst, piano
CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Emily Phernambucq, flute
Cooper Reed, flute
Cedric Blary, clarinet
Richard Scholz, trumpet
Mark Scholz, trumpet
Andrew Scholz, trombone
Bob Fenske, percussion
Mar James, percussion
GUEST SOLOIST Katie McCullough, soprano
LAKEVIEW UNITED CHURCH CHOIR
GUEST SINGERS
NARRATORS Wendy Knudson
Rev. Jope Langejans
Blessing
*COMMISIONING (unison)
Go, with the Easter joy deep within your hearts.
Go, with the Easter songs singing on your lips.
Go, with the hopeful message of Easter clear in your minds.
Go, certain that in time and beyond time, God’s love is with you and will never leave you and, in the words of John Wesley, let us remember: ‘Best of all…God is with us!’…Amen.
*RECESSIONAL HYMN VU # 173 “Thine Is the Glory”
BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE MUSIC