*This liturgy is an adaptation of the traditional Great Thanksgiving liturgy. The concluding prayer of thanksgiving was (heavily) adapted from a prayer by Katherine Hawker.
Communion Liturgy for Easter Sunday
Friends, let us come out of the darkness and join together in the light of God’s love. You are invited to this table of life as we join with each other and seek communion with God.
God is with you!
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to God.
Let us give thanks to our Creator.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give you our thanks and praise, O God!
You created the world by speaking life into being. You placed within us and within each plant and animal of your creation amazing abilities to form and nurture new life, so that your creation might be renewed, reborn, season by season, child by child.
You covenanted with your people and gave them Law that showed the way of Life–a path of peace, justice, mercy, reverence, love.
You provided wise men and women as judges for your people to show them the path to Life.
You called forth prophets who dared to speak the truth of Life to worldly powers that promoted death.
You sent Jesus, your Son, to walk in the way of Life—that we might follow. He suffered and died because of his refusal to participate in the death-dealing violence of the world. He rose again in victory because the powers of death cannot overcome the Divine power of Life.
And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of our God.
Hosanna in the highest.
You are holy, O God of Life, and holy is Jesus Christ, your Son, the resurrected One.
You sent your only-begotten,in whom your fullness dwells,
to be for us the way, the truth, and the life.
Revealing your love, radiating your life, Jesus taught those who listened to him,
healed those who believed in him, received all who sought him.
He enacted peace in the midst of violence, love in the face of hate,
He offered Divine Life to all people suffering under worldly forces of death.
We thank you, God, for the incredible gift of Jesus, the Word made flesh.
Through his resurrection Life you gave birth to your church,
delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made us a new people.
It is as the renewed, redeemed, enlivened people of God
that we gather this morning and remember together that . . .
[on the night before he died, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying:
Take, eat. This my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
In the same way he took the cup, saying:
This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me.]
Longing to experience and share the fullness of Life that you offer,
we take these gifts that you have given us, this bread and this cup,
and celebrate with joy the eternal Life offered to us through Jesus Christ.
Accept our praise and thanksgiving,
accept our lives as holy offerings to you,
that in loosing our life we might find true Life
and proclaim the Resurrected Christ who offers life to all.
Great is the mystery of faith:
Dying you destroyed our death,
rising you restored our life.
Lord Jesus, come in glory.
Gracious God,
pour out your Holy Spirit upon us and upon these your gifts of bread and cup.
By your Spirit unite us with the living Christ and with all who seek to follow in his life-giving way,
that we may further your reign of peace and justice in every place.
In the eating of this bread, as Christ’s body, and in the sharing of this cup, as Christ’s blood,
we invite your life to fill us;
we invite your Spirit to lead us ever more faithfully to be the body of Christ in the world.
All glory and honor are yours, eternal God, now and forever. Amen.
As we prepare to eat the meal, let us share together the proclamation of our faith:
Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
Please come, the meal is ready. [Meal is shared according to custom of congregation.]
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Holy, gracious, God,
Here at this table your promise of life is made tangible.
We have rested in the depth of your love;
We have tasted your nourishing, nurturing presence;
We accept you into our bodies, into our lives.
Together, at this table, you have offered us life.
Together, by your grace, we accept the life you offer.
And we give you thanks.
