Our Easter worship service itself will start with the procession at the usual time, 10:30, and there will be nursery care for children three and under. There will be no Sunday School this Sunday; instead, for fifteen or twenty minutes before 10:30, our organist, Julie Pelter, will lead those who gather early in singing from the “Praise and Worship” song book.

Expect inspiring congregational singing, partly because we’ll have Dan Brubaker to help us out on his trombone, along with Bob Thompson’s percussion. We’ll be singing familiar Easter hymns, including “Christ the Lord is risen today” and “Thine is the glory, risen, conquering Son.” The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper will be served in this service, with the elders serving the congregation in the pews. All baptized Christians of any denomination are welcome at the Lord’s Table in our church.

Pastor Walters’ sermon is titled “Good Morning!” This is the first word spoken by the risen Christ, in the resurrection story as Matthew tells it (28:9).

In Sunday’s New Testament reading, the first people to see Jesus after his resurrection are two women named Mary, one of them being Mary Magdalene, whom Jesus had healed from demonic possession. But they don’t see him at the tomb, for he is already gone; instead, an angel gives them the good news and tells them to tell his disciples.

But as they go, running, Jesus intercepts them. His first words are, “Good morning!” (Matthew 28:9). This is the text for Sunday’s Easter sermon. These are actually a single word in Matthew’s Greek, chairete, which is translated, “Greetings!” in our reading. It means “Hello,” or “I’m glad to see you,” or “Welcome.” It’s a twenty-four-hour word, and, in fact, it’s the very word Judas had used on Thursday night as a betraying signal to those who came to seize Jesus (“Greetings, Rabbi!”—see Matthew 26:49). So, one translates this word according to the circumstances of the story. And Jesus meets Mary and Mary just as the sun is coming up. What else should we say but, “Good morning!”?

• This greeting means the end of the night and the beginning of a conversation. That tells us something about life today, here and now, for Jesus intends for us to know and talk with him, in gracious familiarity and help.
• But it’s also a greeting from beyond death; Jesus is the first person to be visible to us having passed through death. That tells us something about the life to come, for when he says “Good morning!” to us from the other side, we know that life is a good and full one, with recognizable people and with energy and activity.

Here is a collect, or traditional prayer, for Easter Sunday:

O God,
     who, for our redemption,
     gave up your only Son to the death of the cross,
          grant us so to die daily to sin,
          that we may forever live with him
          in the joy of his resurrection;
     through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.