Call to Worship From Easter Sunday

Call to Worship

God made things. There was light. It was good. It was beautiful. Its what we were made for

And it broke. It didn’t break because it was made poorly, we broke it. We were given the greatest gift and we broke it… to this day the heartbroken words of our loving creator echo in the very bones of every person… “What is this that you have done?” Its not what we were made for. This perfect creation was broken. And God, in his grace, outlined the consequences of this break. It would effect us deeply. 

pain

strife

futility

suffering

death

all these things exist because this perfect creation had been broken by lies, deception, rebellion, pride and hiding. 

But even in the midst of our darkest moment. When the light of the creation seemed lost to us forever, our gracious God lit a match “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Even in this darkest night our loving gracious God was reminding his creation that this curse of death would not be the last word. 

God would fix it. 

God promised he would fix it. And in some strange way, that serpent Satan would be defeated by the child of Eve whom Satan had struck.

And from this moment on, the scripture tells us that every grain of sand in the whole of creation was longing for this moment. The Apostle Paul says “19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Beloved, we all long for this cursed world to be made new again. We long to see the effects of death destroyed and justice return to this dry dessert land! 

And oh how the words of our loving God have come to pass in such a wondrous way! 

Truly the serpent struck as hard and fast and viciously as he was able! And like a bushmaster striking the leg of an unweary traveler he thought he struck a final blow to our sweet Jesus. On the cross,Jesus, the God of the universe, died and succumbed to the very curse he came to defeat. In this, the darkest night of all of history, the serpent truly seemed to have struck true. Darkness reigned. but on Sunday, oh beloved, on Sunday, Jesus breathed again! His heart beat again! His eyes opened again. Death itself could not hold him. No venom could kill this body and even as the serpent gloated at his cleverness for how he struck the creator, Jesus walked out of the tomb and firmly and finally put his foot on the head of the serpent and crushed its skull! 

Beloved! today we celebrate resurrection! 

Today we celebrate life! 

Today we celebrate Victory! 

Today we celebrate the defeat of the curse! Amen. Stand with me and sing of this truth!