Prayer for Easter

oly God:

We give you thanks for this day, the one day that brings hope and light to every other day.

All year long, we wrestle with the challenges of life.  We fail, make mistakes, fall upon your grace, get back up and start again.  We deal with disappointments, setbacks, unexpected challenges.  We worry about the state of our world, of our nation, our state, our town.  We worry about the state of our families, our loved ones, our health, and sometimes, we worry about how much we worry.

But each year, we come to this day of Resurrection, this day of celebration, this day of victory, and everything else comes into perspective.

This day, we remember that the world’s greatest tragedy was followed by the world’s greatest miracle, and together the cross and open grave have become the fount of everything good this world has ever known.  And so, no matter what difficulties and heartaches we face, we can face them unafraid and look forward to the dawning of a new day.  Because you have shown us that nothing is impossible and that you can work great wonders out of the greatest defeats.

This day, we remember that you swallowed up sin and destroyed its power, that Jesus Christ was raised again imperishable.  So, even though we struggle against our own nature and we often fail, we are never lost in shame.  We can die to ourselves and live anew through the power of the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead.

This day, we proclaim that the forces that tear the people of our world apart will not have final say.  Forces of division, and war, poverty, famine, political corruption and polarization, every societal ill is part of an old and dying way of being in the world.  Today, we worship the true king, the Messiah who has been enthroned over every nation through you act of raising him from the dead.  We bow our knees before you and we give ourselves wholly to the one and only Lord of all.

This day, this resurrection day, we ask that the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead would bring new life to us.  O God, make us Easter people every day.  Let us live in the power of the Resurrection and live with the confidence of a people who serve a God who can do all things.  O God, let us build your everlasting Kingdom and not our own kingdoms of the dead and dying world that is passing away.  Let us never forget who your resurrection has made us, what it has made possible for us, what it requires of us.  

Give us new life.  May today be a resurrection for your people, for us, for the world you have loved so much.

Amen