Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010
Offered by Calum I. MacLeod, Executive Associate Pastor

What wondrous love is this that we encounter on Easter morning, Lord?
What wondrous love is it that can bring us to an empty tomb,
          where once a body lay;
     to the rumor of life where death had already claimed victory;
     to a light-filled spacious place where once the darkness had reigned?

What wondrous love is this, O Lord, that tears up the old script,
     the narrative of destruction and violence and hopelessness;
     the world’s ways of wielding muscle and influence
          for the purposes of greed and selfishness,
and replaces it with a new script,
     a fresh story in which the love of power
          is subsumed  to the power of love;
     in which suffering is transformed, self-sacrifice is honored,
          the blind see, the deaf hear, the hungry are filled,
          the marginalized welcomed?

What wondrous love is this, O Lord,
     that transfigures the cross of torture, shame, execution
     into the symbol of the restoration of our broken relationship
     with you our Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer?

The wondrous, extravagant Easter love of your Son, Jesus, the Christ
      makes us pause . . . take time . . .
     try to comprehend that which is beyond our ken,
so we fall silent . . .
     silent in contemplation that your time, O God, has broken in on our time;
          your grace has exploded into history;
          your will for creation has brought the first fruits of the new creation
          in the risen Christ, so we hold silence together . . .

May the Easter light shine in the broken and hurt places of our world;
may the Easter hope attend all who know fear and loneliness,
     illness of mind and body;
may the Easter love permeate our being and our community
that we would be an Easter people committed to justice, freedom, and peace.
For the light shines in the darkness;
life, not death, has the last word;
love abides, banishing fear.
For the Lord is risen, thanks be to God!
And in Jesus’ words we pray together, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church