Celebration and Thanksgiving on Easter Sunday Morning:  A Pastoral Prayer

God of us all,

We give you thanks for your love, your grace, and your power on this blessed Resurrection morning!

We thank you for the many friends and loved ones who have made the extra effort to gather here with us today.

We thank you for the brilliance of the colors on us and around us that remind us of new life!
Today, blessed God, we gather to remember and celebrate:

We remember Jesus, who healed the sick and raised the dead.

We remember Jesus, who gathered children to himself and dealt kindly with women centuries before our efforts at women's liberation.

We remember Jesus, who always kept the mission in the forefront, and the minutia in the lowest seat.

We remember Jesus, Son of God, Song of God, who sang God's melody to us.

We remember Jesus, who consented to suffer and die at our hand.

Today, Almighty God, we celebrate the fact that death could not hold Jesus in the grave!

We celebrate that not even death is able to separate us from the love of God!

We celebrate the new life that we have in Christ!

We celebrate the assurance that we have of eternal life!

Today we celebrate and give thanks that in life, in death, in life after death we belong to God! Amen.