a blessing for easter Sunday

“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week… Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
—John 20:19, ESV

Oh God, we stretch out our hands to you in this early Easter darkness.
We need you to pull us up and set us on our feet again,
for we are weak and tired.

God, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Spirit, have mercy.

God, on that first Easter morning
while it was still dark,
one woman went alone to the tomb
to do what could be done to honor you,
though hope had drained away.
Two bright angels met her there, and then –
how is it possible? –
you were there. fully alive, beyond belief.

Blessed are we who stretch out our hands to you
in doubt and grief,
in sickness of body and mind and spirit,
our prayers not fully realized,
rejoicing… anyway.

For that is what makes us Easter people:
carrying forth the realized hope of the Resurrected One,
singing our alleluias great and small,
while it is still dark.

Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.

Adapted for a communal setting from THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE, page 210