sustain:if:able kiwi

Easter scattered: a resource

Folk looking for Easter resources on this blog (there are quite a few of you, judging by the current search queries folk are using to get here) might find this helpful …

It is a holiday pack, in which we offered an Easter service that folk could do as groups/families if they went away for the weekend. It emerged out the tension between church gathered and scattered (for more on some theological framing of this see here and here).

How to put energy into Easter, without sending the “come-to-us” signal? The result was designing a service that could be done both gathered and scattered. This took quite a bit of creative thinking, but once done it allowed us to say: if you’re going away for the weekend, grab an Easter holiday pack. If you’re staying around for the weekend, join the services. The Sunday after Easter becomes a bit of a show and tell, as whether we were staying or going, we can reflect with each other on what Easter meant. For more go here. For the actual “scattered” service EASTER SUNDAY: A GARDEN OF LIFE

Welcome: Find a place in which you will be comfortable for about 30 minutes.

Act: Invite people to go looking for the eggs you have hidden.

Enjoy: When they return, remind people that eggs are a sign of life. So are the bubbles in sparkling grape juice. Pour everyone a glass of sparkling grape juice. Sit around.

Talk: You have eggs. Eggs suggest new life. You have sparking grape juice. Full of bubbles. Think of a time, or a place, when (or a person, with whom) you felt most truly alive. Share your stories. Propose some toasts to the memories.

Read: The Bible story of the Resurrection is a story of what it means to be truly alive. Read aloud John 20:1, 11-17. (Full text provided).

Act: You might like to visualise the story by making the Easter Garden. Don’t forget to use flowers and garden pieces you have gathered. Sand and pipe cleaners and play dough are provided (in the actual holiday pack).

Look:
Insert the provided art piece into the Garden. Noli Me Tangere, Graham Sutherland, 1961. (Explanation of art piece is included in the Leaders notes).

Consider: Ask each other:
List the ways Jesus is truly alive in this garden?
How is Mary asked to be most truly alive in this garden?
What links can you make between the Garden of life, and the stories of life you have told earlier?

When you have finished, you might want to speak short sentences, expressing your gladness for life, both as you observe it, and in the garden with Jesus.

Concluding prayer: God of Life, in the raising up of Christ your Son
you conquered the power of death
and opened for us the way to be truly life.
Let our celebration today
raise us up and renew our lives
by your actions within us. Amen.

Note: There will be a space provided back at Opawa Baptist in the coming weeks for you to place your garden. We would like to invite you to bring your garden to the church. While we have been a church scattered over Easter, it would be great to see each other’s gardens in the weeks following Easter.