Trinity St. Andrew’s United Church
Order of Worship
Sunday, April 5th 2026
Easter Sunday
Prelude
Welcome & Telling Our Story – Danah-Lee Krieger
Gathering to Worship God
Lighting of the Christ Candle – Rev. Eric Pagé
Introit
Call to Worship – Rev. Eric Pagé
Hymn: Christ the Lord is Risen Today VU 157
- Christ the Lord is risen today, Hallelujah!
all creation join to say; Hallelujah!
raise your joys and triumphs high; Hallelujah!
sing, O heavens, and earth reply; Hallelujah!
- Love’s redeeming work is done, Hallelujah!
fought the fight, the battle won. Hallelujah!
Lo, our sun’s eclipse is o’er! Hallelujah!
Lo, he dwells in death no more! Hallelujah!
- Lives again our glorious King: Hallelujah!
where, O death, is now your sting? Hallelujah!
Once he died, our souls to save: Hallelujah!
where your victory, O grave? Hallelujah!
- Hail, the Lord of earth and heaven, Hallelujah!
praise to you be both be given! Hallelujah!
Every knee to you shall bow, Hallelujah!
risen Christ, triumphant now. Hallelujah!
Opening Prayer – Danah-Lee Krieger
Loving God, on this Easter morning, meet us here in all our joy, our grief, our fear and our hope. Call us out of the tombs we know too well. Call us out of the places of despair, shame and sorrow. Call us again into the promise of new life. Remind us that you are a God who keeps promises. A God who does holy work in the dark. A God who brings resurrection where we thought all was lost. Open our hearts to the risen Christ today and give us courage to step into the freedom and life that you are calling us to. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Passing the Peace – Danah-Lee Krieger
Song Hallelujah Praise Ye Lord
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah!
Praise Ye the Lord!
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah!
Praise Ye the Lord!
Refrain:
Praise Ye the Lord!
Hallelujah!
Praise Ye the Lord!
Hallelujah!
Praise Ye the Lord!
Hallelujah!
Praise Ye the Lord!
Time for the Young & Young at Heart – Rev. Eric Pagé
Hymn Welcome, Happy Morning VU 161
- Welcome, happy morning! age to age shall say;
- hell today is vanquished, heaven is won today:
come then, True and Faithful, now fulfil your word;
this is your third morning: rise, O buried Lord!
Refrain: Welcome, happy morning! age to age shall say
hell today is vanquished, heaven is won today!
- Earth with joyful welcome clothes itself for spring;
greets with life reviving our returning king;
flowers in every pasture, leaves on every bough,
speak of sorrows ended; Jesus triumphs now! Refrain
- Author and sustainer, source of life and breath;
you for our salvation trod the path of death;
Jesus Christ is living, God for evermore!
Now let all creation hail him and adore. Refrain
- Loose our souls imprisoned, bound with Satan’s chain;
all that now is fallen, raise to life again!
Show our face in brightness, shine the whole world through;
Hope returns with daybreak, life returns with you. Refrain
Listening for God
Scripture John 20:1-18 Jane Lambert
Sermon “History’s Best Coming Out Story” – Danah-Lee Krieger
Anthem “Rise Again”
Sermon “Called by Name” – Rev. Eric Pagé
Blessed at Table & Font
Thanksgiving & Offering – Rev. Eric Pagé
Hymn For the Gift of Creation VU 538
For the gift of creation, the gift of your love,
and the gift of the Spirit by which we live,
we thank you and give you the fruit of our hands.
May your grace be proclaimed by the gifts that we give.
Holy Communion
Hymn Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ VU 468
- Let us talents and tongues employ,
reaching out with a shout of joy:
bread is broken, the wine is poured,
Christ is spoken and seen and heard.
Refrain: Jesus lives again, earth can breathe again,
pass the Word around: loaves abound!
Jesus lives again, earth can breathe again,
pass the Word around: loaves abound!
- Christ is able to make us one,
at the table he sets the tone,
teaching people to live to bless,
love in word and in deed express. Refrain
- Jesus calls us in, sends us out,
bearing fruit in a world of doubt,
gives us love to tell, bread to share:
God (Immanuel) everywhere! Refrain
Invitation
Call To Give Thanks
Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!
Lift up your heart.
We lift them up to the Lord
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Thanksgiving
Song of Creation
Holy, holy, holy Lord,
Power of life and love!
Heaven and earth are full of your glory!
Hosanna through the ages!
Blest is the One who comes
to bring your justice to earth!
Remembering Jesus at The Table
Prayer of Self-Giving
Affirmation of Memory and Hope
By what we do here, we proclaim the mystery of faith:
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
Prayer for Transformation
Remembering the Community & The Lord’s Prayer
Breaking the Bread & Filling the Cup
Sharing the Bread and Cup
Prayer After Communion
Sent into God’s World
Hymn Because He Lives
God sent His son, they called Him Jesus;
He came to love, heal and forgive;
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!
Chorus Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!
How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance:
This child can face uncertain days because He Lives! Chorus
And then one day, I’ll cross the river,
I’ll fight life’s final war with pain;
And then, as death gives way to victory,
I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He lives! Chorus
Sending Forth – Danah-Lee Krieger
Benediction
Go now in courage and hope. Leave behind what no longer gives life… and step into the freedom and promise of the resurrection. Be a witness to love and inclusion. And share the good news that God still brings into the world.
And may the God who keeps promises, the risen Christ and the Holy Spirit who breathes life into every weary heart and wipes every tear from your eyes, be with you and remain with you always.
Go now in hope and go now in peace, my friends. Amen.
Sung Blessing God Be With You Till We Meet Again VU 422 (v1, refrain x2)
God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd’s care unfold you;
God be with you till we meet again.
Till we meet, till we meet,
till we meet at Jesus’ feet;
till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.
Postlude
History’s Best Coming Out Story
Danah-Lee Krieger, Sunday, April 5
And as always… I’m gonna kick things off with something that might give you a little belly laugh on this Easter Sunday. And yes … it is completely fictional. I heard about a man who lived in a mostly Catholic neighbourhood, and he happened to be the only Protestant on his street. Every Friday during Lent, while everyone around him was eating fish, the man would head out to his backyard… fire up the grill and throw on a thick, juicy and delicious steak. And all the neighbours found the succulent smell almost impossible to resist. Eventually, they decided that they would set out to convince him to become a Catholic. And after much persuasion, he relented and became a Catholic. So, the priest came, sprinkled a little water on his head, and said, “You were born a Baptist, raised a Baptist, but now you’re a Catholic!”
A year later, when the first Friday of Lent rolled around again, the neighbours caught that familiar smell wafting in the air. Certain that something was up… they looked over the fence… and there he was, standing over his steak… with a little water in his hand, saying, “You were born a cow, you were raised a cow, but now you’re fish.”
Would you bow your heads and pray with me please. Loving God, May the words of my mouth, the meditations of our hearts and indeed the actions of our lives always be acceptable to you, our Rock and our Redeemer. In the name of the risen Christ, Amen.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I am so excited this morning! I’m excited for worship. I’m excited about the music. I’d like to thank the choir and Schroeder for the beautiful music this morning. Now, the sermon I am preaching this morning is not your typical Easter Sunday sermon. If I were preaching a typical Easter message today, it might sound something like this: I believe God created the heavens and the earth. I believe the early people of God, whose stories are preserved in the Hebrew scriptures, formed communities, wrestled with faith, learned who God was, got some things right and got some things wrong. But through it all, they were being shaped more deeply as people of faith. Somewhere along the way, the movement drifted further and further from love and inclusion and became increasingly focused on rules and control. Things began to lose their way.
Meanwhile, in the region we now call the Holy Land or the Middle East, the Roman Empire had taken hold. People were living under oppression, and religious fundamentalism had become tangled up with political power. And whenever fundamentalism gains political power, it causes reason for concern. Not that we need to look south of the border or anything, but it does reason for concern ALL throughout human history. And so, God wanted to get things back on track and to make religion about love and inclusion again. And so, God sent Jesus. God so loved the world that God sent Jesus. And I believe that Jesus walked out of that tomb and into the sunlight, connected with the disciples, began a movement of faith that was led by love and inclusion and courage. People were courageous because they believed that as Christ is alive, they too will one day, if they must walk through the valley of the shadow of death, will fear no evil and will come out the other side and be with their loved ones and Jesus in eternity.
That early Christian movement was so courageous, so loving and so radically inclusive that people around them took notice and wanted to be part of it. They entered places of famine and disease in order to care for others. Sociologists of religion tell us that it was precisely because of this radical love… radical courage and radical inclusion that caused the early church to grow so quickly. I pray for the day when people look at the Christian church and once again see this kind of radical love and inclusion and courage… and truly feel drawn into that kind of movement. May we become that kind of movement. Now… that would be a typical Easter sermon I might preach. But that is not the sermon I am preaching this morning, so if you are timing me, you can start now.
As you know, Rev. Eric and I are co-presiding this morning because we’ve chosen to bring our Rainbow Worship service together with our regular Sunday service as a celebration and as an intentional act of inclusion. I usually lead the Rainbow service, so that’s why I’m standing here today. The title of this morning’s message is History’s Best Coming Out Story.
And every year on October 11, many of us in the LGBTQ community mark National Coming Out Day. But as I was thinking about it, coming out is rarely a one-time moment. It’s an ongoing journey. Because every time something changes, a new job, a new house, a new friend, a new coworker… a new doctor… the question comes up again and again… is it safe to share my identity? And it’s not about a lack of authenticity. It’s about navigating real risk. Many people are fully out in some parts of their lives, while still hidden in others. And the truth is, many of us remain in the closet simply because it is not safe to come out. In my own life, I came out at different times to different people. Each time was its own act of courage. And if you’re hearing this today and you’re not out… or not ready to come out, please know there is no should… or clock ticking. We are all navigating our own lives in different realities.
And like I do so often in our Rainbow worship, I present facts. So here are some facts… there are still at least 64 countries in world that still criminalized same-sex relationships. There are at least 7 countries where it is punishable by death. And here at home… according to the government of Canada, hate incidents against our community have risen over 380% in recent years. So… navigating when it’s safe to share or come out… can be challenging. All to say… coming out is complex and not a one-time thing.
Now this morning’s coming out story is slightly different BUT with some powerful parallels. History’s Best Coming Out Story.
It’s the story of Jesus coming out of the tomb. Coming out of the places of despair. Coming out of the places that would want to try to keep him hidden. Its history’s greatest coming out story. This story reminds us today that we have been called out of some of our own tombs and our own metaphorical closets so that the world might know the good news of Jesus. It’s not a story that can be contained in the tomb. It’s not a story that hangs on a cross because we know that’s not where it ended. No… this is a life-giving story that breathes through us, the followers of Jesus. And that’s the story of the resurrection. Its the greatest coming out story in history. Jesus literally came out of the tomb and stood amongst people. Not as a corpse, but as a living breathing testimony that God’s power is able to do all things. You and I have been called to resurrection this morning. And to come out into the world with our stories, so that we might live in the freedom of the gospel of Jesus.
You see, the story of the resurrection is twofold. Firstly, it’s a story of victory over death. No more death sting. And many of us have personally experienced the ache and sting of death. The resurrection is what gives us hope. It’s like our United Church “A New Creed” says. “In life, in death, in life beyond death. God is with us. We are not alone”. But secondly, it’s also a story of transformation, and the great coming out. A story of God’s desire to bring heaven on earth. A story of God turning graves into gardens.
And Easter is one of the most joyous times and it is meant to be a huge celebration, full of joy and enthusiasm. Because let’s face it, this is the most significant day on the church calendar.
But before we start popping bottles and toasting some of the finest Moet champagne to celebrate this great coming out story, we should rewind back just a minute to see how we even got here. I will be going back and forth between a few of the different gospels this morning, to help us get a clearer picture of this situation. But, have you ever really thought about how strange this whole celebration of Easter really is? I mean, the more you think about it, the more bizarre it becomes. It is essentially a backwards funeral. On Friday, we took an imaginative journey 2000 years into the past to stand with the disciples of Jesus as they watched their friend, their teacher, their source of hope, get executed publicly. If you’ve ever experienced the sting of death and loss, it is not too hard to imagine just how life shattering that day was for Jesus’ family and friends.
The world didn’t make sense. Have any of you ever lost hope or hit rock bottom? Not wanting to get out of bed in the morning. Your eyes so swollen from crying your broken heart out. This is exactly where the disciples were at in their depth of despair. Friday happened and their beloved Jesus was viciously taken from them in front of their very eyes. Then fast forward, early on Sunday morning before the sun rose, one of the accounts that we heard our scripture reader share, is from the gospel of John. We hear about Mary… sneaking out… early that Sunday morning, expecting to go to the tomb and spend time with the body of her departed friend. Her eyes are swollen from crying. I imagine she felt frail and weak… probably hadn’t eaten a lot over the previous couple of days. She came grieving, simply mourning the loss of someone she loved. But as she approaches the tomb, she sees that the stone has been rolled away, and her first thought is that someone has taken the body. Her initial reaction is fear and confusion, and honestly, I think that makes perfect sense. If you arrived to bury a friend and discovered the body was gone, fear and confusion would be the natural response. But it’s always amazing to me that we have a few different accounts of what took place from the different gospels to kind of create this clearer picture of what transpired and in the book of Mark 16:8, says, “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” So in the midst of all of their grieving, sorrow and sadness, they were AFRAID.
What I find so powerful about the Easter story is that we spend a lot of time talking about the people who witnessed it, Mary Magdalene, the women, Peter, and the other disciple. But the actual resurrection happened before any of them got there. It happened in the dark.
And when you think about it, some of the most beautiful things in life happen in the dark. A baby grows in the womb in the dark. A seed grows deep in the earth in the dark. New life often begins where nobody can see it. The resurrection happened in the dark.
And maybe that matters, because life can feel dark sometimes too. We can feel afraid of the unknown. We can feel depleted. All cried out. And Easter tells us that before Sunday became a celebration, it was first a time of fear, shock and shaking. That is often how life works. Before there is new life, something has to change. Before there is resurrection, there’s loss. Before there’s breakthrough, there’s often upheaval. That’s the part of Easter we don’t +always talk about. Good Friday to Easter Sunday is not just Jesus’ story. It is our story too. It is the story of the pain we carry, the losses we face and the things we have to let go of… if we are going to grow.
But in Matthew’s gospel, we have this hinge point in chapter 28:5 and 6. “The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay”.
And then back in John, we hear that his linens were left behind. And when I think about History’s Best Coming Out Story, 3 things came up for me over the last few weeks.
Firstly, Matthew’s gospel makes a point of saying that “he has risen just as he said”. This is a God that keeps promises. A God who doesn’t forget… abandon, doesn’t change their mind when things get hard. The same voice that spoke hope before the cross is fulfilling it after the tomb. And if God keeps that promise, then we can trust every promise still spoken over our lives today.
Secondly, it would appear to me that God does some of God’s best work in the dark. In the empty places. In the broken places. In the places where it feels like everything is over. That’s often where new life begins. That’s where hope rises. That’s where resurrection starts.
And thirdly, I’ve often considered why it was so important for John to mention that the linens were left behind in the tomb. And then it dawned on me. It’s evidence. Evidence of the resurrection. Evidence of History’s Best Coming Out Story. It reminds us that if we want resurrection, we have to leave something behind in the tomb. The empty grave clothes were the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection, and we too are called to leave something behind as a sign of our own new life. If we cling to what was, we make no room for the full, new, authentic life Easter invites us into.
We are in partnership with God, and God is always at work behind the scenes, even when we cannot yet see it. And keeping promises. Many of us have spent far too long in our metaphorical closets and tombs, trapped in isolation and afraid to fully claim the resurrection life that is calling us forward. And just like many of us in the queer community know what it means to come out again and again, resurrection, too, can be a lifelong unfolding, a coming out of fear, grief, and shame, and into truth, freedom and new life.
Maybe Easter invites us to release what no longer serves us and to trust more deeply in God’s promise of resurrection. Maybe it calls us to bear witness to that burning love of a God who is persistent and refuses to leave us in our saddest times. A God who promises to be with the poor, the marginalized and the unseen. A God who does not abandon those pushed to the edges. A God who keeps showing up among the grieving, the excluded, the overlooked and the ones the world has counted out. That is the kind of God that resurrection reveals. Has the sun ever failed to rise? As the psalm says, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. So maybe when we leave this church today and walk back out into the world, we can say that we came out of the closet this morning. And yes, I can imagine the looks some of you might get. But Easter is exactly that. It is the story of new life breaking out. It is the story of letting go of our linens, stepping forward and embodying the promise of resurrection. Church… just as the early church was so courageous, so loving and so radically inclusive. May we have courage to shed our fears and partner with God… we will swing up our tombs and closets… May this be our story this morning, history’s greatest coming out story. Happy Easter TSA. Amen.
Called by Name
Rev. Eric Pagé John 20:1-18
I love how relatable Mary is in the Easter story. She’s not an unnamed disciple, not sprinting to and from the tomb. She’s understandably emotional. She gives life and truth and meaning to this interaction on Resurrection Sunday. It’s especially poignant when she’s staring in confusion at the empty tomb, wondering where someone might have taken Jesus. In those wonderings she gives voice to our concerns. In the setting she is placed in by John we are able to enter into the story.
In our living room at home we have a corner shelf unit. It has a digital picture frame, an urn, speed skates and a few special keepsakes in a pink box. It’s a bit of a memory corner in our apartment. It’s an important tribute for myself and Sebastian having that marker or that ritual space there. Sometimes I admit that I find myself staring at the urn, the hand spun urn that has a golden inlay of an orca on the outside. I find myself just staring blankly at it. Sometimes a few minutes pass by and other times it feels like it must be close to an hour. And I’m not exactly sure what I’m expecting to find staring at it. I know there’s not going to be some sort of spiritual wind whooshing in and transforming ashes into a physical body. I know that the digital photo frame won’t magically project out some sort of interactive projection or hologram. Nonetheless, I find myself staring, wondering. And sometimes that wondering leads to questions like “where are you now? How are you doing? Am I doing well…?” I find myself staring so intently that staring at those monuments I can lose track of the living around me. I can lose track of how Michelle’s eyes are in Sebastian’s, how his athleticism is clearly from her and I can see that, and you’ve all seen it in his 100m dash and somersaults off the chancel here. It’s a very human temptation to look where things/people were rather than where they are … and I’m confident that I’m not alone in that. It’s easier and more tempting to focus on those monuments because they’re not as dynamic. They’re more like those reflective signs on the highways as opposed to a lighthouse.
Riddles of this world offer confusion over communion. As human beings, as followers of Jesus it’s easier to live in the wondering, in the unknowable answers. In those abstract wonderings it is way too tempting to stay awhile there rather than decisively move towards something. It’s almost easier to live in the confusion because it doesn’t require much of us except our time and our occasionally frantic imaginations. Easter Sunday invites us to choose communion over confusion. And what that means is that we are invited to be intentionally relational with others and with the world around us rather than wondering about where we fit and the logistics behind it. In Jesus, God is in communion with us. And that relationship is not limited to a resting place but is fundamentally different for us than it was for Mary, John and Peter, and arguably even more different than it was for our grandparents and great grandparents. So on this Resurrection Sunday we are invited again to seek the relational nature of communion rather than the distance of confusion.
Mary experiences this firsthand on that Sunday many years ago. She sees Jesus but doesn’t recognize him. After all, how could she? He was supposed to be dead. He was supposed to be laying peacefully in the tomb. She is so committed to knowing what she knows and expects that she cannot fathom this resurrection of her teacher, of her friend. But something amazing happens, friends. Jesus calls her name and she recognizes him instantly. In His voice Mary is able to see and be in relationship with Jesus. Mary’s mind, like ours, had remained on the problem of the empty tomb. It had remained on the confusion of the empty tomb – not the glorious communion that was waiting beyond it. And so Jesus calls her name, and she shifts from eyes looking at the tomb, to looking beyond it into the face of Jesus. Jesus literally reorients her and points her into the direction He is and will continue to be – in communion with the faithful and curious beyond the boundaries of that resting place. The reality of meeting him is more important than the riddle of the empty tomb. In telling Mary not to hold onto him here, Jesus is saying his more “permanent return” and presence must come in another form and in another place. The resurrection points to life beyond the grave markers. Jesus calls Mary by name and it is there she is able to walk in the light and life of the risen Christ.
So, why does this story matter. Why is it important that Mary recognizes Jesus once has called her by name? How can we recognize Jesus in places beyond the monuments and the mystery contained therein? Friends I promise you that the risen Jesus calls us each by name but it’s difficult to hear because we don’t expect to hear God speaking to us eh? But in the resurrection we are given the gift of encountering Jesus out in the world, and being in communion aka relationship with Him. And this is one thing you can do to open yourself up to seeing the face of Jesus in the world. Find something pocket sized that reminds you of your faith or is a reminder of God’s love (like this miniature Jesus here). Or maybe “favourite” a photo on your camera roll. And when you stop to eat, or transition from an activity or conversation, pull it out and smile. This will serve as a reminder that you can encounter God everywhere because in the resurrection the old ways have been laid to rest and the new way of the world has been established in the steadfast presence of Jesus that moves beyond the grave and into our everyday world.
Imagine how this world could be different if we didn’t get bogged down in the riddle of the resurrection. But if we celebrated and took to hear the truth that Jesus is no longer confined to the tomb but is over our shoulders, down the street, co-presiding at communion with Danah and I. Take courage and take heart. The resurrected Christ calls you by name into new life. Hallelujah he is risen indeed. Amen.
