This is the feast of victory for our God!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

Tonight we gather to celebrate this feast of victory for our God

• the victory of our God who created all things
  and saw that they we good,
  very good in fact;
• the victory of our God who set the people of Israel
  free from slavery in Egypt
  and led them dry shod through the sea
  on their way to the Promised Land;
• the victory of our God who through the prophets
  proclaimed a renewed covenant
  for a people with new hearts of flesh
  to replace hearts grown hardened over the years
  by their infidelity.
• the victory of our God who baptized us
  into the death and resurrection of Christ his Son,
  so that we might live in newness of life.
• the victory of our God who raised Jesus from the dead
  and proclaimed to Mary Magdelene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James
  that Christ is not there in the tomb
  but has been raised to new life.

 

This is the feast of victory for our God!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

Tonight we gather to celebrate this feast of victory for our God,
not only for what God has done the past,
but also for what God is doing here and now.

In churches all over the world

God is washing away sin in the waters of baptism,
welcoming new Christians into the Church,
sealing them with the gifts of the Spirit,
and welcoming them to the table of the Lord.

Tonight God is working wonders once again
as people are gathering with the women at the empty tomb
looking for the risen One,
and proclaiming that we believe what seemed like nonsense
to those who couldn’t image what God could do
so long ago.

 

This is the feast of victory for our God!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

Tonight we gather to celebrate the feast of victory for our God
because we know what God has done for us.

We know God’s blessings in our lives.

We know how God has blessed us
when it seemed more like death abounds,
but somehow god makes a way for us.

We’ve had days when the impossible
somehow became possible,
when goodness did triumph over evil,
when hopelessness was replaced by joy and gladness.

We’ve know the victory for our God,
and even in the darkness of night,
we know that one little light can set a room ablaze with light.

 

This is the feast of victory for our God!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

In a few minutes,
we will be invited to renew our baptismal promises,
to denounce evil
and affirm our faith in the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We will be sprinkled with holy water
that has been consecrated by God’s grace
and our faith in the God who has made us
God’s chosen people in the world today.

We will bring our hopes and dreams,

our cares and concerns to our God,
and we will watch as simple gifts of bread and wine
are transformed into the very presence of God in our midst.

And this will not only be a feast of victory for our God,
but it will become a feast of victory for each and every one of us,
as we become vessels of the risen One,
as Christ’s blood flows through our veins and arteries,
and as we become the Body of Christ|
in the world today.

 

God has chosen us.
God has looked on us and saw that we are very good,
not by our own doing,
but by the grace of God.
God has saved us from the power of evil
in the waters of baptism,
signed us with the seal of the Spirit
and fed us with the finest wheat and wine.

 

Tonight we rejoice in what God ha done for us,
in what God is doing for us right now
and what God has planned for us in the days, weeks, ,months and years to come.

Tonight we rejoice not only in Christ’s resurrection,
but in it’s power at work in our lives this very night.

 

This is the feast of victory for our God!

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!