Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

Worshiping God, living in community, reaching out to the world.

Tag: Easter

The bulletin insert for May 11, 2025

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Reflections on the Resurrection

During the Easter season, Sermons That Work is pleased to present reflections from some of the newest bishops of The Episcopal Church on the resurrection of our Lord. Check back each week for a brief exploration of how Jesus Christ’s rising from the grave changes everything. To listen to this reflection, scan the QR code on this page and subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast.

Sermons That Work podcast

Week 4

Easter first happened in a cemetery. Not under the sparkling sunlight of a spring morning. Not in a field of pastel tulips. Not tangled in a prolonged cellophane celebration. Easter happened in a cemetery. Surrounded by death. Incubated by stubborn shadows. Carried in a broken heart. Greeted quite unexpectedly by a woman who no longer dreamed dreams.

Mary Magdalene was a brave, bold woman. But even brave, bold women can be devastated by the shocking violence of this world. And on Easter morning, she was devastated. Though there was breath in her lungs and blood in her heart, in a way, Mary died with Jesus – because violence is never an isolated incident; there is always collateral damage; it spreads like a disease.

But resurrection is contagious too. And on Easter, Mary came back to life with Jesus. In a cemetery, in the midst of death, there was life. Pulsing with resurrection, Mary was brave enough to see more than emptiness in the empty tomb. She had the courage to be the first citizen of the Easter world to show her resurrection, to walk her tear-stained cheeks into a locked room of downcast disciples, who knew nothing but the empty tomb, who had not yet experienced resurrection life, and testify: “I have seen the Lord!”

It was a stunningly audacious statement given the circumstances. She journeyed to the graveyard to visit a corpse. She found the body missing. Before she ever spoke a word about resurrection, she told a story of grave robbers. And as that bad situation grew worse, she lingered to weep while the guys went home.

But then Easter happened, in a cemetery, where the dying and the burying happen. Because that was where Easter was needed. And it is still needed. In this Good Friday world, in this world in which the dying and the burying happen, in this world in which despair holds a place of prominence, we need a Church that has experienced Easter, and has felt the breath of the Risen Christ. We need Christians who are brave enough and bold enough, to show the world their resurrection.

We do not have to settle for a Good Friday world. We do not have to accept the death and violence, the nightmares and the despair. We do not have to resign ourselves to the scourge of war, to the plague of addiction, to shelter-in-place drills in kindergarten classrooms, to partisan discord, to racism and hateful prejudice. Those things are all too real, but they are not the reality God wants for us or for this world.

And that is the miracle of Easter: Easter happens in this world, with these heartaches. Easter happens in the shadow of the cross. It happens in the cemetery. It is watered by tears. It does not deny the reality of pain and death; Easter defies pain and death. It is the sun that scatters the clouds. It is a dream so much truer than any nightmare.

The Easter God is daring us to dream that impossible dream. To believe that impossible dreams can come true. In this world. God is calling us to listen for the voice of the Risen Christ, still whispering resurrection, still speaking forth new life, in this world. Jesus is still telling that ancient and eternal story – a story in which love wins, and life is stronger than death, and hope is never in vain.

This is the story that means to transform your life and spill from your lips. Be brave enough to see more than emptiness in that empty tomb; be daring enough to dream impossible dreams. And then be foolish enough to live as if those dreams will come true.

The Rt. Rev. The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah D. Williamson

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah D. Williamson

The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah D. Williamson is the tenth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany. He is married to, Jennifer, a United Methodist pastor. They have two sons and a small dog.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds. Small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between use the resources that Sermons That Work provides.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

May 9, 2025
The bulletin insert for May 4, 2025

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Reflections on the Resurrection

During the Easter season, Sermons That Work is pleased to present reflections from some of the newest bishops of The Episcopal Church on the resurrection of our Lord. Check back each week for a brief exploration of how Jesus Christ’s rising from the grave changes everything. To listen to this reflection, scan the QR code on this page and subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast.

Sermons That Work podcast

Week 3

“Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.”

—Znamenny Chant, Hymn 816 from Wonder, Love, and Praise

My first recollection of this chant was sitting in the candlelit Easter Vigil at the church my family and I attended when our daughter was young. The vigil was the central liturgy of that congregation. It began at 9 pm, it lasted for three hours, the pews were full to the point of overflowing.

The vigil very often included an adult baptism in the full-immersion font that a parishioner had built for the church. It certainly did that first year that my husband, our daughter and I were there – a dear friend, who had found the congregation at the same time that we did.

We gathered by candlelight around the font as she was baptized, praying for her heart to be open, that she would love others in the power of the Spirit, that she would be a witness to God’s love… Then after the baptismal water, the seal, the lights, and those first alleluias, we sang, again and again: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.”

There was a mystical quality to that liturgy in that place on that day – a beauty in the proclamation of what is and what will be, a hope in witnessing that transformation with my toddler by my side, a joy in sharing that moment with our friend as she made the commitment to a life in Christ.

I felt a palpable confidence in Jesus’ resurrection that day; a promise that I have carried with me. The memory of our celebration nurtured my faith through times of challenge and of joy; it nurtures me now in a moment where so much has been dismantled and challenged – a moment where fear, greed, and brokenness are driving decisions both nationally and globally. Even now, more than two decades later, I can close my eyes and see us crowding around the font, amid the candles and a cloud of incense. Even now, each time I smell chrism I remember the abundance of it at that vigil.

In this moment of our common life, so much seems unsteady and fearful and fraught. Through it all, I find myself returning to memories of encounters like these, when God is present and the words of my faith – sometimes chanted, sometimes whispered or held in silence, sometimes prayed among the faithful – those words carry a hope that is greater than I can ask or imagine.

As we gather again to remember Christ’s resurrection, we gather again with the saints across centuries who have led and prayed and worshiped through moments of fear. As we celebrate this great mystery, may we remember our promises made in our baptism and commit again and again to the work that we have as disciples of Jesus Christ: to seek justice and peace, to share the Good News, to love others as we have been loved. We can, and we will, with God’s help.

The Rt. Rev. Kristin Uffelman White

The Rt. Rev. Kristin Uffelman White

The Rt. Rev. Kristin Uffelman White is the tenth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. A lifelong Episcopalian, Bishop White spent time in worship and in service with congregations in the Dioceses of Alaska, Eastern Oregon, Oregon, Chicago, and Indianapolis prior to her election as bishop in 2023. She and her husband, John, live in Cincinnati.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds. Small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between use the resources that Sermons That Work provides.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

May 2, 2025
The bulletin insert for April 27, 2025

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Reflections on the Resurrection

During the Easter season, Sermons That Work is pleased to present reflections from some of the newest bishops of The Episcopal Church on the resurrection of our Lord. Check back each week for a brief exploration of how Jesus Christ’s rising from the grave changes everything. To listen to this reflection, scan the QR code on this page and subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast.

Sermons that Work podcast

Week 2

A number of years ago, I attended a conference that included a talk from Peter Rollins, a progressive philosopher and theologian who grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. He recounted a time when he was invited to a conservative Christian college to be a part of a panel discussion. Near the end of that conversation, a student came up to the microphone and said to him, “Pete, just admit it. You deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

He was taken aback and described how he sensed every eye in that gathering focused squarely on him, including those of the other panelists. He looked at the person behind the microphone and responded: “You got me. I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ.” He said there was a collective gasp of air, and I heard the same in our own gathering. Then he continued, “I deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.”

But Pete wasn’t finished yet. “However,” he said, “there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.”

I was stunned. Tears welled up in my eyes.

We are resurrection people, you and I. We are those who have chosen to follow this One who came to live among us and show us the way of God. Jesus proclaimed that he would bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and declare the Year of Jubilee. He made it clear from the beginning that his work would be resurrection work. That he would go about making things new and whole and full of life. And so he did.

And he still does.

Far too often, we only half-believe the resurrection. We hedge our bets thinking that things might never really change, certainly not in our lifetimes. We couch our belief—deny is a bit too strong for us—because we’ve seen and experienced the chronic cynicism in our world. Yet as disciples of Jesus, as people of the resurrection, we are asked to affirm his bursting from the tomb again and again. We are invited to look into the worst of our world and see it as a place where love could dwell. We are encouraged to hope and trust and believe and then go make a difference.

We are called to affirm Jesus’ resurrection.

The Rt. Rev. Phil LaBelle

The Rt. Rev. Phil LaBelle

The Rt. Rev. Phil LaBelle is the bishop of the Diocese of Olympia. He lives in Seattle with his spouse Melissa and their rescue pup Charlie Brown. They have two young adult children.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds. Small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between use the resources that Sermons That Work provides.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

April 25, 2025
Easter 2025 message from Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe

Dear Friends in Christ:

Luke’s Gospel tells us that on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Joanna went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. When they got there, the stone had been rolled away, and they heard the message that transformed their world—and ours: “He is not here. He is risen.”

On that Easter morning, the women who had been the last protectors and pastors at the cross on Good Friday became the first to witness and proclaim the resurrection. Scripture tells us, however, that their good news was not met with joy. The news that Jesus had risen from the dead was received as an idle tale, as nonsense—in one dynamic translation, as nothing more than women’s trinkets. In the fraught and divided world in which these first evangelists lived, they were on the margins, and their word counted for nothing.

How quickly the apostles forgot what Jesus had modeled days before on Palm Sunday and at the Last Supper. The long-awaited Messiah fashioned himself not as a political conqueror but as a peacemaker. Our Savior upended notions of worldly power by taking on the role of a servant and washing the feet of his followers. For Jesus, the vulnerable and the marginalized are in focus, and his ears are attuned to their voices.

As we proclaim the resurrection in our own time and place, let us always remember that the kingdom of God is revealed to us most clearly by those who are dispossessed by the powers and principalities of this world. Let us celebrate the joy of Easter by seeking and serving the resurrected Christ in the lives and the witness of those who have been silenced, persecuted, and marginalized.

May God bless you and all those you love this Easter.

The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

April 19, 2025
The bulletin insert for April 20, 2025

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Reflections on the Resurrection

During the Easter season, Sermons That Work is pleased to present reflections from some of the newest bishops of The Episcopal Church on the resurrection of our Lord. Check back each week for a brief exploration of how Jesus Christ’s rising from the grave changes everything. To listen to this reflection, scan the QR code on this page and subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast.

Week 1

It’s Easter! We’ve just heard the story that is likely familiar—even if this is your first time in church. Every year, preachers struggle with how to preach about Easter. Some of you know the story well, while for others, it’s a little less familiar, and this might be the only sermon you hear all year. For all of you, the challenge is the same: Where do you find yourselves in this story?

Perhaps last Sunday you heard the story of Jesus being welcomed like a rockstar in the city of Jerusalem, only for those same people to later cheer on the governor who condemned him to death. Maybe you have betrayed someone you love or have been betrayed yourself. Perhaps you have heard the stories of the crucifixion and even acted out the part of Jesus. Or maybe, simply by knowing your neighbors, listening to the news, or talking with your family, you know the suffering of an innocent person. Is this your entry into the story? Perhaps you were in church on Thursday evening, kneeling to wash someone’s feet. Allowing a stranger, or even a friend, to wash your feet is a vulnerable choice. Living the Christian life is a messy journey! Is this the life you want to sign up for? Perhaps you live life like Jesus every day—feeding the hungry, healing the sick, welcoming the stranger, visiting prisoners, and working for justice. You certainly must understand the resurrection!

But… yet… here we are, wondering what it means for us to know the risen Christ today. I have only one thing I know: I have experienced the resurrection in my own life, and I know you can too.

When my first daughter was born, I had everything I needed—an easy birth, an easy baby, a loving spouse, a comfortable home, a good job, and a church community. And yet, I experienced postpartum depression. It was the first time in my life that I could not find joy or control my emotions. I did everything out of habit, including going to church, but I was disconnected—from myself, from my loved ones, from God. I wanted to run away. But I knew I couldn’t; the emptiness would follow me. I was stuck.

And then came resurrection. It was not immediate; it took months, not days. It was not magical, but it was miraculous. Thanks to love, medicine, counseling, prayer, and time, I found joy again. I began to live again. I came out of the tomb and back into the land of the living.

When Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, see the empty tomb, the two dazzling beings ask them a funny question: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” Today, we are looking for the living among the living – each of us living stories of resurrection.

If you have never known resurrection, you are not alone. When you pray today, when you receive the bread and wine—the reminder of Jesus’ journey through life, hell, death, and new life—pray this: “Dear God, show me your resurrection in my life, take me out of pain, suffering, and hurt and show me new life. Take me out of the land of the dead and into new life.”

I have seen the risen Christ in my own life—I believe you can too.

The Rt. Rev. Kara Wagner Sherer

The Rt. Rev. Kara Wagner Sherer

The Rt. Rev. Kara Wagner Sherer is the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester and the first woman to serve in this role. A lifelong Episcopalian, she spent 19 years as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Chicago, focusing on community, justice, and inclusion. She now leads 48 congregations across eight counties in New York, spanning from Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania border, striving to be a light of love and service in diverse communities.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds. Small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between use the resources that Sermons That Work provides.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

April 18, 2025
The bulletin insert for April 21, 2024

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

During the Easter season, Sermons That Work is pleased to present reflections from some of the newest bishops of The Episcopal Church on the resurrection of our Lord. Check back each week for a brief exploration of how Jesus Christ’s rising from the grave changes everything.

To listen to this reflection, scan the QR code on this page and subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast.

Reflections on the Resurrection: Week 4

Rather than minimize grief, Jesus experiences it and comforts others in it. But mourning is not the final word. Resurrection is. He gives a word of comfort to those in distress. The knowledge of his resurrection is our hope and a major way of dealing with sorrow: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3).

The Bible teaches that our suffering is a place to experience God’s sustaining grace in our weakness (2 Cor. 1:8-9). It is clearly taught that grief is a natural response when one experiences loss, but it can be tempered by the knowledge of Christ and the resurrection.

The loss that causes grief is very real, but it is temporary. The knowledge that softens the blow of grief is not an abstract platitude but the real resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 15). Our grief now is in the context of a future hope (1 Thess. 4:13-18). The hope of the new creation frames, but does not erase our present mourning: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:3-4).

Jesus Christ calls himself “the light of the world” and entered into the darkness of this world to bring light and eternal life to sinners who are dwelling in the darkness of their rebellion and sin: “The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned” (Matt. 4:16).

Where darkness, death, and decay had reigned, Jesus breaks in with light, liberation, and love. A picture of this comes from Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island, who lived in Scotland in the nineteenth century. As a boy, his family lived on a hillside overlooking a small town. Robert was intrigued by the work of the old lamplighters who went about with a ladder and a torch, lighting the streetlights for the night. One evening, as Robert stood watching with fascination, his nurse asked him, “Robert, what in the world are you looking at out there?” With great excitement he exclaimed: “Look at that man! He’s punching holes in the darkness!”

The light of the world has entered into the world’s darkness in order to punch holes in it and bring those who dwell in darkness into the dawn of his grace and truth. None of this would be possible apart from Christ’s incarnation, life, death, and resurrection.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Justin S. Holcomb is the bishop of the Diocese of Central Florida, a seminary professor, and an author or editor of more than twenty books on theology, abuse, and biblical studies.

Published by the Office of Formation of The Episcopal Church, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017

© 2024 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

April 19, 2024
The bulletin insert for April 14, 2024

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

During the Easter season, Sermons That Work is pleased to present reflections from some of the newest bishops of The Episcopal Church on the resurrection of our Lord. Check back each week for a brief exploration of how Jesus Christ’s rising from the grave changes everything.

To listen to this reflection, scan the QR code on this page and subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast.

Reflections on the Resurrection: Week 3

When I was a child, our family often went on summer trips across the country. On one of those trips, we signed up for a guided tour of a deep cavern in Arkansas. There were about a dozen in our group. We followed lit pathways to the deepest place in this large cave, and the guide had us all sit down on benches. Then, she turned out all the lights. We sat in utter and complete darkness, several hundred feet underground, for maybe one minute. Then, she lit a single match, and every eye was instantly focused on the glow of that ﬂame.

The ﬁrst service of Easter – The Great Vigil – begins with the rubric: In the darkness, ﬁre is kindled. At some moment between sundown on Saturday and sunrise on Sunday, God raised the lifeless body of Jesus from death to life in the tomb. On Saturday night or early Sunday morning, churches around the world annually symbolize and celebrate this joyful moment of Jesus’ resurrection by lighting a ﬁre in the dark. The ﬁre is blessed, the Paschal Candle is lit, and then the joyful light is shared as candles held by every person in the congregation are lit from it.

It is truly a joyful light that is shared. The resurrection of Jesus means that God’s love for us cannot be contained – even by death or a dark tomb. Sin and death do not have the last word over humanity. God does. And, as the Prayer of Humble Access reminds us, God’s property is always to have mercy. With the resurrection of Jesus, death is conquered. Jesus is raised and we who follow him are raised to new and eternal life with him.

This eternal life that is offered to us does not begin when our mortal bodies die. It begins now. The power of Christ’s resurrection is available to you and to me now. We no longer must live with old fears, old shames, old mistakes, old brokenness, and old patterns that made us less than God intends for us. Our old lives can give way to God’s way of love. In our baptisms, we were buried with Christ in his death and raised to new life with him. We are new creations. Our old shames, old mistakes, old sins, are forgiven, buried, and healed. A new way of life, following our resurrected Lord, is ours right now.

When a match was lit in that dark cavern, every eye turned, every head turned, and almost everyone reoriented their bodies to face that new light. May we so live in the power of Christ’s resurrection that our hearts, minds, and bodies are reoriented to God’s way of love. May we join our resurrected Lord in the work of making all things new.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. David G. Read serves as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, the sixteenth bishop to serve in West Texas (the eleventh diocesan). He has jurisdiction over 87 congregations within the diocese, including parishes, missions, and church plants ranging in size from 40 members to 2,000 members.

Published by the Office of Formation of The Episcopal Church, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017

© 2024 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

April 12, 2024
The bulletin insert for April 7, 2024
This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

During the Easter season, Sermons That Work is pleased to present reflections from some of the newest bishops of The Episcopal Church on the resurrection of our Lord. Check back each week for a brief exploration of how Jesus Christ’s rising from the grave changes everything.

To listen to this reflection, scan the QR code on this page and subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast.

Reflections on the Resurrection: Week 2

Spring has always been my favorite season of the year. Winters were long in the small New England town where I lived. Spring signaled new life and growth as melting snow gave way to crocuses pushing their way upward and recess back on the playground. As a young girl, spring also brought preparations for Easter, which included Lenten fasting and spring cleaning. Each year, the house would be turned upside down as curtains, linens, walls, baseboards, windows, and cupboards were scrubbed clean until all sparkled and appeared new once again.

For me and my four sisters, it also signified throwing off the drab outerwear of winter and donning new spring coats (all in different pastel colors of course), hats, patent leather shoes, and matching dresses. A feeling of newness and possibility filled the air. As I got older, I began to understand that Easter was more than new clothes and patent leather shoes, more than straw filled baskets brimming with cream-filled chocolate eggs and lollipops shaped like bunnies. Those feelings of newness and possibility were and remain part of God’s story, the story my parents shared and lived each day.

My parents were resurrection people. They lived as best they could the life that Jesus embodied. They made sacrifices to ensure my sisters and I had what we needed to grow and thrive, and then some. They placed their trust in the Resurrection, secure in the knowledge that God was doing something new in their lives and in the lives of their children. The sacrifices they made were not always apparent;

When I was much older, I discovered my mother had gone without a new coat for years so that my sisters and I could have new clothes each Easter.

When my grandmother died, my parents invited my grandfather to live with us, so that he would not be alone in his retirement, giving up the bedroom they had just built for themselves.

My parents’ generosity and service, more powerful than words, demonstrated to our family and community the difference between what counts and what doesn’t. My parents placed their faith and trust in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and lived the promises made at baptism throughout their lives.

For them and for me, Jesus’ resurrection reveals true life and faith are found in those places where people, often unnoticed by others, are placing their own bodies in the shape of Jesus’ life. I have the privilege of seeing this lived out in the work of our federal ministry chaplains who counsel and walk alongside our military, veterans, and the incarcerated.

They support, encourage, and offer Easter hope to:
- The young sailor who is up all night with a sick child
- The veteran who tenderly cares for his wife with advanced dementia
- The soldier who prays for her alcoholic brother
- The prisoner who speaks out against injustice in our legal system
- The airman who seeks treatment for depression
- The Guardian who is questioning their sexuality and place in the military
- The Marine suffering from moral injury, who, through reconciliation, is able to forgive herself and others
It takes courage to be Easter people. It takes faith to be resurrection people. It requires us to put aside the promise of security, to embrace uncertainty, and to trust no other truth than what we have seen and heard in Jesus, and to find our hope in living lives of embodied faithfulness. Easter reminds us that we can experience the risen Christ in God’s word, sacrament, and most profoundly in the intimate and personal ways we live out our baptismal promises.

Jesus, through his life, suffering, death, and resurrection, proved what resurrection people know to be true: Nothing, not even death, can separate us from God’s love.

The Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia is the VIII Bishop Suffragan to the Presiding Bishop for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries. She has served in the United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps Reserve, the V.A., and as a priest and rector to parishes of all sizes. She is a resurrection person.

Published by the Office of Formation of The Episcopal Church, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017

© 2024 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
April 5, 2024
The bulletin insert for March 31, 2024

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

The Presiding Bishop’s Easter Message

Hello to my beloved family in Christ. I want to take this opportunity, first of all, on behalf of my wife, Sharon, and our family, to thank you. To thank you for your prayers, to thank you for your well wishes, your expressions of support and kindness. We are equally thankful for the blessing of remarkable medical care and pastoral support. As you may know, I’ve been working a bit from home—at a reduced level, to be sure, but I’m gradually increasing that.

Just two weeks ago, my medical team approved me to drive locally and to resume short domestic flights. I can’t tell you how much your prayers have sustained me and my family through this medical journey. Prayer matters. We don’t always know how. We don’t always know or understand the outcome.

But prayer matters, and it makes a difference. Over the last several months, I have not known how this would all work out. But I’ve been very aware, and in some particular moments, consciously aware of being upheld in prayer by you. Without consciously deciding to do it, I actually found myself praying some words from Psalm 31, which says, “Into your hands, I commend my spirit.”

Before surgeries and treatments, through some long nights, difficult days, “Into your hands, I commend my spirit.” These words are part of a prayer that is Psalm 31 in the Hebrew scriptures. The late night service of Compline uses that psalm as a prayer before going to sleep at night.

Luke’s Gospel records Jesus praying these very words, that psalm, on the cross, when he had a sense of what lay before him, but could not know the outcome. He didn’t know with any certainty if and how God would act. He didn’t know, as the old preachers used to say, Good Friday’s always happened, but Sunday’s always coming. He didn’t know with any certainty that resurrection would become real and not a mere metaphor.

But as he died into the unknown, he did one thing: He threw himself completely into the hands of God. “Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit.”

And in that moment, after saying that, Luke’s Gospel says, he breathed his last. And though he died, death did not have the last word, though he did die. He died into the hands of God and slipped out of the grip of death.

And as we now know, on the third day he rose again, and he lives. As William Cowper said in a poem that later became a hymn, “God moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform, he plants his footstep in the sea and rides upon the storm.”

So God love you. God bless you. May the God who rides upon our storms and raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead hold us all, the entire human family and all of God’s grand and glorious creation in those almighty hands of love. Have a blessed Holy Week and Easter.

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop and Primate, The Episcopal Church

Published by the Office of Formation of The Episcopal Church, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017

© 2024 The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

March 29, 2024
The bulletin insert for May 14, 2023

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Reflections on the Resurrection

During the Easter season, Sermons That Work is pleased to present reflections from some of the newest bishops of The Episcopal Church on the resurrection of our Lord. Check back each week for a brief exploration of how Jesus Christ’s rising from the grave changes everything. To listen to this reflection, scan the QR code on this page and subscribe to the Sermons That Work podcast.

Week 6

Being a Christian is believing in the Resurrection of Christ, which ends up being the center of faith and hope for everyone who believes in Jesus. Christ, upon coming back to life as the firstborn among the dead, reveals to us that our God in Jesus is the Lord of life and not of death, “He gives death and brings life, he brings down to Sheol and raises up” 1 Samuel 2:6.

It is in the paschal experience of his apostles, whom he himself called, with whom this beautiful experience begins, in extraordinary events such as the empty tomb, the appearances of the Risen One “And he appeared for many days,” Acts. 13:31, where certainly it is He himself who manifests himself, the Jesus of Nazareth, since the apostles recognize him, see him, and touch him, eat with him, his presence is real and not like that of a ghost.

It seems that it is to them that these first manifestations of his Resurrection were reserved and not to all the others, that not even the same guards of the tomb who, terrified by the mysterious theophany, would not recognize him. It is to whom He called, his witnesses, his disciples.

It could be said that unlike the event of passion and death where the people and their own followers end up being only distant spectators of such painful events; while in the Resurrection his closest followers become living and very close actors of such a great Theophany.

The gospels try to describe it this way, wanting to narrate in the best way when entering this transcendental, ineffable sphere, which for this must return to the same words given by their Lord when he was with them, even to expressions already prepared by the Old Testament.

The experience of Pentecost ends up being the moment of the beginning of preaching, since it is with the action of the Spirit with which the true Resurrection can be preached as the center of life, a necessary experience for every believer.

We ask the Lord himself, the Risen One, to give us the grace to also be his close witnesses of love, that we can also see and experience his glorious manifestation in our own lives and that the Holy Spirit be the one who leads us to remove fears, break the locks of doubt to proclaim it with conviction and courage, like the first disciples; that we be his apostles in modern times, with the same dedication to announce it. That in this Easter feast we see in the God of Christians the God of life, who raises from death since he defeated it and, in his Resurrection, makes us part of a new life.

The Right Reverend Elías García Cárdenas is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Colombia.

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds, and the resources we provide are used in small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

May 12, 2023

Participants in the pageant on Sunday, January 4, 2025, should be present by 9:30 am.

2nd Sunday in Lent (Year A), March 1, 2026. Services at 8:00 am (no music) and 10:30 (music). Christian education for children and adults at 9:15 am.