(The Bridge community was waiting outside the main hall with a large stone barring the way)

The following words were read

Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, …..This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid.  It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.  The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his

body was laid.  Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments.
On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body.

Luke 23: 50 – 24: 3 (NRSV)

The large stone was rolled away and everyone entered the main hall and sat around a table covered with folded grave clothes.

While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.  The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.

Luke 24:4-5 (NRSV)

If you were with us at Christmas then you will know that at this table there is a name place set for each one of you.  The girl was just trying to get into the club, or was it somewhere else? You are on the guest list, you are invited.  But you have to accept the invitation. We can be too busy, it does not seem important enough, it is not at the top of the priority list, we can’t be bothered, there seem to be hundreds of better invitations why accept this one?
It means we have to forgo our pride and stop thinking that we can do this all on our own.  It means we have to admit we have got it wrong, that we don’t know all of the answers, that we cannot cope, that we have tried our hardest and it is not enough.  We have a need of someone else to live life better.  In many ways your are right we are not good enough, but that is not where Jesus leaves us.
I don’t know about you but I find it far too easy to think I can do it on my own.  It is too easy to live independently, and think we have everything we need, it might be the house, the family, the job, the gadgets, the lifestyle, the holidays, the friends,

What have you put in front of the tomb of Jesus?  What have you put in the way so you cannot see or understand or believe or belong?
What is it in your life that is too big for you to move on your own?

Take a moment, right now, to ask God to roll it away.
Take a moment to say ‘sorry’ to ask for forgiveness.
Take a moment to give something up so that you might receive from God the father.

Holy Spirit be at work in this place.

A special meal (The folded grave clothes were removed to reveal bread and wine)

Words of invitation
The table of Jesus is your place of gathering
Here you are welcomed, wanted, loved
Here there is a place set for you

So come all you who thirst
All you who hunger for the bread of life
All you whose souls cry out for healing

Come all you who are weary
All you who are bowed down with worry
All you who ache with the tiredness of living

Come all you poor
All you who are without food or refuge
Ail you who go hungry in a fat land

Come all you who are lost
All you who search for meaning but cannot find it
All you who have no place of belonging

Let me go over with you again exactly what goes on in the Lord’s Supper and why it is so centrally important. I received my instructions from the Master himself and passed them on to you. The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread.  Having given thanks, he broke it and said,

This is my body, broken for you.
Do this to remember me.

After supper, he did the same thing with the cup:

This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you.
Each time you drink this cup, remember me.

What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you re-enact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (The Message)

Jesus invites you
Draw near with faith
Receive the body of our Lord Jesus Christ which he gave for you and his blood which he shed for you
Eat and drink in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

If this is part of your story, if you would like to be part of the community that tells this story, if you want to remember, then come.  Come with family, come with friends, come as you are, for all is ready.