It Is Finished: Pastoral Prayer From Resurrection Sunday

In my role as an elder at Immanuel Church, I usually offer a pastoral prayer at Sunday worship. Lest one think the story finished on Good Friday, here's the pastoral prayer from this past Sunday:

Holy God and good father, you have turned our mourning into dancing. We should bleed, but your son bled in our place. Where we have earned wrath, you have given grace, and through your son, we are adopted into sonship and made joint heirs of an inheritance we do not deserve and could never earn.

We praise you because all of history culminates in and revolves around the resurrection we celebrate this morning. Where we could not, you conquered death, hell, and the grave. They have no victory. They have no sting. You have made us more than the dust from which we are made and the dust to which we will return. You have set eternity in our hearts, and you have made a way for us to enjoy eternity with you.

And so we pray as Jesus taught his disciples:  

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.