Easter Weekend

Every year, this is one of the busier weekends. Last night we attended a Seder at the Presbyterian Church. I’d never been to one before and it was an interesting and uplifting experience. Last week during our Ministerial Association meeting, the Lutheran pastor talked about their Easter traditions and why they do what they do. He described how the main events begin Thursday night as those who attend become participants, going back in time as it were, to re-experience Christ’s Passion in order to more fully understand and engage God’s love demonstrated through Jesus Christ. The Catholic priest talked about how, in the past, they would spend many hours leading up to Sunday sunrise reading through passages of scripture that discuss God’s plan of redemption and deliverance, culminating with a sunrise resurrection service. After listening to some of these traditions described and the reasons behind them, I came away with a sense that those of us in the non-liturgical, non-traditional churches could be missing something by avoiding them, whether due to ignorance or fear.

We will be attending the Good Friday service tonight at the Lutheran church, and I will be taking part by speaking, this year, on Christ’s 3rd word on the cross, "Woman, behold your son... Behold your mother" (John 19:25-27).

Tomorrow I will be speaking on the burial and resurrection passage found in Mark’s gospel.

And on Sunday, we’ve been invited again to the Presbyterian Church for their breakfast, egg hunt, and worship service. There is a sunrise service at the beach at 7 a.m. preceding all this, but whether or not I’m awake for that, I don’t know. At the Ministerial Association meeting, the others tried to nominate me to organize it since I’m the only one who doesn’t have services on Sunday… Hmm… :)

And finally, if you are one who struggles (or even if not) with the idea of God sacrificing his Son on the cross, you might want to head over and read an article at Crosswalk.com: http://www.crosswalk.com/spirituallife/11601827/