April 9, 2009
Apr 24th, 2009 by ocfairview
Greetings Friends,
Tonight we enter into my favorite service of the year, the Holy Maundy Thursday remembrance service. This is a powerful service that you will not want to miss. In this sacred space we re-live the last supper that Jesus shared with his dearest friends and his disciples. Tonight we will sit at table with twelve disciples who will read through the scripture of the passion narrative. We begin with the last light of the day at 7pm and as the story progresses the room gets darker and darker. We move deeper into the night and deeper into the story. Delving into Jesus’ experience we feel his emotions with him, we hear him ask us to stay awake with him, and we ask ourselves the question we’ve been asking all week: where will we be? Will we allow him to stoop and wash our feet? Are we going to sit at his table? Will we eat his bread? Will we drink from his cup? And where will we be when the night ends? Where will we stand tomorrow?
Friends, I invite you to experience this night in its fullness. I invite you to join me in the mystery. Hear Jesus’ words inviting you into discipleship. Come. Come and be filled. For this is a night of transformation. Come and let the spirit wash over you and take you deep, deep into the night.
Tomorrow I will be partaking in an ecumenical Good Friday service at Newport Center United Methodist Church. There, gathered with brothers and sisters of our faith: Methodist, Episcopalian, Disciples, United Church of Christ, American Baptist and Catholic we shall enter the stations of the cross. As always, this service proves to be powerful as we remember those final hours and we feel the depth of Jesus’ pain along with the depth of his belief. Please join me in this observation.
It is my belief that we cannot celebrate Easter with the joy of the day if we have not felt the depths of Holy Week. So I hope that you will experience these next couple of days and that when we gather together on Easter we will have real reason to celebrate! For only those who have faced the depth of this faith, those who have walked alongside Jesus, who have faced the cross and died to their old selves will know the true miracle of the new life of resurrection day. For we know that as painful and difficult the days of Holy Week were for Jesus and are for Christians, not even death could kill Jesus’ spirit, nor ours. So let us come together to celebrate this Sunday! Please invite your friends and family to join us for our special Easter Morning Service! And be sure to bring kids! There will be an Easter Egg hunt with over 350 eggs! Wow!
See you this evening, tomorrow, Saturday for our final Lenten Film Series: Jesus in the Dark –The Colors of the Cross and of course on Easter Sunday!
Please bring cut flowers Sunday morning to help transform the dead cross into a cross alive with beauty!
