Holy Week Culminations

I hope we will see you at our Tenebrae service (service of darkness) tonight on Good Friday at 7:30.  My thoughts have been full of the experience of the cross today.  I attended the noontime service at the Episcopalian church as I do each year.  The preacher articulated what I have been pondering - so much death and tragedy these weeks!  His insight was powerful - that Jesus' thirst was emblematic of our human thirst for God and likewise it was emblematic of God's thirst for humankind.  Powerful stuff.  Many of your remaked on a quote that Anne Lamott shared in my Palm Sunday sermon. Have you taken the full journey of the week?  

Earlier in the day, I wrote a meditation on our tendency to want justice done on someone else. What are you pondering as we head to worship tonight?  How will Amy's meditations strike your soul?

Tomorrow, I hope you will go to the Easter Egg Hunt at 10 a.m. and see all the joy of our children and their families!  If you want to take full advantage of Holy Saturday, the Episcopalians always go all out.  They have a service at 8 a.m. and a vigil at 7 p.m.

Of course, on Easter, I hope that you have marked your calendar.  Both Luke Hyder and I will be preaching.  I will preach at the Festival services at 9 and 11 a.m. in our renewed Sanctuary.  Luke will preach at our Easter Sunrise in the Chapel at 7 a.m. and at our Sunday at 6 service this Easter in the Sanctuary.  At the evening service we will celebrate both the sacrament of baptism (on behalf of the Union Church of Manila for a child of our church home for the holiday) and also the sacrament of holy communion.  If you are coming back from Spring Break, this may be a great way to return!

Then don't forget to participate in our Listening Circles.  The first big gathering will be on the first Sunday after Easter.  Sign up online through our Strategic Planning Webpage.  Also take the online survey now!

Wow.  God is making all things new.  Join us!