It’s hard to write an Easter message
when we have barely begun the walk into Lent. I watched the Mardi
Gras parades on television. I heard the good news that the hotels in
New Orleans were nearly full. I’ll let you know when we get back
from the work trip this week if we see the same signs of recovery
that the news media was boasting about. I observed Ash Wednesday at
an Episcopal church in San Antonio. Clearly they had not expected
many people to be there for their noontime service. They ran out of
bulletins and the priest actually said, “Where did all you Anglicans
come from?” You started your walk through Lent without me, and I
feel like somehow you left me behind.
Holy Week sometimes feels like that as well. We gather up for the
excitement of Palm Sunday. And then lots of you go away on that
Spring Break vacation. Most church activities are cancelled for the
week. We’ve moved Session to the 4th Monday this month. No Manna
dinner. The church will be open all week. It’s just that the level
of activity will be very different. There will be a 12:15 p.m.
community worship service on Wednesday at the Methodist Church in
the next block. Our sanctuary will be open for prayer.
On Thursday night, the choir and 13
men from the congregation will be presenting a Living Last Supper.
Come and hear the music and listen as each of the disciples wonder,
“Is it I?” Come and share the bread and the cup with the twelve and
with Christians around the world as we remember the Mandate, “Do
This to Remember.”
On Friday night we will have a solemn
reading of the passion story as we darken the sanctuary and remember
the emptiness and despair of Good Friday.
Saturday, there will be an Easter
Vigil service at the new Meadowkirk chapel at 8:00 p.m. We are also
invited to welcome Easter at dawn on their hillside. If you’d like
to spend the night out there, call them and make a reservation.
We’ll also be here worshiping at
6:30, 8:30 and 11:00 a.m. with the Deacons offering up an Easter
Breakfast at 9:45.
The Easter parade is so much more
meaningful if you have walked all the way through Holy Week. I hope
I can look up every night and say, “Where did all these
Presbyterians come from?”
