I can’t begin to count all of the memorable moments from the worship services in which I participated this weekend- two Good Friday services, an Easter Vigil Service Saturday night, and three services this morning. . . each one so very meaningful in its own way. And in an odd sort of way, the cherry on top came as I was heading home today around noon. I tuned the radio to WGN and heard some announcer unfamiliar to me prattling on about how much he always hated being dragged to church by his parents, and how he would opt to sit in the car, without radio playing or any kind of entertainment, rather than go into the sanctuary with his parents and actually experience church. And to this day, he has no use whatsoever for church. He’s not dismissive of those for whom it is important, but he personally wants nothing to do with it…. although he certainly is ready to pontificate on the failings of modern church. Anyway, hearing what he had to say only made me appreciate all the more that the church is part of my life and that I am part of it. Because I cannot imagine my life without it, especially when I think of all I was privileged to experience this weekend.
Among the moments I most cherish from this weekend…..
For the first time since I came to Holy Communion 22 years ago, we bypassed the traditional Tre Ore and Tenebrae services Good Friday in favor of a different service created by Pastor Samuelson which I found to be just as powerful as those treasured traditional services. But even with a different array of readings and a slightly different flow to the service, we retained the central rite of extinguishing candles one by one to create ever-deepening darkness. And at both services I was so touched by the work of the boys who served as acolytes and did the actual candle extinguishing at appointed moments in the service. There was something about the slow, deliberate way in which they walked and moved that was exactly right, exactly in keeping with the sorrow of the service.
The Easter Vigil (Saturday night) is among the most ancient of Christian worship services, and Holy Communion begins its vigil with the worshippers entering the sanctuary in complete and utter darkness, illumined only by the light of the Christ Candle, carried in ahead of them. It’s incredible how beautiful and powerful something like darkness can be, if for no other reason than for the way it helps one to cherish the gift of a single candle and its light. And once the opening gospel proclamation is sung and the lessons of the night read, there is usually a baptism- and this year it was so neat to be witnessing the baptism not of a stranger- but of Elisabeth McDougall, beautiful baby daughter of our friends Ryan and Jill. It turned out to be a candlelight baptism, with everyone present holding a lighted candle in that otherwise completely dark sanctuary- and little Elisabeth taking it all in through those big, amazing eyes of hers. And what was especially incredible was the moment when Pastor Steve lit a special candle and held it out towards the just-baptized Elisabeth and intoned the familiar words Let your light so shine before others. . . . It was absolutely impossible to hold back the tears at that moment, as we all dreamt of what might be ahead for Elisabeth as her life unfolds. Such promise!
There were so many incredible moments in this morning’s Easter services, including my wife’s beautiful performance of “Resurrection” – which she has sung now for 22 consecutive Easters – and all of the other music that made it a joyous and memorable morning. But in some ways what I will remember most vividly is what Pastor Samuelson did for his children’s sermon. He asked the kids about the many different names we have for Jesus such as Lord, King, Jehovah, Savior, etc. and he said that on the occasion of Easter we especially like to call Jesus the Lamb of God. He then explained how early Christians apparently had a ritual in which they would take a lamb, stand around it and do a confession of sins, and then set the lamb loose and have it – in a sense- take their sins away from them. (I’d never heard of this before.) And then he retrieved a big basket from behind the pulpit which had in it probably fifty cute little toy lambs (sort of like Beany Babies.) Each child was invited to take one to keep – and all they had to do for it was lift it up in the air at a point later in the service when we would all together sing “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. . . “ And sure enough, with a little prompting from their parents (and Pastor Samuelson) that’s exactly what they did. And just like that, a moment in the service that we’ve done countless times before was suddenly alive and new. How great is that?!?!
As touching as that was, I think even more touching and inspiring was setting eyes on a friend of ours named Jacquie who was diagnosed with breast cancer several weeks ago and had surgery and follow-up treatments just this past week. No one would have given a second thought to Jacqui staying put and celebrating Easter in the comfort of her own bed, but there was no way she was staying home! She was there with joy and radiance fully intact, and just seeing her there was as perfect an embodiment of Easter Joy as anything could possibly be. . . the equivalent of a thousand Hallelujah Choruses.
pictured above: Pastor Samuelson, distributing the cute little stuffed lambs at the 10:30 service.