The Easter Hunt

The Goodness of Children
This morning we had our Easter Egg Hunt on the church grounds. It poured rain all night, so we had it inside. Nice turnout. A funny thing happened though... we had two kids show up about 15 minutes late, and the eggs had already been fairly well mauled over. As the adults stood around trying to decide what to do... several of the kids just started putting their eggs back in the spots they found them - so the new kids could have some. It was... one of those moments, you know. No wonder Jesus said we needed to be more like them.

Maundy Thursday
Our Maundy Thursday service went really well. We didn't have a huge turnout, but the people that were here are people that wanted to be here. We took communion with our meal, then those who wished to participate in feetwashing did that, while those who passed began to walk the Stations of the Cross. We listened to Chanticleer: Sound & Spirit during the meal.

I had the Stations set up in the sanctuary. It was dark, with the Passion of the Christ soundtrack playing. At each stations was a candle, description of the station, and a prayer. It took quite awhile for everyone to go through, and several people got pretty emotional. Afterward most of us gathered back downstairs and reflected. That was maybe the best part. People wondering out loud where they would have been along the route to the crucifixion site. Sharing their feelings and insights from the evening. I think some of the older ladies were especially moved.

Rushing Good Friday
Maybe the sad part of the the week was the Good Friday community service. We get together with 5 other churches. Even from the start - a few of the pastors gathered to pray before the service - and everyone's prayers were about Easter Sunday, and the hope that more people would come to church on Easter, etc. And the service itself was very "eastery."

I think we have a hard time dwelling on the events that happend BEFORE the resurrection. We're on a "hunt" for Easter; but we don't want to go through Good Friday. And I think that is to our detriment. It's kind of a sign of the times.

Think about it... what is Easter without death? It can't happen. Why do we want to rush past the death part? It's sad to see so many people with so many things in their life that they're afraid to "put to death." We want to ignore our sins and bad habits; we want to gloss over them; "let's just forget about that," we think. And that's why we miss the New Life. You can't rise again if you haven't put the old to death.

I hope you went through Passion Week slowly... one day at a time. Easter is great. But maybe only because of all that happened before it. A new life with Christ is great too. But maybe only after the death of our old.

Have a happy Easter... all of it.

Peace. Revolution.