Maintaining Rhythms

Yesterday morning I sang hymns of Good Friday and led prayer and preached for a Good Friday service. My church has a decades long tradition of joining with a nearby Baptist congregation for this service, and unfortunately for the second year in a row it needs to be virtual.

Once again the rhythm of meeting in person, of re-establishing relationship and celebrating together our common faith is not happening. The goal of burning dvds of the service to distribute prior to the actual day for those without internet access meant we had to record the service well ahead of time. Each participating church (another has joined with us more recently) is recording their parts in their own sanctuary.

As I sang and then spoke to a camera rather than actual worshipers I felt the disjointedness of doing this out of the normal rhythm and out of sequence. I haven’t finished preparing my Palm Sunday service and yet I’ve already delved into the events of Good Friday, specifically the meaning of the darkness, the tearing of the temple curtain and the earthquake. It was fascinating but still seemed wrong because we have yet to walk with Jesus into Jerusalem, the final destination of our Lenten journey.

Just as celebrating and remembering the events of Holy Week out of sequence messes with our rhythms, skipping any part of them disturbs things too. Because each is important to the overall story and leads to the next. Jesus coming into the holy city behind the perfect sacrificial lamb and the high priest sets the tension to its highest point. The clearing of the temple, the preparation for and celebration of the Passover, the time in Gethsemane, the arrest and “trial” of Jesus - all needed to happen in order and inform the next piece ultimately leading to Jesus’ death on the cross.

While these rhythms are familiar to us, we tend to not want to delve deeply into them. Good Friday is painful. The betrayal of the disciples can cut close to our own lukewarm faith. Knowing that the parade of palms led so quickly to hate is not a ‘feel good’ story. There is a reason churches typically are packed on Easter Sunday and not on Palm Sunday. It’s the day that is the pinnacle of our faith and hope and it’s positive and uplifting.

But Easter on its own, the celebration of triumph over death, loses its power without the enormity of the events that precede it. Major suffering and rich meaning lead to resurrection and fulfillment of prophecy and promises. This is important to remember as we wait in hope for vaccinations, for a turning point in our journey of isolation and fear. All of the steps of Jesus’ journey to the cross matter and give us a model for carrying on to fulfill our purpose even in difficult and challenging circumstances.

There is so much hope for us if we will just stay awake for a few more hours, and if we will accompany those who are suffering most, making each story as important as our own. The whole story is important, and God’s place in each story even more so. In death and suffering, in hope and new life all around us. Are we able to see Jesus on the journey? Are we wanting to skip that journey and just rush to the end?

May we lead our people through the whole story, experiencing its pain and reality, so that Easter is a true celebration of what Christ overcame and did for us.