God of life and death and life after death,
God of parade and cross and empty tomb,
during this holiest of weeks we re-tell the stories of our faith,
preparing for the great surprise that awaits us on Sunday.
But during this holiest of weeks we admit that the hustle and the bustle fills our lives,
leaving us little time to stop and experience the story for ourselves.
Help us find the time to just BE this week.
Amidst all the bustle of preparing all the worship experiences of the week,
may we feel again the passion of the supper, the trial, the death,
so that we can feel again the shock, the awe, the wonder of the empty tomb.
We pray in the name of the one with whom we walk through the week.
Amen
Well here we are, the Tuesday of Holy Week. How many services do you have to prepare and participate in this week? How many sermons or meditations are yet to be written? Are there services where the ritual and the Scripture will speak for themselves?
The RCL Readings for Holy Week can be found here.
And of course the irony of being involved in worship preparation in the church is that even as we may try to experience the saga of the week we have to be preparing and thinking about the end result. The worship leader can not have the luxury of experiencing the story and waiting for the surprise of Sunday.
The readings for Easter Sunday Year C can be found here. ANd we have options. John or Luke? Acts or Isaiah? 1 Corinthians or Acts? What passages best help you explore the surprise, the wonder of Easter? What new thing is God doing in your midst? What old thing is being brought back to life in a new form? Where is resurrection a reality?
Share your ponderings and struggles and possibilities in the comments...
Feeling pretty well organised for the rest of Holy Week - just the ppt for Good Friday to put together. And Sunday, I'm sharing family worship and communion with the Salvation Army Corp so that's mostly planned. Now for lots of pastoral encounters before I head off on holiday after Sundays service!
ReplyDeleteGeesh, my number of services has DOUBLED in 24 hours. I now have three funerals this week, in addition to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday & Easter morning. Need.a.break. But I know the Spirit is on it, because I am surprisingly calm about it all. Here we go...off and running. I'll sleep next week!
ReplyDeleteOh, Amy. Prayer accompanies you as you accompany your families through death and resurrection.
DeleteAmy, 3 funerals in Holy Week :-o May the Spirit give you strength!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone would like a copy of St. John Chrysostom's Easter sermon, scripted with congregational involvement (ringing bells/keys at mention of rejoicing, stomping feet at death, echo refrain), I'd be glad to send it to you. Perfect for use as the sermon at the Vigil!
Betsy, I would love to have it revdrkris at gmail.com Won't need it this year because our Vigil is a Deanery service with the Bishop preaching and presiding, but will certainly save it for future reference!
DeleteSent!
DeleteBesty, I'd love to have it too! I've never heard of it, but it sounds very interesting.
DeleteBetsy, me too. rev.megan at gmail dot com.
DeleteI would love to have it. pastordari@gmail.com
DeleteThanks!
Sent to all three of you...even if you don't use it, it is one of the most inspiring Easter sermons of all time :-)
DeleteBetsy, I would live a copy if it's not too much trouble.
DeleteI'm at suecan at gmail dot com
Thanks much!
I too would like a copy! I'm at dtruhe@cox.net. Thank You! :-)
DeleteSue and Lorraine, I'll get it to you this evening!
DeleteSince you offered ... may I have a copy of the Chrysostom Easter sermon too? I'm at revdadodd@comcast.net. Thank you!
DeleteDone :-)
DeleteBetsy, I'm really really late to this party so if you get this, can you send me a copy to revptownshend@gmail.com?
DeleteThanks!
Check your email...it should be there!
DeleteBetsy, I would love to have that! writermom123@aol.com Thanks!
DeleteI'd love the, too, please... if you have a chance. lutheranjulia(@)gmail.com.
DeleteBetsy, we use the Chrysostom Easter sermon for our Easter Vigil service on Saturday night...it is SO powerful and wonderful.The fact that it is one less sermon for me to write is simply a bonus. Good Friday is written (about Ars Moriendi and the changes in death and burial practices in the midst of the Civil war (compare and contrast to Jesus' Ars Moriendi), and I've done my initial sketching of Easter Sunday (riffing on Hide and Go Seek) when we have three baptisms. Still have to finish that one, plus Wednesday's small homily and the sermon for Maundy Thursday. That one may be a conversation about why we as a parish are so uncomfortable with the idea of foot washing.Whew!
ReplyDeleteI have a funeral Thursday afternoon. But the other two deaths I am expecting have yet to occur...
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts are coming together. My Good Friday meditation is called The End. I am asking what Jesus' friends and followers must have felt that day. Did they think it had all come crashing down? My early thoughts are here
THen for Sunday I am picking up on a single phrase from the Luke reading and calling my sermon An Idle Tale... Would we have been any different from those who heard from the first witnesses? Are we now? My early thoughts
Oh and I almost forgot. I am starting the service with a drama based on John 20:1-18. You can read (and borrow/adapt if you wish) it here
DeleteOn Thursday we are doing a communion service and potluck. It was sort of based on a seder, but after reading an article this year about how Christian Seders are anachronistic, etc, I'm really rethinking it for next year. Good Friday cross walk 10 minute mediation to think of, people to wrangle for both the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday evening service, not to mention writing a sermon on Luke's telling of Easter morning. Plus a funeral tomorrow, and getting ready for my parents to fly in Thursday evening (late-thirty). I know I will survive this, but it is kind of driving me nutty right now. Deep breaths and back to sermonating.
ReplyDeleteI'm coming late to the race - or is it a marathon?! We had college visits yesterday so I spent the day driving 5 hours out and back, plus the visits! Ex.haust.ed.
ReplyDeleteI have Maundy Thursday and Easter to get together. No sermon Good Friday, just the reading of John's passion story, bidding prayers and solemn reproaches. I don't know yet what I'm thinking for Maundy Thursday, but I have an ace in the hole. My wonderful spouse remembered that I had a sermon written that hadn't been preached at this congregation. So I have a fall back.
When we did Luke's passion reading last Sunday,the last 2 verses grabbed me - the women watched Joseph place the body in the tomb and then went out and bought spices so that they could come back after the Sabbath and do the proper burial thing (were they aghast that JofA didn't get it right the first time?). They came to the tomb expecting death only to hear the angels say "Why are you looking for the living among the dead?"
I also had copied some comments from our discussion last year - katherynzj talked about lairos/bullshit (posted on 4/7/12). So the tension between life/death idle tale/true witness is floating around.
Finally, I know we've all seen this Easter is Comingvideo from working preacher, but it's just so perfect. I watch it ever Easter for inspiration. Enjoy.
Thanks for posting the link to the video. I had not seen it before. It is super helpful in processing the Easter paradox
DeleteBetsy - could not reply for some reason? but I would also like to see the Chrysostom (sp?) sermon at pastor at hillsdaleucc dot org. Thanks for the offer!
ReplyDeleteA colleague had the genius idea of a sermon writing retreat day, so I am in a lovely room overlooking a valley and praying/breathing on behalf of all of you. Keep jogging - we are well into the marathon now!
Headed over now to see that video (which I have not seen, Ramona, so thanks for the link) and then trying to get my head around a draft for the Sunday sermon - really want that sermon done today if possible. Calling it The Other Guy (which is a private joke with myself about that movie that came out a few years ago) and making it about the Beloved Disciple - at least that's what I got so far. Will check in later.
Cheers, all!
Jennifer, I will send it to you.
DeleteJust a thought that may mess you up: there is an argument to be made for Thomas, not John, being the Beloved Disciple. His having been at the cross, and thus unclean, would explain why he wasn't with the rest of the disciples in the upper room the first time. Additionally, Jesus telling Thomas to put his hands in the wound on his side and the nail prints in his hands especially makes sense if Thomas was there at the cross when those wounds were inflicted. Those are the two arguments I remember...I think there are more. Not a change you need to make, but it is interesting!
THanks Betsy for the great sermon and the comment, too. I got a little sidetracked yesterdary reading an impassioned article on why the BD MUST be Lazarus. I'm going with the "not named because he could have been any of us" school.
DeleteSermon turning out to be more like conversion.
In the meantime, I'm checking off lists. Today, my favorite checks "butterfly shaped sunglasses to give away at childrens time?" Check!
Butterfly shaped sunglasses? How fun!
DeleteEvery year I talk to one of our K classes during Lent,mwhen they have caterpillars turning into butterflies; we discuss that process and then talk about Jesus's resurrection. One of the very cool things I learned a few years ago, that now informs our conversation, is that scientists have found that it's not just that the caterpillar grows wings and legs; its very substance is reduced to a sort of primordial soup and a whole new creature forms.
My week is heading through the theme of 'resurrection testimony'...that is Sunday's sermon title. So Mandy Thursday begins with the testimony of the Servant to his disciples, Good Fridays wrote itself already...not certain how, but it is the testament, the need for death/Christ's willingness to testify to faith by taking this leap as a human, noting the finality even as he's abandoned. It is really short amid the bidding prayers and solemn reproaches which leads to the Resurrection and the testimonies in Acts and Corinthians as well as Luke...going that resurrection never takes place with a witness, but it is the grace we receive through resurrection that we witness to, to which we testify... now to flesh it out...more later as it gets posted. :-)
ReplyDeleteI had hoped to get lots done today, Wednesday, as I had no appointments. However, a matter that I need to deal with as Chairperson of our regional denominational body has arisen, so that has taken much of the day. at least I think it is in a place it can be ‘on hold’ until after the Easter weekend.
ReplyDeleteThursday evening service, just over 24 hours away, apart from communion, I am not sure what I am doing.
Friday morning, readings with projected images and some kind of reflection - probably 'voices from around the cross' from Wellspring website.
Sunday – we are starting with a sunrise image/reflection, and I am thinking of using this http://childrensministry.com/articles/easter-egg-prayers
as a way of putting the whole Easter story together. And we always have the children hand out small Easter eggs to the congregation.
Time to think about dinner, and hopefully a quiet and fruitful evening.
At least the only thing in my diary tomorrow is the service in the evening, so hopefully the service will be done my then :)
anyone looking for a reflective piece for Good Friday,
ReplyDeleteI wonder
Now to get some sense of order into Friday's service, so I can look at Thursdays - on .... Thursday
9.30 pm on Wednesday here, and hoping for an early night.
I'd like to see that Chrysostom sermon too! (joeneherr@gmail.com)....I'm set for Maundy Thursday - finishing a series using Paula Huston's Simply Lent series...sharing Lent practices and reading one of her meditations each week...it's kinda felt like cheating, not writing a sermon. Good Friday sermon is written. Re-read and tweaked this morning.
ReplyDelete"Just" two Easter morning sermons. I've been wrestling w/the Sunrise, using "On the first day of the week, while it was still dark" as the basis. The first day - God had acted (is acting) - the resurrection is our reality, AND it was (is) still dark. However my sermon is coming across a bit too dark.
The "regular" sermon is (was) going to be based titled "Do you believe in the Resurrection?" at least I had the idea two days ago, and a few notes.
Seeing parishoners this afternoon...she's had Altzheimers (sp?) a couple years no and hasn't eaten/drank anything for 5 days per her husband. She's still at home...they are farmers. So, I may have a funeral soon too.
Sermon sent! I am delighted to have sent it to a bunch of Rev Gals; even if you never use it in preaching, the words have more than held their power across the centuries and re-reading it sure helps me get (back) in the Easter spirit as I wade through this week.
DeleteDitto for the Easter Is Coming video...thanks so much for posting that link!