Well, the Clergy Superbowl (hee hee) is almost upon us, and so, Reverendmother offers up this Friday Five (with apologies for the irreverent title):
1. Will this Sunday be Palms only, Passion only, or hyphenated?
It'll be Palm Sunday all the way. With palms, procession around the lawn, etc. No donkey as far as I know! We go from HOSANNA! to CRUCIFY HIM! within the service. Very emotionally rollercoaster-y.
2. Maundy Thursday Footwashing: Discuss.
I loved the way we did it at St. Francis in College Station...with foot washing stations around the room, with lovely warm water and rose petals in them. There was music for as long as we wanted to wander around and wash each other's feet. It was so peaceful and delightful. Love fest. Agape.
Not so much crazy about it at current church, where it's up in front and everyone watches. But I've only seen it once (2 Easters ago I was in the hospital with a staph infection) so maybe it will grow on me. Though hopefully not like staph...
3. Share a particularly meaningful Good Friday worship experience.
I have two: One Good Friday during high school my friend Katherine and I went to a local church for midday mass. There was terrible thunder and lightning and it was so powerful to hear the Seven Last Words of Christ in that setting.
And: Another memory from my little College Station church: actually this was on Maundy Thursday, which is the beginning of Good Friday. After the service ends, the church and the altar are stripped. All the vessels, banners, icons, and decorative items are carried away. The very last thing (and I was not expecting this) was that Fr. Jeff stood in front of the altar with the most terrible sad look on his face (think of Aslan's noble, sad look at the Stone Table). He took hold of the corner of the altar cloth....then he JERKED it off and stalked off of the altar dais into the kitchen. At that exact moment, all the lights except the ones on the stripped altar went out.
It was like being whopped upside the head. I couldn't go home for a long time, I had to sit there and cry for about 30 minutes.
4. Easter Sunrise Services--choose one:
a) "Resurrection tradition par excellence!"
b) "Eh. As long as it's sunrise with coffee, I can live with it."
c) "[Yawn] Can't Jesus stay in the tomb just five more minutes, Mom?!?"
I have never been to one! Easter begins for us Anglicans on the night before, with Easter Vigil. And even when I was growing up in a "low-church" diocese, without Vigils and such, still no sunrise stuff.
5. Complete this sentence: It just isn't Easter without...
Jesus Christ is Risen Today! Easter Lilies!
Bonus: Any Easter Vigil aficionados out there? Please share.
Oh, my, yes. The vigil is so gorgeous and the sung Exultet is the most beautiful thing ever. We kindle the new fire with the Paschal Candle and share it. In some traditions the flame from that same source is taken home (via a tall glass candleholder) to a home that has been in darkness since Maundy Thursday Eve. It was easier for me to make the choice not to use artifical light during the Triduum when I was single! My family thinks that is a pretty weird idea. So now I do it symbolically, by lighting a candle as I enter our darkened home after Vigil.
If you are still with me...here's a bonus...the text of the Exultet (in English natch!):
Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!
Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever!
Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory!
The risen Savior shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God's people!
My dearest friends,
standing with me in this holy light,
join me in asking God for mercy,
that he may give his unworthy minister
grace to sing his Easter praises.
Deacon: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Deacon: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Deacon: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right to give him thanks and praise.
It is truly right
that with full hearts and minds and voices
we should praise the unseen God, the all-powerful Father,
and his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
For Christ has ransomed us with his blood,
and paid for us the price of Adam's sin to our eternal Father!
This is our passover feast,
when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.
This is the night
when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slavery
and led them dry-shod through the sea.
This is the night
when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin!
This is night
when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement,
are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.
This is the night
when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.
What good would life have been to us,
had Christ not come as our Redeemer?
Father, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your merciful love!
To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.
O happy fault,
O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!
Most blessed of all nights,
chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!
Of this night scripture says:
"The night will be as clear as day:
it will become my light, my joy."
The power of this holy night dispels all evil,
washes guilt away, restores lost innocence,
brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace,
and humbles earthly pride.
Night truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth
and man is reconciled with God!
Therefore, heavenly Father,
in the joy of this night,
receive our evening sacrifice of praise,
your Church's solemn offering.
Accept this Easter candle,
a flame divided but undimmed,
a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God.
(For it is fed by the melting wax,
which the mother bee brought forth
to make this precious candle.)
Let it mingle with the lights of heaven
and continue bravely burning
to dispel the darkness of this night!
May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
