Dear Friends,
I have often wondered about certain rules of etiquette. What is the greater social blunder: arriving too early, or arriving too late? The standards are different depending on the occasion. Arriving early for work or early for a job interview shows that you are an eager, disciplined person. But if you arrive early for a dinner party or a date, you disrupt the rhythm of preparations, and risk annoying the host. Being fashionably late may be better. Or how about right on time?
This year we have an Easter that is arriving fashionably late. As I’ve quipped before, if it were up to me, we would dispense with the lunar calendar, and fix the date of Easter on the second Sunday of April. It would arrive right on time, every year. Alas, it is not up to me, so this year we are one week late, whereas last year we were two weeks early. Nevertheless, the time has arrived. Here we are in the midst of Holy Week and on the brink of Easter. Today we offer you an early edition of the Epistle – one day sooner in the week than it normally arrives. Why? To help us get ready for Easter. Easter will be more meaningful if you walk faithfully and prayerfully through the days preceding it – especially Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Today is Maundy Thursday, and we have a worship service at 7 pm. This is the day that Jesus began with his life intact, but ended utterly alone and deserted. He ate the Passover meal with his disciples and transformed it into what we call the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. From then on his followers would break the bread and pass the cup in remembrance of him. Also, as an act of humble service, he washed the feet of his disciples. Lately at Grace Church, we’ve been practicing a unique way to stay true to the spirit of what Jesus did on this day. Rather than offering a symbolic washing of feet, we have an ingathering of new socks for the shelters to distribute. If you are coming to church tonight, pick up a package of new socks on the way and you will have the opportunity to present your gift at the altar.
Tomorrow is Good Friday. We call the day good because on the cross Jesus absorbed and forgave the sins of the whole world. It is quite an audacious claim to make, which is why we’ll have seven different sermons to help us process what it means. The worship service is from 12 to 3 pm, and will focus on seven people who looked on Jesus in the hours before, during, and after his suffering. You don’t have to be here for the full three hours. The liturgy is designed so that you can arrive early, right on time, or fashionably late (or you can tune in on the livestream). The preachers will be, in order: Robbie Pennoyer: Malchus, the slave of the high priest; Yours Truly: Barabbas; Alissa Newton (Canon to the Ordinary, the Diocese of New York): Mary, the mother of Jesus; James Morton: John, the beloved disciple; Sarah Wood: the women looking on from afar; Harry Krauss: the centurion; Julia Offinger: Nicodemus.
On Holy Saturday we have the Easter Eve Walk for children and families beginning at 10:30 am in Tuttle Hall. This is an interactive experience of all the days of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Easter, presented in a way especially geared for children. Register here. Then at 7 pm we celebrate the Great Vigil of Easter, a service that moves us from the darkness of death to the light of resurrection. The service will include 13 baptisms – 12 of them adults. The Spirit is moving at Grace Church!
It all comes to a climax on Sunday, of course, with three festive services at our regular times – 9 am, 11 am, and 6 pm. The 11 am service will be on the livestream, of course. Speaking of etiquette, you may want to arrive early for seating purposes, and don’t be afraid to allow someone you don’t know squeeze into a pew with you.
Let’s do this! See you in church.
Don