Tuesday, March 30
The hymn “I love to tell the story” resonates with me deeply this time of year. It’s a song I remember my grandmother and great aunt singing while I was a child. Like any great childhood songs or stories – they take on much deeper meaning and symbolizing when we are older.
I love to tell the story
Of unseen things above
Of Jesus and his glory
Of Jesus and his loveI love to tell the story
Because I know ’tis true
It satisfies my longings
As nothing else can do…I love to tell the story
For those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting
To hear it like the rest”
In the church, this is our week to tell the story of Jesus and his glory and Jesus and his love.
While the rest of the world jumps on board to celebrate Christmas with us, and perhaps Easter Sunday too (with the tradition of chocolate eggs as a sweet take on the gift of new life and an empty tomb) for those of us who tell the story we know that the story of the glory of Easter and the empty tomb will only come via the hard path to the cross.
While the world may wish to skip over the tale of betrayal on Maundy Thursday, denial and pain and suffering on Good Friday and the sitting and waiting in uncertainty and fear on Holy Saturday, for those who know it best – we know that there is no resurrection without the cross, there is no victory without suffering, and there is no glory without deep abiding love.
We know this because we know instinctively that no story worth listening is without some form of conflict prior to a resolution. We know this too because we have lived this truth to some extent ourselves. And for those of us who know it best, we know this story because we enact it every year, telling the story to one another of the love of God who came down to be with us and to love us to the end.
The Easter Story, named by Hollywood as “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” is a multi-day tale and to truly hear it and experience it and be touched and moved by it – we cannot rush it. If we try to skip ahead to the happy ending, we miss the meaning. For resurrection doesn’t make sense without death, just as glory doesn’t truly exist without love to ground it.
This story is told over three days in the church and is named the Triduum. We begin to tell the story on Maundy Thursday but we don’t conclude it until Easter Day. Thus, Maundy Thursday has an opening rite but no closing rite, Good Friday has no opening or closing rite, and the first service of Easter has no opening rite but has a closing rite.
As we celebrate the three services as one, we will remember the last supper on Thursday, consecrating the elements, but not celebrating it until Sunday when all who desire it, can come to the church to receive.
So I invite you to join us this week to not only hear the story again, but to live it with us. See all the details and links under Upcoming Services
Tonight – Tuesday at 7pm – Come join us tonight at 7pm as we preview the cross on Friday by travelling the 14 Stations of the Cross Service
Wednesday at noon you are invited for a short mid-day prayer.
Maundy Thursday at 7:30pm – there will be no posted Thought of the Day. Instead I encourage you to join with us in the evening as we begin to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love on the night of his betrayal.
Good Friday at 10am we gather to hear of his crucifixion
Easter Sunday at 6:30am (outdoors) and/or 10am (by Zoom) we conclude the story with the celebration of the resurrection.
I look forward to worshipping with you!
Jennifer +
Prayer:
Loving Jesus, as we walk though Holy week towards the cross,
May we remember
The wonder of who you are.
Beyond sin
You love is inexhaustible,
Beyond brokenness
Your forgiveness is incomprehensible.
Beyond betrayal
Your grace is poured out eternally
Beyond death
Your life is unimaginable
Beyond human understanding
Your ways are always higher than ours.
May we hear your story anew
That it may it become our story too.
So that we may glorify you,
As you glorified your father, who art in heaven. Amen.
