Holy Week 2010

For whatever reason, I was more prepared for Holy Week this year than in years past. Actually, I know the reason: I gave up preaching for Lent.

That's not entirely true . . . . what I did instead of a sermon was a five-week "Instructed Eucharist" where I walked the congregation through the service. We have a fair amount of new people, so it was good for them to be able to get that in the course of a service; and it's always good to remind the long-time members about it as well.

And since I wasn't really preaching a sermon, that left plenty of time in Lent (like all of it) to prepare for Holy Week.

Last night we had our agape meal, footwashing, final Communion of the week, and stripped the altar up in VC. One of my parishioners said, "We're finally getting the hang of this."

What she meant was that we've done this enough times that people are now familiar with the routine. So the liturgy is organized for people to immerse themselves in that, and the stripping of the altar is done by the congregation without mass confusion. I added a new thing this year in that, when people came forward to remove items from the sanctuary, I communed them with the last of the reserved sacraments. It worked out nicely.

Today, Good Friday, we did the Stations of the Cross throughout town. Lower turnout than in previous years, but it was still good. And the RC deacon who lives next door didn't sleep through half of it (he fell asleep mid-morning last year and caught up with us somewhere around the Sixth Station -- I said, "Could you not stay awake one hour?").

And the noon liturgy that followed also went well. Because I don't write out HW sermons and preach from the emotion of the moment, I don't recall everything I said; but it was a good sermon. The point I made was that the Final Solution of the world is to kill its enemies; the final solution of God is to love his enemies.

Today we have crucified Jesus -- may God have mercy on our souls.