I couldn't answer these questions on Friday because I didn't know the Holy Week schedule at our church. The newsletter has yet to reach my mailbox in the post-Katrina mail system.

So, from the pews and on Sunday:


Friday Five: Holy Week, Batman!

Well, the Clergy Superbowl is almost upon us, and so, I offer up this Friday Five (with apologies for the irreverent title):

1. Will this Sunday be Palms only, Passion only, or hyphenated?

We had Palms, Passion and cooperative reading of the Gospel. I hate the cooperative reading. I don't like that the congregation has to read the "Crucify Him" part. Yeah, I get it, that's what the crowd said. But I wouldn't have said it. I realized this weekend that I would probably do just what I did, sit while everyone else shouts "Crucify Him"

2. Maundy Thursday Footwashing: Discuss.

Yup, footwashing. Yuck. I don't find this exercise at all powerful. I do find the stripping of the altar very powerful and especially found it moving when I was a Lay Eucharistic Minister and assisted at this service. My current church has a small historic chapel on their property. The interior will be completely covered with flowers and greenery on Thursday. From the end of Maundy Thursday service until Midnight people will watch and pray in the garden with Jesus as he prepares for Good Friday. I suspect that some people will sleep, just as the disciples did.

3. Share a particularly meaningful Good Friday worship experience.

When I was in medical school, I attended the Baptist Student Union weekly lunches. (There was free food and a boy I almost married.) One Good Friday a professor in the medicine department went through the physiology of what happened to Jesus. He explained how he could have sweated blood, explained how crucifixion kills. The talk lasted almost a full hour and at the end I understood the humanity of Jesus.

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?!?"

It is five o'clock somewhere.
You know, no matter when the service is held it is Sunrise somewhere in the world. So when I am at my 9am service I am celebrating with those up at sunrise in California or further points west of me.

5. Complete this sentence: It just isn't Easter without...

The return of the Alleluia. At the beginning of Lent the kids decorate Alleluias and on Easter they are dug up, unfurled and part on the procession. All through Lent I have to catch myself from saying alleluia at the end of responsorials. Finally we can say it again, Alleluia.

Bonus: Any Easter Vigil aficionados out there? Please share.

Nope, not me. Unless you want to count the watch in the Garden on Maundy Thursday.