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Perhaps you have heard it said, “This is the Lentiest of Lents I’ve ever Lented.” That being the case, how much truer that this will be the Holiest of Holy Weeks we’ve ever Holied! The parades of palms have been cancelled. The plans we made months ago are undergoing changes of drastic proportions. Easter feasts with extended family are delayed. What does this mean for Holy Week and Easter, the holiest time of our Christian year?
This pandemic has called us to rethink church, not only how we do church, but what it means to be church. In this time of social distancing and stay-at-home orders, we recall that church is more than a building, but a body. Yet, what does it mean when that body is distanced?
This shift in perspective brings us back to how the church got started in the first place. In secret, behind closed doors, in family homes, Christians gathered for centuries in perilous places to proclaim the crucified and risen Christ. The risk of being discovered was death for these early Christians. In some corners of our world, it still is. We must remember that God’s church has survived much— much more than even this.
This Holy Week and Easter, I invite you to join our early Christian siblings, our present-day persecuted siblings, and Christians around the globe in observing the holiest Holy Week and Easter at home. We will provide you with a lovely Home Triduum Liturgy for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil. These services are set around your dinner table or hearth, as you remember the stories that save us. The Home Easter Vigil service even ends with an invitation to have a party, complete with Easter music playlists! We will provide links to these service bulletins and music playlists on Monday.
At Noon on Good Friday, I will offer a Zoom Stations of the Cross service. I invite you all to join and pray at the hour our Lord hung upon the cross for the sake of the world’s salvation. A link to Zoom Stations of the Cross will be provided in our Good Friday Invitation to Prayer email.
Easter Sunday we will worship together through our Virtual Sunday Service. We will sing Easter hymns, pray for ourselves and for the world, and proclaim the saving power of the Resurrected Christ! I invite you to have a bell on hand to ring whenever we say or sing the “A” word. While you eat your Easter meal, play one of the Easter playlists, pop some champagne or sparkling cider, and celebrate the Feast of Victory for our God!
Holy Week and Easter are still the holiest of days for us. At the core of our identity as Christians is Jesus— God with us— who lived, and died, and rose again. The Risen Christ comes among us even now, especially in our isolation at home. I invite you to experience Holy Week and Easter anew, from the safety of your home, gathered in Spirit with Christians praying at home around the world.
Proclaim the victory of Christ’s death and resurrection, for the sake of your salvation, and for the sake of our broken and suffering world.
In Resurrection hope,
Rev. Aimée
