Do you compost? It is the best kind of recycling one can do. Compost consists of most any biodegradable material such as raw vegetables, coffee grounds, leaves, grass, and fruit. I keep a compost pile in the woods out behind my yard. Once it has thoroughly rotted – I think the correct term is “decomposed” – it becomes “gardener’s gold” and useful for all sorts of planting needs. I use it to amend and nourish the soil so that it will bear new life in the spring.
I suppose Holy Week is a composting of sorts. We are spiritually stripped down to the essentials, reminded that we must die to our old lives of sin and waste. But through this spiritual death God is able to raise within us new lives full of beauty and promise. Holy Week is the biblical reminder that we cannot long remain the same. The weeds of care and concern, sin and transgression threaten to choke out the good fruit of generous lives. Our generous God transforms all this waste into something good and holy through the cross and into the resurrection.
This Holy Week and Easter here are the ways in which you and I are invited cultivate our hearts and souls:
Maundy Thursday (Matthew 26, Mark 14; Luke 22) will be observed in the Fellowship Hall at 7pm. There are a number of themes observed or commemorated on this day including the last meal with the disciples, which was probably a Passover meal, the institution of the Lord’s Supper or Communion, the betrayal of Judas, and the washing of feet. We also remember that it was on this night that Jesus prayed at Gethsemane and was handed over to the soldiers and arrested. That night at seven we will gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. The term Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum (from which we get our English word mandate). It is generally translated as commandment.
Good Friday will be observed at noon in the Storey Chapel. The term “Good Friday” seems rather odd when considering what this day commemorates. This day remembers Jesus’ arrest (according the Jewish counting, Friday began at sundown on Thursday), trial, suffering and crucifixion. The term “Good” probably came from “God’s Friday” just as “good-bye” comes from “God be with ye.”
Holy Saturday. This is the seventh day of the week and so this was historically a day or rest or Sabbath. On this day Jesus rested in the tomb.
Easter Sunday will be celebrated at 8:30 in the Mission Activity Center (with a brunch beginning at 8) and 11:00 in the Sanctuary. Easter is that beautiful day to come and see what God has done and what God is doing in our own soulscapes. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies …(John 12:24)
Grace and Peace,
Greg
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