April 9, 2020 through April 12, 2020 - Maundy Thursday through Easter

In this time of pandemic the question on the lips of most is "When will things get back to normal?" or lamenting living in this "new world" we find ourselves in.

I came out of this Easter and Lent simply astonished by the death and life that filled this season. I know conclusively the grief, joy, isolation and togetherness Creator experienced means this congregation will never be the same. And it is hard to lament or rejoice exclusively in that fact. Instead I have both lamented and rejoiced today this season, sometimes both together.

The last blog entry ended where this one begins, on Maundy Thursday. There was no communion which felt wrong but we had no time to even imagine trying to make that work and if what is essential about communion can be transmitted from place to place. However, the command to love one another was made easier since we were able to see one another celebrate this holy day in many unique ways that all expressed their own identities.

For many they took what they thought was essential about each  Holy Week service and tried to communicate it online if they could. Even attempting that kind of communication can help us love each other

Good Friday I experienced from home. Good Friday felt real this year. Real as anything. Far too real for words. The death and the darkness were just not figurative this year. No imagining grief. The body count on the nightly news and the deaths around us personally does that. We branched into individual readers we spotlighted on zoom for the first tine and that worked surprisingly well and came to life in what was unique about the service presentation technically. Individual viewpoints
were being dramatized.

Interns Sue and Amanda

Easter Vigil is a time for telling the stories we share with one another and this year we told the stories of Creator and who we have been and are, Toni came up with an inspired structure to tell Creator's story.

I told the story of Creator from 2002 ro 2009. Toni called it the Psalms and there was an equivalence to what Psalms, as a book, was for the Israelites. It is a prayer book for exiles designed to be a virtual temple. You enter the book of Psalms to meet with God and to hear the Bible sung back to you in poetry,

The story of Creator is also poetry that can be seen through scripture for those who experienced some part of it. Creator needed to be reminded of the roots of the church on Saturday and what was shared did that well.

Our Bishop described the Synod's Easter Zoom Service for all the Synod members as gorgeous chaos which it did become when most of us did not break into the breakout rooms as intended. Bishop Laurie gave a sermon about the previous pandemic and the effect it had on her grandmother's life that was touching,

I heard of the passing of Lila, a congregation member, later in the day and I heard the joy that it was Easter and the deep sorrow in Bill, her husband's voice as we talked about her last hours. Linda, another former member died yesterday. Many of us are trying to process all this news individually that does not feel satisfying but is this simply because we have not been able to perform the specific ritual we reserve for that process yet.

Chris sent me a talk from a meditation on Waiting In The Tomb, from the leader of a worship group where she is a member. The meditation ponders the space between death and new life which it assigns the qualities of darkness and waiting.

Yes, there are those qualities and more. We normally sing our triumphant holy day but this year what is in our hearts is more nuanced.