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Apr. 1st, 2007 11:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
2eclipsereally amazing church service today.
i mean sure we had the palms and stuff for palm sunday, but we didn't have communion. we had something different and i think it really shook up the congregation. the associate pastor, donna, did a meditation as joseph of aramathea's niece. and that was okay. the main thing it did was establish that passover was being celebrated and that they were waiting for the messiah and remembering being spared the last plague in egypt.
but then for the sermon, she went back to that character as though she were observing the crucifixion. it was a sharp contrast to the joy of the meditation and talk of the palms. it brought the story together. she talked about the thieves and the one chastising the other and saying "jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. she talked about grief and burial and jesus' mother and asked where was God now? she talked about jesus' innocence and asked with the thief to be remembered.
then the congregation was asked to come forward. we were reminded that this was a time to celebrate with hosannas but also to think about all of our burdens, fears, hopes and joys going with christ to the cross. we were invited to come forward and lay a palm a cross or a stone on a cross laying on the platform. we then sang, "jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom" together. it was very moving. very powerful. very appropriate. i felt that it brought us together in a way communion does not. because the emphasis was different. normally communion focuses on being the body of christ together, in our faulty humanity and our love and success. but today the emphasis was on what we bring to the cross. it made me think of moltman's theology. it made me think of madeleine l'engel.
when i went to a workshop led by her at the kirkridge center withsunmother, someone asked her what she does when she gets frustrated with her work and her faith, with her anger and her pain. l'engel had been talking about her writing. she answered with no pause. "i hang it on the cross."
i always think of her answer when i think of the many ways i fail without meaning to. when i think of the ways i am weak that prevent me from doing the good i want to do. we are all human. we all suffer human imperfection. we all know what it is like to want to help someone grieving and not know the right words, to want to feed the hungry and be out of money ourselves, to say the wrong thing and hurt someone when we only meant to help...and it is all forgiven.
i mean sure we had the palms and stuff for palm sunday, but we didn't have communion. we had something different and i think it really shook up the congregation. the associate pastor, donna, did a meditation as joseph of aramathea's niece. and that was okay. the main thing it did was establish that passover was being celebrated and that they were waiting for the messiah and remembering being spared the last plague in egypt.
but then for the sermon, she went back to that character as though she were observing the crucifixion. it was a sharp contrast to the joy of the meditation and talk of the palms. it brought the story together. she talked about the thieves and the one chastising the other and saying "jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. she talked about grief and burial and jesus' mother and asked where was God now? she talked about jesus' innocence and asked with the thief to be remembered.
then the congregation was asked to come forward. we were reminded that this was a time to celebrate with hosannas but also to think about all of our burdens, fears, hopes and joys going with christ to the cross. we were invited to come forward and lay a palm a cross or a stone on a cross laying on the platform. we then sang, "jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom" together. it was very moving. very powerful. very appropriate. i felt that it brought us together in a way communion does not. because the emphasis was different. normally communion focuses on being the body of christ together, in our faulty humanity and our love and success. but today the emphasis was on what we bring to the cross. it made me think of moltman's theology. it made me think of madeleine l'engel.
when i went to a workshop led by her at the kirkridge center with
sunmother, someone asked her what she does when she gets frustrated with her work and her faith, with her anger and her pain. l'engel had been talking about her writing. she answered with no pause. "i hang it on the cross."i always think of her answer when i think of the many ways i fail without meaning to. when i think of the ways i am weak that prevent me from doing the good i want to do. we are all human. we all suffer human imperfection. we all know what it is like to want to help someone grieving and not know the right words, to want to feed the hungry and be out of money ourselves, to say the wrong thing and hurt someone when we only meant to help...and it is all forgiven.
