Confession: I totally stole this!
The pastor at the church I used to attend while I was at uni posted on Facebook a step-by-step guide to Holy Week. Here 'tis...
Embrace your inner Anglican and do holy week #likeaboss
1) Today or tomorrow: Put a palm branch in a vase at the centre of your table and pray each night for the Messiah's peace.
2) On a night this week (preferably Thursday) have a (passover like) meal with some friends and wash each other's feet.
3) On Friday, go to church, then come come and YouTube Miserere and play at full volume
4) On holy Saturday, consider the burial of Jesus.
5) On Easter Sunday, go twice as crazy as you would at Christmas. Eat wonderful food, drink wonderful drinks, be with people you love. Tell them: "Christ has risen" (They should say "He has risen indeed!").
For soundtrack, try Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. Or track '70's with Keith Green's Easter Song. Or even U2's Window in the Skies. Celebrate like the resurrection actually happened.
I may not be following the guide exactly, but I'm doing an okay job. Especially since I'm not really an Anglican.
I completely missed Palm Sunday, since I spent the morning driving 5 hours home from a friend's wedding and the afternoon playing in a concert. And there aren't too many palm trees around here, so I can't use them to decorate my house.
I am however, having friends around for dinner on Thursday night.We're going to eat roast lamb and flat bread, and watch The Passion of the Christ. I might have the buckets and towels ready for some improptu foot washing, but I doubt that will happen.
I will be going to church on Good Friday, because I'm on the music team. After coming home, I'll definitely bust out Allegri's Miserere, but from a CD rather than Youtube. And I should probably look up a translation, since my Latin is getting a little rusty.
My plans for Saturday are still a bit up in the air. I'll definitely find some time to contemplate Jesus' burial
And bring on Easter Sunday. After waking up ridiculously early to play at an Easter dawn service, I'll go to church, and after that to a Christian music festival. I'm totally up for greeting everyone with 'He is risen!'.
My favourite sentence that my ex-pastor wrote in that status update is 'Celebrate like the resurrection actually happened.' Sometimes it's all too easy to forget the cross, or take it for granted, but it is central to my faith. Easter often gets overshadowed by Christmas in our culture, but if you think about it, Christmas is just a prelude to Easter. It is a lot easier to think about Sweet baby Jesus in the manger than it is to contemplate the horrors of the crucifixion. All that pain, all that suffering for my sin. Just because God loved me, despite my inherent unloveliness. Enough to seek me out when I was actively rebelling against him. How amazing is the God that I serve!?
