April 5, 2024
Voices from Holy Week and Easter
The holy eight days (or octave) from Palm Sunday to Easter at First Covenant Church were evidently quite noteworthy; at least from the voices I heard. Maybe you heard them too?
Here are few selected examples.
Palm Sunday: “What glorious music we had today. Our choir has been such a grace to us these past weeks.” “It was so good to have the children up front singing!”
Maundy Thursday: “I’ve never had my feet washed before.” “The choir’s anthem during the foot washing and watching others have their feet washed was a sacred moment.”
Good Friday: “During the reading (of the Passion in John’s gospel) by the three voices you could have heard a pin drop.” “Who wrote (or edited) that reading? It was well done.” “It was so simple, but so moving.”
Easter Sunday: “Have we ever had a more beautiful start to a service than the dance we had this morning?” “What a contrast from the way we left Good Friday to how we left today.” “Boy, that communion bread was good!” “It was a bit of whiplash, going from the “Hallelujah Chorus” to saying goodbye to Jurhee.”
We also had a number of comments after the services Thursday, Friday, and Sunday complementing Pastor Lauren and me on our new vestments. Giving credit where credit is due, we offer our thanks to Sandy Nelson for her work with us on that project.
More importantly, we had visitors at each of these services, and all who I spoke with had favorable comments about their experience at our church. One stands out in particular. We had three guests from Encounter Covenant Church (formerly Mercer Island (Evergreen) Covenant).They came to our church because we were the only Covenant Church they could find that had a Maundy Thursday service. They spoke of the palpable presence of God’s Spirit they encountered that night.
All of these comments were about you, the primary worshippers at all of these services. It was your prayerful engagement with the services that you contributed to that brought them to life. It was the generosity of so many people who used their gifts and talents to help inspire others and allowed the Spirit to move and be palpably present among us. On behalf of Pastor Lauren and myself, thank you for taking these opportunities so seriously. Worship is a spiritual practice that deepens our life with God and with one another. The vitality that was brought by you all to those services was evident to those visiting for the first time—our witness to them of our new life in Christ.
Risen indeed! Alleluia!
~ Pastor Todd
P.S. Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes for Susan and me as we have been negotiating Susan’s recovery from knee surgery together. We are glad to report that all things are going well, and we trust that trend will continue.