Personal Updates

Last Sunday was our church's 75th anniversary celebration (on top of being Palm/Passion Sunday). It. Went. Awesomely. We usually have two services on a Sunday morning, but last Sunday we combined the two into one really comprehensive (i.e. long) service. We had hymns, praise songs, 3 songs written by congregation members, a Prayer of the Day out of the 1930 American Lutheran Worship hymnal, a sermon by the synod bishop, a choir anthem, and a partridge in a pear tree...okay, everything but the bird. Most importantly to me, even with all of that, we kept the basic liturgical structure of the service and were able to both celebrate the anniversary while remembering Palm Sunday as well. We may have set some sort of Lutheran record for service length...the service ended up clocking in at:

One hour and forty minutes.

One hour and forty minutes.

One. Hour. And. Forty. Freakin'. Minutes.

And that was with the bishop only preaching for about eighteen of those minutes.

It was a marathon. But a good one. A worshipful one.

Later that afternoon, Sweetie and I both took a two hour nap.

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Overheard yesterday in the LH household:

Me: "Well, I guess I'd better get out there and mow the lawn before it snows tomorrow."

Note: It's not snowing yet, but the Weather Channel website tells me it's snowing about 40 miles west of us as I type this, and it's moving east (toward us). It was over 80 frickin' degrees here just on Monday! I love the Midwest, I love the Midwest, I love the Midwest, I love the Midwest...

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Also overheard yesterday:

Kiddo (who's fighting a cold): "Let's count the things we've done to help my nose. I took medicine, drank water, ate oranges, and used Chapstick. When am I going to get better, Daddy?"

Note: Not sure where he got the idea that Chapstick had medicinal powers...for the nose, no less...but you can be sure I'm filing that one away for some evening when we desperately need the power of the Three Year-Old Placebo Effect.

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Random thoughts on Holy Week:

Holy Week has always brought out my creative side. There's just so much meat in the accounts of Jesus' last week before his death and resurrection...so much to be mined there. I wish I had more time to write, but here and here are links to two "meditations" I've written this week about the Holy Week experience.

Holy Week kicks Christmas's butt up and down--not even close. It's too bad more attention isn't paid by those outside Mainline Christianity to the journey that Holy Week can be. As busy as the next few days are going to be, this is the week I live for each year as a Christian.

Tonight, at the end of the Maundy Thursday service, the pastor's going to strip the altar. I'm going to chant Psalm 22 acapella as he does it.

One of the things Sweetie and I have tried to do for a few years is, after each Holy Week service, after we've returned home, pulling out the Jesus of Nazareth DVD and watching the section of the movie that the service we had been to was about. Not sure how successful we'll be this year, especially with Kiddo's cold...he has very little patience for runny noses, but hates to blow his nose. Bad combination, and one that tells me we may be in for a long few days as far as he's concerned.

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Blessings to you on this Maundy Thursday!

LH