Last night around 2:00am Spring officially arrived, before my story begins you must read Robert Frost's poem A Prayer in Spring:
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.
Around the same time that Spring officially arrived #s 2 & 3 were vomiting. So I kept slept with #2 to keep and eye on him and the VOR slept with #3 keeping an eye on him. It was a long night, grown men are not supposed to sleep in a kids twin bed with the kid still in it! My feet were hanging over, I have slept on 2 x 6s more comfortable and morning time came awful early.
This evening after sundown the Easter Triduum begins. We will hold the usual Maundy Thursday service, Tenebrae with readings and special music. On Good Friday we are holding an hour long service of quiet and contemplation. On Easter, an Easter celebration. The sermon will wrap up the series on the temptations Jesus by focusing on the temptation not take the resurrection serious, or the temptation to view the resurrection just as an event and not as an event that should have major implications of your life in every way.
The one angle we have added is the purposively slow reading of the Psalms in worship. We are reading the psalms responsively but pausing after each thought and verse change. The congregation is a congregation that is not afraid to complain - they are loving this slow intentional reading. The slow reading and my lengthy sermons have caused worship to exceed the golden rule of: one Lord, one faith, one hour - and yet no one is complaining! How will this work on Easter with a fresh crowd? I don't know, I hope they find it refreshing and a hopeful experience.
Hope your Easter is full of Resurrection.
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