Holy Week

This post is really a continuation of this post, (and this one, actually) if anyone cares.

As other people have mentioned, Holy Saturday is a confusing time for the church. My own thoughts on the subject are mostly covered at the end of my first post on Holy Week. I think that there is a terrible tendancy to undermine the solemnity of Holy Saturday and to skip it. It is the whole point, the whole appeal, and the whole power of holy days and festivals that they have a discrete beginning. We cannot, during Holy Saturday, truly forget that we know the story of the resurrection, but we can pretend. And we can respect the sanctity of Easter by waiting until Easter is truly upon us to celebrate.

Jan and I went to two Holy Saturday Easter Vigils. Both were excellent services, but I think neither were sufficiently respectful of the day. More on that later.

The first service was at 5:00pm. It began in darkness in the basement, as candles were lit from a new fire. It was an Easter Vigil, and it was a service of confirmation. Five people were confirmed. Confirmation is a public affirmation of commitment to God, a renewal and personal claiming of the promises made at baptism. It was very exciting. The service itself was joyful and energetic, with more contemporary music than is usual at St. Margaret's. It was a nice change, although I found that the congregation wasn't quite sure how to react to upbeat, uptempo music. The bishop and David tried to get people clapping, but without much success.

The evening service was darker and more sombre. It was also an Easter Vigil, with a service of confirmation. The service was held in darkness, as we waited for the rising of the Lord. When the bishop said "Alleluia, Christ is risen!" and we replied "The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia" the lights came on in the sanctuary, and it was followed by a singing of Alleluia. It was quite powerful and quite moving.

Both services were excellent. However, the first service was overly joyful for early evening of Holy Saturday. In prempted the rising of Jesus, and celebrated the resurrection while we should still be waiting. The second service was much more appropriate, but it also jumped the gun a little by celebrating the resurrection at about 11:00. Although I can understand the practical reasons why this wasn't the case, I think that ideally an Easter Vigil should celebrate the resurrection at midnight, when it is Sunday. It also adds weight to the Alleluia if the church has followed the tradition of not using the word alleluia at all during lent.

These objections are relatively minor. Happily, the Anglican church has a whole season of Lent to prepare and to wait so as to strengthen, underscore and emphasise the joyful celebration of Easter. It does seem a little unfortunate to jump the gun, however, even by a few hours.

The Easter Sunrise service was beautiful (and comparatively short), and the 10:30 Easter Morning service was completely joyful and exuberant, and included a great sermon by David on (of all things) Jesus' death and resurrection. In a harmony with other intelligent people, he talked about the fact and the fiction of Jesus' death and resurrection. Jan summed it up this way:

Jesus was dead, to begin with, there is no doubt whatever about that. Jesus was as dead as a door-nail. There is no doubt that Jesus was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.

Jesus's death is indisputable, and the religious leaders were afraid that his disciples would steal the body. But theft was the second least likely thing to happen to that body. The Romans could have posted a blind little girl as a guard and it wouldn't have mattered, because the disciples lacked the stomach, the will, the foresight and the intelligence to steal Jesus' body.

Of course THE least likely thing to happen to that body did happen. Jesus rose from the dead. The guards were not there to keep disciples out, but to keep Jesus in. And the Romans could have posted the entire Roman army as a guard and it wouldn't have mattered, because no power on this earth could have kept Jesus in that tomb, separated from his world.

Jesus really was dead. And he really did rise. No tricks. No fraud.

And now Lent is over. Our preparation has ended, and the firstfruit has come. Our mourning is over and it is time for joy. Our fasting is over and now is the time of great feasting. The debt has been erased, the ransom has been paid up in full, death has been robbed of its victory and we are assured of life everlasting.

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!