Alleluia, Christ Is Risen!!

ALLELUIA, CHRIST IS RISEN!!!! THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED, ALLELUIA!!!!

What glorious words to say and hear! Words of truth, life, and hope. Words to live on each moment of our lives. These words, this truth, is the Real Reason for all the Seasons in the Church and the World.

This has been a very different Holy Week and Easter for Tina and me. For the past 33 years, Holy Week started with the Liturgy of the Palms and concluded with the Easter Vigil early Sunday morning. We had a service each evening and we would include the Stations of the Cross usually on Wednesday evenings so that we could do the Good Friday Liturgy. Holy Saturday was always short, but it gave us time to pause while getting the church ready for Easter to think about that day when all the disciples were in despair.

Yes, this year was quite different. To begin, I didn't have to prepare or have responsibility for anything. I spent Palm Sunday with my dear friend and seminary classmate, Ernie Saik, at Christ Church in Slidell, LA. There I participated in two lovely services and in between them I had an opportunity to talk about Missions and our work in Honduras specifically. Holy Monday, I received word from Paul Wood that his wife, Suzanne, had died and wanted to know if I was available to help with the funeral on Holy Saturday. That night, Tina and I went and heard our granddaughters sing in their school concert. Very different Holy Monday, but it was indeed very Holy.

Holy Tuesday found us at a meeting for Young Life, a ministry to middle and high school children. Several men and women in Sumter have been working for the past 4 years to get Young Life to come to minister to the children in our schools in Sumter. It was indeed a Holy Tuesday to see what the Lord was going to do for our children in Sumter.

Holy Wednesday when I usually have the Stations of the Cross was replaced by an Alpha Celebration Dinner. The Alpha Course is to help nominal and nonbelievers to take a closer look at who Jesus is and what difference does it make in one's life to follow Him. This Celebration Dinner is the climax of a 12 week course and you get to bring people to it that you believe would benefit from the course. Each week was a station unto itself to bring people closer to Jesus.

Maundy Thursday was Maundy Thursday............The foot washing.........The Holy Eucharist...........The stripping of the Altar..........Different from the way I did it, but nevertheless the same.........Remember

On Good Friday, we had the Good Friday Liturgy. I for one just love that service. There are so many ways in which you can form and fashion it, and yet, it penetrates to your very being of what Jesus did for us by going to the cross and dying for the souls of all who would believe in Him and follow Him as their Lord and Savior.
On top of this, we have to get our youngest daughter ready to be a server for their Jr/Sr Prom. Talk about the world and its agenda!

Holy Saturday was indeed a very Holy day. It was a day that many gathered at St. Jude's in Marietta, GA to say "See ya later" to Suzanne Dalme Wood. It was a glorious send off for her. Tina and I were honored to have been able to be there and to participate in her funeral.

Today, I was privileged to have been able to celebrate the Easter Service for St. Mark's, Pinewood and St. Augustine's, Wedgefield. This is the first year in 33 years that I didn't have to get up at 4:00 AM to get ready for the 5:30 AM Easter Vigil. I was glad because I had to get up at 4:00 AM on Holy Saturday to make the funeral service for Suzanne. They were glorious services! A saying that they say down in Cajun Country...It's the same thing, just a little bit different! And that it is! Yes, different, but very Holy for we serve a Mighty God!

Several little insights through the week.........the reunion of Mary the mother of Jesus and Jesus.....Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are no longer silent followers of Jesus and were unclean for the Sabbath....Paul was a half-breed........in order grow in the Lord, the old has to be shed.............John took care of Mary the mother of Jesus and not her children........

But the best news of all is this...........in Jesus, and in him alone..........is the way to have a relationship with God the Father for eternity. For those of us who know this, then it is our DUTY or RESPONSIBILITY to tell others of God's saving Grace through His Son, Jesus.

May you have a most Blessed Easter Season.......The Lord has risen indeed! Alleluia, Alleluia!!!

Fr. Joe

Maundy Thursday

Today we remember the two great gifts that Jesus left for the Church; The Holy Eucharist and Servant hood. Most of the Church participates in the The Holy Eucharist on a regular basis, but the symbol of Servant hood, the foot washing, is not done by many. Why is that? I grew up in a church that didn't do either. We did have communion once in a while, to remember what Jesus had said for us to do; but it had really no meaning as I recall growing up. It was only after I joined the Episcopal Church that I saw the value and strength of the Eucharist or Holy Communion. And then, it was while I was in seminary that I caught the value of the Foot Washing service.

Jesus left for us different tangible events that would sustain us through our life with Him. As we partake of the bread and wine, we receive Him and what He stands for. The bread, His Body; the Church. We commit anew to the Church and to Her mission throughout the world. We take our place in the Body of the Church to be faithful witnesses to Him who gave His life in order that we might have life eternally with the Father. The wine, His Blood; the Spirit. We live a life directed and guided by the Holy Spirit. The things we do, we do in the Spirit of Jesus. Take this in remembrance of Me. We take communion to be more like Jesus, to be transformed into His likeness and image.

Jesus gave the disciples an example of servant hood in the washing of their feet........all of them....even Judas!! And He told them, as He tells us, "I have set an example that you should do as I have done for you." For me, it's much easier to receive the Bread and Wine, than it is to Wash Feet! We can make up all kind of excuses why we don't have to literally wash feet........it is just to remind us that we are to be servants for Jesus and to Jesus through those that are around us. It is so easy to forget the intent of the action and begin to just do our own thing. Lord have mercy on me, a sinner!

I pray that all who reads this today will have a most Blessed Maundy Thursday.

Fr. Joe