Who Do You Say I Am?
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Scripture: John 20:1 – 31
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
Easter is great. It’s all about celebration. The music is energized, the colours are bright, life pulses like a heartbeat through all creation. Because of its timing in the annual calendar, everywhere we go we see shoots of green popping up from the no-longer-frozen ground and emerging at the tips of tree branches. This new life of spring is a perfect metaphor for the new life of God gifted in the resurrection of Jesus. Death has been conquered. Darkness has been defeated. Life and Light are victorious. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Christ is risen!
But there’s a cost to this new life. There’s a cost to the victory. Before Easter there is Good Friday.
Good Friday is dark and subdued. It’s the clanging of nails driven through flesh into wood. It’s the smell of sweat and blood and fear. It’s the taunting, mocking voices of those for whom the current state of the world works just fine. It’s an unarmed black man who can’t breathe. It’s an Asian kid whose teacher can’t be bothered to learn how to pronounce her name. It’s boil water advisories on indigenous reserves and food deserts in the city and warring nations competing for world domination. It’s God-who-is-Love arrested, humiliated, crucified, and buried.
Good Friday is a hard place. It’s tempting to skip right over it and go directly to Easter. But without Good Friday, there is no Easter. Without the battle there is no victory. The battle is the Good Friday story. It’s on the cross and in the grave that our God who is Life and Light goes head-to-head against the powers of sin and death and darkness. It’s on the cross and in the grave that these powers are defeated, and God’s reign is asserted. We dare not skip Good Friday. We dare not forget the cost of our Easter salvation. We dare not forget that though sin and death and darkness have been defeated, the battle continues and we are in it, fighting alongside Jesus, declaring with Him that in Him God’s kingdom has come, is coming, and will come.
As you prepare for Easter I hope you will not skip Good Friday. I hope you will carve out time to join us for our Good Friday worship service at 7:00 p.m. You’ll be invited to step into the story through Scripture and music and prayer. You’ll hear from Claudia, Pontius Pilate’s wife, as she tells her story as imagined from Matthew 27:19. You’ll hear from Peter, Jesus’ disciple, as he tells his story as imagined from Luke 22:54-62. You’ll be invited to interact with Psalm 22, putting yourself into the lament and the worship of this crucifixion psalm. You’ll be invited to confess the ways you have participated in Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. Good Friday is never an easy service, but it’s good. And it’s important. And when we spend time in Good Friday, Easter becomes truly celebratory.