Services

We begin the day with a family workshop, baking hot cross buns, symbol of Christ’s death, and building the Easter garden, symbol of Christ’s resurrection.  At Noon we follow the Stations of the Cross, telling the story with poems and prayer.  This is followed by the Liturgy of the Cross in which we kneel at the foot of the cross and bring our own struggles, hopes and fears to Christ.  We listen to God’s promise of a servant who will suffer for our sake in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and then to the Passion of our Lord, as told in John18:1-19:42 beginning in the garden where Jesus prays and ending in the garden in which his body was laid in the tomb.

We gather before dawn to light the Easter Fire from which the Paschal Candle is lit.  This is carried into the dark church, a sign of Christ, our light guiding us into the new life of the resurrection.  We hear Peter proclaiming the resurrection in Acts 10: 34-43 and how, through his death and resurrection, Christ has ushered in a new way of life in which there is “no partiality” but embraces all who come to him.  In the gospel, Luke 24:1-12, we see how this new life is hard to comprehend: the first witnesses of the resurrection experience bewilderment, terror, disbelief and amazement.  The power of the resurrection is felt when the community begins to live a resurrected life together, focused not on that which is life-denying but that which is life-affirming.  Christ’s resurrection is the beginning of our resurrection.   In our Festival Mass at 10.30 we all renew our baptismal vows, remembering that we too are made one with Christ in his death and resurrection and that we too are sent to bring that risen life to others.

This evening we commemorate the last night that Jesus broke bread with his disciples.  In the first three gospels this is the Passover supper but in John’s gospel 13:1-17, 31b-35, this takes place just before the Passover; John interprets Jesus’ death as the Passover.  He is the one who will lead his people from bondage to worldly power to freedom as children of God.   In our first reading we recall the people of God preparing for the first Passover, Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14.  They do so by eating together, sharing in equal portions, making sure that small households are included as well as large.  Jesus prepares his disciples by taking the role of the servant, showing us how to treat each of God’s children as of equal value.  This new Passover will lead us to a way of life in which all God’s children are restored to equal dignity and worth.  As a symbol of our commitment to this way of life, we have our feet washed as the disciples did.  The service concludes with silent prayer at the side altar as we remember Jesus’ last night of prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.

Palm Sunday marks the start of Holy Week, the annual memorial of the death and resurrection of Christ.  Through our services this week we share in Christ’s journey, from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the empty tomb on Easter morning.  Today begins outside the church as we echo the excitement and anticipation of Jesus’ followers joyfully waving palms as he enters Jerusalem.  Our procession, like that in the gospel, is led not by chariots and horses but by a donkey, signifying that God’s idea of leadership is not at all the same as that of the kings of the world.  Once in church we turn towards the cross as the Passion gospel, Luke 22:14-23:47, is read and the events of Holy Week are anticipated.  This solemn passage offers us a different vision of leadership: in which the servant king pours out all that he has for the sake of the world God loves.

When Mary anoints Jesus’ feet in John 12:1-11, she is criticised for her lavish generosity.  Why waste this expense honouring one man when it might have been used to feed the masses?  Jesus explains that she has kept this gift for his burial and yet she anoints him whilst he is still living.  Perhaps, as she has witnessed her brother being raised from the dead, her action expresses her faith in the resurrection; that the cross will be a second Exodus, like that referred to in Isaiah 43:16-21, when her people were led to freedom.  This is the exodus Isaiah promises, a new thing, leading to freedom for the whole of creation, giving us a new way of living.  A way which honours every person as precious and valued, worthy of excessive love and lavish attention.  Judas is wrong, not because he has dubious motives, or because he has a practical, utilitarian approach to how best to use resources but because he does not recognise that there are no limits to God’s love, that God also holds nothing back, but will pour out everything for love of us.  Her extravagant devotion leads us to ponder how we respond to the limitless love God pours on us and whether we, like God, perceive others as also worthy of such lavish attention.