Easter Eve, Saturday 23rd April
In one’s twenties one celebrates the beginning of journeys – I lost count of how many weddings I went to. Then we move on to the weddings of our friends’ children. Now the most common news is of death and departure. Sorrow is natural but we must focus on the celebration of a life and finding eternal rest.
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. It’s all there.
In the context of our multi-cultural congregation, try putting the acclamation above into Google search.
You will find the following extract from Zan Holmes’ book (Encountering Jesus in Worship), in which the author describes the authentic African-American worship experience
...I asked one of my members how the funeral service of her nephew had gone.....She replied, “It was a good funeral; we had a good time.”
This approach of celebration and festive worship does not deny the seriousness of worship. It is joy in the midst of sorrow. It is hope in the very depths of despair. It is a way of saying with Charles Albert Tindley: “I believe it. I believe it. Jesus died to set me free!”
David Brown
Collect
Grant, Lord, that we who are baptized into the death of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ may continually put to death our evil desires and be buried with him; and that through the grave and gate of death we may pass to our joyful resurrection; through his merits, who died and was buried and rose again for us, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
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