Easter Season, the lectionary, and Holy Week

Today I finished the graphic that I’ll use for Easter season – which, by the way, runs up until Pentecost (May 31 this year).  The series will be on “Resurrection Rebels” and will begin to play off of what we celebrated on Easter Sunday.  The basic idea is, “Jesus is risen, now what?”  How do resurrection people live?  What values define us?  As usual the scriptures used will come from the lectionary selections for the week, so let me say a word about that.  The lectionary is a collection of readings for each week of the year.  It typically contains an Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle (New Testament letter), and Gospel reading.  There are 3 year’s worth of readings, so you just go through the three year cycle.  It does not cover the entire Bible, in fact it leaves a great deal out.  It does cover all different sections of the Bible though.  I tend to use the lectionary for a few reasons.  First, it is good that I am accountable to something.  I am not simply choosing my favorite passages or themes.  While there is a place for that sort of thing, I appreciate that I am stretched by the discipline of following the suggested readings.  Second, many Christian churches of various denominations follow the lectionary.  For us, for example, when I am following the lectionary it is pretty certain that our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters across town are reading from the same selection of four readings.  Third, the lectionary follows the Christian calendar year, so those readings help me follow the greater Christian story that is told through the various holy times of our church year.  This is especially important during Advent, Christams, Lent and into Easter.

With that being said, I don’t feel bound to the lectionary readings for the week.  I don’t think God will strike down churches that don’t use them or anything of that sort.  In fact, there are times when I have and when I will go a different route than the lectionary readings.  There may be times or seasons in our life together as a church where our worship should be focused in a different direction, and I have the freedom to do that.  This is done, however, after prayer and a period of discernment so that we are hopefully following the leading of the Holy Spirit in our worship together.

Finally I wanted to blog briefly on Holy Week.  I really enjoy the various services during Holy Week, from the footwashing to remembering the Passion, through the vigil and into Sunday morning.  It all tells the story and I love remembering as we go through the worship as a community.  There were several people who helped out a great deal though those services, whether it was through reading or behind the scenes stuff, and for all of them I am very grateful.  It was such a joy to be a part of the footwashing service and then on Friday watching the light of the Christ candle leave, only to return Saturday night.  The baptisms, recommitment, membership, and Easter celebrations made for not only a full weekend, but also a very meaningful one for our community.  And although I am tired this week, I am also full of graditude for what we experienced together.  So, for those of you who read the blog – what were some of the meaningful things that God did in your life this past Holy week and Resurrection Sunday?