Holy Week 2: Good Friday

It is Holy Week. It is Good Friday. That adjective, holy? That word, good? They’re not referring to me. I have been an unholy wretch this week. The house is a mess and I want it cleaned up. So I yell at my kids for the love of everything holy why can’t you...

Holy Saturday

They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so,...

Good Friday

It is traditional on Good Friday to meditate on the words Jesus spoke from the cross. Taken from all four Gospels, these “Seven Last Words,” as they’re called, are rich with meaning. I’ve included them here from the King James Version: “Father, forgive them, for they...

Into the River

On Sunday during Communion we sang a familiar worship chorus in which the second verse begins, “Into the river I will wade. There my sins are washed away.” I had always thought of that river as the river of baptism, but it struck me as we sang that the river we wade...