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Holy Week Worship

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Throughout my time serving as a pastor, Holy Week has been the focal point of my year.  I believe there is great value for a congregation experiencing the breadth of emotions and lessons of Jesus' passion.  While Easter and the promise of the resurrection is an essential part of our faith, the meaning of Jesus' resurrection is heavily contextualized by the events that precede it. 

So I plan for services on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday.  This is a lot for any congregation, especially a small to mid-size one.  However, the number of services offers opportunities for more people to lead in worship and it provides time and space to plan unique worship services.

As the congregation has gained more awareness of these services, we have varied our approaches, and become especially creative for the Thursday and Friday services.  (We always celebrate the Great Vigil of Easter on Holy Saturday.)  This year, our planning team came up with ideas that melded into particularly meaningful worship services on Thursday and Friday.

As I help to shape these Holy Week services, I try to share two overlapping themes.  The first ties these services to the history of worship in the church -- helping people to gain understanding of their connections with other Christians.  The second varies from year to year, as I come up with a specific theme, which almost always is the culmination of a Lenten focus.  This year, the theme has been "Matters of Life and Death," and it will continue beyond Easter through Pentecost.

Personally, I enjoy these reminders of our connections with Christians of various times and places.  Pastorally, I relish the challenge of developing and exploring overarching themes.  Somehow, I think that this year's theme has been particularly evocative, stretching me in my study and application.  Often my preaching has been at its best when I've challenges myself; for years, I have believed my best Easter sermon served as the culmination of a study of Job.  Today, building on one of the insights of that sermon, I think I may have equaled that effort.  At the very least, I can admit that the sermon not only seemed to connect with the congregation, but developed my preaching in a new way.  Time will tell.

I'm pleased, in one place, to share some of my sermons and meditations from Holy Week 2019.  These include multiple ones from two Easter services.  Technically they were identical services, but given that I am not a manuscript preacher, the sermons and communion meditations have noticeable differences, even though they share the main points.

Palm Sunday sermon: "A Death Sentence," drawing lessons from Jesus cursing the fig tree and cleansing the Temple in Mark 11

Maundy Thursday meditation: "Watchfulness," in a service that focused on Jesus gathering with the disciples in the upper room

Easter Vigil meditation: "What Comes After Death?"

Easter Sunday: "The Living," first service, and "The Living," second service, based on Jesus' resurrection recounted in Luke 24
Easter Sunday: Communion meditation, first service, and Communion meditation, second service
Easter Sunday: Benediction, first service, and Benediction, second service
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