In the Crucifixion, God takes all of human experience and pain onto God's Self, entering into the deepest crevices of death to heal the pain of our lives. By reflecting on God's all-embracing love, we see that we have no reason at all to fear death. The Glimpses of Grace...
So much around Holy Week involves symbols, metaphors, and very specific "labor". All that silver doesn't polish itself, and flowers don't just jump into pots! Eight hundred service leaflets have to be composed, edited, printed. Choral music work for Easter begins shortly after the final verse of Silent Night on...
Easter Day Holy Eucharist will be held at 9 AM and again at 11 AM on Easter Day, April 20. Both services will feature special music from the choir and instrumentalists and will continue our joyful celebration of the Resurrection of Christ, which begins at The Great Vigil on Saturday...
It is tempting to skip straight from Palm Sunday to Easter, and if we do, we miss so many of the powerful moments Holy Week invites us to explore. By exploring a different Gospel text this year, we can reflect on the potential we have for transformation as we step...
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to...
Palm Sunday & Holy Week We begin Holy Week at Grace Church on Palm Sunday with a commemoration of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On Maundy Thursday we celebrate the institution of what we have come to see as the Holy Eucharist and on Good Friday commemorate the Crucifixion of our Lord. The Great Vigil on Saturday evening...
Last Saturday, we had a wonderful retreat at the Linwood Nature Center with Brian Sellers-Petersen. Brian is a great friend who lives near Seattle and who has been active with Episcopal Relief and Development and other church-wide initiatives around creation care. You can learn more from his blog www.faithfulagrarian.com. He is...
There’s a fantastic poem by the Sufi Muslim sage Rumi that is just perfect for Holy Week: I called through your door,“The mystics are gathering in the street. Come out!”“Leave me alone. I’m sick.”“I don’t care if you’re dead! Jesus is here, and he wants to resurrect somebody!”--Rumi Once again...
This sermon explores the extravagant, unsettling act of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with a goodly portion of expensive perfumed oil—a gesture of love that defied the logic of her world. In contrast to the practical and measured response of the world, Mary embodies the dangerous oddness of the Gospel. We...
After telling a parable to the crowd at Jericho, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you...