The days leading up to Easter were a strange contrast with each other and with Easters of the past.
On Friday Amelia and four singers came to church to record the hymns. The singers probably sang louder than our whole congregations typically does on a Sunday. Maybe it was due to the fact that the singers were not in view of the camera, or that they knew their main job was to sing loudly. It got me thinking about ways to set up a choir again at our church. The problem in the past has been that we haven't really had any one to direct a choir. We solved the problem of not having an organist by hiring local high school students and this has worked great so farm. Maybe we could try the same with a choir director. I'll talk to the choir teacher in town for ideas.
On Saturday I filmed all of the parts of the worship service. It's been hard to lead a worship in front of an empty sanctuary, but Easter was even harder because that is typically one of our loudest and most decorated services of the year. This time there were no Easter lilies, no families with babies, no special music and no loud triumphant singing. In the end all of the filming, editing, and posting took about five times longer than my usual Easter preparation and worship leadership.
It was hard to preach a joyous and celebratory sermon in this setting. With my lack of acting experience I couldn't sum up enough pretended emotion to preach like it was any other Easter, so I decided to just be honest. I realized that this Easter was a lot closer to the first Easter than any Easter we have lived through. The first Easter did not have lilies, hymns, and special music. The first Easter was filled with fear and confusion and hope. In fact, most of the disciples continued to keep them locked up even after hearing about the risen Lord or even after seeing him once.
The question confronting me was a great example of the challenge of faith. How do I have hope when the present moment is hopeful? How do I have confidence when the present and near future is so uncertain? And I realized something: that is exactly what faith is. Faith is hope in something unseen. Faith is hope in a future that is different than the present. Faith is holding on to a deep conviction despite confusion and fear. Faith is a gift from God truly meant for times like these.
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