Sunday, April 12, 2020

Practicing Christ's Compassion During Holy Week in the Midst of the Coronavirus Pandemic in Worcester, Mass. April 5-11


A Liturgy (i.e. Work of the People) for Holy Week During the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic Week of April 4-11 in Worcester, Massachusetts 


Below is a "liturgy for Holy Week 2020" (here are links to weeks March 8-14, March 15-21, March 22-28, and March 29-April 4) including encouragement, connection points, prayer focuses, discipleship practices, articles, songs, quotes, a special series, and more. 

We can't overcome this desert of disease on our own. We can't overcome the distress on our own. But we can die with Christ to our fears, and by His Spirit, surrender to the Deliverer who overcomes and resurrects.

+ ECC Facebook Live Easter Weekend Message + Liturgy: Jesus, the Death-Conquering Deliverer, Knows Your Name

Mass featured call to worship from Psalm 105:1-4, Facebook Live message, "Jesus, the Death-Conquering Deliverer, Knows Your Name," based on John 20:11-18; Luke 23:42; Isaiah 43:1, Eucharist, Benediction, and songs recommended including Look and See, Christ is Risen, The Anthem, and Death Was Arrested

+ "Cry Out" Powerful Spoken Word Video + Lyrics from Emmanuel Gospel Center in Boston, Mass.

So, so good. The post below not only features a link to the video of the song for this moment we are living in, but all of the words of the song. Whew. Wow. Mercy. My, my. Well ...  
+ Holy Week Poetry + Power | "Cry Out" by Caleb McCoy + Jaronzie Harris from EGC Boston, Mass.

+ Palm Sunday Weekend Facebook Live Video + Liturgy | Jesus, Our Deliverer Who Provides What We Need Even When It Looks Like Defeat

+ Prayer Walk w/ 1 of Jesus' 7 Last Words During COVID-19 Holy Week

Plan on taking a walk one day this week. If you're interested in a short reflection + a song for your walk, take a look at 1 of Jesus' 7 last words from the cross in one of the posts below and vaya con Dios with the "last word" that is resonating most with you right now:  
1) Father, Forgive Them 
2) Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise 
3) Woman, Behold Your Son 
4) My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me? 
5) I Thirst 
6) It Is Finished 
7) Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit

+ Holy Saturday's Relevance to the COVID-19 Pandemic as We Wait & Long for Deliverance Reflection 

 + Modern Hymn to Sing Over Someone

Christ Our Hope in Life and Death, 2020 A.D.: " ... Who holds our days within His hand? What comes, apart from His command? And what will keep us to the end? The love of Christ, in which we stand! ... O sing hallelujah! Our hope springs eternal! O sing hallelujah! Now and ever we confess, Christ our hope in life and death! ... " 
I encourage you to check out the Behind the Song: "Christ Our Hope in Life and Death" video as it includes the testimony of this being written in the midst of one family's trials with a child who had leukemia return. Also, continue to reflect on what Jesus is inviting you to sing to Him and others (i.e. Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19), and text a message featuring a hymn, psalm, or spiritual song to someone this week.

+ 3 Holy Week Treasures to Hang Onto into Eastertide

In case Holy Week went by in a blur, but you sense Jesus inviting you to sit with Him a little while longer in the Good Friday-Holy Saturday-Easter Sunday space as Eastertide gets rolling, here are 3 resources that helped me during Holy Week 2020 as we step into what's next: 
1: Jesus' Good Friday Coronation: The Deliverer Who Overcomes Death by His Death + Video w/ help from J. Cook, N.T. Wright, & F. Rutledge 
" ... The darkness that loomed over the first Good Friday seems to be seeping into the nations of our world and into our very own souls in this historic moment. Yet Holy Week invites us again to wholly embrace a spark of courageous curiosity. Will we consider the crazy story of the thorn-crowned Christ again? Will we sit in the darkness and listen, asking for ears to hear, to catch a grand irony of an ancient story of seemingly terrible defeat? Will we open our eyes and pause, waiting for them to adjust (or to be adjusted by Another), to see a glimmer of light from the Christ on the cross, considering holy and wholly anew that perhaps the hope we need is beyond what is first perceived, that a greater story of deliverance is being revealed ... "  
2: R: The Deeper Message of Holy Week by A.J. Swoboda  
" ... For some, and probably for more than are ready to admit it, faith can at times appear like the dead surface of a frozen river. But below the dead-looking surface is a living river too—a glorious dark. What appears as dead is really alive like the wind. Faith, as I’ve been told, is the story of things unseen. That’s the story of the frozen river. Underneath every story of death and darkness and doubt is a hidden flow of God’s resurrection and power and glory, which almost nobody chooses to see. I think we need to learn how to see below the surface. I’ve come to believe that Christian faith is embodied in three days—a long weekend Christians call Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. In those three days, we experience a holistic expression of what Jesus wants us to live. We must remember that Christian faith is the whole weekend and that we must enter all three days—we must embrace the pain of Friday’s sunset, the awkwardness of Saturday’s silence and the hopeful sunrise of Sunday morning. ... " 
3: CT: If Easter Is Only a Symbol, Then To Hell with It by T.H. Warren  
" ... The actualities that we now face in a global pandemic—the overwhelmed hospitals and morgues, the collapsing global economy, and the terrifying fragility of our lives—ought to put an end to any sentimentality about the Resurrection. To borrow the words of Flannery O’Connor, 'If it’s a symbol, to hell with it.' The stakes could not be higher. As a deadly virus speeds its way around the world bringing chaos, destruction, and death, it’s painfully clear that the Resurrection is either the whole hope of the world—the very center of reality—or Christianity is not worth our time. 'Let us not mock God with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping, transcendence; making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded credulity of earlier ages,' writes John Updike in his poem 'Seven Stanzas at Easter.' If Jesus’ 'cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall.' ... "

+ 4 "Christ Over the Coronavirus" Choices Available to All of Us by the Spirit During Eastertide

1: Faith in Jesus with Us Over Fear of Being Left to Solve Everything Ourselves 
2: More Time in Remembering God's Word of Ancient & Everlasting Good News Over Time Watching Our Current and Rapidly Changing Local or Global News 
3: More Time in Praying Socially Together Over Time Engaging Social Media Alone 
4: Taking Every Thought Captive + Living in the Peace of Christ That Guards Our Hearts and Minds Over Living in Panic w/ Thoughts Run Amok  
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