Easter?

Well, this past Easter weekend was every bit as special for me as I anticipated. I’m still smiling over it.

And it was wide-ranging, from the fire and bells and smells of the Easter Vigil at St. Matthias to the Sunday evening service at Denton Bible last night.

There’s so much to tell about and a lot of reflections that come out of the weekend. So I’ll post in pieces.

I’ll start with last night. Like I said, I went to Denton Bible, my old church. And the first 20-25 minutes of the 6:30pm service was, as usual, a string of songs all while standing up. I can’t stand for long periods without discomfort, so I sat down before the last one. Continuous singing wearies me as well, so I barely sang the last song. And, as usual, I stuffed Kleenex in my ear because the worship leader’s voice was overamped. (You can see how the first time I visited a good Anglican church was like finding an oasis for me.)

But what annoyed me more was not one song was Easter themed. In fact, if any song mentioned the resurrection, I missed it.

And when I mentioned it to a couple people afterwards, they said they hadn’t noticed. And, say, three years ago, I wouldn’t have noticed either. But I did notice last night. I wanted to belt out some joyous Easter songs. So “Wondrous Cross” just didn’t cut it for me.

I might post more on the church calendar and worship sometime.

But the service and I quickly recovered. Two friends who had a difficult pregnancy dedicated their baby daughter. Another friend who is about to go to China was recognized and prayed over. And, as usual, the sermon by Tommy Nelsen was excellent – and, yes, an Easter sermon. It was both the meat of good teaching and evangelistic. Some like to water down their Easter messages, but not Tommy.

Oh, some humorous insight into college kids: For most Easter services, people show up early to be sure to get a decent seat. But the 6:30pm Denton Bible service is mostly college-aged. So guess what? At 6:25, it wasn’t even half-full. :^)

I also enjoyed hanging with some old friends. And that’s a big reason I went – to celebrate this special Easter with them -- who have been such a special part of my 30 years as a Christian.

So it was an excellent time last night – even if the worship leader seemed to forget it was Easter.