Palm Sunday

This past Sunday was one of the most meaningful days we have experienced at the embassy.
We know that on Easter Sunday we are going to rock and roll baby...high energy....high octane...as we celebrate Christ's resurrection. So we thought the week before we would go the exact opposite.

We took the day and focused in on Christ's death. We can't fully celebrate His ressurection without fully embracing His death. I told those gathered that as humans we want to get to the end of the story. We're quick to get to the resolve of an uncomfortable story line. If we jump to the end of a story, to the resolve, we miss the full impact of the story. I wanted us to be fully impacted by Jesus' death and sacrifice. In doing so it left us a little heavy of heart and feeling a little undone, but I think this week it has made me slow down and think of Christ's pain on my behalf.

At the conclusion of the service we lit one candle that represented Christ and while Jared led us in the song Wonderous Cross five people came and lit candles. They then lit the person beside them in their row and each person helped the next get their candle started. When everyone was lit (There candle that is....) Each of the five read a verse that led up to the crucifixion. When they finished reading that row extinguished their candles then the next reader and row did the same thing until only the Christ candle was still burning. I then read the passage that says "It is finished" and Christ gave up His spirit. I then extinguished that candle. The room was completely dark and as people felt ready to leave everyone left in complete silence. "It was very simple, moving, and powerful" said a guest that we had.

It was something so different than what we normally do that it had great impact. The last part of the service is what is known in liturgical churches as a Tenebrae service. Which means "shadows".

The day couldn't have went any better. we really thought that with spring break our attendance would be down. Last year we were 40% off from our average attendance at that time so we expected a lot less. We were only down 6%. Sorry we ran out of donuts and didn't have enough candles for everyone we just didn't see that coming!!! It makes me think that Easter is going to be crazy. We are planning for a crowd so bring everybody you can think of!