I think I had a little taste of heaven tonight 🙂

There is a church in Wheaton that I’ve enjoyed visiting occasionally over the past twenty years or so. It is an Anglican church, so vastly different from the church of my origin and most of the churches we have attended that I find it refreshing whenever I visit. It is very liturgical, quite opposite of the Plymouth Brethren of my roots. I found, much to my surprise, that I actually like a printed liturgy, as well as most (though admittedly, not all) of the visual aspects of their church practice. Instead of being distracting, the written words enhance my sense of worship and the visual arts appeal to what I finally recognized as my very visual learning style. It was also the first church I’d visited outside of the Brethren that served communion every week, a habit I’d grown to appreciate.

It’s been quite a few years since I visited the “Church of the Rez” (Resurrection) as it is fondly called. But I decided that it would be a nice way for me to celebrate Easter since I didn’t want to try to do both church and a family gathering all in one day tomorrow. On the Saturday night before Easter, they have an Easter Vigil that runs for about four hours. We went late and left early, attempting to be there for my favorite ritual of the Easter season.

The first couple hours of the service incorporate scripture readings from Genesis through  Zephaniah. These include dramatic readings, interpretive dance, banners, and many other artistic styles of presenting selected scriptures from the Old Testament. We got there in time to see a dramatic recitation and choreography of Ezekial’s Valley of Dry Bones, which I found beautiful and uplifting. The reading from Zephaniah was less impressive, but the song, Everlasting God, was wonderful to sing:

“Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord…

You are the everlasting God, the everlasting God.

You do not faint.

You won’t grow weary.

You’re the defender of the weak.

You comfort those in need.

You lift us up on wings like eagles…”

 

At this point there is a rather long “break” as the church offers baptism, renewal of baptism and membership to many of its flock. I enjoyed observing their baptismal traditions and their use of a centuries-old ritual of having all involved in baptism, renewal or church membership first face west and renounce Satan, evil, and sinful desires and then turn east towards the rising sun to turn towards God, trust and a commitment to follow and obey. They also are “triple dunkers” when it comes to baptism, something I’d never seen before, a practice that didn’t fare so well with the little ones. But, once again, I was reminded of the imagery of being buried with Christ in baptism and raised to new life. The pastor’s short message focused on identifying with Christ’s death, which is unlike our death, and being raised to new life, to transformation.

And then came my favorite part of the service: The Holy Noise.

This year it followed a solemn rendition of the song, “He’s Alive”, a 1980s song by Don Francisco. It was written from Peter’s perspective after denying his Lord and then hearing that Jesus’ body was no longer in the grave. Just before the joyful lines when Peter declares “He’s alive! He’s alive! He’s alive and I’m forgiven. Heaven’s gates are opened wide” the pastor shouted out the news “Alleluia, Christ is risen” and the people shouted even louder “The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.”

And then the Holy Noise began. The singers and instrumentalists sang the refrain above, but the congregation hooted and hollered, whooped and whistled, clapped and clanged cowbells and whatever noisemakers they’d brought along for a good ten minutes. They were celebrating the resurrection as if was as exciting as a winning goal, a 3-point basket, a long pass into the end zone. Or something more. At the same time, beautiful flowers were brought out to bank the communion table, a banner of the risen Christ was raised and a “Gloria” song was sung.

I know this type of service is not for everyone* and it probably isn’t something I’d want to do every Sunday. In fact, the pastor compared it to a pack of lemonade mix in an envelope: probably a bit much if ingested straight from the envelope. He said this annual service presses the truth of resurrection into one evening but that in reality we need to mix the lemonade concentrate with water and have it be part of our everyday lives. He picked a date out of the hat–September 17th–and said that needs to be just as much a resurrection day for each of us as is Easter or the Easter Vigil.

But how nice to be reminded that the resurrection really is something to CELEBRATE and to not even try to be tame about it. Easter Vigil assaults the senses from beginning to end, inviting you to join a dance, a celebration better than sport victories or even cancer cures. Sure it might seem “staged” but I for one, loved the music, the colors, the dancers, the readers, and the holy noise. For a little while, Sunday had shown up after all.  And I had a taste of heaven.

I hope you too get a taste of heaven as you celebrate Easter tomorrow, however you do it. Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed!

*I have to add a Lizi story at this point. It’s one of my favorites: One year we took the kids to the Easter Vigil to have them experience the variety of ways Holy week is celebrated. That night they sprinkled us with holy water, lit candles, and used incense. As we were leaving the building, Lizi got a very concerned look on her face and asked us “Are we still Christians?”