What a great 4 days of worship at Restoration. Here are my favorite memories–

• Washing feet on Maundy Thursday. Such a powerful reminder of the attentiveness, intimacy, and service of our Lord.  I think it is easier to wash than be washed.  It is very humbling to be served.
• Watching the candles go out on Good Friday.  Death thought it had won.  The reflections from our community inspired my worship.
• Hearing Matt sing the Exultet at the Vigil.  Especially this line–  ”How wonderful and beyond our knowing, O God, is your mercy and loving-kindness to us, that to redeem a slave, you gave a Son.”  What a great God we serve.
• Baptizing Brooks and Evan at the vigil.  Might be top 5 moment of the year.  The party afterwards…  so fun.
• Sunday!  Alleluia!

What was your favorite memory? If you missed these days, mark your calendar for next year [April 5-8, 2012  :)].

Small Groups Have Started

But registration is open until May 15.  I invite every person who worships with us on the weekend to be in a small group to wrestle with the Scripture and make new friends.  It is a short term commitment (until the end of June) that has huge benefits for your relationship with God.

Let me highlight 3 in particular:

1. The Marriage Course. Laurel and I have gone through this 3 times.  We love the practical help on forgiveness, conflict resolution, sex, in-laws, and listening.  We love that it has the feel of a date night–  with great content.  It is one of the best 8 weeks we have invested in our marriage. I would love for every married couple at Restoration to take this course.  I hope you do!
2. Parenting Young Kids. Tom and Patty Downie have given us a gift–  a Saturday evening [5:30pm] where a babysitter will feed your kids and watch them while you talk with other parents and hear great wisdom and and counsel from the Downies.  If you are in the thrill and grind of parenting young kids (and about 80 of you are…), this is an opportunity that was created for you.
3. What We Believe.  Sure, it’s early on a Thursday (6:30am).  But it doesn’t start until May 12 [you can procrastinate a bit].  Do you want to ask deeper questions about Jesus, the church, and God?  This is the place.  Come take an hour before work and go deeper with the Lord.  I’d love to have you there.

May 3 at 7:30pm

We are in a season of praying, listening, and asking God to lead us into the next chapter at Restoration.  Our last night of corporate prayer and discussion is Tuesday, May 3.  I invite everyone to come.  We will cover things like facility, staff, and how are church makes disciples of Jesus. If this is your church home, this is a conversation in which you want to participate.

Fun times.

I love this place.

Part of what I love about Holy Week is that it invites us also to intentionally walk alongside Jesus on the way of the cross. From Maundy Thursday all the way through to Easter Sunday, we take time to be with our Savior at each step of the way. There’s nothing new about the story, of course. But there’s always something new in our story — in the things we’ve experienced, the ways we’ve been challenged and grown in the year past. So I find that each year, as I walk through this week, God shows me something new about what Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection mean for me and for our world.

Will you join me this week on the way to the cross? I hope to see you at one or all of these special Holy Week services.

• Maundy Thursday
  • 7:30pm – Holy Eucharist and footwashing service*
• Good Friday
  • 12 – 3pm – Church open for prayer and reflection
  • 7:30pm – The Seven Last Words of Christ*
• Holy Saturday
  • 8:30pm – The Great Vigil of Easter – Baptisms, Holy Eucharist, and a great Resurrection Party!
• Easter Sunday
  • 9am, 11am, and 5pm – Holy Eucharist*

* – nursery care provided

During Holy Week, all the offerings we collected were given to the Anglican Relief and Development Fund (ARDF). The total that came in that week, including Easter was close to $11,000!!  We gave it all away.

ARDF is an organization committed to an holistic, high impact community development approach that crosses cultural and economic boundaries in some of the most challenging parts of the world. They work directly with Anglican churches in the Global South to ensure that believers are strengthened and encouraged, lives are rescued and made whole, and Christ is glorified.

Currently, some of ARDF’s projects include training healthcare workers in Kenya to prevent the spread of Malaria, training locals in Sudan in new agricultural techniques to help them move toward self-sufficient farming, and providing relief for earthquake victims in Chile. 

Thanks, Restoration, for giving so generously to our brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Maundy Thursday

‘This do in remembrance of me.’ Jesus connected His redemption of the world and the promise of restoration to a meal– a bit of bread, a sip of wine– a reminder that we are being rescued. He also washed His disciples his feet, including the one who would betray him. A bit of love that foreshadowed how he would love us to the end.

Good Friday

Prayers of Reconciliation

Luke described the last three hours of Jesus’ crucifixion like this:

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

So from 12 (the 6th hour) until 3 (the 9th hour), we’ll open the church for prayer.  If you come, you can expect quiet, soft music, not many people, and a still environment in which to pray.

Remembering that the curtain was town in 2, that the dividing wall between God and humanity was torn down, and that we have been reconciled with our Maker, there will also be an opportunity for you to pray with me (David), the liturgy for reconciliation of a penitent. Restoration has a rock-solid theology of the priesthood of all believers.  God does not hear us better if we pray with a pastor.  But, we also have a strong belief that the Gospel is catalyzed by community.  Sometimes it is helpful for people to pray with someone else.  Sometimes it helps to pray with a pastor, who will guard your confidentiality and say words of grace and peace in response.  Sometimes.

I personally like to deliberately pray this liturgy with someone else once a year–  to be intentional about confession.  This will be helpful for some and mandatory for none.  I am trying to provide one more resource for you to engage with God during Holy Week.

If you are interested in praying the liturgy with me, you can find me at the front of the sanctuary between 12 and 3 on Friday.

The 7 Last Words of Christ

Friday night, we will gather at 7:30 to think about the 7 statements that Jesus uttered from the cross.  This will be a moving service of personal reflection and music.

The Great Vigil of Easter

8:30pm We will move from ‘darkness’ through the lighting of the Paschal candle, to the story of the deliverance from Egypt, to the narrative of redemption from Genesis on, to the renewal of our baptism vows, to the Great Shout of Alleluia (don’t forget to bring a bell!) as we conclude our Holy Week worship with the first Eucharist of Easter. After, we will break our Lenten Fast downstairs with chocolate, sweets, and celebration!

Some folks fast from Thursday night to Saturday.
Some choose to pray the Daily Office.
Some choose to clear some time to journal their confessions or their hopes. Some make plans to pray with others and give thanks for their friendship.

Three Days. Resurrection is coming.

And yet.  There’s something about the quiet drive to church, the dimly lit sanctuary, the creak of the pew as I settle in. There’s something about the ancient words of scripture and prayers and the quiet periods of stillness and reflection. There’s something about this discipline of prayer that is at once personal and communal that makes me set the alarm early and will my feet to the floor when it goes off well before daylight. I think that something is the fact that, for reasons I don’t fully know, God chooses to meet me in unique and powerful ways in these bleary-eyed early mornings.

I’m grateful to have these opportunities for prayer and worship as we journey through this Holy Week. In yesterday’s collect for Palm Sunday, we asked God to “mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of Jesus’ suffering, and also share in his resurrection.” It’s an audacious prayer, frighteningly bold on both counts. But one of the gifts of the church is its rich tradition of Holy Week services that guide us through Jesus’ last days — a kind of road map through that daunting prayer. From the quiet mornings in the beginning of the week, through the mounting intensity of the last supper (Maundy Thursday) and the crucifixion (Good Friday), on through the dramatic proclamation of Saturday’s Great Vigil and the joyful triumph of Easter Sunday — it’s a profoundly powerful journey.  And it’s one that never fails to open my heart in new ways to the unspeakable goodness of the Gospel.

I hope you’ll join me on that journey this week. Set your alarm early, or make a change in your usual evening routine. Choose to follow Jesus in the way of his suffering.  I think you’ll find that your “Alleluia!” will be that much more joyful when we reach the empty tomb on Sunday morning.

• Tuesday — 6 am — Morning Prayer
• Wednesday — 6 am — Morning Prayer
• Maundy Thursday — 7:30 pm — Eucharist and Footwashing
• Good Friday — 12:00 – 3:00 pm — Church is open for prayer and the liturgy of reconciliation
• Good Friday — 7:30 pm — Seven Last Words of Christ
• Holy Saturday — 8:30 pm — Great Vigil of Easter
• Easter Sunday — 8:30 and 10:00 am — Holy Eucharist

Holy Week at Restoration

• Palm Sunday:  Eucharist at 8:30 and 10
• Monday:  Morning Prayer at 6am
• Tuesday:  Morning Prayer at 6am
• Wednesday:  Morning Prayer at 6am
• Thursday:  Maundy Thursday with footwashing, Eucharist, stripping of the altar at 7:30pm
• Friday:  12-3 prayer and opportunities for ‘reconciliation of the penitent’ [BCP p. 449]; 7 last words of Christ at 7:30pm
• Saturday:  The Great Vigil of Easter at 8:30pm with Resurrection Party following
• Sunday:  Easter services at 8:30 and 10

Even as we journey deep into the heart of Lent, we’re keeping our eyes lifted toward Holy Week and the great hope of Jesus’ resurrection.  The culmination of all of our Holy Week services and the beginning of our celebration of Easter is the Great Vigil of Easter.  The Vigil is held the Saturday night before Easter Sunday.  This year, it’s on April 3rd at 8:30 pm.

The Vigil is a beautiful, powerful service of worship (definitely my favorite of the whole year).  The liturgy is in four parts, and through scripture, song, and sacrament, it unfolds the great story of redemption.  It begins in silent darkness and proceeds to a joyous, light-filled proclamation of Alleluia!

The Vigil dates back to the earliest centuries of the church, when it was the time that new converts to the Christian faith were baptized. (This came after a period of preparation and fasting — what eventually became the season of Lent.)  Baptism is still at the heart of the Easter Vigil.  Not only will we all renew our baptismal vows, but we’ll have the opportunity to baptize any adults who want to be baptized!

Would you like to be baptized? If you have committed to following Jesus as the one who forgives and rescues you — or if you would like to — and you’ve never been baptized, we would love to baptize you at the Easter Vigil.  If you’re interested or have questions, please contact David or Erin (you can reach us here). We’d love to talk with you!

(If you have an infant whom you would like to be baptized, we’ll have infant baptisms on Pentecost, May 23rd. Please contact us if you’re interested.)

I really hope that all of you will consider coming to the Great Vigil of Easter. I promise that you’ll experience the joy of Christ’s resurrection in a profoundly powerful way!

Tonight we will remember Jesus’ last supper with his friends–  how he instituted a meal of remembrance and instructed them to Eucharist each time they gathered together.

We will also remember his words:

You also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that also should do just as I have done to you.  John 13: 14b-15.

On Friday we remember the cross.  We will have the opportunity to participate in 3 services.  In the morning there is a Good Friday service for children and families at The Falls Church at 10am.  Then, in The Historic Falls Church, from 12-3, we will remember the 7 last words of Christ that he spoke from the cross.  At 7pm, we will gather with other churches in Arlington County at Westover Baptist to worship.

On Saturday we wait.  We will return to Restoration for The Great Vigil of Easter.  We will move from ‘darkness’ through the lighting of the Paschal candle, to the story of the deliverance from Egypt, to the narrative of redemption from Genesis on, to the renewal of our baptism vows, to the Great Shout of Alleluia as we conclude our Holy Week worship with the first Eucharist of Easter.  We will break our Lenten Fast at the Breeds with chocolate, sweets, dinner, and celebration!

It all begins tonight, Thursday, at 7:30pm.  Some people will choose to fast from now until Saturday.  Most of us will go home to sleep in between.  :)

It’s time for the Triduum:  the days when we remember His passion and give thanks for the victory He won.

Come waste time with us during Holy Week at Restoration.

A couple of weeks ago we talked about Jesus’ words in John 12, that the one who serves Jesus gets to be where Jesus is.  ‘Where I am, there my servant will be also…’  Jesus was talking of his coming glory.

But today, Jesus says in John 13:

33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’

‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’  All of us are called to follow Jesus and to take up our cross, but Jesus is the unique One who can bear the sin of the world.  We truly cannot enter into the utter abandonment from His Father, the crushing weight of guilt and shame, and the scathing injustice of One who knew no sin to bear the iniquity of us all.  Truly, where Jesus is going, we cannot come.

Yet, Jesus chooses to go…  For His glory and the glory of His Father.  For love.  For reconciliation of creature to Creator.  For the purpose of making right that which was broken.

Where He is going, we cannot come.

Yet, He goes.

John 12:

36 When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.  37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,

I guess that is comforting as we think about all those around us who find it hard ‘to accept’ that Jesus was real.  We prayed for friends and family who might be curious about Jesus–  those whom we want to be convinced of the love of God.

The reading from John also invited us, in this Holy Week, to consider whose glory we are seeking.

42 Nevertheless,  many even of the authorities believed in him, but  for fear of the Pharisees they did not  confess it, so that they would not be  put out of the synagogue;  43  for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

There are so many sublime, simple, and secretive ways that we love the glory that comes from people–  their high opinion of us, their words to us, esteem, privilege, promotion, advancement, one-upmanship, blame shifting, defending, general kowtowing.

I am grateful for this space in Holy Week to seek God about this culture of unbelief and to be real about the power I give others to determine my worth and identity.

Come waste time with us at Restoration this week.