I had an interesting day of worship yesterday. Michelle was off to judge a horsing event, so I was on my own for the morning. So I went to a 7:30 Holy Communion service at the Episcopal church in town. Palm Sunday - a good day to be in a liturgical environment. I'm pretty sure I was the youngest person there, besides the teenage altar boy. Having grown up in a baptist culture, I'm always a little tentative in liturgical spaces because of unfamiliarity. There was a lot of time spent in responsive readings - one in particular taken from the gospel of Luke. It was a synthesis of passages surrounding Christ's Passion. Different folks had been pre-assigned different "roles" in the readings, and there were parts for the whole congregation to read. As it turns out, those parts contained the words of accusation and condemnation of Christ. Together, we accused Jesus of speaking against the temple, against Caeser, and against paying taxes. Ultimately, we said "Crucify, crucify him!" Ouch. A very poignant moment indeed for me. I was there, after all, having been guilty of the sin for which he was penalized.

After that service was over, I decided to attend the morning worship service at the local Calvary Chapel - casual, laid back worship (usually). Well, given that today is Passover, they had a special service planned. An Israeli Christian spoke, leading the congregation through a Passover Seder. Wow - we who are in Christ so rarely pay attention to or embrace the truly ancient part of our story, and we deprive ourselves greatly.

Shalom, friends.