Foursquare Gospel, Saturday March 22, 5pm This is the same church I wrote about in my field trip post. I went back because I wanted to see if anything would be different for their Easter service (ie less scary). I also wanted to make sure to include as many denominations as possible and that meant going to this particular church since they are the only Four Square in town as far as I know. The music was very uplifting, as it was last time. The sermon focused on the choice to make a decision about Jesus Christ. The pastor said that the decision we make about whether Jesus is “God or fraud” will shape everything else in our lives. God doesn’t want anyone to go to hell, he said, which is why Jesus came. Yet unfortunately without accepting Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins, we indeed will all go to hell. He encouraged people to give up the mundane “work to home, home to work” routine that he said most of us were engaged in and let Jesus into our lives to find purpose meaning and forgiveness. For the finale he suggested there were at least three people in the audience that had encouraged others to have abortions and that God would even forgive those wretched individuals if they let him. You could see that it was a big deal to him that God would forgive even those people. United Methodist, Saturday March 22, 7pm It was good to go back to my home church after the Four Square service. For one thing I noticed I was more willing to participate, having just come from a more charismatic service. Suddenly it didn’t seem like such a big deal to clap. It was a jazz service which I really enjoyed. It made me miss playing the saxophone a little bit, as jazz always does. It was also good to be back in a church that felt safe and like being home. The message was on all the positive things God can do and also about God’s light and love. This was so refreshing after so many services that focused on accepting Christ or else. I realize this is a major difference between the Methodist church and a lot of the churches I have attended so far this weekend. My church is focused on God’s love and doesn’t use scare tactics to try to get people to convert. I found myself thanking God to be able to be a part of such a caring church.
Catholic Church, Saturday March 22, 9pm The Methodist church service put me in such a good mood that I thought the Catholic service would probably be a downer and I almost didn’t go. But at the last minute I decided to attend and it’s really a damn good thing that I did because it affected me more than any of the others. It was the most significant to my spiritual life and understanding as a Christian thus far.
There were over 1000 people at the service and every one was given a candle. We marched outside and the priest burned the consecrated holy oil that hadn’t been used during the year. He then lit a candle representing Christ’s light in the world. Then everyone’s candles were slowly lit from the candle representing Christ. Slowly we made our way back into the Church where the smell of incense was thick in the air and suddenly triggered a memory about going to Mass with my Grandmother as a small child. After the prayers the priest read scripture about Christ as the light of the world and how God created light. This is when it happened.
The priest said Christ was the perfect light of the world and then he asked everyone to blow out their candles. I didn’t think about it as I blew out my candle. But then instantly others extinguished theirs and we were immersed in darkness with the smell of smoke from the extinguished candles heavy in the air. Never before in my life have I so understood God as light and God as the source of Light and that without God all is nothingness. It brought me new meaning and understanding of my own sin, Christ’s death and his resurrection. This realization and experience was probably one of the most significant events of my spiritual life to date.
United Methodist cemetery service, Easter, 7amIt hurt to make myself wake up for this service, but with thoughts of finally being able to drink coffee rushing through my mind, I forced myself out of bed and to the cemetery. It was raining and cold and everyone was sleepy. I was surprised how many people showed up. Also, I was sort of expecting some kind of theater. I thought maybe someone would be dressed up like Jesus and pop out from behind a tombstone or something, but nothing like that happened. (Guess I have to go back to the Baptist church for something like that!!). Anyway I was so tired and happy to have coffee that I can’t really remember much. The sermon was about how we can practice resurrection in our own lives and in the lives of others by helping people.
Church of Christ, Easter 8:15aI skipped this service. I remembered that I had to administer CASAS testing to two of our students on Monday and had to drive to up to work to get the test booklets since I have a pretty full day and no other time to do it. If the Church of Christ still has it this week I may go to their 6pm service in lieu of the Non-Denominational service tonight at 5:30.
So far I am 10 for 11 services. 3 more to go.
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