Manic Maundy

Last night's gathering went quite well. In fact, I don't think it could have gone much better.

When people walked in they saw hundreds (over 300, I believe) of candles, saw communion tables spread throughout the sanctuary, and smelled grapes and the bread that we baked in the sanctuary.

They also heard electronic music with Gregorian chant weaved in. I was up all night on Wednesday (Thursday morning really) working on getting the chant mixed in with the music. I used a program called CoolEdit to mix the Benedictine Monks and music by a bevy of ambient artists including two songs from

Vibe Music. I strongly recommend that CD for worship. (Another good CD is "State of Grace II" by Paul Schwartz).

We had communion tables down the middle of the aisles. Chairs were set up in rows with an aisle between every four or five chairs so that people could get up and roam about whenever they wanted. So communion was taken in and among the community. It was very beautiful. I got that job from First UMC in Birmingham, Michigan. Here are some pictures of their Maundy Thursday service. We used large chalices, goblets and plates. It was really nice.

We had two prayer stations. One focusing on Christ washing the feet. This station had a painting by Lars Edwards of our church (who we just found out is moving to Boston because of the job he got with a successful animation company), a large bowl of dirty water with a large towel in it, the message translation of John 13, and this picture framed.

The other station looked very stately with its red table cloth and brass candle holders. On this table we had a copy of "The Guest" and "The Host" from Alternative Worship. Unfortunately I don't think too many people took advantage of the prayer stations... it's all very new to them.

The readings started with a prayer Jonathon Norman (latest book:
Worship Feast Readings... check it out!) wrote for us. It was a perfect fit. Go back and read it. It's before this post.

Then the band (read about the band a couple posts ago) played and really sounded great. My guitar effects pedal completely stopped working. Caput. So, that was a huge problem. But I turned the reverb on my amp all the way up, borrowed Justin's chorus pedal and Steve's distortion pedal so that helped. Anyway, we played between most readings and rituals in the gathering.

All of the readers were excellent. Really made the whole theme of Christ's humility come alive. When Brandi Rockensock read Psalm 116 she began to cry. It was especially moving. I think many of us cried along with her.

I adapted the confession from The Book of Uncommon Prayer and a book from the Iona Community called Stages On the Way.

Jennie's message was excellent and tied together all the elements of the service. I will post her sermon on the Grace UMC website tomorrow or tonight, so be sure to check that out. I may even post some of the music. Just found out our CCLI license allows us to do that.

So the whole thing was beautiful and I think many of us saw God in a new light that night. I am looking forward to tonight's Good Friday service. And I'm glad I'm not planning it!

My one regret, and it's an enormous regret, is that I forgot to make sure anyone would have a camera. So we have absolutely no pictures of last night. I am so mad at myself. I'll get over it... but that won't happen again.

Last night's gathering was the first step in establishing a new regular (monthly at first) night time gathering at Grace. I had a lot of people come up and ask what they could do to help make this happen again. This was my goal realized. Soon we will put together a group of people to plan and implement this new gathering. I am very excited.

I've added a "reactions to Maundy" page to the Grace site. Go to www.graceumc.net/maundy and vote in the bottom category to let us know what night would be better for you even if you weren't there last night. If you were there, let us know what you thought at that page.

May God bless you this Holy Week.

Another Thursday?

By Jonathon Norman

Was it just another Thursday
that He was waking to?
Or was there something different about today?

No more hammering, building, working with his hands,
sawing, shaping - the everyday sounds of his everyday trade...

Those were the sounds he had left behind...

Those were the sounds he had traded…
for the sounds of the poor, the left out, the broken hearted
the sick, the blind, and the voiceless sons and daughters

But now their sounds are fading... or are they getting louder... with the sunrise and the sunset of Thursday...

Those voices- He carries them with pain and a vulnerable strength.

Tonight the sound of hammering does not sound like the hammering he remembers...

But with each nail that is hammered he hears those voices- those he loves...
those he healed, those he cared for and called brother... sister... friend... beloved

Yes, there is something different about this Thursday...
something very, very different.

Amen.

Maundy Thursday - 1 week before

I don't mean to harp on this gathering but I'm quite excited. The band will practice tomorrow evening and, depending on how it goes, may practice again next week.

I did so much planning that I stupidly let the music thing slip. So, I just got the band together. We should have practiced more but it's still going to be good. I have an excellent group of people in the band. Quite a motley crew actually. No, not Motley Crue... motley crew.

The band should turn some heads as Steve Barnum (check him out here and his group Knapsack Heroes out here) will be scratching on the turntables and playing some dope loops and guitar.

You might not hear much acoustic guitar during this service. We guitarists (Don Sauls and I) will be playing through tons of effects and Justin Smith has effects on his bass I can't believe. Raymond will play the kinda piana ya havta plug in. Michael Stallings will play drums and man, is he's good. Whitney Youngblood and my wife Daphne will sing with me. So, the point is that despite the fact that we're doing mostly slow songs... they won't be quiet.

I think we're going to have a Delirious meets Portishead meets Jason Morant meets David Crowder meets Radiohead meets um... sound. Maybe throw in some Coldplay for good measure.

Truth be told, between the music and the liturgical worship, I'm going to be accused of being too out there on both ends by certain folks. They'll say I'm too loud and too Catholic. Maybe that's what I'm hoping for. I'd take that as a nice compliment.

This way though, when we start a new regular worship gathering, people will sort of know what to expect. I say sort of because I don't even know what to expect. And that's the awesome thing. When we begin this new venture it will be planned, organized, and executed by a group (struggling not to say committee) of people. (Committee means group of committed people, right? Well, then we'll have a committee.)

One person I know will be involved in the new gathering is Jennie Murray. Jennie is my youth director and fast best friend. She'll be delivering the message (struggling not to say preaching the sermon) at Maundy. I'm excited about that too.

I hope you all can make it to the gathering. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the site.

I'll let you know how the practice goes. Tomorrow.

Stay tuned.