Friday, March 14, 2008

Holy Week?

It seem to me that Holy Week is often the least holy week of all for us pastors. We go crazy trying to plan as many as 5 services for some (I'm planning 3.5) and making sure someone ordered palms, someone has the fabric to drape the cross, maybe you're doing a tenebrae? someone's gotta know how to work the lights. Got baptisms and/or communion on Easter? Gotta plan for those. It's enough to make a girl take the name of the Lord in vain once or twice, I tell ya.
Our church does community Holy Week services with two other churches in town. We switch out locations and who is doing the preaching, though those do not coincide (i.e.- the G.F. service is at our church, I am in charge of the bulletins, but I am not preaching) So, I have no idea what the other pastor is preaching on (yes, I've asked) and I have to prepare the rest of the service around that. I fully intend to pester him again on Monday or Tuesday so I can get those bulletins done ahead and move on to Easter. Turns out our church always hosts Easter sunrise since we have the largest and prettiest outdoor property. Also turns out that I'm preaching for that. 7 a.m. Have I ever told you how much NOT of a morning person I am? Until we move at the end of the month, I have to drive half an hour to get to the church. That means I have to leave by about 6:15. I don't even get up by 6:15 most days. I'm going to have to be up by about 5 to get ready. I really think this must be some sort of divine punishment for something, though I know not what. So what I really want to know is, how tacky is it to give a sermon with a cup of Starbuck's in one hand?

2 comments:

Teri said...

hmmm...it's a little tacky to have the starbucks. But you could have a plain cup that looks like maybe it has water in it, but it actually has your latte. Just poor the starbucks into a plain cup from the kitchen and it'll be fine. :-)

more cows than people said...

yup. not so holy. in fact this whole Lent has sort of been a wash for me. no real disciplines... just getting through.

hey- do you HAVE to preach at the sunrise service? for the past several years we've done this thing where lots of voices tell the story(ies) of the day interspersed with joyful music. i could send it to you if you're interested. some of it is from the iona lent resource.

you'd need to recruit additional readers, but... that is easier than writing ANOTHER sermon.