the exception that proves the rule


"The Tenebrae service at Huffman United Methodist Church was the most moving Easter service I have ever been too. I wish you all could have been there."

"What a amazing Tenebrae Service we had tonight! It brought me to tears!!!"

"What a wonderful, moving service."

...the Tenebrae service tonight was one of the most moving things i've ever been apart of...

(quotes ripped from facebook, ...natch)


we whispered.

that's the answer to your question.

what was my question?

"what was it that made this good friday service different from other years? what was so moving, so affecting that most everyone involved would unanimously agree that it was a quality 45 minutes of worship?" that was it, right? your question(s)?

well, the answer is "we whispered."

let's rewind.

since the mimes hit the fan several years back, the tenebrae services i have been a part of at humc have been fairly tame. some readings. some songs full of melancholy. sometimes a sermon. sometimes a homily. sometimes a meditation. more readings. the lights go out. the candles go out. the christ candle exits stage left and we leave. all still effective, depending on the mindset of the worshipper, but still fairly basic. nothing out of the ordinary. not that it has to be, mind you. i am just saying.

the story of the crucifixion is an emotional one, obviously. for on that day, the characters in and around jesus were led to believe that the represented good in jesus was defeated by the represented evil. if this man of faith, doing nothing more than following in the footsteps of the will of his father in heaven can't escape the constraints of this crappy-ass world, what chance in hades do we have??? right?

let me digress for a second....

one thing that i don't think we pay enough attention to on good friday is how epic-ly devastated jesus' followers must have been that night, especially those just on the periphery of his inner circle. his disciples and his closest friends/family had been prepared as best as jesus could for what was about to happen. for those that had sold out for his story and weren't privy to last suppers and intimate one-on-one's, though, to see their accepted savior beaten, broken and crucified between two petty thieves must have destroyed every ounce of faith they could've ever hoped to have. (note to self: pay more intentional attention to the collateral psychological damage of the crucifixion next year. check.)

back to it. for all of the emotion of the story of that first "good friday", though, for seasoned christians, it still rings as a familiar one. it takes some concerted effort to try and live out holy week in a way that might "move one to tears". for me, i have a really hard time finding that place. i watched the passion of the christ. i saw the hollywood-ization of that day and can only imagine that it was actually worse that mel gibson's depiction. and yet, i don't usually respond to good friday with a prepared or planned day of mourning. more often than not, i am worried that the service will interrupt my plans to catch up on old episodes of 30 rock and the office.

that being said, i was happy as a lark to be a part of it this year. stephanie approached me and asked if anyone in limbo might be willing to help out. most of our available resources were working or indisposed, but a few of us and sarah were able to help and were glad to do it.

so, what did you do?

well, we read.

that doesn't sound very novel.

we read...from the balcony?

hasn't steve done that before?

shut up!

sorry, that guy in italics is a douche.

i and ten others read passages from "the passion" from the balcony. we were preceded by a welcome, a hymn and an anthem. in between the readings were the choruses of melancholy. interspersed into the reading were some mood-enhancing sound effects. the lights went out. the candles were extinguished. the christ-light removed from the room.

that was (almost) it.

that sounds dull.

and then came the whispers.

the what?

the choir whispered the lord's prayer. as they finished, the balcony readers whispered their response, the apostle's creed.

we exited in silence.

it. was. incredible. it was the twist ending that no one saw coming. it was the last two minutes of every episode of LOST that leaves you thirsting for more. it was, basically, the same good friday service that we always have, with one change, one creative and thoughtful change. and it made all the difference in the world. why were the authors of the above quotes so moved? maybe they were in tune with the emotion of the story. maybe not. i would bet money, though, if you asked them next year what they remember about friday night's service, it will not be the emotion. it will be the whispers. good show, harris and stephanie.

fast forward to today.

back to the same ole, same ole. and sadly, removing the emotion again from the service (which, admittedly, is unfair to the easter equation), everything was relatively the same as any other service. no balloons. no voice-over narration that might feel familiar to all the strange faces revisiting humc for the first time in forever. there were two anthems instead of one, that is something i guess. there was the sermon. some hymns. the service was, in a word, fine. but i wasn't moved, and no one after the service that i found was talking about how they had just worshipped. only minutes removed from the most highly attended service our church will have all year (contrasted to the 75-100 we had friday night), there was no buzz whatsoever. a collective "eh..." was the feeling i got, and it made me incredibly sad that we couldn't back up the effort and the twist of friday night with something equally fresh or new or traditionally loved. it was just a service. and there just happened to be a whole lot of people in the sanctuary that aren't usually there. and that's too bad.

what amount of time and energy went into preparing for the good friday service? the readers were there two hours ahead of time. who knows how much thought stephanie and harris put into the order or worship, the sound effects, the gathering of help, etc. it felt very prepared.

not that this morning didn't, feel prepared that is. but it didn't feel special. it didn't feel like something more than what we are used to and i hope that there is a lesson to be learned from that.

the story of easter tells itself. people will not exit any sanctuary having heard something new. we all know the mythology. but they could've exited our sanctuary thirsting for more, and i don't know that we gave ourselves a fighting chance for that to happen. maybe we can do it next year.

heck, what's to stop us from doing it next sunday? anything? is it the time? energy? resources?

please let us (humc) know. let us know what we can do to make services and experiences like friday night the rule and not the exception.

let us find a way to make our worship an event that i mind being late for. that i don't fear will be a serious letdown from the business we are attending to in limbo. let us be creative and fun. and not afraid to mix it up for the betterment of our congregation so that our congregation might be interested in bettering one of their friends by bringing them to church on sunday morning.

all we did was whisper.

...

what if we shouted?