Dear FCC Family,
There’s a Mary Oliver poem — maybe you’re familiar with it — that feels just right for Holy Week. It’s called, “The World I Live In.” Here it is:
I have refused to live
locked in the orderly house of
reasons and proofs.
The world I live in and believe in
is wider than that. And anyway,
what’s wrong with Maybe?
You wouldn’t believe what once or
twice I have seen. I’ll just
tell you this:
only if there are angels in your head will you
ever, possibly, see one.
This is a week for miracles and mysteries: Forgiveness that offers itself to us in spite of us. Love that loves itself into even our closed hearts. Healing that heals our misunderstandings of what healing is. How human goodness and human suffering hold together. How death leads to life as surely as life leads to death.
Only if there is room in our hearts for these miracles and mysteries — each of which lies beyond our understanding — will we ever, possibly, experience them.
Worship is the best way I know to do that. I hope to see you:
This Thursday night at 7pm, for our Maundy Thursday service. We retell the story of Jesus’s last days, gradually extinguishing candles, until we end the evening sitting in darkness together. (Note: There is a soup supper at 6pm; come early and enjoy some time in community! There is also a separate 7pm service just for kids.)
This Friday morning at 9:30am, when we depart for our Good Friday Cross Walk with members of other churches in town. We walk together from the steps of FCC to St. Luke’s, stopping to pray along the way. Dogs, strollers, and kids are welcome!
And, of course, this Sunday morning, either at 7am for our sunrise service in the Mather Cemetery (just off the intersection of Brookside and Stephen Mather Roads), or at one of our identical festival services at 9am or 11am.
I look forward to opening my heart to these deep truths alongside you this week.
Anthony