Easter Day - Community of Grace Presbyterian Church - Sandy, UT - April 20th, 2014

       What an amazing way to spend Easter day, and it wasn't even purposeful. I had meant to take a bus downtown to catch First Presbyterian Church and First United Methodist Church in downtown Salt Lake City, but it turns out the busses aren't running today. I did manage to get back to my car before 11am though and looked up a service that would be occurring around that time from a Church I hadn't attended (or denomination I hadn't visited yet for Holy Week).

 

      Community of Grace Presbyterian Church is a medium sized congregation who has a lot of energy. One of the first things I noticed when the service began was how common call and responses were...it was the most outward passion I've seen in a Christian community in a long time. 

    As for the look of the church, the theme today was purple. Which is ironic a bit since Purple was the royalty of Rome but Christianity came to adopt as the nobility for Jesus. As far as I know it has no historical basis in Judaism, it comes directly from the world that ended up adopting the religion from the small sect of Jews who founded Christianity.

      The sermon itself had aspects of the High Church (which is shown in the colors throughout the Church too...I've never seen High Church symbolism adopted by the newer Christian sects only those that came out of the Reformation). The big difference that separated it, since the hymns were traditional hymns that are in any Traditional service with some modern hymns thrown in for good measure was the call and response. After the confession of sins and was the forgiveness of sins spoken by the pastor in Jesus's name. The beginning was beautiful since through the music and confession there were moments of silence taken which allowed great time for reflection. It didn't feel rushed.

      The sermon itself was "Rejoicing in the Graveyard" which was the story of Mary in John and how Jesus found her when she was mourning for him missing from the tomb. This was tied into the Christian theme of God finding us. He told the story of a baby his friend a fellow pastor had found who the mother had entrusted to the church since she was an addict. It was a powerful story but chance and the action or lack of action in regards to love...and our desire to be loved and safe.

     Given that I have no idea of Jesus was/is literal God for me the power in the story was that by being present with ourselves where we are the good and right action will come to us. When we allow ourselves to not be consumed but aware...our mind will lead us to right action if we give it the chance.

    The story of Easter reminds me of the power those who have died has on us too. I've heard stories of people seeing or hearing loved ones who have died. Whether it actually happened or not is beside the point, but many times it inspires the person to action. Just like it did with Mary and Apostles. Sadly, many times it takes someone dieing to realize how significant they were in our lives. I don't believe in any person or persons as God(s) but I do believe in the power we have to inspire one another and the power that sacrafice has in peoples' lives.

     The service ended with collection, three prayers...one beautifully sung by the pastor, one silent prayer and one where people called out communities and people in their thoughts. Finally it ended with the Lord's prayer and all the congregation holding hands with a call to live Christlike. It was powerful, and I do think I'll visit here again. 

     Have a very Happy Easter.