Easter Sunday

So this post is gonna be all about Easter Sunday which was really interesting here in the city. Sorry it's taken so long to get these posts up and going, I do have a good excuse though: because of Passover break, the university has been fully closed, cutting me off from any type of consistent and regular internet access. So I haven't really had to time until now to get it done. And to save myself time and effort, again I'll be copying and pasting from my journal....

Today, I woke up at 5 am to go to a Sunrise service at Augusta Victoria, a large Lutheran Hospital on the Mount of Olives. I walked over there with Corinna Hann, my Baptist buddy (she's doing a MA in religious studies here), and got there to meet a bunch of the BYU kids and professors. The service was neat, a little somber and slow paced (especially with regard to the next one I went to) and as one person remarked “very Lutheran.” It was pretty neat to see, but I do have to say that it wasn’t especially inspiring. The remarks of the Father, while taken from scripture and containing much truth, just didn’t seem to ring with the Spirit. Maybe I was just expecting something like Elder Holland’s discourse on Christ’s lonely journey through the Atonement. It was interesting to see him use a tennis racket and some balls to connect his message to the phrase “the ball is in your court” talking of our need to work for Christ since He has already done His part. I felt this was really disruptive and was probably an attempt on his part to be fresh and “modern” in his approach. It became just a little distracting though, taking away from the overall message I thought, and became really funny (if not a little bit awful) when he miss hit one of the tennis balls and it careened into the Crucifix on the alter (it was outdoors) almost knocking it off. Kinda scary for him I bet.

The other interesting occurrence at the service, as I have witnessed at other places and services, was when it came time for the Eucharist, and half of the front row, which was made up of BYU students, didn’t stand up to take it. There are many reasons for this (the most obvious being the use of wine, but probably worse than that would be the witness that you are placing yourself as part of their Christian community (same room as "communion" after all) accepting all that they teach and profess to know about Christ as well as their denunciation of the many truths that we have received from modern day revelation, particularly in the Book of Mormon, but not to leave out the Temple and proxi work for the dead-- you can be the judges of what you would do, but I decided that taking part would never be appropriate or honest to my testimony...) but it caused a little confusion as people behind them were waiting for their turn to stand, and didn’t know what to make of it. This was also compounded (in my mind at least, and perhaps I am just sensitized to it) because they had taken part in all the singing as good Christians (and honestly who goes to a 6 am Christian Eucharist service on Easter without intending to take the Sacrament?), but when the Father invites “all who love Christ and want to welcome his Resurrection” to come forth and take part in his Body and Blood and they don’t go forward, it just raises questions, doubts and confusion among the congregation. This, coupled with the general lack of Holy Week/Easter celebration in the Church, probably constitutes a major reason why we aren’t considered by many to be Christian.

After that somewhat sober service, Corinna and I went across the street to a free breakfast offered by the World Lutheran Federation for all in attendance and had some good breakfast (including bacon which was pretty neat). It was good to socialize a little with some other Christians and some of the students came with.

Then we hiked down into the city and ended up at an evangelical type service at the Garden Tomb. “Wow” is the only real word to describe it. The service consisted of singing a bunch of “upbeat” (as the sermon leader said) songs accompanied and led by the King of Kings Worship Team- a whole band with backup singers, electric and classical guitars and a set of drums. It was pretty fun to sing along, and, while I didn’t feel personally that clapping along and/or raising my arms in spiritual ecstasy was appropriate to the spirit of the commemoration of Christ's Rising from the Dead, honestly, I do have to say that I felt more (though not a lot...) of the Holy Spirit in that congregation as they praised the Lord Jesus and hallelujah’d the time away than I ever have in more traditional Masses or what not. It was a good experience, and was again instructive to me that I need to add a little more jubilation to my worship of the God and in life in general. Of course, that in no way means to overpower quiet dignity and reverence. I am just seeing more of a place for it in general living (while not in specific ceremonies or places of worship). The sermon at this place was a little long, especially for a Protestant sermon (Corinna was dying! Said that a good Protestant sermon should be “about God in about 10 min.”), but the Pasteur had some good points mixed in with his general Evangelical Christian rhetoric. He, of course, was accompanied by a few “amens” and “hallelujahs” from the congregation. Yet, again, he felt that it was necessary to guilt people into giving money to the upkeep and ministry of the Garden Tomb by saying that “if you love Jesus and want to support His ministry, you will give money on the way out.” That last bit kinda ruined any good points he had made in his sermon for me…

So this last picture is the band's area set up right next to the empty tomb. I'm sorry the pictures are all from far away. We got there kinda late and then didn't get the best spots to be. Then after the service they hustled us out as fast as they could so that they could start the next one that consisted of "a bunch of Scandinavians" as the sermon leader said. During the service I took a few videos to give you all a little of the flavor of the "stand and sing" evangelical experience (probably why Mormons "don't stand for the hymns of Zion unless invited to do so by the presiding authority"- remember that guy from the MTC?). You can see some of these people were really into it, rocking out as it were, and you can just how 'jubilant' and 'upbeat' the tunes were. The lady two rows ahead of me (between the camera and the King of Kings Worship Team) that looks like she is wearing some type of tapestry was all kinds of into it, pumping hands up and down, swaying and bobbing and all. It was great. There was a cool old lady right next to me that was nearly the same, but she shied away every time I had the camera out so I didn't get a shot of her...