by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Every year that passes, I become more convinced that it’s always not helpful to separate Good Friday and Easter. They are all *one* story, not two separate stories. Despite this, we’ll have a Good Friday service tonight and two Easters services Sunday. And we hope you’ll come join us!

I suppose what I want to remind you about today, then, is that this division of Good Friday/Easter is only possible to do from *our* vantage point…looking  back at Holy Week through the lens of history. As experienced by Jesus, it was all ONE story.

To *only* celebrate Good Friday —suffering, death, despair— can cause us to drift deeply into sorrow. And, yes, there are sorrowful times in our lives. And, yes, it’s important to remember that Jesus walks with us in our sorrows.

But it’s also important to find hope too. As we exit two years of pandemic life —as we are still accounting for hundreds of thousands of dead, and watching the horrors of war in Ukraine— I’m not sure how much more sorrow our world can take. It can be dangerous to our spiritual and mental health if we can’t ever find a way out of suffering. We humans are always in need of Hope. So, that’s where God’s Easter message comes in.

But, of course, Hope devoid of the reality of suffering can quickly drift into frivolousness or denial of true human pain. Hope that fails to acknowledge suffering can seem so cheery that the very people who need Hope most can see it as saccharin and frivolous.
Or, to avoid pain, far too many of us drown our sorrows in all sorts of quick fixes…drugs, shopping, alcohol and all manner of pain-numbing devices that we think will pull us out of our sufferings.

Taken together, can we not see that we need BOTH Good Friday *and* Easter?

Holy Week is a story that comes to us as an entire drama. Yes, it has several acts. But to focus *only* on Good Friday risks just watching “Act One” of a play. To focus *only* on Easter risks just enjoying “Act Two.”

The Gospel writers present it as a WHOLE story. 

Death, despair, suffering and sorrow…these are real things. And this week we look straight at them without flinching.

But Hope, new life, and resurrection are also a part of our story. 

The whole arc of the story is… Life…into Death…into Life. Please hear this deeply Good News.

Join us tonight and Sunday as we move deeply within the power of God’s Holy Week story.