Top 10 Ways for Pastors to Observe Holy Saturday

Stop working feverishly on your Easter sermon...don't plan the Easter Egg hunt for the kids. Take a day for you--yourself, not you-as-pastor--to observe something of the events of Holy Week. I don't know a lot of places that hold a worship service on Holy Saturday (at least, before an Easter Vigil)...so with your free time, try one of the things on this list:

10) Launder or dry-clean your robes and/or stoles so they will be fresh and clean for Easter.

9) Listen to some appropriate music: classical Requiems, Taize choruses, traditional hymns, Gregorian chant, Latin motets, contemporary songs...take your pick. But wait until Sunday for peppy Easter music!

8) Put away the leftover Christmas decorations that never got into a box.

7) Reflect on the places where you've failed in the past year. Ask for forgiveness and "time for the amendment of life," as the old prayer says. Remember that Jesus knows the shame of failure in the cross, and that he died for that as well.

6) Garden. There's a reason that God put Adam and Eve in a garden, the lovers of the Song of Songs in a garden, and a garden at the heart of the city of God in Revelation...not to mention Jesus' resurrection. Go pull some weeds or plant some bulbs.

5) Volunteer at a social ministry on your own time. Spend some time in the abandoned places of empire, with people that society has discarded. It's what Jesus would do.

4) Observe the old English tradition of "beating the bounds." Walk (or drive) around your parish--not your church, but the community you're appointed to. Go to the places you never make it to or that make you uncomfortable. Remember why you got into this ministry gig in the first place.

3) Pray. It's hard to find time for your own relationship with God as a pastor. Get with a friend, your family (gasp!), or just find some time for yourself to be honest and open with God, and to hear what hope the Spirit has for your future.

2) Read something you want to read...not to prep for a sermon or a study group. Even if it's just the funny papers.

1) Rest. “On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.” (Luke 23:56b) Take some sabbath time, for yourself to rest in what God has accomplished for you, your family, your ministry, your community.

May waiting in the desperate faith of Holy Saturday lead you to the joy of resurrection on Easter Sunday!

Preschooler Theology, Part I

Sitting with Ben this morning, who isn't feeling well. So we were reading out of the Psalms, 118:19-24, and talking about the events of Holy Week. In trying to explain about the imagery of the "gates of justice" and "God's own gates," I asked, "Sometimes we go to visit God--where do we go to visit God? At church?" and he says, "Yes." Then he paused. "And sometimes if we are sick or not feeling well, God comes to visit us!"

For an almost-4-year-old, Ben has a pretty good grip on the Biblical story and character of God, I think.