What’s good this Easter weekend?

Dear Minooka UMC Found Family,

Traditionally, we call today Good Friday as we gather to enter once again the story of Jesus’ death. It is, if we’re honest, a brutal story—as are all execution stories. So reasonable people ask, “What’s good about Good Friday?”

First, most of the rest of the world calls today Holy Friday rather than Good Friday. Maybe that would be better. Then again, maybe not as calling today Good pushes us to both ask why we call it that and to consider our answer. The helpful Ask the UMC function on the UMC website offers this:

Good Friday…proclaims God’s purpose of loving and redeeming the world even in the face of human rejection and cruelty through the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is a day that is holy and makes us holy because God was drawing the world to God’s self in Christ.

Even in just those two sentences there is plenty to parse further if we seek to understand what we mean. Much has been written and preached over the millennia trying to do just that. I won’t attempt such in this space. But I will offer these words from one of my favorite authors, John Dominic Crossan:

Our horrific cruelty to one another over the millennia has pained God. One more act of horrific cruelty, the crucifixion, did not end that pain. The God of Jesus could not be the god of any violent atonement theory, because the teachings of Jesus are incompatible with redemption through violence. Instead, the ethics of Jesus propel humankind beyond its addiction to domination through violence.

Whatever words we choose, we are only able to call today “good” because we’ve encountered the rest of Jesus’ story. We know what happens next. As the popular, hopeful refrain goes, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’!”

I’m grateful to be on this side of history and know the story of Jesus did not end with his crucifixion.

Still, for today and tomorrow, the Friday and Saturday before Easter, I invite you—encourage you, challenge you—to consider: How might those first disciples of Jesus have felt on these days knowing that imperial and religious power conspired to execute Jesus because he powerfully critiqued and threatened the domination systems from which they benefited? How might these days would feel if we didn’t know resurrection was imminent?

For the disciples—both the men all scattered to the winds and the women who stayed by Jesus’ side through his entire arrest, sham trial, and execution—their leader, their teacher, their Messiah, their friend, the embodiment of all their hope…was dead.

This Good Friday at 7:00pm and Holy Saturday at 5:00pm, we will use our worship times together in an attempt to empathize with those first followers of Jesus as we sing, pray, read, and reflect. I’m convinced that embodying the story in these ways can make Sunday’s Easter celebration even more glorious.

Then we invite you to celebrate resurrection with us this Easter Sunday, April 5th at 9:30am! Easter is both the culmination of the season of Lent and the beginning of a whole new way of being in the world. Thus, my Easter message, Wake Up Dead Man, is both a reflection on all that led us to this moment and the beginning of a new sermon series, Stories That Matter.

Finally, a reminder of our Easter Offering. As a way to express our purpose of loving God with our whole selves and loving our neighbors as ourselves, please consider making a financial gift to our Easter Offering. Generosity is a core value here at MUMC, so the first 10% (i.e. a tithe) of that offering goes to Minooka School District 201 to reduce lunch debt incurred by families experiencing financial hardship at Minooka Elementary School. 45% of Minooka Elementary School children qualify for free or reduced lunch. Jesus calls us to ease their burden. The remainder of the Easter Offering goes to our General Fund that makes all our ministry and mission possible. As with all our offerings, you can give in person, by mail, or online by visiting our giving page.

Participate in our worship experiences Sundays at 9:30 a.m. in person at 1210 S. Ridge Road in Minooka. Or via livestream on our Minooka UMC Facebook page or on our Minooka UMC YouTube Channel.

Whether in person or online, all are invited to our welcoming and affirming congregation.

Plotting Goodness, 

Pastor Dave