Holy Week 2017 at Grace Church was filled with activity and gatherings, with some newness and much that was familiar. This year, for the first time, we held a Maundy Thursday service (on Thursday of all nights!). We gathered in the Fireside Room and packed it full with just over 50 people. In that cosy and intimate setting, we reenacted the story of Jesus’ last night with his disciples through Scripture reading, prayer, song, and Communion (and the acoustics of our a cappella singing in the Fireside Room were terrific). Our Good Friday service gave attention to the story of Jesus’ passion as told in the Gospel of Mark. Throughout the service, while hearing Mark’s account, we also had another eye on the larger biblical storyline and the repeated exiles of the people of God away from God’s presence in which there is life and the fullness of joy. We did this in order to help us realize that what Jesus underwent on the cross was nothing less than the exile we sinners and rebels deserve so that we might have a way back into God’s presence. These gatherings were only preliminary, however. The true climax of Holy Week, the true center of the Christian faith, is the Easter joy we shared and celebrated on Sunday morning. It was a morning of much song, the joy of new life that is marked by baptism, the hope that springs from the empty grave, and the goodness and wonder of presence of our risen Lord by the power of his Spirit at the table of the Lord’s Supper. He is risen! He is returning! We will be raised with him! Praise be to God.