Read the April 18 issue of The Weekly Liberal here: The Weekly Liberal April 18

In this week’s Liberal, Rev. Justin writes:

Have you ever listened to Nora McInerny’s podcast, Terrible, Thanks for Asking? This has become a favorite in our household. I deeply appreciate how McInerny blows past the “How are you?” “I’m fine,” social interactions we all too often engage in when we aren’t fine at all. She keeps it real, talking about the death of her husband, the miscarriage of her child, and the death of her father, all in a period of a few months. In this country and culture we live in, so often our grief and despair is private, talked about in the privacy of a therapist’s office, or a one on one conversation with a minister or with a trusted loved one, or perhaps in a Circle at church; there are very few public places to name and simply be with the loss, betrayal, death, and grief that is so often a part of our lives.

Good Friday is one of those places, and this year we are holding a service at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 19. We will gather to hold and remember in a ritual way the forces of crucifixion and death, collectively and individually. Join me, Rev. Ruth MacKenzie, and Pastor Stephanie Voss (a congregant helping to craft this service) for a counter cultural time of honestly being with our sorrows and honoring the ways we have been marked by loss and grief.

Though McInerny’s podcast never says, “You can’t get to Easter without going through Good Friday first,” this reality is what makes her podcast so good. By descending into the valley of the shadow of death – that place of dimmed hope, of diminished light, of “I’m terrible, thanks for asking,” we are engaging in the spiritual work necessary for us to move toward the celebration of Easter Sunday, with its promise of new life, with its promise of the stone being rolled away from the tomb.

I’ll see you in church,
Justin