Good Friday

I went to Maundy Thursday service last night at Round Hill. It was nice. Before communion I really tried to confess my sins and ask forgiveness and pray for those I'd hurt. I was reminded of the Catholic mass I sometimes watch on EWTN. They get to confess their sins to a priest and are clean for communion. But there's no priest in the Presbyterian Church. So I tried to be forgiven before I took communion. Today I went to the community Good Friday service at a local United Presbyterian Church. A lot of churches participate in this service. I always like to go because of that. The minister of the church that hosts this is African-American, and his wife is white. This was unheard of when I was a child. It was very segregated. Black people went to black churches, and white people went to white churches. It's great how times of changed. Now people accept an African-American minister of a white church. Interracial marriage was taboo here when I was growing up, and now it's accepted. There were many elderly people at church today who never would have accepted this when I was young. There was a minister at the service who I know used to be a segregationist and now he preaches alongside the African-American minister. There really IS hope!

I wanted to quote part of the Prayer of Confession. I really liked it and needed it: "O God, we come thoughtfully, reminded by the holiness of this day, that our sins are serious and, for You, incredibly costly...we quietly confess that we are sinful people, needing the divine forgiveness He came to provide. So self-centered, so forgetful of others' needs, so casual about our faith, so much lovers of things rather than people who love You, we pray for cleansing and for change in our lives. We thank You that You forgive and that You make us new."

I could not stay for the whole service. It's over three hours and has an intermission every half hour or so. I got to hear three ministers. One is a neighbor I run into while jogging! I really liked something the Wesleyan minister emphasized in his talk. His talk was about the fact that Jesus forgave the thief next to him on the cross and took that thief with him, entered back into heaven accompanied by a thief. I think I like Jesus so much because he cares about the rejected, because he completely accepted the rejected. I feel like one of the rejects and outcasts, so that part of Jesus' ministry while here on earth really appeals to me.