Easter 2014 Tweaking Tradition

Celebrating Easter is something I look forward to more than most things in my life.  Having the anticipatory Lent and Holy Week prior to Easter Sunday, not to mention the tiredness and long hours, all make me ready for a day packed with praise and worship fueled by adrenaline.  

There are a few decoration traditions here at Word of Peace that have been observed the entire 10 years I have worked at the church.  They weren't bad, but this year we had a few additions that made us rethink the traditional decoration scheme.

For starters we needed to incorporate the very large tomb from the Holy Week Walk.  The point was for those who attended to be invited back for Sunday worship to hear the rest of the story.  Check out the Holy Week Walk post here.

The other issues on Easter Sunday consist of figuring where to put all the people who come to worship, brass, choir and pastors in and amongst the decorations.

This year we had a wonderful theme of butterflies.  We hung them from the center of the sanctuary and made a large banner for behind the altar.  We also had around 75 fresh spring plants that are scattered around the chancel (stage) area.  

The other large object is the Good Friday cross.  This is the tradition that needed to be tweaked.  We pounded nails into it on Friday and normally on Sunday we flip it over and place the flowers in and around the cross.  But that would take up too much space with new large tomb.  What to do?

In the end we still used the cross at the foot of the tomb.  We rolled the stone away and placed flowers around all of it.  It was truly beautiful.  We received many great comments on the decorations and I was glad to continue to use the traditional cross in a new way.

Tomb and Cross

Altar and Butterfly Banner

Flowers around musicians

Dealing with Tradition

First of all, tradition is not a bad thing.  We would never be where we are as a church without our traditions.  But, we would also NOT be where we are today if we would have not broken tradition.  There is a fine balance and it is not easy to walk that line.  

In the area of creative worship it is implied that there will be new ideas.  Being creative is not just about sticking to the rules and doing the same thing year after year.  To me that actually sounds like there might be a lack of creativity.  

For me, my creative juices flow when I see something inspiring or moving.  Many times they come from looking at traditional things and wondering how we can use them in a more modern / contemporary way.  

In the case of the tomb and the cross we had two major center pieces, both with significant meaning on Easter.  Without the cross there is no need for the tomb and without the empty tomb there is no point to Easter, no forgiveness...death wins.  But Jesus did not stay dead and that is the reason we need to be reminded of both his death and resurrection.

In the same way we as a church need to remember where we came from and those traditions that got us this far.  As a church we should strive to hold those traditions dear and continue to create new traditions that will sustain the church for years to come.

Blessings,

Dain