The Middle Day - That Day Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday

These days I live in the Middle, between letting go of worn-out ways of being, and cultivating vitality in relationships, expectations, choices, faith. I transition through the season between winter with wet, windy gray days, and visions of glorious days of sunshine and clouds of dogwood blossoms in the woods. I journey to let go of launched children, and to foster adult relationships with them. I travel with other leaders envisioning new ways of being church, and letting go of focus on where we’ve been. I’m on the path beyond Germanic, traditional music that structured my early worship experiences toward hearing the Word, and feeling the Spirit in language and music of today with our worshipping community. I travel through Lent, and intend to rest on the Middle day of Easter Saturday, ready to enter the transforming celebration of sunrise Easter joy in knowing The Christ lives today.

What does that Middle Day mean to you? When I was a child that was the day we colored the Easter eggs. When my girls were preschoolers that was the day we planned a treasure hunt of clues to find Easter chocolates and trinkets the next morning. Some years the focus of that day has been to rehearse with a large choir for a 5 a.m. Easter Vigil service on Sunday morning, chanting quiet music before dawn then swelling to the magnificent Hallelujah Chorus at sunrise.

Britannica says that the early church closed Lent with baptisms. Other worshiping communities intentionally experience a day of silence to remember and renew. Some light candles to remember the Light of the World. Some people spend the day in energetic preparation for the Easter Feast with family that follows the Easter Feast at the Lord’s Table. Our church invites the community to its annual midday “Easter Egg Hunt”, and to support two Valpo social services: New Creation Resale Shop and the Hilltop Neighborhood House Pantry.

Some folks experience a Sadder Day, a season of thought, perhaps memories and gentle grief, perhaps self-reflection and repentance, perhaps quiet meditation seeking peace and grace in the 40 hours between Good Friday and Easter Morning. How will you choose to spend your Middle Day between the sin and salvation of the cross and the surprising wonder and joy of Easter’s empty tomb?

Linda Long, Elder