How I Spent Easter

I had to work Easter Eve and day, so I slept for most of Easter day. No family gathering, no big meal. But it wasn’t all sleeping.

Mary and I both worked Saturday night and I knew that if we were going to make it to church it would have to be an early service. Palm Sunday I had attended the 8:15 service at Westminster Presbyterian. So my plan was, if Mary got off in time, we would go there. She did. Barely. Now, Presbyterian churches are not generally churches for the “working man” nor are they “come as you are,” so we had to dress up a little bit. But we got there on time. We missed the orchestral prelude, but that was all.

It was a pretty good service. And I am convinced that Christ The Lord Is Risen Today is probably one of the best Christian songs ever written!

I have noticed that Presbyterians like to talk in their worship services. What do I mean? The Pastor explained the “Call to Worship”, what we were going to do and how we should do it, then we did it. When we came to the “Season of Confession” he again explained in detail what we were about to do, the joy of it, and how to do it. And the Scripture Reading – he explained the setting, the series they were in, the series they were going to be in, the background of the entire Gospel, and then provided a running commentary as he read the passage! In the sermon itself, he had a couple of really good points. First, when talking about Jesus appearing to Mary at the tomb and telling her to go tell the other disciples, he emphasized that Christianity is not just personal, it is communal; that Jesus died to create the church. Amen. Second, at the end, he said, “Do you believe Jesus rose from the dead? Listen, you cannot be neutral. You either believe this or you do not. Do you believe this? Do you get it?” Amen!

Service was over by 9:20 and we went home and went to bed. I had to work that night.

I woke up around 4:30. Tonight I was gonna make my cake. Just a few minutes after I was up Mary asked me if I was planning to go to the visitation for Frances Harper. I said, “I wasn’t planning on it.” She replied, “Well, we’re going. We’ll be there maybe 10 minutes. I’m going to get ready.” I knew that was enough time to make and bake the cake, so I did just that. I took it out of the oven and set it aside to cool and we left for the funeral home. Only it wasn’t 10 minutes, it was more like an hour!

Frances and Dennis Harper and their family were pert near the core of Bible Covenant Community Church. In fact, when I came up to York to candidate, Dennis was the one I was to call. I had no idea how small York was. I called him and said, “I am at a store called Community Cash” and started to explain what else was around it. He cut me off, “I know right where you are. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” So going to this visitation was almost like going to church! Rodney & Kelly with Dean; Keith & Van with Dustin, Trent, Chad; Tammy with Mary Beth and Chelsea; Kenny & Wendy; Bobby with Drew and Bryan; Shane; and also Kevin & Darlene; Josh & Christa; David Adams; Gary Rohrer; I saw Steve McElroy but the line was long and didn’t get to speak to him (I assume Brenda was with him). My how the children and young people have grown! Where once there had been children and young people, now there were young men and women, fiancées and babies! Don’t tell Mary, even though she drug me there, it was good to go and see all those beloved brethren.

We went back home and ate some supper and I got ready to go to work. One more night, then a day off, then two more days and week of vacation. Oh boy am I ready for a break.

That night a lady came by that I have not seen in a while. A crazy lady who tells me the same stories every time she comes in: I should be divorced, my husband abuses me, I am a very sick person and so on. She came in and said, “I haven’t seen you in awhile, how are you?” I said, “I’m fine. What can I get you?” She replied, “You didn’t ask me how I was doing.” Which was on purpose, because I didn’t want to get her started. Too late! Off she went about how she should have gotten a divorce a long time ago, lawyers wouldn’t help her, her brother in law who is living with them tried to kill her with a hammer, she called the police but they wouldn’t do anything, she died a while back for a little while. Then she asked me, “Have you ever died?” I paused a moment, after all, that is a rather strange question and replied, “Evidently not.” She said, “I guess you don’t believe . . . Now how did I come back (to life when she died)? Oh yeah, my legs were paralyzed for a while.” A couple of other customers came in and required my attention so she left. I told the first customer, a guy who come in all the time after work, “Man, thank you for coming in!” He said, “Yeah, you looked like you needed help.” The rest of the night was rather uneventful.

Anyway, that’s how I spent my Easter.