Last night I was part of a Maundy Thursday service. I am part of the Rutland Interfaith Council, and we do community services at times, including Holy Week. It was held at Brandon Congregational Church in Brandon, VT. Tonight I will be part of a Good Friday service, again done by pastors of the Interfaith Council, this time at the Union Church in Proctor, Vermont.

The service last night was a Tennebrae service. From what I know of tonight’s service, it will be the same. The word Tennebrae comes from the Latin word meaning “darkness”. It refers to the dark time near the end of Jesus’ life on this earth.

When we (or at least when I) think of Christ, I think of love and light. Of miracles and wise teachings. Of joy and the commandment to love one another. But these last few days before Easter are anything but bright and light-filled. Consider… just before the Last Supper, Judas, one of the twelve, trusted and even loved, is revealed as Christ’s betrayer. Dark, Jesus pleads in the Garden as he prays that what is to come might be stopped. Dark. Then the arrest, kangaroo courts, humiliation and torture by soldiers, a sentencing when everyone knows he is innocent, and finally… crucifixion. Dark, oh so dark.

And so the services are often Dark. Last night, all who came sat around tables with bread and wine (Well, grape juice), and candles. We held communion, remembering. Then those of us who were part of the service each read from the story of those last days before Easter. After each reading, a few candles were put out, until the last, when the room was dark.

And stayed dark. The light did not, does not, come back until Easter.

It’s not everyone’s favorite service. I can’t say it is mine. But I think remembering the dark times helps put the light and joy of Easter in a new perspective.

I am old. Well, 69. I am old enough that I remember when the album “Jesus Christ, Superstar” came out. A lot of the music does not hold up over the decades, but there is this one section… when we hear, with music in the background, the crack of the whip. Again and again. I was, teenager that I was, shocked by the visceral emotion that left me with. I had a different kind of feeling about the last few days of Holy Week. It was as if I could feel his pain and was at turns sad and angry. I still can’t hear that album without the same reaction I had when I was young. It brings me to tears. Even to think of it brings me to tears.

Understanding the dark. Jesus’ dark and our own. I believe it is important. Because in that darkness we regain a perspective on easter that we forget sometimes. The comparison of that time of loss, betrayal, condemnation, and torture next to the resurrection is breathtaking.

But only if we acknowledge and feel the dark.

Easter is coming. I cannot wait to rejoice. The darkness weighs heavy. Which will make the light sweeter still. A lesson I cling to in the season. Not just the Easter Season, but the season and times we are living in now.

I hope you have a blessed Easter. May it be a true light in your soul.

Be well. Travel wisely.

Tom