Good Friday Service

Friday night we went to the Good Friday Service at Duke Chapel and let me say, it was an awesome experience.  It started off like a typical service with hymns sung and a brief sermon.  After that, there six candles and a "Christ" candle lit up front.  Someone came and read six passages from Matthew, starting with the scene in Gethsamane and ending with the crucifixion.  After each passage was read, we sung a line from a hymn and a candle was extinguished.  By the end, all of the candles and all of the lights were cut off in the chapel.  When I say all of the lights, I mean ALL of the lights!

If you ever wondering what a big chapel like Duke's looks like with all the lights off at night, it's really dark.  As I was sitting there, I was expecting the lights to come back on after a few seconds, but they didn't.  I kept hoping they would come back on, but they still didn't.  The thought that ran through my mind at that point was, "this is what the disciples must have felt like after Jesus died."  Total dispair, waiting for something to happen, but nothing.  They had placed ALL of their hopes on this man being their Messiah and now he's dead.  To me it only added to the awesomeness of the ressurection.  It was truly and amazing experience.

Also, we were in a thunderstorm, so shortly after the lights went off we had lightning that lit up the entire chapel, followed by a huge clap of thunder!