Author: Mary Lu Warstler     Book: Three For The Third Day and Services for Special Days

Q. A glimpse at Mary Lu’s background.

A. In 1985, after 25 years as a clergy spouse, Reverend Mary Lu Warstler was ordained in the United Methodist Church. In fifteen years of active ministry, she served two churches (Kenmore in Akron, and Bucyrus First). After retirement in 2000 she served two small country churches and turned to a new direction of ministry – writing.

Q. Sometimes things never change, even when we want them to, is that right?

A. As a minister’s spouse and, then as minister, I was responsible for many of the special programs both for children and adults. I soon learned that much of the material written for special days – Easter Sunrise, Christmas Eve, and even Mother’s and Father’s Days – were written with a lot of younger children in mind. While this is good, and certainly we don’t want to omit the children, many churches at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries, were lacking in that department. And yet these services were traditional and expected.

Q. Compare the seasons of Christmas and Easter.

A. Easter is the most important special day of the church year. Christmas with all its pageantry and celebration of the birth would be meaningless without Lent and Easter – the death and resurrection. The season of Advent seems to lead to the birth with anticipation that builds until Christmas Day. Lent, on the other hand, moves more toward the passion and death culminating in the day of waiting after Good Friday.

Q. What is important about the Sunrise Service?

A. It is difficult to make the transition from suffering and death to resurrection and joy. It is much easier to anticipate the birth of a child, which is an ordinary experience, but how do we anticipate the resurrection, which is not such an ordinary experience? It stretches our faith to believe and rejoice. The early service – or sunrise service – can help with that transition. When the women went to the tomb, they were still mourning. They returned with joyous news to tell the others. Peter and John then had to go see for themselves. We can’t go see for ourselves, except through drama and imagination.

Q. Why did you write three different services for Easter Sunrise?

A. Three for the Third Day – three sunrise services for Easter morning (the Third Day) – was written for churches with a mixture of age groups. The older generation can enjoy doing some of the things children traditionally did – plays with adults playing the part of children, intergenerational programs that incorporate all ages, programs with speaking and non-speaking parts (not everyone likes to, or is able to, speak before a group of people, even if they are friends).

Q. Drama is an alternative to preaching. Is it an effective instrument of change?

A. The church – like the world around us - is changing. We don’t always like those changes, but we must adapt or miss the joy of serving Christ in the church. Drama and music are two of the connecting bonds between the generations. Most of us have a little “ham” in us and enjoy acting. We need to give our people – old and young – the opportunity to use any latent talents that God has bestowed upon them.

The Easter Sunrise service – or simply the early service of Easter – sometimes is forgotten in our hurry and anticipation to get to the “main” attraction of the day – the Easter Service. But the early service bridges the gap between Good Friday and the Resurrection joy. After the women lead us to the empty tomb, then we can celebrate Easter with joy and song.