Good Friday at home

It rained during the night, so it was cold and damp this morning. We were asked to get into the house around 8 for the distribution of presents. They have a gift exchange on Good Friday since Pieder views it as the day of spiritual rebirth. Since it was the day Christ died in our place and took our sin to Hell, we should rejoice instead of mourn. There is much to that but ignores the contrition we should feel since it was our sin that caused the need for the crucifixion in the first place. Be that as it may the celebration was exactly like the traditional Christmas one without the tree and Christmas carols. We then enjoyed pancakes for brunch. We finally got to take showers and clean up properly before the afternoon party commenced. There were 17 of us plus the Beelis. Emily and the girls had developed a follow the clues hunt, but it had to be done virtually since the grass was wet. It was fun anyway. Then Pieder gave a “sermon” on the mistranslations of the scriptural references of “sin”. His theory is that Christians cannot sin or at least are not under the jurisdiction of the law which outlines what sin is. It was well done and followed by Emily’s playing the guitar and leading a song about being dead to sin but alive in Christ. We then enjoyed grazing around the kitchen island filled with snack foods. I forgot to learn the time of the worship service tonight but believe it will be at 7 just as the Maundy Thursday service was. We played some card games with the kids after the guests had gone and began going on line to find more information about churches in the area. We were surprised to find the church we had attended and planned to attend to be “gay accommodating” along with some other churches in town. Since it was too late to make it to another church, we just stayed home. I don’t remember the last time we failed to go to an evening worship service on Good Friday, but we had been to one here. We continued the game and then watched a movie, “Babe” with the younger kids. We will go to the Y tomorrow after the kids have music lessons.