Grace on Tuesdays.
Better, I imagine, than a packed house for the big game, but all the fans are cheering for the same team. Passing through Moscow on my way to teach in Siberia, friends secured tickets for the Easter vigil service at the Patriarch’s Cathedral in Moscow. Yes, standing at the equivalent of box seats at the fifty yard line, it was gratifying to be so close to the action; but it was the “cheering” that is most memorable. Somewhere around ten thousand voices—filling and surrounding the cathedral—to each leader’s “Christ is arisen!” shouting back “He is risen indeed!” Whatever the struggles, this is the celebration that grace makes possible.