"Let me help you"

A Good Friday Meditation

A little girl bends over to help him with his cross.

It is the most natural thing in all the world to do.

She will follow him and help him all the way to the end.

That’s just the way she is. 

She will watch with him even when he dies. 

She will not leave him.

She will stay with him. 

On the third day, she and her friends will go to the garden to prepare him for burial.

But the stone will be rolled away.

The gardener will greet her.

She will ask; “Where have they taken him?”

It is then she will remember; “It’s you! You are the one I stooped over to help when first you fell.”

Only then will it dawn upon her that he lives! 

They won’t believe her but she knows the truth.

He lives!

You and I will not fully understand this for a very long time. But it’s all true and more besides;

In the meantime, there is this from Celtic Daily Prayer for this Good Friday

Go peaceful
in gentleness
through the violence of these days.
Give freely.
Show tenderness
in all your ways.

Through darkness,
in troubled times
let holiness be your aim.
Seek wisdom.
Let faithfulness
burn like a flame.

God speed you!
God lead you,
and keep you wrapped around His heart!
May you be known by love.

Be righteous.
Speak truthfully
in a world of greed and lies.
Show kindness.
See everyone
through heaven’s eyes.

God hold you,
enfold you,
and keep you wrapped around His heart.
May you be known by love.

~Celtic Daily Prayer, Paul Field

(The image from above is from the Episcopal Cultural Network)

How can this be "Good" Friday?

Good Friday at 7pm

It is Good Friday the day Jesus died for us and for our sins.

I don’t have to tell you what death looks like. You have seen it with your own eyes all too often. When we look at the cross and its suffering we know that we have done the same a hundred times with our loved ones and our friends.

This week on PBS almost as it it came timed perfectly, we had the opportunity to watch the most recent KenBurns masterpiece; “Cancer: the Emperor of all maladies.” More than once, if you were like me, we fought back the tears as the relentless and conniving cancer cells found their way around so many promising clinical efforts to treat the disease. 

And so we fix our eyes tonight on Jesus. Seeing him upon the cross once again is a reminder of just how ugly sin can be, particularly when it joins with death in its consummation.

The experience reminds me of the finality of coming to a brick wall, or the frozen icy grave of winter’s long and relentless grip. 

Oh God!

That is all we have left at that moment; God!

A wise nun once taught me a lesson I shall not soon forget about Good Friday. Begin, she said, by making a list in your heart of the ten most important things in your life. Don’t think you have to come up with all ten right now but the list might contain your spouse, your children each by name, your career, your faith, friends, God, Jesus and/or the Holy Spirit, hobbies, travel, savings and investments, your mind, your memory and your intelligence. Everyone’s list will contain specifics that are peculiar to your own personhood.

Now, imagine that it is the last ten days of your life and you have to give up one item on your list of ten most important things each day. 

You come to the last day and you must now give up that one last and most precious thing. This is where Good Friday becomes very, very Good indeed. That is because even if you may have forgotten to put Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit on your list; God cannot forget to put you on that list.

As life slips away the Great Mystery of Good Friday is that we fall into the hands of God.

I received a phone call one day from a doctor whose family was gathering at a local hospital in Euclid, Ohio where I was serving at the time. They were members of the Church of Mar Thoma, a church that shares full communion with the Episcopal Church. 

When I arrived at the bedside of the dying woman she gave me a look of recognition as to why we were all so lovingly gathered together. I said the prayers prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer “At the Time of Death”. I anointed her with oil, I gave her communion. And then we awaited the final moment. During the vigil we sang the songs she taught her children when they were young; “Jesus love me, this I know.” We recited the Psalms she loved; “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil”, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help”, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear though the earth be moved and thought the mountains be toppled into the depths of the sea”. And on and on it went until her last moments came, and she gave up her spirit and she breathed her last. 

At that moment the eldest daughter looked up as if heaven were contained within that room and exclaimed; “Look, there goes Momee into heaven!” There was a paroxysm of grief and the family embraced one another and I said the final commendation. There were tears of gratitude for the love and care that was in that room and throughout the life of that family.

But more than that we all found our faith again even in that darkest moment.

Good Friday is very Good indeed.

Christ has died

Christ is risen

Christ will come again

And now may the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, evermore. Amen

Holy Week and Easter

Holy Week and Easter

We come now to the Holiest time in the Christian Year: we enter Holy Week. On Palm Sunday we greet Jesus with Palm Branches and joy at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And then moments later we read the Passion Narrative and contemplate the mystery of his life and death.

On Maundy Thursday we commemorate the Institution of the Lord’s Supper and reenact the “maundy” or the foot washing of the disciples’ feet by Jesus. Here Jesus turns the world upside down by telling us that the greatest among us is also to be the servant of all. The “Jesus Theme”; the first shall be last and the last first is acted out before our very eyes. And then the church is put into darkness as we strip the altar and prepare for the reality of Good Friday which no one will ever escape.

The Cross stands before us on Good Friday as a stark and yet glorious reminder of God’s power over sin and death which Jesus accomplishes in his Passion. The Love of God is triumphant in the Cross of Christ, as the haunting melody repeats itself each year; “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”.

At the Great Vigil, we watch with all those in every age have watched with those who have died in the hope of the Resurrection. Jesus is the first fruits of that hope. The Paschal Candle is lighted and carried into the church. From this single candle the Light then fills the church with its radiance and then bursts forth with a blaze of glory. 

Easter Day! Jesus Christ is Risen today! Welcome Happy Morning! And the host of saints in heaven and on earth break into song. 

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

Our Holy Week schedule is as follows:

Palm Sunday Services

5pm, Saturday, March 28

8am, Palm Sunday

10am, Palm Sunday

Maundy Thursday

7pm Holy Eucharist, Foot Washing and Stripping of the Altar

Good Friday

Noon; The Way of the Cross

7pm: Solemn Collect and the reading of John’s Passion Narrative

The Great Vigil of Easter

7pm: The Lighting of the Paschal Candle and Celebration of the First Eucharist of Easter

EASTER DAY

8am Easter Day Eucharist with Choir and Music

10am Festival Holy Eucharist

Everyone Invited!

Many of you know of somebody who has not been to church recently. Here’s an idea. Extend a simple invitation. Tell someone how much you love your church and of how important this time of year is to you. Extend a welcome invitation to someone in the family, among your friends or a neighbor.

If ever there is a time of the year to open the door of our hearts and our church this is it!

There are many ample opportunities for us to gather for worship this week. Make sure you take advantage of those opportunities.

And Happy Easter to one and all!

Fr Paul