Shepherd's Voice: From the Rector #7

THE EASTER TRIDUUM:

The Lord’s Supper. . . The Evening Service of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday begins the Easter Triduum. We will gather before the service for a traditional Agape Supper at 6:45 PM. After the supper (“after supper he took the cup of wine”) we gather in the church at 7:30 PM. The service does not feel particularly Lenten. “Blessed be God” and “Glory to God in the highest” are said and sung rather than “Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins” and “Lord have mercy”. The vestments for the service are white, not purple as they are in Lent, or red as they are on Passion Sunday and on Good Friday. Bells are rung throughout “Glory to God in the highest” – we have a few bells (thanks to Thelma Barlow) but if you have a bell, please feel free to bring one (or more so that others can ring too) and RING, RING, RING! The theme of repentance which dominates Lent is completely replaced by a theme of discipleship and what it means to be the Body of Christ. After the Liturgy of the Word which expresses these themes, all are invited to participate in two rites which most clearly illustrate what exactly the Body of Christ is.
The first rite is the Washing of Feet. This ritual dates back to the Last Supper when Jesus himself washed the feet of his disciples and directed all of his followers to do the same. When we have our feet washed, we are mirroring what happened to the disciples at the Last Supper: they had their feet washed. When we wash the feet of another person, we move from being someone who acts as a follower of Christ to one who is actively living out his or her identity as Christ’s Body in the world. For many people, the custom of washing feet is strange very or even icky… a classic case of crossing boundaries that today’s society prefers not to cross. The same can probably be said for visiting and ministering to those who are imprisoned, those who are sick, and those who are homeless… not to mention claiming to eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ on a regular basis. Washing feet is a ritual that serves as a stark reminder that being a Christian means occasionally being out of our comfort zone and doing hands on work that others might prefer to avoid. I’ll be honest, I was not looking forward to having my feet washed or washing another’s feet the first Maundy Thursday that I participated in this ancient Christian ritual, but as soon as I began, I realized that being a Christian means ministering to others in ways that might seem off-putting to most people. It’s the first of many different rituals offered during the Easter Triduum in which all the people literally take the part of Jesus Christ, and I hope you will give it a try this year. If you have never washed feet or had your feet washed… take the plunge!

The second rite is the Holy Eucharist. What always strikes me is how identical this Maundy Thursday service is to every other celebration of the Eucharist. We say the same prayers, in the same place, and eat and drink the same food that we do every Sunday, and I think that is part of the point. What makes Maundy Thursday’s Eucharist so special is that it is not something that happens just one time each year, but rather that it happens every time we gather together. On Maundy Thursday the connection between the Eucharist and discipleship is made obvious: One who has been baptized into the Body of Christ is nourished by Jesus himself at the altar, eating and drinking of Christ, and then goes forth into the world to actively live out that identity by proclaiming Christ’s presence in word and deed. The Body of Christ present in the Sacrament and the Body of Christ present in the believer is one and the same.

The conclusion of the Maundy Thursday service is primarily about preparing for Good Friday. The Eucharistic Sacrament is moved to another location so that the altar and sanctuary may be completely
stripped and made bare. (See Foot Note 1)

The service then concludes as the altar and sanctuary are stripped. During the stripping of the altar Psalm 22, which contains many prophesies about the Passion which will be read on Good Friday, is read in its entirety. The service ends in silence as we await the Passion on Good Friday.

The Passion . . . The Good Friday service includes four distinct parts: The Passion, the Prayers of the People (said in their most ancient form which is only used on Good Friday), the showing of the Cross, and Communion. The obvious focus is the Passion and Cross of Christ, though it is important to note that praying for others and receiving Communion are equally important components to the service and they are two things the church does every time it gathers.

For the last two months I have led a class on the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ for adults and members of our Confirmation Class. At the same time, I have led the Stations of the Cross twice each week during Lent – which is a great privilege and pleasure in a church where the stations are art both beautiful and handmade by a member of the parish. I have led the Stations of the Cross many times in the years since I was ordained as a priest, and this is the third time I’ve taught a class on the Passion narratives. This year has been really special: new things have been revealed to me at every session of the class and every time I walk the Way of the Cross. In past years I have marveled at how prophesies and pieces of the Passion accounts are woven together with well known prayers from the Prayer Book to produce fourteen Stations. This year, the most striking thing to me has been the contrast between the individual Passion narratives and the Stations of the Cross.

Reading one of the Passion accounts is not the same as walking the Way of the Cross. The Passion accounts, even when read by the Congregation in assigned parts, are taken directly from one of the Gospels. On Palm Sunday this year, we will read Luke’s account – word for word – of the Passion and Death of Jesus. On Good Friday (at 7:30 PM) we will read John’s account – word for word – of the Passion and Death of Jesus. To put it bluntly, the Passion, whether from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John is the Gospel… and each evangelist has things specific and unique to proclaim about Jesus. When we read the Passion, we are reading Saint John or Saint Matthew or Saint Mark or Saint Luke. Standing in contrast to that is the free and loose way that the Stations of the Cross pull not only from the different Passion accounts, but also from other parts of the New Testament, from the Old Testament, and even from extra-Biblical tradition. This is because the Stations of the Cross developed in an environment that already took for granted not only the reading of the different Passion accounts, but also knowledge of the Old and New Testament and extra-Biblical tradition. (See Foot Note 2)  They were designed to allow Christians to “go deeper” and experience the Passion accounts that they knew so well and heard every year from yet another perspective. I have enjoyed Lent this year in part because I have been able to walk the Way of the Cross with the Gospel accounts clearly in mind. What I noticed this year was that that perspective is quite Marian: the song associated with the Stations which we sing moving around the church is about both Jesus and Mary, and two of the Stations involve Mary in ways that go beyond what the Evangelists narrate. I’m happy to be in a place where it is possible to notice such new perspectives.

This year, as in past Holy Weeks, Good Shepherd will offer both the reading of different Passions and Stations of the Cross. (See Foot Note 3)

This Lent a group of us were able to read all of the Passion Narratives and also walk the Way of the Cross. I invite you this Holy Week to take the opportunity of experiencing the Passion in the primary liturgies of the church on Palm Sunday (8:00 AM and 10:00 AM) and Good Friday (7:30 PM) and also in one the church’s most treasured devotions, the Stations of the Cross (Good Friday 12:00 PM and 6:45 PM).

and the Resurrection! . . . Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have eternal life! The celebration of God’s victory over the powers of sin and death is at the heart of every Christian gathering… but there are no celebrations quite like the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday!

The Vigil begins at 7:30 PM on Saturday night, April 3 – after the sun sets. (We will have a pasta potluck supper beforehand at 6:45 PM). The service starts in the darkness in front of the church with the kindling of the Easter Fire. The Paschal Candle is then prepared and lit off of the new fire. The congregation’s hand candles are then lit off the Paschal Candle as we process into the church – a great image of the spreading of the Gospel to all lands. Once in the church, the Easter Exsultet (an ancient hymn that is only sung on Easter Eve) is proclaimed in the candle light. Several of the great prophesies and prayers are then read concluding with Saint Matthew’s account of the resurrection. After the Gospel, the people renew their Baptismal vows (the only time this is done during the year when there isn’t a Baptism), and the Holy Eucharist is celebrated. After the service we will gather for chocolate and champagne and sparkling cider in the Guild Room. The Vigil is my favorite night of the year. It concludes the services from Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and allows you to celebrate Easter as soon as possible: right after sunset! If you have never been to the Vigil… come this year, you’ll have a blast!

Easter Day is, of course, the biggest day of the church year and needs little explanation. At 10:00 AM we will have special music, classic Easter songs and hymns all celebrated in the context of the Holy Eucharist. The service will be followed by a Easter Egg Hunt! The goal is “standing room only” for the service. Bring a friend to Easter… bring ten friends to Easter!

NOTE 1 The Sacrament is reserved for the sick, but also so that Communion may be given out at the Good Friday liturgy. This practice of receiving Communion on Good Friday is nearly as old as organized observances of Good Friday and dates back to a simple demand of the people to receive communion when they gathered on that day: they received Communion when they were in church so they expected it on Good Friday. Ironically, a practice that was started by the people was taken away from them. During the Middle Ages, due mostly to very high Eucharistic theology, the laity received communion less and less frequently. It was during this time that the Sacrament was taken away from the people on Good Friday and consumed only by the priest. Recent liturgical and ecclesiological recoveries in Anglican and Roman Churches have restored the practice of allowing everyone to receive Communion on Good Friday. It is not a Roman Catholic “thing” at all since it predates denominations; receiving Communion on Good Friday makes sense because receiving Communion is what Christians do when they gather together – again the link between the Body of Christ in the Sacrament and the believer is unbreakable.

NOTE 2 The Stations of the Cross have a somewhat convoluted history. The service, also known as the Way of the Cross or Via Crucis, is a devotion that most likely finds its roots in the practice of early Christian pilgrims who visited popular traditional sites of the both Biblical and extra-Biblical events in Jerusalem. As early as the fifth century Christians began replicating the pilgrims’ tour in their own churches: the monastery of San Stefano at Bologna features a group of connected chapels intended to represent the more important shrines of Jerusalem. After the Jerusalem shrines were entrusted to the Franciscans in 1352, local versions began to appear in Europe with great frequency. The number of stations has varied wildly. Depending on whom you asked over the past 600 years the “correct” number of stations was set at seven, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, nineteen, twenty-five, thirty-one or thirty-seven. Likewise, the events depicted have varied: Christians today might be surprised that there have been as many as Seven Falls of Jesus and that a visit to the Blessed Virgin’s school was a crucial stop along the Way of the Cross. The format of fourteen was fixed in 1731. The particular sequence we use today dates from about 200 years ago and likely owes at least as much to pious devotion manuals as to attempts to replicate the Jerusalem shrines. No matter what form the Way has taken, it has become a cherished devotion for many Christians around the world. The form we use is taken from The Book of Occasional Services. Almost all of the material is from Holy Scripture. [From an article written by Matthew Mead for the Angelus Newsletter at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin]

NOTE 3 You can tell from Good Shepherd’s records that the Passion according to Matthew (or Mark or Luke) has been read on Palm Sunday throughout the parish’s history. You can also tell from parish records that the Passion according to John has been read at a service offered on Good Friday most (but not all) years in the parish’s history. Stations of the Cross have been offered most (but not all) years on Good Friday since 1981 – it is possible that some form of Stations were offered before that, but there is no explicit mention of them on Good Friday. On the other hand, forms of the Good Friday service with the reading of John’s Passion have been offered at Good Shepherd most (but not all) years in the history of the parish.

Why I Love Good Shepherd #5

“WHY I LOVE GOOD SHEPHERD” (April 2010)

This article is the fifth in a series presented by the 2010 Stewardship Committee. If you are interested in submitting an article for the series, please contact Father Matt, we’d love to print your submission! This month we continue the series with a note from Rick Vesperman:

Good Shepherd has always been home for me. It was here that I was baptized, attended Sunday School and received my confirmation. Growing up in Good Shepherd I remember that my family was always active in church happenings. Dad would usher, Mom was on the Altar Guild, my older brother (John), my little sister (Lisa) and I were all acolytes….starting as torchbearers and eventually “graduating” to Crucifers and then on to Servers. When I became “too old” to be an acolyte my Dad and I attended classes together and became Lay Readers and Chalice Bearers.

As it would happen, I took a job in Law Enforcement and found myself working most Sundays and therefore was not really able to continue my regular attendance. Then my children were born and, of course, my wife and I wanted them to grow up with a Church Family, so back to Good Shepherd we came. Even though there were many new faces in the congregation it was as if we had always been here. My children attend Sunday School almost every week and always look forward to coming to Church. On the rare occasion that we even consider taking a Sunday “off” they will not hear of it. They always want to visit with their extended family. Now that they are now following in “Daddy’s” footsteps and have become Acolytes, they ask every week if it’s their “turn” to carry the torches or the Cross, and become somewhat despondent when it is not, but also understand that they must share the fun with others.

The Good Shepherd family is exactly that, a family, complete with good times and bad, joy and sorrow, fun times and work times. But, through it all, we are always a family….ready to stand up for each other, support each other and hug each other.

THAT IS WHY I LOVE GOOD SHEPHERD!!