-- Mark 16:2
The
green palm branches wave in the air; the bitter taste of wine lingers on our
tongues. From a raucous procession
through the gates of Jerusalem to a hushed and darkened upper room, from the
passionate prayers of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane to the courtyard of the
religious and governing officials…from crowds hailing him as king to crowds
crying, “Crucify him!” we begin April with the conclusion of Holy Week and the
textures, symbols, tastes and smells that bring us into that story. On Good Friday, the dry stiff wood of the
cross reminds us of the hard truths of sin, and the penetrating nails recall
the pain of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Good Friday will be April 3 this year, and at
noon that day we will be adding a new service to our worship experiences at
Atonement. The Way of the Cross is a
based on the traditional Stations of the Cross, signposts of the path Jesus
took to and through the crucifixion.
Around the sanctuary we will place pictures representing each of the key
moments in the story of Christ’s passion.
These “stations” depict Christ’s suffering from when he was condemned to
death to when he was laid in the tomb.
We will travel from one to another, following the way that Jesus took,
stopping for prayer and Scripture reading at each. You are welcome to join us Good Friday for
this special service, along with our usual Good Friday service at 7pm.Our evening services for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday will continue the series we have experienced all through Lent centered on the parables of Jesus. Each of these little tales that Jesus tells reveals something new about who he is and what he has done for us. Jesus tells the story of a great banquet where all the guests skip out. With the intended guests absent, the host has the servants go out into the streets and invite whoever they find – the poor, crippled, blind, and lame. This “broken” banquet becomes the celebration of God’s kingdom – a parody of a fancy, 4-star, “a- list” extravaganza. This is who we are when we come to God – broken ones who have been invited into something we were never fit for ourselves, but because of the hospitality of the host, we find ourselves welcomed and given a place.
The parable for our Good Friday service will be the story of a landowner who leases his land out to tenants. He had a beautiful vineyard on that land, which gave sweet and luscious fruit. There was a fine fence and a tall watchtower, and a press for the grapes. Things were all set up for the tenants to harvest those grapes and make fine wine – all the landowner wanted was his share of what they produced. So the day came for the owner to collect his share, and he sent a slave to receive it. Instead of welcoming this servant of their benefactor, instead of treating him as an ambassador of an ally or as the messenger of a friend, they beat the slave, sending him back to his master with nothing but bumps on his head and a bruised ego. The master sent another slave, and the same thing happened – then another, and another – each and every servant was beaten and sent away, or else killed. Finally the master makes a risky decision: “I’ll send my son! They will respect him, I’m sure.” But the master has made a horrible miscalculation, and the evil that his tenants began gets capped off with the murder of the landlord’s beloved son.
While Jesus tells these tales, he is telling his own story and ours as well. Before he went to the cross, he let us know about a God who was so in love he sent a son, who in love opened his banquet hall to all, and who in love gives life beyond life. At our 8am service on Easter, we will hear a final parable. This one is about a pair of men who both build houses. They both work hard putting up their houses. They both use the best materials they can find. They both follow the best plans available. Only, one man’s house is built on a rock while the other is build on sand. Their passion and commitment and investment are identical – the only difference is where they started. A storm came like a Florida hurricane -- with unrelenting rain beating down on the roof from above, and fierce winds battering the walls from the sides. When morning came, the house on the rock was standing strong, but the house built on sand… As Jesus said, “Great was its fall!” Death did its worst to defeat Jesus, to wash him away in its flood of destruction and sweep him out to sea. But in the morning, Easter morning, it was death whose house came crashing down.
God has a place for us in this Easter story. Around the table Maundy Thursday, receiving bread and wine that are more than bread and wine… at the foot of the cross on Good Friday, mourning our beloved Lord and leader, our God and friend…at the garden tomb with Mary Easter morning, gaping through the opening at the emptiness inside, wondering at what has just happened and what that means for my life from this moment on. This is your story as you face the awesome reality of resurrection, a story of the amazing possibilities that exist for all who trust in the God who created and redeemed all things.
The green palm branches wave in the air; the bitter taste of wine lingers on our tongues; the raw wood of the cross reminds us of the hard truths of sin, and the penetrating nails recall the pain of Jesus’ sacrifice. The symbols of Lent reach a minor key climax in Holy Week, only to transpose into the major crescendo of Easter. Suddenly, everything changes. Life is restored. Hope returns. The life we thought we were living all along, the one where death is the end of it all, wasn’t the true life after all. Here is something new, and our world can never be the same. All this time we’ve been travelling through a long dark tunnel, but now we’ve reached the tunnel’s end and have burst out into the light. Come along for the ride. Jesus is risen: Hallelujah!
Peace,
Pastor Scott
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