Holy Week 2024

 Palm/Passion Sunday, Trinity Warsaw

Good Morning friends.

This is a day full of extreme emotions. The liturgy speaks for itself, to me there are two things to remember about the Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday.
First,
 When Jesus enters Jerusalem, the people are still expecting a King who will overthrow the Empire, and they are cheering Jesus on to mock the Roman pageantry of the day. Most of his followers thought that Rome would be de-throned immediately. Their rejoicing was all about revenge on Rome—only later did the triumphal entry take on today's flavor ---cheering even though Rome would think they "won" in a few short days. We cheer because we know that no earthly power or principality will ever defeat the Love of God, no matter how dark the night of our circumstance may seem.
Secondly,
When we cry out, "Crucify Him," when Peter says, "I do not know the man," we are reminded that the power of our faith must stay stronger than all the powers and principalities of this day, of our time. When you see memes and posters and bumper stickers that say, "That Love everybody thing? I really mean it," it's directed toward you and me. When we gossip about others, when we judge others, when we sit on our hands while injustice roils around us, when we keep our mouths shut when vitriol is spewed around us, when we let hate get the last word, we are screaming "Crucify Him," we’re declaring "I don't know the man." We are who we are on our best days, yes, but we are also who we are on our worst. The Passion shows us both. The Passion isn't just a recounting of what happened then, it is a narrative of what is happening now. We are all complicit and we are all forgiven, but when we are forgiven we are left with this charge: Go and sin no more. Go and try harder. Go and do better. 
This isn't easy stuff, but it is necessary.
I urge you to take the walk of this Holy Week together. It is powerful to walk through the week and then, on Easter Day shout, "The Lord is Risen, Indeed."
Blessings on our journey. Amen.

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Holy Wednesday

 

March 27,2024 5:00 pm in the St. Michael Chapel

Meditations on the Life of Christ

 

 

 

Welcome to St. James!

 

 

 

In the chapel at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Buffalo, hang a series of original French Lithographs depicting the life of Christ. While serving at Good Shepherd I designed this service so that we could appreciate the beauty of the lithographs. The meditations that I share are all original writings of mine, written from the perspective of Mary and then Jesus and then Mary. The scripture readings are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible. The songs I play are a series of songs I have used in my own meditations over the years. This is a service that I give as a gift to you, please receive it as such. Thanks for being here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy Wednesday Meditations on the Life of Christ

The Nativity

Luke 2:1-7
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room.

Meditation
It was cold, a damp cut through to the bone type of cold that happens in this part of the world at night. Everything hurt so much that I didn’t even realize the time had come until it was quite urgent. And so we bedded down in the stable section of the inn. Back among the sheep and the goats, we tied our donkey and the Boy was born amidst the hay and the dung and the animals. I guess you could say he came in the normal way but nothing has felt normal about this at all. There’s something special, something different coursing through this most normal of events: birth.
I’m so very tired. He’s been fed. I will rest before we begin our return journey.

Music
Annie Lennox, In the Bleak Midwinter

The Presentation
Luke 2:25-35

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
    according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
    which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for the revelation to the gentiles
    and for glory to your people Israel.”

And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul, too.”

Meditation
A return to a sense of normal, that’s all I’ve been longing for since the angel’s visit over 10 months ago. When Joseph and I took Jesus up to the temple for the rites of purification and thanksgiving, after we bought the offering of turtle doves, we entered the Temple with the hundreds of others there that day. Joseph didn’t seem alarmed when ol’ Simeon came running over, but I held the boy a little closer, a little tighter. And then I saw his eyes-- the wise and wonderful, caring and loving, excited and rejoicing eyes of Simeon-- the oldest priest around. He was powered by something more, different, beyond understanding. He truly was a man of God. His message was one of hope and warning. I can’t shake his words: “this child is destined to change the fortunes of Israel forever and you, dear mother, your heart will be pierced.”
I can’t tell you what that means, but on some level, I know and I am scared.

Music
Taize Nunc dimittis

The Boy Jesus Teaching in the Temple

Luke 2: 39-51

When they’d finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.

Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents were unaware of this. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.” He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them, and his mother treasured all these things in her heart.

Meditation

These trips down to Jerusalem for Passover can be fun. Our travelling party is quite large, and we get to catch up with family and friends, unencumbered by daily tasks. To be honest, it’s also break for us young mothers. The kids weave in and out of our caravan, playing with cousins, discovering new friends and taking in the adventure of travel, all the while being watched over by aunts and uncles, older cousins and trusted friends. Now, to your modern ears, losing track of a 12 year old for an entire day may seem horrible, but it’s easier than you may think. The true horror was the realization that he was gone. How would we ever find him?!
It was then that Simeon’s warning really stung. Could it be that, after a short twelve years he was gone?
Yes.
Even though we found him, and he was fine, something within him had changed. And something within me, was awakened with His words: “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Yes, of course, he was not ours to keep any longer. And my heart was, indeed, pierced.

Music

Westminster Cathedral “Of the Father’s Love Begotten”

The Baptism of Christ
Mark 1: 9-11
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him.

And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

 

Meditation

The water was muddy and warm.
John’s hand on the base of my neck, strong.
John has this way of keeping you under the water long enough for panic to set in. You find yourself longing for breath and light and then, suddenly you’re thrust up from the deep, drenched to the bone, grateful beyond words for air and somehow, some way changed.
And so it was for me.
I barely had time to realize what had just happened when everyone else seemed to fall away and I was there alone, knee deep in the Jordan, with a presence beyond  comprehension sending me--laying upon me—grace blessing.
I am God’s Beloved.
I am God’s Beloved.
I am God’s Beloved.
I am. I am. I am.

Music

“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”

Become Fishers of People
 Matthew 4:18-22

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishers. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Meditation
We need each other. We were built for community.
Once I rose from those muddy waters I experienced a profound and utter loneliness. God, my Divine and Loving Parent, my Abba, was no where to be found. I’m sure, I KNOW God was not gone, I just lost track, got too scared, too closed up, too human, to hear God’s words, to feel the Divine touch. It was there, in the middle of the desert mirages, in the darkness of those long nights that I discovered, that I realized, that I believed, that I KNEW we need each other. And so I began my search.
I began to fish.
For those who would share.
Those who would listen.
Those who would challenge.
Those who would laugh.
Cry.
Shout.
Whisper.
Hope.
Dream.
Despair.
Rejoice.
I searched for those who would Follow Me.
Fishers for People. Each and Everyone.

 

Music

God never sleeps: Will You Come and Follow Me

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ministry
John 6:2-14
A large crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

 

Meditation
Feed the hungry.
Clothe the naked.
Touch the untouchable
Find the Lost
Free the prisoners
Beat your swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks
Let justice roll like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream.
Is my message that confusing, is my intent that opaque?
Feed.
Clothe.
Love.
And do it all in peace.

Music

Imagine, John Lennon

The Ending: Arrival in Jerusalem
Mark 11:1-11a
When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this: ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them what Jesus had said, and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,

“Hosanna!
    Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
    Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple, and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Meditation
There it is.
Jerusalem. The journey is ending here. Someway. Somehow.
It will end.
Or perhaps begin.
The walk into the city center is long, steep and foreboding.
The crowds are confused.
They seek a king, but they want a ruler.
They seek justice, but they want vengeance
They seek peace, but at what cost?
I’m not their king
I’m not their ruler
I’m not their answer.
I know it.
They’ll be so disappointed.
Angry.
Lost.
Some say they don’t know how to love me.
Sometimes, I don’t know how to love them.

 

Music
I Don’t Know How to Love Him, Sinead O’Connor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re on the cusp of the tridduum, the most heartbreaking and sacred three days of the year, where we learn that love is confusing, painful, curious and absolutely necessary.
Welcome to these days, where the humanity of Jesus is laid bare for all to see.
Welcome to these days, where our faith is challenged, our hearts break and we emerge, at the last day, renewed, refreshed and restored.
The journey is picking up steam. Join us.
For now, sit quietly if you wish
Flee quickly if you must.
But carry this with you: God so loved US that God came to live among us, to understand us, to embrace us and ultimately, to be us.
Go in Peace.
Music

Taize, My Peace

 

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Good Friday: Meditation on the Seventh word at St. Philip's Church, Buffalo

Into your hands I commit my spirit

Lutheran Pastor, author and all around Theological spitfire, Nadia Bolz Weber is involved in prison ministry. As part of this ministry last year she presented the Last Seven Words to the incarcerated men at the facility. She asked them to respond/translate into their own words, each of the 7 words. After they’d written their responses on newsprint paper she packed them up and put them away… Until this week.
This past Monday Nadia shared these with the world. You can find them on her blog called, The Corners. They “translated” all seven of the Last Words, let me share the responses to the seventh:
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit
The first response was
“Father I am trying to turn myself into your hands”
How often, if ever, have we said to our God: I am trying here, Lord. I’m trying to give myself over to you. Completely. I’m not there yet, but I’m trying. What honesty from this responder. He knows the truth—-  we intend to give ourselves over but we aren’t very successful. We promise to love everyone, everywhere, no exceptions….until there is that one person— that one person who doesn’t look like you, vote like you, pray like you, love like you, live like you….or they have hurt you. Deeply and profoundly hurt you. Then that turning ourselves completely into the hands of the Divine? That becomes more difficult doesn’t it. I commend this response of “Father I am trying to turn myself into your hands” to you. The honesty is sacred.
Another response was:
“I rebuke all other spirits except yours, Lord”
Rebuke is a strong word, one Jesus used when casting out evil spirits. This writer acknowledges that we have so many competing spirits in our lives besides God’s. We have the spirit of consumerism, trying to fill our lives with stuff…a way of insulating ourselves from our reality. A way to numb ourselves against pain, hurt, anger. So many of us have used the spirit of  alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling to forget ourselves, distract ourselves, negatively “comfort” ourselves. Others of us engage in such fear that we use the spirit of isolating  ourselves to avoid the true Spirit of God. We., as this writer says, should rebuke those distractions so that we can connect with our true selves , our innermost selves and then— after sending those fake spirits packing—-turn all of who we truly are over to the spirit of the Living and Loving God.
Rebuke the distraction, embrace the honesty of the One True Spirit! I thank this author for his image of rebuking all others except God.
A third responder offers this response:
“Through your guidance I can be free”
This response is so practical it actually startles me. Through your guidance, I can be free. While the incarcerated individual may be speaking quite literally, sure that his release from prison will only come by following the way of Jesus, how true is this for us…all of us, regardless of our circumstance?  By following the teachings of Jesus Christ, by adhering to his mandate to love others as we are ourselves are loved, we are set free. All the bondage of this life is loosened and we are free. Completely free. Through the guidance of the God whose love surpasses our understanding we. will. be. free.
Thank you, author of this response for such a direct roadmap to being unfettered.

The next response literally takes my breath away:
“Father, take my spirit as they take my life”
Nadia didn’t share wether this man was on death row and was speaking literally or not and I don’t think it matters….this man will not let anyone but God have his spirit…they can take his life, but his Spirit is his to offer and he has chosen to offer it to God. The dignity of his repossessed is powerful—- the Spirit cannot be taken from him unwillingly…it may be the only control he has, it may be the last thing he possesses….and he is offering it only to God.
Father take my spirit as they take my life…..my friends, the circumstances of our lives can be challenging, but remember our spirit is ours to give, don’t give it Willy hilly, but thoughtfully, intentionally, hopefully. The ravages of this world may eat away at us, but the Spirit? That is God’s. It always has been and it always will.

“Father, into my heart you’ve committed your spirit”
This final response with it’s passive language, may be the most powerful of all! This writer doesn’t presume to have any influence over his spirit but he is very aware that God’s Spirit is within him.

Do we realize this, do we know that God is already embedded in our hearts and that our problem is that we cover it up, deny it, ignore, refuse it? Do we realize that we don’t do a darn thing to earn God’s presence in our lives, that our entire faith journey may indeed simply come down to stripping away all of our delusions of power and influence and finally, at the last, accept and honor the fact that God’s Spirit has already been and will always be laid upon us where we’ve all been too stubborn to look?

My friends, on this day Jesus commits his spirit to God, shedding his mortal coil and returning to the eternal existence of light and love from whence he came. Weep not for our Lord, he has returned to where he has always been. Weep instead for us who work so hard to refuse his teachings and his way, the way of perfect love, given to us freely and abundantly. Today and always. Pray fervently that those who seek to move through life intimidating others, seeking revenge and caring only for their own material gain will be released from their bondage of greed and hate, fear and self-loathing and commit themselves to the way of the cross which in the greatest juxtaposition of all time, is the way of love.

 Father into your hands we commit ourselves, now and forever, we pray by saying :Amen.

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Holy Saturday

The thing about Holy Saturday is that it’s quiet, dark and lonely, this liturgy we’re in the middle of is short, the liturgical options few, and the Biblical references? Ostensibly nil.
But just because we don’t have an action-filled passion story or a triumphal march into Jerusalem with shouts of “Hosanna!” doesn’t mean this day isn’t poignant and powerful.
It’s just not a public thing.
This is a day of intimacy which lies beyond our reach. It’s between God and Jesus.
    As Jesus lays in the tomb what was happening? Was he in the sleep of early death? Was in conversation with God? Did he enter the perceived fires of hell to relaese the captives? Or was he in a dark void of nothingness?
We. Don’t. Know.
We don’t know so we tend to ignore this day, it’s like halftime at a football game or intermission at a play. We re-group, use the bathroom, grab a snack, and get ready for the penultimate Act II.
But what if, instead of distracting ourselves, what if, instead of kicking around setting up Easter baskets and prepping for Easter Brunch, we sat in the “we don’t know-ness.’ What if we sat in the awful unknowing and let ourselves feel it?
    Tomorrow (or later tonight at the Vigil in Warsaw) we will proclaim He is Risen!! But just when was Jesus raised? Just how was he raised? Just when did he leave the tomb, just when did God re-animate Jesus…we proclaim the resurrection at sunset or at sunrise but we don’t know when or how it happened. We just know that it did. Somehow and Someway.
And right there my friends is the mystery of God’s Love, eternal life, and Easter as a whole. We have no idea how this happened, all we know is that yesterday afternoon Jesus was most definitely dead in the human sense of the word, and that tomorrow he will most definitely be alive.
But what about today?
Well, today is a day of deep and profound intimacy between “father” and son, between Creator and Redeemer, between Abba and Beloved, between God and Jesus.
An intimacy that is not ours to witness, but is ours to marvel at.
For God’s Love is so immense that we trust, on this day of dark and deep absence for us, that there was a day of bright and profound oneness between the two or three (because clearly the Holy Spirit has a role in this whole thing) who are part of The Whole. The Godhead. The Holy and Undivided Trinity.
All we can do is wonder, appreciate, marvel, and wait.
Welcome to the Holy Sacred Silence of this Day. Where so much happens and yet for us, nothing does. Or maybe evreything does. We do not know.
The Mystery is amazing and baffling.
The Wonder is a gift, and the Waiting? Sacred. Amen.


****with many thanks to Barbara Brown Taylor and her essay Learning to Wait in the Dark, 2014 as accessed through:
 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/learning-to-wait-in-the-dark_b_5175191 

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Easter Day Sunrise Prayer service meditation

“At the tomb, the angel tell Mary and the others:
Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.”
He has been raised he is not here!

Alleluia My friends, He is Risen!
The Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!

Let us pray:

God of the mundane and the miraculous, Creator of the world, we offer you thanks for the end to our Lenten fast through the amazing resurrection of your Son, of Savior Jesus Christ. As the sun rises in the east we glorify you and share in songs of endless praise: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Hosanna in the Highest Heaven. The strife is over, the battle, won.

May this Paschal miracle nourish us to live lives of hope and light, love and forgivenss, glory and joy, now and forever, Amen.

Remember please always remember: Do not be alarmed, he has been raised. For you and for me, for everyone, everywhere, always: He has been Raised!

Alleulia, Christ our Passover lives, let us always keep the feast, alleluia!

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Easter Vigil and Easter Day

+As I walked around the church building this morning and as we lit the new fire, people drove by on Main Street and I wonder, how many of them thought, those people still believe that nonsense? Not unlike the response the male apostles gave Mary Magdalene in Luke’s resuurection account when they considered it an idle tale. No doubt some of you here today wondered why 20 or so of us walked through each day in Holy Week in prayer and remembrance.
After all, we do know how the story ends don’t we? Why do we go though this every year? Besides the larger question of who would believe that one could be dead, their body placed in a tomb that is then sealed  and then they rise to live again…why do we go through it? Why don’t we just skip to the end?
Because my friends:                            
  We forget, God remembers. We stray, God remains steady.  We change, God doesn’t.
Are we the same as we were last year at Easter? Do we even remember last Easter?
Our lives change, our circumstances vary, our experiences take us to new places all the time and by remembering the lessons of Holy Week, we’re better equipped to deal with the peaks and valleys of life.
What does the journey from Bethany to Jerusalem, from Caiphas' prison to the hill at Calvary, from denial to doubt, from cross to tomb, from the death of Jesus back to life again, teach us?
Well, at risk of telling what some may find an idle tale, this is what Holy Week taught me this year:

Palm Sunday:
Triumph has different meanings. I don’t think anyone really knew what to expect when Jesus marched into Jerusalem. No doubt many of the disciples thought Jesus would topple the civic and religious structures of the day. I’m not sure any of them thought victory could come from the cross and the tomb.
We can’t expect that the victory of life will always look how we think it should. Sometimes victory comes swaddled in rags, born in a barn and killed like a common criminal.

Maundy Thursday.
 It’s important to take time for fellowship. Sit with family and friends—break bread together. The bonds formed over the dinner table are fierce and will hold, come what may. Sometimes, words aren’t needed. Sometimes those we love simply need us to sit with them, to bear witness to the pain they’re enduring. My friends, never underestimate the power of your presence.

Good Friday:
There will be times when our beliefs will be challenged, when we'll be tempted to deny what we believe to be true and right because it’s not popular or it’s too risky to stand up for what we believe. Please, stand up for what is right as best you can, and when you falter-- and we all falter-- remember that God stands at the ready, waiting for all of us to come back to the home of God, where forgiveness always reigns.

Holy Saturday.
Where’s God?
There are days when we feel utterly alone and bereft. Know that deep within that sadness, at the very bottom of the well of loneliness there’s a small, still voice weeping with us and for us, sharing in our pain. You may not feel it, but know that it’s there and that you can count on it because it has walked the journey with you, has felt the pain you feel and has never, and won’t ever, leave your side.
None of us is ever alone, no matter what.

Easter—the Resurrection—
As the worry and pain of our life becomes unbearable, as the last straw is drawn and all we can do is weep at the tomb of what we hoped would be, there’s a light, a turn of fortune, a renewed sense of hope and purpose. How this happens is mystery, why this happens is not; for the weight of worry is carried away by the man Mary Magdalene calls Rabbi, Mary the mother calls her boy, God the father calls Beloved and the one we call Jesus.
As soon as we are willing to let it go, our Savior will take it.
    The journey of Holy Week, is the journey of our lives---we’ll have ups and downs. We'll have our share of Easter joys and Good Friday losses. But---and this is the most important lesson any of us can take from our Christian journey:
Holy Week always ends in Easter, Darkness always gives way to light, and evil always loses out to grace and truth and love. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia ---The Lord is Risen Indeed!+