From the Pastor: "One Thing I Know"

Dear friends,

We are in the midst of Lent, that holy season of reflection and repentance. The lessons each Sunday in Lent are always so pointed and so beautiful. As I write today, I’m thinking about next Sunday’s gospel: the story of the man born blind (John 9). This has always been a favorite of mine—especially the part where the authorities are pressing the man whom Jesus has healed, trying to get him to incriminate Jesus. The man replies, "Whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I know: I was blind, but now I see."

"One thing I know." That is such a marvelous confession. There is so much about life, about God, about faith, that I simply don’t know. Long ago I gave up needing to have all the answers, especially in matters of Christian faith. That’s not easy to admit, of course. We human beings really want to have all the answers. But we don’t have them, and we must be content to "walk by faith, not by sight."

Yet we do know one thing. Luther put it this way in the Small Catechism: "I believe that Jesus Christ—true God, Son of the Father from eternity, and true man, born of the Virgin Mary—is my Lord." Or, to put it in the words of another Reformation era document, The Heidelberg Catechism: "I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ." When we know that to be true, everything else in life falls into place.

For some reason, as I’ve been thinking about this gospel text, an old hymn has been floating around in my head, one I haven’t thought about in years. It was written by a German Reformed pastor in the early 18th century, and I don’t think it ever really caught on among Lutherans, but I remember singing it as a boy:

Ask ye what great thing I know,

That delights and stirs me so?

What the high reward I win?

Whose the Name I glory in?

Jesus Christ, the Crucified.

Who defeats my fiercest foes?

Who consoles my saddest woes?

Who revives my fainting heart,

Healing all its hidden smart?

Jesus Christ, the Crucified.

Who is life in life to me?

Who the death of death will be?

Who will place me on His right,

With the countless hosts of light?

Jesus Christ, the Crucified.

This is that great thing I know;

This delights and stirs me so;

Faith in Him Who died to save,

Him Who triumphed over the grave:

Jesus Christ, the Crucified.

Indeed, as we draw near to the events of Holy Week and Easter, there is only one great thing we need to know: that Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord, is our Lord; and that we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to him. May that knowledge delight and stir you in this holy time.

Peace to you,

Pastor Richard O. Johnson

Classic Prayers

My Lord and my God: Thou seest how much of hypocrisy and falsehood dwells within me, in my worldliness as well as in my piety. Thou seest how I spurn thy love by spurning those to whom thou dost send me, and how I thereby deliver thee anew to death and the cross. Lord, forgive me! Lord, convert me! Lord, prepare me for a true Easter! Amen.

--Per Lønning (b. 1928; Norwegian bishop)

Liturgy Notes: Holy Week

The week before Easter has long been known as “Holy Week”, and for Christians it is the most significant week of the year. The several services during the week together tell the story of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.

Unfortunately, many church-goers miss the full scope of that story by neglecting the progression of services during the week. Churches are filled on Easter Day, because everyone wants to be in on the victory celebration. But many ignore the part of the story that makes the resurrection such a victory.

The Sunday before Easter was traditionally called “Palm Sunday”, though most Christian calendars are now referring to it as “The Sunday of the Passion.” The service that morning often begins with a procession of palms, recalling Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem a few days before his death. Then it turns to a reading of the entire story of the passion of Christ; “passion” in this sense means “suffering.” The story is read from the gospel for that particular year, in 2008, we will be hearing Matthew’s version. The service on The Sunday of the Passion is thus a kind of summary of the coming week’s events.

On Maundy Thursday, one of the most important services of the year is celebrated, for on that night we remember the Last Supper and the institution of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. The term “Maundy” comes from the Latin word for commandment, for at the Last Supper Jesus gave his disciples a “new commandment”, that they should love one another as he loved them. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples to demonstrate what he meant by this new commandment. For Christians, the institution of the Eucharist on that night is the supreme depiction of this great love that Christ asks of us.

Following the celebration, many churches have found great meaning in a practice called “stripping the altar”, a dramatic way of representing the loneliness and desertion felt by Christ as he left that time of fellowship with his disciples and went out into the Garden of Gethsemane.

Good Friday recalls the crucifixion and death of Christ. In many churches it is customary to hear that story as told by St. John. In others, a service called Tenebrae is popular. “Tenebrae” means “shadows”, and the service is a dramatic and moving recollection of the darkness that covered the earth as the Son of God was slain for sinful humanity. Despite the solemnity of the

day, it should not be seen as morbid or depressing, but as a wondrous pouring forth of God’s love for us.

The celebration of the resurrection begins with the Easter Vigil. The congregation gathers at dusk, with only candles penetrating the darkness. Often there is one or more baptisms at this service, making a dramatic statement that in Holy Baptism God has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his Son. The service then moves into a joyful, though restrained, celebration of Holy Communion.

Easter Day, of course, is the “queen of feasts.” We celebrate the victory of Christ and therefore our own victory through him over sin and death. On no other day does our hymn of praise ring so clearly–”This is the feast of victory for our God! Alleluia!”

J. Gordon Davies has described Holy Week in this way: “The purpose of Holy Week was to set the facts of the Gospel before the worshippers; but it must be emphasized that this should not be taken to mean that Holy Week is merely an occasion for pious remembrance. It is or should be more than a series of commemorations of past events recalled to mind, it is or should be the means whereby the worshippers participate in the saving events. We should not think of it as a number of ceremonies at which the faithful are present, but as a unified sequence of sacramental acts whereby they commit themselves afresh to Christ and share anew in His death and resurrection.”

May Holy Week be such a time for us this year.