Being Present During Holy Week

We often want to skip from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday while flying over the days in the middle.  We attend regular worship services on Sundays, and during the week in between many of us follow our regular routines of work, daycare, errands, and deadlines.  It is difficult to observe religious holidays that don’t fall on days the rest of the world recognizes as important.  The world goes on, and so do we.  Plus it is so much easier to celebrate holidays that are surrounded in joy and love. 

It is easy to approach the drama of holy week the way that we approach other tragedies in our lives.  All of us, at some point in our lives are guaranteed to be at the center of a story that is tragic.  Where is God during this pain and suffering?  We expect God to be with us when we gather for praise and prayer here in church.  But we most want God to be with us during our times of tragedy; especially there.  And that’s the good news behind the sad story that convenes us this Holy Week.  Where is God?  God is with us, in our human suffering, betrayal, disappointment, and trouble.  There is no tragedy in which we walk that God has not walked before us so that God could be fully with us. 

God doesn’t give us an explanation for the tragic, or rescue us from the tragic. God gives us something that may be even better – God's presence with us in the tragic. What a great comfort to know, in our moments of greatest difficulty, that God has been there and that God is there with us. 

After his son died in a car that plummeted into Boston Harbor, William Sloane Coffin preached a now-famous sermon that has become a classic statement on the relationship of the Christian faith to the tragic:

When a person dies, there are many things that can be said, and at least one thing that should never be said. The night after Alex died, a woman came by carrying quiches. She shook her head, saying sadly, “I just don’t understand the will of God.” Instantly I swarmed all over her. “I’ll say you don’t, lady! Do you think it was the will of God that Alex never fixed that lousy windshield wiper, that he was probably driving too fast in a storm? Do you think it is God’s will that there are no streetlights along that stretch of road?” Nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of intelligent people to get it through their heads that God doesn’t go around with his finger on triggers, his fist around knives, his hands on steering wheels. God is dead set against all unnatural deaths. The one thing that should never be said when someone dies is, “It is the will of God.” My own consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God’s heart was the first of all our hearts to break.

God is not far away in the hour of suffering. God has created us as frail creatures, but God is not absent. Jesus shows us that God is especially present in moments of suffering. 

Jesus Christ the Honor Student

One of the results of Steve and I sharing a car since last summer, is that when I want the car to run errands, I have to drive him to work and then go pick him up later on.  On these trips back and forth in busy New Jersey traffic I see a lot of odd things, and I sit in a lot of traffic jams.  Last week I sat in a traffic jam behind this van for many, many miles.  (Before the many caring parental figures in my life chastise me for using my phone while driving, please let me assure you that we were at a complete and full stop for at least an entire minute when this picture was taken).

A few thoughts... 

• a pastor friend once told me he didn't want a cross on his car, lest his poor driving reflect poorly on all of Christendom... I feel likewise about identifying myself via my vehicle (as a Christian or otherwise).
• If the person in the van above (I never did see them, they were always in front of me) cuts you off, or behaves poorly on the road, how then would you feel about Jesus Christ?  This is hypothetical, as we didn't have occasion for poor behavior sitting still in our traffic jam. 
• If you choose to evangelize via your vehicle, I am not judging, just pondering.
• Something about this makes me expect to read Jesus Christ is an Honor Student at Heaven Middle School...

Hosanna! Children in Worship

Hosanna, loud hosanna

the little children sang;

through pillared court and temple

the lovely anthem rang.

To Jesus, who had blessed them,

close folded to his breast,

the children sang their praises,

the simplest and the best.

Palm Sunday is one of the Sundays during the church year that children are most visible in many mainline Protestant churches.  In churches I have served they have parades of children with palms during the first hymn, whether it is, "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna" or "Ride On In Majesty."

I have read a few different articles recently about children in worship.  One began with the question from parents: "Are my children getting anything out of this?"  While the author of that article raised some good points, my answers to that question are different than hers.  

My experience as a child in church comes from belonging to a small intergenerational church filled with supportive adults who became family.  My context is not everyone's context, but that is the point of view I am writing from.

Not all of the things I learned in worship are "about Jesus" or even about church.  Some of them just helped my formation as a moral human being.  

Things I Learned Staying In Worship 

(and I believe children can still learn today...)

1. PATIENCE

Worship is filled with reflection and quiet times, listening to others, and a lot of time that is essentially not about YOU.  That practice in and of itself teaches patience and in our device and screen driven age fights against the loss of our attention spans.

2. READING

No kidding.  The bulletin, the hymnal, and the corporate prayers are scaffolded reading instruction every Sunday, without the child knowing it.  

3. MUSIC

I learned to read music in church from the hymnal.  I learned to love music in worship.  The first time I sang in front of people was in church.

4. ACCEPTANCE

Everyone at my home church did not act the same, talk the same, dress the same.  I came to find out as a teenager that some of the adults in my church had developmental disabilities.  As a child I didn't really care about that.  They were part of my church family, and no one treated them differently so neither did I.  Talk about the Gospel without words.

5. THEOLOGY

Yes, really.  While this came a little later (definitely older than 6, for instance) I can still remember sermons preached when I was a child, and no not just children's sermons.  They are vague, but certainly formational.  

6. DIVERSITY of LEADERSHIP

In my home church everyone read scripture (all genders) and we had male and female pastors during my childhood.  This sent me the subliminal message that the pulpit was open to me from the time I was aware of that being an option.  Children notice these things, and here I am 25 years later getting an M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary.

7. HOW to PRAY

My home church had corporate Prayers of the People where anyone could raise Joys and Concerns.  The pastors would turn those into the Pastoral Prayer.  While prayer is personal, it was a starting place of "how to pray" on my own.  

8. THE LORD's PRAYER and the NICENE CREED

Memorized, not on purpose, just from being in worship.

What did you learn from being in worship as a child?

A Pause

I have a "snow day" today, and Steve is working from home.  The dogs are in heaven, and we are getting to eat home-cooked meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I think that calls for some gratitude.

God Can Handle It: Part 2

Many of you identified with the post from yesterday about lament and being angry at God when we need to be.  Since the post seemed thought provoking, and it was helpful for me to meditate on it, I decided to continue to write on the topic periodically.  It may turn into a "mini-series" and it may not.

In Barbara Brown Taylor's most recent book, Learning to Walk in the Dark, she discusses the phenomenon of believing that having dark and intense emotions equates with lack of faith:

If you have ever spent time in the company of the dark emotions, you too may have received subtle messages from friends and strangers alike that you were supposed to handle them and move on sooner instead of later.

Some of us have even gotten the message that if we cannot do this on schedule, we may not have enough faith in God.  If we had enough, we would be able to banish the dark angels from our beds, replacing them with the light angels of belief, trust, and praise.  Greenspan calls this "spiritual bypassing" - - using religion to dodge the dark emotions instead of letting it lead us to embrace those dark angels as the best, most demanding spiritual teachers we may ever know.

Winter Weariness

With immediate family outside Buffalo and in Boston, I have no right to complain about weather.  However as I sit here in the library looking out on snow/rain/slush coming out of the sky, I can't help but say that I am very ready for SPRING.

For those of you not acquainted with our dogs; Teddi is a friend to all creatures, and McTavish is afraid of all creatures except those he knows exceedingly well.  Similarly, Teddi loves the snow, and McTavish is afraid of and hates it.  McTavish also hates the cold.  On this one count I will cut him some slack, because he has a lot less fur on the pads of his paws than Teddi, I think the cold affects him a lot faster.  We have purchased little booties for the really cold days, but he (guess what?) hates those too. The point of all this information being that the people and the animals in our house are all ready for warmer weather.  

"I do not like the cold... or anything really..."

Spring also means hope and signs of new life to me.  I saw the order form for Easter flowers in the church newsletter yesterday and I could almost smells the lilies, hyacinth, daffodils and tulips.  

Hang on friends, we're almost there!

God Can Handle It

Yesterday in my Speech class we had a discussion about Psalms of lament and our modern fear of "offending" God or other congregants in our churches when reading Psalms of lament aloud.  We are polite.  We are reserved.  We are (at least in mainline Presbyterian churches) the "frozen chosen."  We are concerned congregants will think emotional readings are prideful.  We are concerned congregants will think we are "doing too much."

First off: God can handle our anger.  What kind of God do we believe in if we think God CAN'T handle our anger?  The Psalmists words have endured for thousands of years because they resonate through time and space.  Life is hard.  Life is not fair.  I think that God gets that, and would really like our prayers and our worship life to be filled with honesty.

Secondly: I believe that not being genuine in lament drives people away from church when they think they are in "too dark" or "too sad" or "too angry" a place to come to church.  That is exactly when people need to be at church the most!  I had a Weight Watchers leader who used to joke about members not coming to meetings on days they felt "fat" or thought their weight would be "up" - - because obviously that moment is when you should come to the meeting for the support and ideas!

God can handle it.  So can we.  Lament friends.

Psalm 88 (NRSV)

Prayer for Help in Despondency

A Song. A Psalm of the Korahites. To the leader: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

1 

O Lord, God of my salvation,

    when, at night, I cry out in your presence,

2 

let my prayer come before you;

    incline your ear to my cry.

3 

For my soul is full of troubles,

    and my life draws near to Sheol.

4 

I am counted among those who go down to the Pit;

    I am like those who have no help,

5 

like those forsaken among the dead,

    like the slain that lie in the grave,

like those whom you remember no more,

    for they are cut off from your hand.

6 

You have put me in the depths of the Pit,

    in the regions dark and deep.

7 

Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

    and you overwhelm me with all your waves.Selah

8 

You have caused my companions to shun me;

    you have made me a thing of horror to them.

I am shut in so that I cannot escape;

9 

    my eye grows dim through sorrow.

Every day I call on you, O Lord;

    I spread out my hands to you.

10 

Do you work wonders for the dead?

    Do the shades rise up to praise you?Selah

11 

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,

    or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

12 

Are your wonders known in the darkness,

    or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness?

13 

But I, O Lord, cry out to you;

    in the morning my prayer comes before you.

14 

O Lord, why do you cast me off?

    Why do you hide your face from me?

15 

Wretched and close to death from my youth up,

    I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.

16 

Your wrath has swept over me;

    your dread assaults destroy me.

17 

They surround me like a flood all day long;

    from all sides they close in on me.

18 

You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me;

    my companions are in darkness.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I am slightly melancholy this morning that I am not in a place that is recognizing Dr. Seuss' birthday.  While I am so grateful to be in seminary, one of the joys of teaching Kindergarten was enjoying children's literature with my students every day, and in particular, books by Dr. Seuss.

In his honor...

What Happened to February?

In the land of Gratitude and Grace, February never happened.  There are a lot of reasons for that...  Steve went back to work [way more than] full time at the end of January.  I began the month stranded in Ann Arbor/Detroit, Michigan for two days with the seminary Touring Choir at the end of our trip to the Calvin Worship Symposium and the First Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor.  When I arrived home two days and two hours later than expected, I hit the ground running for the Spring semester, and here we are: March 1st.

This morning I sang with the Touring Choir on our final trip of the year at The National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.  One of the hymns that we sang during worship was Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.  The hymn sparked some wonderful memories for me of my first few months of employment at First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca.  When I took over leadership of the Handbell Choir, it was the first piece we attempted, and we practiced it A LOT.  In retrospect I am so thankful for the choir's patience with me and the snail's pace we took before playing in worship for the first time.

Looking out over the full pews this morning I reflected on congregations in Corfu, Ithaca, Rochester, New Orleans, Batavia, and friends from Presbyterian Youth Triennium and General Assemblies all over the country.  My Presbyterian family is wide and deep and I am so thankful for each and every of you.