Christ Church

“One thing is needful”

The first last work of Christ in the cross is “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” as we had opportunity to consider earlier today. It is a powerful word about the nature of forgiveness. Forgiveness does not ignore sin and judgement. It just doesn’t stop there because it shows us something of the infinite goodness of God even in the face of sin and evil. John, especially on Good Friday, helps us to see this in two ways.

First, there is the powerful story of the woman taken in adultery. She is hauled before Jesus as a way of putting him to the test about the strictures of the law which mandated the stoning of adulterers, a sad reality even in our own day, it seems. “Jesus,” John tells us, “bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.” It is the only time in the gospels that we are told Jesus wrote something. But we do not know what he wrote. We only know what John says he said. “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” The accusers “convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last.” There is only Jesus and the woman left. “When he lifted up himself … he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? To which she replied, “No man, Lord.” Jesus said to her ‘Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more’”.

It convicts us at once of our judgements against one another and of the greater goodness of God which is there for us to live in again and again and always. “Go and sin no more”, Jesus says to her. There is more than the folly of our sins. Christ crucified convicts us of our folly but seeks our good. Christ crucified is the book of love written for us to read. Only as convicted in our own conscience can we learn the power of forgiveness. It means new life.

Secondly, there is the story of Peter’s threefold denial of Christ told in all of the Gospels. John shows us the deeper meaning of forgiveness in the way in which he restores Peter. In the third of the resurrection appearances to the disciples, Jesus asks Simon Peter three times, “Simon, son of John, lovest thou me…?” Each time he commands him to feed and tend his lambs and his sheep. Something good is made out of our sin and folly, even out of our ignorance. The tenderest and yet the most convicting word of the cross is “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

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These meditations on the Seven Last Words of Christ from the Cross were read at this morning’s Good Friday service.

Through the eyes of John
Good Friday Meditations
Ecumenical Service at Christ Church, Windsor
March 25^th, 2016

Introduction: Fr. David Curry

“They shall look upon him whom they have pierced”

We immerse ourselves in the Passion of Christ. Such is the purpose of the Christian season of Lent and, especially, Holy Week. On this day which we call Good Friday, we gather to immerse ourselves in the Passion of Christ according to St. John. In the classical liturgical traditions of western Christianity, the Passion according to St. John provides the template for our contemplation of Christ crucified, gathering up into his words what is present in the other accounts of the Passion. We see through the eyes of John. It is John who, quoting Zechariah, names the purpose of our Good Friday contemplations. It is, he says, that the scripture might be fulfilled, “they shall look upon him whom they have pierced.” It belongs to our good to look upon the crucified. Why? To learn the deep lessons of sin and love. In that we find our sorrow and our joy.

Another feature of the Christian Church’s devotions on Good Friday is the meditation upon the Seven Last Words of Christ from the Cross. These are taken from all four Gospels. The first, second and seventh words are taken from the account of the Passion in St. Luke’s Gospel. The third, fifth and sixth words are taken from St. John, while the fourth word is found in both the Passion according to St. Matthew and St. Mark. Scripture illumines scripture and, in some sense, the Gospel of John, and, especially on Good Friday, the Passion according to St. John shapes our understanding of the central mystery of Christ’s crucifixion and the meaning of human redemption. Through the eyes of John we shall look upon him whom we have pierced.

Let us pray

Almighty and everlasting God, who, of your tender love towards mankind, has sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

First Word: Scott Gilbreath, Warden of Christ Church, Windsor

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23. 24)

First words often catch our attention. The last words, too, especially of the dying, hold our attention. Here is the first of the last words of Christ. Forgiveness. What is forgiveness? It isn’t about pretending that what has happened hasn’t happened. It isn’t simply about ignoring wrongs which are suffered and done by us and to one another, not to mention sin which is always against the truth of God. Forgiveness does not ignore sin and judgement. It just doesn’t stop there. If sin is about our denial of the goodness of God, forgiveness is about the power of God’s goodness in the face of sin and evil. The God who creates out of nothing recreates even out of our will to nothingness, even out of our sin and our ignorance about the real meaning of sin.

John helps us to see this. He tells the powerful story of the woman taken in adultery. She is hauled before Jesus as a way of putting him to the test about the strictures of the law which mandated the stoning of adulterers, a sad reality even in parts of our world to this day, it seems. “Jesus,” John tells us, “bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.” It is the only time in the gospels that we are told Jesus wrote something. What he wrote we do not know. We only know from the Evangelist what he said. “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” The accusers “convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last.” Only Jesus and the woman are left. “When he lifted up himself … he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?” To which she replied, “No man, Lord.” Jesus said to her “Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.”

A most powerful scene, it at once convicts us of our judgements against one another and convinces us of the greater goodness of God which is there for us to live again and always. “Go and sin no more.” There is more than the folly of our sins. Christ crucified convicts us of our folly but seeks our good in the Father’s forgiveness. Christ crucified is the book of love written for us to read. Only as convicted in our own conscience can we learn the power of forgiveness. It means new life. He who is lifted upon the cross speaks the word of forgiveness and love. It is his First Word to us. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”.

Leader: Against thee only have I sinned,
People: And done that which is evil in thy sight.

Let us pray:

Blessed Lord, who in love and forgiveness prayed for those who nailed you to the cross, and taught us to forgive one another as you have forgiven us: Take away from us all bitterness and resentment towards one another, and give us the spirit of mutual forgiveness and brotherly love; that in perfect charity, we may be partakers of your everlasting kingdom; for your mercy’s sake. Amen.

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The collects for today, Good Friday, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church, that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve thee; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Epistle: Hebrews 10:1-25
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint John
The Gospel: St. John 18:33-19:37

Artwork: Donatello, Crucifix, 1412-13. Wood, Santa Croce, Florence.

“One thing is needful”

Luke’s story about the encounter between Jesus and Mary and Martha in their house in Bethany seems to privilege contemplation and to discount active service. Maundy Thursday would seem to counter and contradict that story. For Maundy Thursday not only marks the beginning of the three great Holy Days of the Passion, the Triduum Sacrum but also sets before us the themes of service and sacrifice and the means of those concepts living in us. It might seem that the better part is the part of service as illustrated in the figure of Martha in total contrast to the idle leisure of Mary, sitting and listening and therefore doing nothing.

We are apt in our world and day to compliment Martha and condemn Mary. She is after all just sitting there, doing nothing, we might say. And yet, the one thing needful on Maundy Thursday is to attend in a thoughtful and prayerful way to the nature and purpose of the various activities in which we are involved. In other words, Mary’s contemplation is key to the redemption of Martha’s activity, to the entire task and business of commending everything into the hands of the Father, the very last word of Christ in Luke’s account of the crucifixion.

Maundy Thursday is an intensely busy day, liturgically and scripturally. There is, well, such a jumble of things all vying for our attention. It is easy to become distracted and to lose sight of the one thing needful. The one thing needful is to attend to the proper forms of our service and sacrifice. That means attending prayerfully in a Marian fashion to what Jesus says and does. It is a day of many ceremonies. It is called Maundy Thursday, the word “Maundy” being the englishing of the Latin mandatum, meaning a command, a reference to Christ’s powerful words of commandment to us, words which we hear tonight at the Offertory. “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”. Something of the nature of that love is seen in the various forms of service and sacrifice that belongs to Maundy Thursday.

There is the liturgical rite of the washing of the feet. There is the royal ritual of the almsgiving to the poor. There is the institution of the ritual and rite of the Holy Communion, the Holy Eucharist, the Mass, the Lord’s Supper, all terms referring to Christ’s act in the Upper Room on the very night that he was betrayed which however understood constitute the central act of Christian worship. There is the custom and practice of stripping the altar and watching with Christ in Gethsemane. What, then, in all this busyness of service and sacrifice is the one thing needful? It is to attend to the radical meaning of these events on this evening.

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The collects for today, Thursday in Holy Week, commonly called Maundy Thursday, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also he made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O GOD, who in a wonderful sacrament hast left unto us a memorial of thy passion: Grant us so to reverence the holy mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that we may ever know within ourselves the fruit of thy redemption; who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 11:23-29
The Continuation of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke
The Gospel: St. Luke 23:1-49

Artwork: Francisco Goya, Christ on the Mount of Olives, 1819. Oil on panel, Escuelas Pías de San Antón, Madrid.

“One thing is needful”

Only Luke tells us about the scene in Bethany with Jesus and Martha and Mary. It is a powerful New Testament image which becomes an integral part of the interplay between activity and contemplation in the Christian understanding. It looks back to Old Testament stories such as Leah and Rachel, the wives of Jacob, who become symbols of the active and the contemplative life respectively. It looks back to the philosophical reflections of Plato and Aristotle about what constitutes the good life. Contemplation is the highest good. Why? Because in some sense we participate in the absolute goodness of God and honour that as absolute. We don’t try to use God for our ends and purposes or measure God according of our ends and purposes.

The paradox is that such an outlook alone redeems our activities. Why? Because they, too, are gathered into the goodness of God and become the forms of our participation in the life of God. Our activities are given an end with God. One thing is needful and that is about our life with God.

The Passion of Christ shows us our actions in disarray and disorder precisely because what has been ignored or denied is the orientation and direction of our actions to God. “Mary has chosen the good portion”, Jesus says which is not to say that the actions of Martha are simply worthless or bad; the problem lies in the attitude or approach. She is “anxious and troubled about a multitude of things”, he says. Therein lies the problem. She lacks the focus of Mary who has chosen that good portion of “sitting and listening to the words of Jesus”. Only so can our activities begin to be part of his life in us. Through Mary, through the one thing needful, our actions and activities have purpose and meaning. Without Mary, without the one thing needful, everything is thrown into disarray and disorder.

Holy Week would have us contemplate the different forms of that disorder and disarray that belongs to us in our souls and in our communities. We read on the Wednesday and the Thursday of Holy Week from the Passion according to St. Luke. The beginning of his Passion on the Wednesday of Holy Week is illumined by the readings from Numbers and Leviticus and by the sixteenth Chapter of St. John’s Gospel. Wednesday in Holy Week is also marked by the anticipatory service of Tenebrae, meaning shadows or darkness in which we pray the office of the Mattins of Maundy Thursday with the reading from Lamentations, where the lonely desolation of Jerusalem, abandoned and betrayed is now associated with Christ. Her words, the words of Jerusalem in disarray, will become the words of the crucified to us on Good Friday.

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“One thing is needful”

Wednesday in Holy Week marks the beginning of the reading of the Passion according to St. Luke. Once again, the story of Jesus’s encounter with Martha and Mary in Bethany, a story which Luke alone tells, contributes to our understanding of his account of the Passion. So too, do the readings at the Offices on this day, readings from Numbers and Leviticus and, of course, from John’s Gospel.

The lesson from Numbers is about the bronze serpent raised up by Moses at God’s command. The people of Israel, fractious and discontent in the wilderness, complain against God and Moses for what God has provided them. As punishment for their kevetching, they were afflicted with fiery serpents. They repent in a kind of way and ask Moses to intercede for them to God to save them from this death and affliction. The cure lies in looking upon their sin made objective before them in the form of the bronze serpent.

Serpents are an intriguing biblical image that takes us back to the story of the Fall, to the beguiling serpent of human reason turned against itself. “Did not God say?”, the serpent is imaged as asking, insinuating a half-truth for what we already know to be the whole truth even if we do know that we know. That ambiguity has troubled generations of generations of thinkers throughout all ages. We only come to know the truth as truth through our separation from it. The serpent is the image of our human reason as turned against itself and in so doing becoming aware, becoming self-conscious. It comes with a cost, of course. Paradise is lost and the serpent becomes, as John Donne puts it, “the creeping serpent” that crawls upon its belly in the dust. So too does our reason unless we learn to look up. Here in Numbers we see the nature of redemption at work through the transformation of images. The serpent is raised up so that whoever looks upon it is healed. John in his Gospel has Christ identify himself with this image directly. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life”.

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The collect for today, Wednesday in Holy Week, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Hebrews 9:15-28
The Beginning of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Luke
The Gospel: St. Luke 22:1-71

Artwork: Rembrandt, The Denial of St. Peter, 1660. Oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

“One thing is needful”

Jesus’s word in Bethany highlights the necessity of contemplation. Holy Week is about our contemplation of the Passion of Christ as revealed in all four Gospels. Tonight we complete our reading and contemplation of the Passion according to St. Mark. What is the one thing needful here?

Certainly, there is the unfolding of the different forms of human sin and betrayal; Pilate’s betrayal of justice because he was “willing to content the people”; the mockery and abuse of Jesus at the hands of the Praetorian guard; his being crucified between two thieves; his being “railed on” by those who passed by and by the chief priests. It is not a pretty picture. It is altogether about human cruelty and abuse. That is the meaning of Christ as the “Suffering Servant” as the lessons from Isaiah both at Mattins and at Mass make clear and the meaning of Christ as “the righteous man” who is inconvenient to us in our wickedness as the evening lesson from The Wisdom of Solomon shows; Christ is the righteous one who suffers our unrighteousness. And yet, as the lessons from John’s Gospel at Morning and Evening Prayer also make clear, Christ is the vine in whom we live and abide, abiding in his love for the Father. His crucifixion shows us the radical meaning of love. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. Jesus goes on to say something quite radical and profound. “You are my friends”, he says, “if you do what I command you”.

His love is proclaimed in the face of our betrayals of that love. What he bears, we too shall have to bear, namely, the hatred of the world. Christian persecution both active and passive is a feature of our witness and increasingly so in our post-Christian world. “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you”. “And all this they will do to you”, he says, “on my account, because they do not know him who sent me”. They do not know the Father and so they do not know the Son. But the Spirit of the Father and the Son will bear witness to the Son and so too we are to be witnesses “because you have been with me from the beginning”. At issue for us is about being with Christ faithfully. It is about abiding in his love even in the face of the enmities and hatreds of the world. And in a way we are given to see two moments in Mark’s account of the Passion here that have to do with what belongs to our contemplation of the Passion as witnesses and participants in the Passion.

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The collect for today, Tuesday in Holy Week, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Isaiah 50:5-9a
The Continuation of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Mark
The Gospel: St. Mark 15:1-39

Artwork: Gerrit van Honthorst, Christ Before the High Priest, c. 1617. Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London.