Kimberlee Conway Ireton » Holy Week

Holy Saturday

Kimberlee — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 08:52:42 +0000

They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

John 19:40-42

And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Gerard Manley Hopkins
“God’s Grandeur”

On this day of deepest darkness, when the last lights off the black west have shuttered out (for two days now), on this day when our Lord lay in the earth, even on this day, God is present: the Holy Spirit broods like a mother hen over our fallen world, wings shining softly in the inky blackness that precedes Eternal Day.

The lectionary passages for Holy Saturday:
Job 14:1-14 or Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24
Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16
I Peter 4:1-8
Matthew 27:57-66 or John 19:38-42

Good Friday

Kimberlee — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:31:19 +0000

It is traditional on Good Friday to meditate on the words Jesus spoke from the cross. Taken from all four Gospels, these “Seven Last Words,” as they’re called, are rich with meaning. I’ve included them here from the King James Version:

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk 23:34)

“Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Lk 23:43)

“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” (Lk 23:46)

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34)

“Woman, behold thy son! … Behold thy mother!” (Jn 19:26-27)

“I thirst.” (Jn 19:28)

“It is finished.” (Jn 19:30)

I’ve been pondering all week which of these words I will pray today as a breath prayer, repeated over and over as I go about the activities of my day. After a particularly draining day yesterday, I realized I need to commend my spirit, my soul, my life to God–again–to lay it all at Jesus’ feet.

I am 33 this year, and am feeling more poignantly than I have before the horror and sorrow of this day. I will not compare myself to Jesus; His suffering is beyond anything I can imagine. I will only compare myself to the women at the foot of the cross, helpless, grieving, guilty, grateful: O my God, You have borne so much, all this, everything…

The lectionary passages for Good Friday are:
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 22
Hebrews 10:16-25
John 18:1-19:42

Into the River

Kimberlee — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:35:12 +0000

On Sunday during Communion we sang a familiar worship chorus in which the second verse begins, “Into the river I will wade. There my sins are washed away.” I had always thought of that river as the river of baptism, but it struck me as we sang that the river we wade into is also the river of suffering, and death. It was Palm Sunday, after all, the beginning of Holy Week, and death was on my mind.

While the people around me sang, I tried not to cry. My life is really good right now, as good as it’s ever been, so why I was crying I don’t know. But the ache in my chest was real, an ache of longing and sadness that could only be expressed in tears.

Since I couldn’t sing, I watched the choir. I saw a woman whose beloved dog was killed by a motorist last fall. I saw a man whose wife of two years is extremely ill with cancer. I saw his wife, her hands raised in praise. And I saw a man who was in a near fatal bike crash two years ago, restored to life.

I saw two dozen other people who have heartbreak, sorrow, and difficulty of one stripe or another singing their hosannas to God. And all around me, too, still more broken people were singing, their hands raised, their voices lifted up in praise.

And I wept. I wept for the beauty of it, for the sacrifice of praise on the lips of people whose lives are hard. I wept for the hope they hold on to: that though they wade into that river, Christ has been through it first and goes through it with them; that they experience nothing—nothing—apart from His love and His presence.

Today is Maundy Thursday, the day Jesus waded into the river. And he is there yet, holding us up, helping us through, giving His life for ours.

The lectionary passages for Maundy Thursday:
Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
I Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31b-35