Raising Hell

Collect for Holy Saturday

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Raising Hell

His body was cold and stiff when it went in on Good Friday.  It will be warm and alive on Easter morning.  What happens in between, while the tomb is sealed?

To answer that question, some in the early Church developed a doctrine that came to be called the Harrowing of Hell.  Building on references in the New Testament, it tells us that Jesus went down to the underworld, the land of the dead.  There he met those who had died, from Adam and Eve onward, and led them out of the prison of death into eternal life.  In paintings and icons of the Resurrection, we often see Jesus leading the way out of the empty tomb, with other people visible in the background, following him.

I’ve always loved that image.  I love it because it shows Jesus literally raising hell: going down to those most distant from God and bringing them back up.  It gives me hope that Jesus can reach me too, no matter how far I fall from God’s presence.  Not even the tomb could keep him away from his children.  What could possibly keep him from me?

I believe we share Jesus’ ministry of raising hell.  The world is full of people who feel separated from God.  Some feel separated by desperate circumstances, facing hunger, disease or homelessness.  Others feel separated by abuse, or mental illness, or simply by living on the margins of a world that doesn’t want to see them. So we bring them food, healing and shelter.  We bring them justice, compassion and dignity. We follow Christ down into their hell, and by his grace we raise it up.

It doesn’t make us popular.  The world doesn’t like hell-raisers.  It doesn’t like seeing the people it would rather ignore.  It doesn’t like hearing about the hell those people have been raised from.  And it really doesn’t like thinking about how we, in our collective sin, may have kept them there.  The world may call us troublemakers.  Bleeding hearts.  These days, it may even call us socialists!

To which there is one simple response: So what?  No one is beyond God’s reach; no one is undeserving of the freedom Jesus brings.  And not one of us is exempt from the baptismal promise to go to them, to “seek and serve Christ in all people.”  If doing that means raising a little hell along the way, so be it. 

The Rev. Drew Bunting

Rector

Church of the Resurrection, Mukwanago

Easter Message from Bishop Miller

A Sacred Mystery We Will Never Solve

Collect for Good Friday
Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


A Sacred Mystery We Will Never Solve
I never attended a worship service on Good Friday until I became an Episcopalian. In the church of my childhood, hymns and sermons with Good Friday themes permeated the entire year. We sang hymns like:


On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross;
The emblem of suffering and shame,
And 'twas on that old cross, where the Dearest and Best;
For a world of lost sinners was slain.


Or


There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood;
Lose all their guilt and stain.


Or


Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There's pow'r in the blood! Pow'r in the blood!
Would you o'er evil, the victory win?
There's wonderful pow'r in the blood!


Or


Alas! And did my Savior bleed! And did my Sovereign die!
Would he devote that sacred head, for sinners such as I?
At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,
And the burdens of my heart rolled away;


It was there by faith, I received my sight;
And now I am happy all the day.




Many of the sermons I heard preached back then included some retelling of, or reference to, Jesus' death on the cross. Blood. Suffering. Death. These are dark, disturbing themes. But in my childhood church, it was clearly understood that Jesus took up the agony of the cross to reclaim all of humanity -- one individual at a time -- as God's own.


These days, I would want to argue that Jesus' death cannot be understood apart from Jesus' life and ministry. The Son of God not only died "for" us; he lived "for" us as well. The life Jesus lived and the death Jesus died tell us something about God's very Being.


On Good Friday we are vividly reminded that, for Christians, theoretical abstractions do not bring about the healing and wholeness of salvation. God did not send an "idea"! In Jesus, God offered God's own Self. As much as we might like to drain the blood of Jesus from our religious language, we cannot. As much as we may wish it otherwise, the Church (yes, even Episcopalians!) proclaims Christ crucified. And today, above all days, is the day to ponder a sacred mystery we will never solve.


The Rev. Gary Manning
Rector
Trinity Church, Wauwatosa

Maundy Thursday Mikvah

Collect for Maundy Thursday

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Maundy Thursday Mikvah

Maundy Thursday is a day of ritualistic washing.  Jesus reminded Peter that if we have bathed, then we are clean, except for our feet that have been walking through the dirt and grime of the world around us.  Peter, like many of us, lets his self-centered, self-serving ways loose and says, “Wash me all over.”  Peter wants a full bath; he wants it all!  Peter is speaking of the temporal; Jesus is speaking of the spiritual. Peter is speaking of the ritualistic washing of a bath.  Jesus is speaking of the ritualistic bath of a Baptism.

Jesus never loses sight of his Baptism. Jesus never loses sight of who he is and what he is called to be and to do.  This night, this most holy night, Jesus knows that he will be betrayed by one of his closest colleagues. Jesus knows that it is this night that the Holy will be covered and betrayed by the dirt and grime of this world.  Jesus knows that it is this night, that ritualistic cleansing of washing the feet of his disciples, including the one that is to betray him, will merely foreshadow the spiritual cleansing that is yet to come.

Have you bathed?  No, not in the running water that most of the municipalities provide for us that is treated with fluoride and chloride and other chemicals that will preserve your body.  Have you bathed with the Baptismal water that is running full of the Holy Spirit.  The same Living Water that Jesus offered to the woman at the well, he has offered to you and to me and if we have received it, we are clean!  Have you bathed in the Living Water that preserves not your body, but your soul? 

This night, as we go through the ritualistic reenactment of the institution of the “Cena Domini”, the Supper of the Lord, the ritualistic reenactment of the Jesus washing our feet, the ritualistic reenactment of striping away every piece of beautiful dirt and grime from the altars and sanctuaries that divert our attention from the basic reasons that we gather to worship, remember, for the ritualistic cleansing by our Father in Heaven. You are preparing to bathe in the Living Water of Jesus Christ.  Remember to strip away all of the walls, all of the layers, all of the ritualistic barriers that we place between our Savior and us so that we might see and acknowledge that God sees us for who we are:  broken, fallen, loved, and forgiven.  And then, we might see Jesus for who he is:  the Son of God, denied, broken, crucified for you and for me.

The Rev. Kenny Miller, Rector

St. Boniface Episcopal Church

www.saintbonifacechurch.com

frkenny.blogspot.com

www.frkennymiller.com

Joy-filled Suffering

Collect for Wednesday in Holy Week
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.




“Joy-filled suffering” (John 13:21 – 32)


What do jumbo shrimp, liquid gas and the living dead all have in common? They are all examples of oxymoron’s. Today- Wednesday in Holy Week- in our Gospel reading from St. John, Jesus speaks to his betrayal, which elicits many not me’s from the disciples. Even as Judas is identified as the betrayer, the other eleven still do not fully understand. The only person in the room who truly understands is Jesus Himself, who says to Judas Iscariot, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”


At this point in the passion narrative, I don’t picture Jesus being happy, yet I cannot imagine Him being anything but joy-filled. Happiness comes and goes based on circumstances, yet someone who is joy-filled can be so, even in the midst of suffering. Jesus knew the anguish and suffering that awaited Him. He even pleads with the Father for another way than the cross He was to bear. Although Jesus knew in His spirit that this was the only way, He also knew the joy that would be known by the whole world because of the sacrifice of love He was called to endure. I believe it is with joy-filled suffering that Jesus says to his disciples, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.”


Many Christians today and throughout the ages have lived out the same oxymoron modeled by their Lord and Savior. Those who have endured ridicule or pain because of their belief in Jesus; lost friends, family or career, standing for the Truth of the Gospel; or even lost their lives for the sake of Jesus, have done so by the grace and strength of God and the indwelling joy of the Holy Spirit. Even when our happiness fades away, the truth of the Gospel is that the joy of the Lord is always nearby. May we, as our Lord and countless Christians before us have done, walk through this life with that same sacrificial love, grace and joy, praying that God the Father would “give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed.” Amen.


The Rev. Christian Maxfield
Rector
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Prairie du Chien, WI

Holy Tuesday

Collect for Tuesday in Holy Week

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Holy Tuesday
“The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” – 1 Corinthians 1:18


When the Apostle Paul penned these words nearly two millennia ago, the notion that Messiah, God’s Anointed, had actually been put to death by the machinations of an Empire was an affront to the “way things were supposed to be”. Messiah was supposed to liberate God’s people from oppression, not fall victim to it!


Paul’s argument in the face of this contradiction was to adamantly hold to the righteousness of God and to invite his friends to enter more fully into the mystery of the cross as saving event rather than mourning it as a travesty of justice or the tragedy of human cruelty. We are invited, during this Holy Week to do the same. To walk the way of the cross is to confront our own discomfort with a part of the Gospel story we’d probably prefer to ignore.


The collect appointed for today, asks, in part, that the Church will “glory in the cross of Christ”. How does that happen? How is God’s wisdom made known in the illogical (even foolish) shamefulness of the cross? How is the wisdom of the world turned inside out by this event which defies human logic? How exactly does the body of Jesus being nailed to the cross unleash the power of God to save the world?


So many questions come along with us on this Holy Week journey. Very few answers make sense. Most answers sound somewhat incomplete.


I wonder. If we could figure out all the answers, would we then begin to trust our own wisdom as a power on a level with God’s? Would we begin to act as if we had some control over the God of Sarah, Rebecca, Ruth, Hannah and Mary – the God who, over and over again, refuses to conform to human expectations of how a god should behave?


The God of the Matriarchs and Patriarchs still confounds us today – with irascibility we find unsettling. This God comes to us in the ways of weakness – a babe in a stable cave and a dying man on a cross. The Church proclaims, with particular emphasis during Holy Week, that this foolishly behaving God has, “brought us out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life.” (BCP, p. 368) But this power of God to salvation and wholeness isn’t merely a set of interesting teachings inscribed in a book. This saving power is gifted to the world in the weakness of human flesh – Jesus, Son of Mary, Son of God.


 
The Rev. Gary Manning
Rector
Trinity Church, Wauwatosa

What Do I Smell?

Collect for Monday in Holy Week
Almighty God, whose dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other that the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.




What do I smell?  (Matthew 26:6-12)


For all their textured richness, the gospels rarely tickle my nose. I suppose we might catch the faint smell of straw around the Christmas manger, or perhaps the distinctive smell of fish as Jesus calls his first disciples. And there is always that great line in the KJV’s telling of the raising of Lazarus, “But sir, he stinketh!” But most of the time, my experience of the gospels is pretty ‘unfragranced.’


Not so today. Reminding me of a perfumer’s shop in Cairo, to which I was once taken, as I read of Mary’s singular attention to Jesus’s body, my sense of (imagined) smell is carried away by the exotic pungency of the essences from the east, the faraway lands of spices and mystery. Like the clove-studded orange I made in first grade, or the lavender sachet my wife made for my Christmas stocking, or the smoke from the wood fire carried on the wind of a winter’s afternoon, there is something comforting, something real about the smell of the perfume that fills the room in Bethany where Jesus and his closest friends have gathered for a meal.


Holy Week is full of vivid visuals—green flashes of palm, the deep purple of a robe designed to mock, the water and blood seeping from the pierced side of a dead man. Holy Week is full of searing sounds—cries of Hosanna, chants of a frenzied crowd calling for action, the mocking taunts and quiet sobs of those gathered at the foot of a cross. But for me, today, after the joy turned to sorrow of Palm Sunday, when I had dared to hope yet again that the timeless story would somehow change, and the power of evil would not seem to triumph, my anxious soul is stilled by the soft sweep of hair, the silky smoothness of the oil, and the fullness of its fragrance.


Jesus rests, and receives the loving attention of his friends. My senses tingle as I watch. My nose tickles. My brain is sated by the heavy perfume. And I am reminded that the loving care Mary shows for Jesus is but a mere hint of the loving care with which God longs to sooth and shower us.


We have a long way to go yet this week, but stop for a moment and ponder this question—what does the love of God smell like to you? Whatever it is, hold on to it, remember it. Make it part of your journey to the cross—and well beyond.




The Rev. David A. Pfaff
Canon to the Ordinary
The Diocese of Milwuakee

Palm Sunday

Collect for Palm Sunday

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Palm Sunday
I sometimes refer to this Sunday as “Schizoid Sunday,” as we try to cram everything from the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to the Passion into one liturgical celebration with only a couple of readings and a psalm setting them apart. A popular strain for sermons is often contrasting the sections of the service - how the crowd seems to support Jesus in the beginning, and then joins in the condemnation of him before Pilate when he doesn’t deliver what they want. Heck, I’ve preached that sermon.


But in many ways, these aren’t two contrasting events, they are part and parcel of a pattern that is inherent in us as human beings. The french theologian René Girard calls this the “Scapegoat Mechanism” and locates it deep within the human psyche. As we admire someone, we seek to “posses” them - to see them as the fulfillment of our needs. As other people begin to desire the same person, the antagonism towards rivals spreads like wildfire and begins to impinge on the mutual object of desire. Finally, in order to appease the need for group violence, the object of desire is sacrificed and brings a temporary peace until a new object becomes the focus. Girard finds this principle operative in basic myths from all over the world. It can only operate as long as it is done subconsciously. As soon as it is made known, its power is broken.

On Palm Sunday, the desire for Jesus reaches its zenith. Those in Jerusalem project onto him their desire for a political leader to overthrow the Romans. The desire becomes exceptionally palpable and strong. When it becomes clear that no one can possess Jesus, the feedback is also extraordinary. Members of that same throng now turn on Jesus and make him the scapegoat. The will of the mob is so strong that everyone, even his most trusted associates, abandon him. In fact, Peter denies him three times. In Matthew, Jesus is crucified with no one sympathetic around him. The thieves both mock him, the disciples are nowhere to be found, and the women watch from a distance. God even seems to be distant when Jesus cries, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

In this way, Jesus is the ultimate scapegoat. He dies alone with the hate and fear of all upon him. But Jesus is not just another scapegoat. As the son of God, his death and resurrection has a cosmic resonance. As Christianity spreads, it becomes harder and harder for the mechanism to operate with the secrecy it requires. For Girard, Jesus dies not to save us from the anger of God, but from our own human wrath. While his death does not put an end to the cycle completely, it works like yeast, leavening the whole and making the cycle harder and harder to sustain.

This observation is similar to Julian of Norwich’s vision, “I saw no wrath except on humanity’s part, and that He forgives in us. For wrath is nothing else but a departure from and an opposition to peace and to love, and either it comes from the failure of power or from the failure of wisdom, or from the failure of goodness.” (Long Text, Chapter 38)

As we start into Holy Week, this is a good time for self-examination. What wrath do we harbor in ourselves that keeps God out? What sacrifices do we long for from others in a vain attempt to screen our own issues? Can we give those up, recognizing that they are the same impulses that have lead to the deaths of millions, including the only-begotten son of God? As we cry “Hosanna to the Son of David” on Sunday, it is good to remember that this cry is not of joy, but is a veiled threat that will come to fruition on Friday with Jesus’ death.

The Rev. David Simmons
Rector
St. Matthias Church, Waukesha

Choosing Entry to Hope, to New Life, To Resurrection

Collect for Friday in the Fifth Week of Lent

O Lord, you relieve our necessity out of the abundance of your great riches: Grant that we may accept with joy the salvation you bestow, and manifest it to all the world by the quality of our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Choosing Entry to Hope, to New Life, to Resurrection (Matthew 27:1-66)

“Then the whole people said, ‘May his blood be upon us and upon our children’"   

Matthew 27: 25

As I reflected on Matthew 27: 1-66, which is the entirety of the chapter, I found myself going back to this very uncomfortable passage.  It’s disturbing for a variety of reasons.  Some scholars suggest that the verse was included in Matthew’s gospel to drive home the idea that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus – by including those present and their children, Matthew could be implicating an entire people.  History has shown that these verses are, indeed, inflammatory and have given rise time and again to acts of outrage in the name of Christ. 

There’s another way to view those verses, however, and that is through the lens of the uncomfortable truth they tell us about ourselves –

The morality of the herd is at work here – we see a large group bent on violence and bloodshed shouting for a violent execution.  We know from reading the rest of the chapter that they will get what the want, and many will witness the execution and mock our Lord.   If you are now feeling a bit smug and thinking to yourself, “Thank God we no longer live in such horrific times – what barbarity!” you better stop and think again.  Go on-line and search images of lynching in the US,   or check out the smiling “thumbs up” photos of soldiers with beaten or deceased bodies of  detainees in Abu Garib, or look back to the public humiliation and terror carried out by the Nazis during  days leading up to World War II.  In each case, you will see images of happy, smiling people while others are being tortured, humiliated and destroyed. 

We can bring this a bit closer to home.  When we ourselves join in or stand by when another is insulted or murdered via character assassination, when we fail to speak a word of justice or truth, when we give in to entertainment and humor and activities that diminish human dignity, then we are participating, in a sense, in a crowd calling not for life, but for death, for the lowest common denominator. 

Are these acts “visited upon our children”? Inasmuch as they help to create a culture where intolerance, hatred and humiliation are accepted, then this culture does, indeed, seep into the very fabric of our being. 

The good news for us is that in Christ, there is an end to this, if we choose to follow Him.  The message of the Passion, Cross and Resurrection shows us that redemptive suffering, laying down one’s life for love and the truth, and standing with the poor and oppressed will be for us the entry to hope, to new life, to resurrection. 

We may do well to reflect on those times when we have been or are “part of the crowd”.  We may do well to ask ourselves if we are passing on to others a culture of death or life.

The Rev. Scott Leannah

Rector

St. Mary’s Church, Dousman

Simple Acts

Collect for Thursday in the Fifth Week of Lent

O God, you have called us to be your children, and have promised that those who suffer with Christ will be heirs with him of your glory: Arm us with such trust in him that we may ask no rest from his demands and have no fear in his service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Simple Acts (Matthew 26:1-68)

As the events of the last week of Jesus’ life begin to pick up in speed and intensity, our attention tends to focus more closely on what is happening to Jesus. We want to interpret everything that happens, from the preparation for the Last Supper to his arrest in Gethsemane, in light of the cross. Undoubtedly, our focus should be on Jesus but we should not lose sight of the other characters in the drama, especially those who followed Jesus from Galilee. Their fate is bound up with his. Matthew, like the Gospel of Mark which he follows closely, wants to teach his readers what it means to follow Jesus.

Several of the disciples jump out at us. Peter, who vowed to follow Jesus to the very end, to the cross itself, is told by Jesus that he will deny him three times. Judas betrays his master. In Gethsemane, Jesus takes the sons of Zebedee and Peter aside. He asks them to stay awake with him while he prays. Instead, they fall asleep and are rebuked by Jesus. None of them could complete the journey to the cross with Jesus.

There is one disciple in this story whose behavior Jesus praises. We don’t know her name, where she came from, or even the motivations for her actions. While Jesus was dining with Simon the Leper in Bethany, she crashed the party and anointed Jesus’ head with costly ointment. After her actions were criticized, Jesus announced that what she had done would be told “in remembrance of her.”

That’s all we know about her. We don’t know where she came from or what happened to her after this encounter with Jesus. We don’t even know her name. Yet of all the disciples in this story, only she seems worthy of our notice and imitation. She seems to know what is going to happen to Jesus when his closest (male) followers are clueless. It may be that she was among the women who Matthew says looked on from afar as Jesus was crucified and buried. It may be that she was among the women who went to the tomb. Whatever happened, we are left with her actions and Jesus’ praise of her. It’s a reminder that the simplest acts by anonymous people can have lasting significance and power.

The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Greiser

Rector

Grace Church, Madison

Be Prepared

Collect for Wednesday in the Fifth Week of Lent

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, renew in us the gifts of your mercy; increase our faith, strengthen our hope, enlighten our understanding, widen our charity, and make us ready to serve you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Be Prepared (Matthew 24:36-25:46)

Be prepared.  I was not a boy scout, though I know their motto when I hear it.  Perhaps I should have been, since I often fail to heed it, and that has brought stress to my life and those around me on too many occasions to number.   So often my priorities are off to the point where my preparations and last minute, and not my best efforts.  The end of the twenty-fourth and beginning of the twenty-fifth chapters in Matthew’s Gospel are filled with many parables on watchfulness, preparation and planning and though many of the Jews to whom Matthew was writing would recognize in these stories analogies about for the coming day of judgment, in this era of constant information, quick fixes and instant gratification, we don’t seem to be looking that expectantly for the end of days, though perhaps we should.  

So what do we take away from all this talk of preparation and readiness?  What in our lives do we need to prepare for?  To watch for?  To expect?  Is it a cherished opportunity to spend the extra time it takes to help your child grow into the full stature of Christ?  Could it be finding and seizing a chance to share your faith with someone you work with every day?  Is it preparing yourself to face the stresses and struggles of your life by immersing yourself in a Lenten discipline of study and prayer, or better still one that carries on beyond Good Friday and Easter and takes root as a part of your daily life, like your daily coffee or checking in on Facebook (or whatever your routine includes…).  There are opportunities to grow in your faith, or to help others find and grow in theirs.  Be watching for them, and when they come, be prepared. 

Bill Robison

Trinity Church, Wauwatosa

Jesus Teaches about the Fall of Jerusalem

Collect for Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Lent

Almighty God, through the incarnate Word you have caused us to be born anew of an imperishable and eternal seed: Look with compassion upon those who are being prepared for Holy Baptism, and grant that they may be built as living stones into a spiritual temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jesus Teaches about the Fall of Jerusalem (Matthew 24: 1-35)

Writer Kathleen Norris reminds us that “the Christian faith asks us to put our trust not in ideas, and certainly not in ideologies, but in a God who was vulnerable enough to become human and die and who desires to be present to us still in the ordinary circumstances of our lives.”

In recent times, things that we have thought to be indestructible never quite seem to live up to their billing.  No matter if the best plans for nuclear power plants are devised and operational schemes are followed, all it takes is an act of nature to shock us back into the reality of who we really are as fragile human beings. The same is true as any of us might be confronted with an illness we never expected.

In Matthew 24 Jesus speaks of the Temple’s destruction as he returns to the Mount of Olives. The disciples come to him privately, asking when the temple will be destroyed and what will be the sign of the coming age. It is appropriate that they ask the questions about time on the Mount of Olives because the Mount of Olives is identified in Zechariah 14: 1-5 as the mount on which “the Lord will stand to save his people” from the nations. Zechariah describes an apocalyptic time of Israel’s existence. Jesus himself is this new age and time in which we are involved. While the text in this chapter alludes to both the proximate destruction of Jerusalem and a future apocalyptic event, none should be wrapped up in the particulars of how and when, but must stay in the present, being alert and ready. We are called to engage our lives knowing our own vulnerability, being attentive to God in the present and truth of our lives.

I think that is part of what Lenten journey invites – our being present to where God is leading, an engagement that doesn’t put our security in things that will not last, but in the one who has saves us still even from ourselves.

The Rev. John Crosswaite
Priest
Diocese of Milwaukee

Jesus: Frustrated Love

Collect for Monday in the Fifth Week of Lent

Be gracious to your people, we entreat you, O Lord, that they, repenting day by day of the things that displease you, may be more and more filled with love of you and of your commandments; and, being supported by your grace in this life, may come to the full enjoyment of eternal life in you everlasting kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jesus: Frustrated Love (Matthew 23:1-39)

Me: “I notice that you’re acting in some ways that are, well, kind of obnoxious. Is there something going on with you that is making you feel like acting that way? Are you feeling hungry, or sad, or angry?”

My 5-year-old son: “No. I just like it.”

Me: “OK, well, it’s making us have a lot of fights instead of having fun together. If you notice a reason why you’re acting this way, let’s talk about it, all right?....”

Yesterday I had a conversation with my son that ran a lot like that. My son is a fantastic kid – funny and kind and bright and creative. And, like any other kid, he has his moods – and like any other kid, he knows how to push his parents’ buttons like nobody else on earth. On a good day, when I have my own emotional resources gathered, I remember to respond to his button-pushing with compassion, in addition to the inevitable frustration. I reflect on what might be causing the obnoxious behavior: is he hungry? is he feeling jealous of his baby sister? is he processing something that happened at school, or trying out behavior he’s seen from other kids? Sometimes that kind of thinking helps me work with him to resolve the friction between us. More often, it just helps me be the parent I want to be, grounded in the truth that I love my kid even in the moments when he’s not acting very likeable.

In chapter 23 of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus harangues the scribes and the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and false leadership. His rhetoric is pointed and powerful. But the verse that makes me catch my breath is verse 37, when Jesus’ tone suddenly shifts: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” In these words we catch a glimpse of the immense love that lies behind Jesus’ frustration, Jesus’ rage. Jesus’ words here move me, because as a parent I can just begin to imagine the agonizing mixture of anger, frustration, grief, and love at seeing a child – seeing a whole city full of children – wandering far from the pathways that will lead them to wholeness.

Jesus’ angry rebukes spring from love. What a blessing to know that even on the days when I feel like I’m more of a Pharisee than I want to be – that I’ve left the inside of the cup dirty, swallowed a camel, and neglected justice, mercy, and faith – that Jesus, that God loves me and longs to gather me back to him. May I – may all of us – always return with gratitude to the shelter of those wings.

The Rev. Dr. Miranda K. Hassett

Rector

St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church, Madison, WI

Journey in Jerusalem

Journey in Jerusalem (Matthew 22:1-27:66)

April 10-16

Discussion Questions


As you reflect on the events of Holy Week, what makes you pause?  What surprises you?  What stands out for you?


How has God entered your life in difficult times?
When have you found God through others?
Where is your journey with God taking you at this moment?

The Invitation is Tested and Questioned

Collect for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Invitation is Tested and Questioned (Matthew 22:1-46)

Jesus will offer an invitation to the religious leaders and they will respond with testing and questioning.

First will be the Herodians, a political party that supported Herod Antipas and the policies of Rome. Their question will attempt to put Jesus against Roman authority. Jesus demonstrated that we all have dual citizenship; citizenship in our country and citizenship of the kingdom of God.

The second group of leaders, the Sadducees, did not believe in resurrection. They wanted to trap Jesus as they had trapped the Pharisees, that there was no proof of the teaching of the resurrection in the Pentateuch. Jesus teaches that it is more important to understand the power of God than to understand heaven.

One might think that the Pharisees would be celebrating that Jesus shut down the Sadducees; but, in their pride they would not be thwarted from their final attempt to shut up Jesus. The Pharisees, experts of the Jewish Law, wanted to trap Jesus with the Law. Jesus instead summed up the Law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37)  Jesus then invited the Pharisees into understanding who he was, that he was and is the Christ.

In each interaction the groups were trying to trap Jesus and he responded by inviting them to hear and receive the Truth. His parable of the wedding banquet opened this chapter for us. In that parable he is teaching about God’s invitation to all God’s people to come into the wedding banquet, the heavenly feast. In this parable there are those who refuse the king’s invitation, even when the feast is ready and prepared for them. When the elite refused, the invitation went out to everyone, without discrimination. All may come to the banquet. However, if we accept the invitation we’re still expected to show up dressed for the occasion. Appropriate dress given to us by the King, it is the robe of righteousness. We can accept the robe or not.

The Herodians, Sadducees, and Pharisees decided to test and question the truth of the invitation. How do we respond to Jesus’ invitation in our lives?

The Rev. Carla McCook

Rector

St. Thomas of Canterbury, Greendale

Walking with Jesus

Collect for Saturday in the Fourth Week of Lent

Mercifully hear our prayers, O Lord, and spare all those who confess their sins to you; that those whose consciences are accuse by sin may by your merciful pardon be absolved; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Walking with Jesus

As I reflect on our walk through Lent, and as we get closer to Holy Week, I wonder how our walk with Jesus has been going this Lent.  This week I was volunteering in my son's kindergarten class and they were talking about what they were doing differently for Lent (he goes to a Dominican School.)  Each child got to say what they were working on and how it was making the more helpful, respectful, strong, healthy, etc.  Their responses were wonderful and all were heartfelt.  "For Lent, I an cleaning my room, so I'm being helpful to my mom and dad."  "I gave up ice cream cones, but I still eat the ice cream, just not the cone.  But I'm trying to be more healthy."  "I gave up whining, and that makes me more respectful to my parents."

All of these kids had been working on something and no matter how small it seemed to us "adults" as they were sharing you could tell that it really made a difference for them.  It gave them focus and it allowed them to know that this season was really different and that it was about doing things that not only effected them, but others as well.  

This weekend, I'm at St. Mary's Church in Dousman with 45 other youth and adults doing the Happening Youth Event.  This event is meant to give youth the chance to take time out of their lives to have a similar focus, to pay attention to their walk with Jesus, to pray, sing, laugh, talk, dance and come to know God in a new way in their lives.  Having this during Lent is so powerful as it gives them time during this holy season to pause and look at their journey, to hear about what others are experiencing on their own journeys, and to meet others who may be struggling with similar issues.  This youth event gives all of us the opportunity to Walk with Jesus in a new way.  

I pray that during your Lenten Journey, you have had or will have the time to pause and reflect on your journey, to meditate on your walk with Jesus.  No matter how small, no matter what you are doing to draw closer to Jesus, it is enough.  God wants us to journey with one another because it is only together that we can come to know who God really is.  

I offer a prayer that I have prayed every day of Lent (one that reminds me of this walk with God and with one another) is a prayer for Compline.

"Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace."  

Go in peace.  Walk with Jesus.  

The Rev. Shannon Kelly

Bishop's Assistant for Christian Formation

Diocese of Milwaukee

House of Prayer

Collect for Friday in the Fourth Week of Lent

O God, you have given us the good news of your abounding love in your Son Jesus Christ: So fill our hearts with thankfulness that we may rejoice to proclaim the good tidings we have received; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

House of Prayer (Matthew 21:1-27)

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

He said to them, “It is written,

             ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’;

              but you are making it a den of robbers.”     (Matthew 21:12-13)

The great Temple in Jerusalem was regarded as “God’s house,” the place where God’s glory rested, where people came to worship and offer sacrifice.  When Jesus came to this sacred place as a boy of twelve, he called it “My Father’s house.” (Luke 2:49).

When he came to the Temple again, as an adult, he was offended by the sight of people buying and selling the animals for sacrifice.  In his righteous anger, he quoted the ancient scripture of the prophet Isaiah (56:7): “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”

This phrase, “house of prayer,” points us toward the mystery of seeking to enter into the presence of God.  Where and how can we do this?

Our place of encounter with God is not a building, even though we do have buildings where we gather for prayer.  It is Jesus himself, the Crucified and Risen One, who is now and forever our “house of prayer.” 

How do we enter that “house”?  We already belong to Christ through our Baptism, and need only to become aware of our deep union with Him.   This can happen when we learn to enter into silence and to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit.  There, in the silence, we may begin to know Jesus and—knowing Him—begin to know God.

When we join ourselves to Jesus in humble faith we are brought into relationship with the living God—a relationship of intimacy and peace, where our sins are forgiven and our whole being may be filled with the joy of God.   Our prayer, then, is not merely or even mainly “asking for things,” but it is the receiving of Love, giving praise,  and surrendering gladly to the One who holds us in being.

The Rev. Wayne Fehr

Retired Priest and Teacher

Diocese of Milwaukee

Servant Leadership

Collect for Thursday in the Fourth Week of Lent

Almighty and most merciful God, drive from us all weakness of body, mind and spirit; that, being restored to wholeness, we may with free hearts become what you intend us to be and accomplish what you want us to do; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Servant Leadership (Matthew 20:17-34)

As a young adult coming of age in an era characterized by increasingly polarized and violent political rhetoric, I am comforted by the quietly powerful words of St. John Chrysostom: "This is the rule of the most perfect Christianity, its most exact definition, its highest point, namely, the seeking of the common good . . . for nothing can so make a person an imitator of Christ as caring for his neighbors." Regardless of denominational affiliation, socio-economic class, or political party, we are all charged with the task ensuring that our actions and intentions better the lives of others.

Chrysostom’s summary of Christian duty parallels Christ’s call to his followers in today’s reading. Jesus challenges his followers’ idea of leadership, saying that to be like him they must abandon their quest for personal power and instead focus on how they could use their lives to serve others. This call is central to our identity as Christians, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I find this task incredibly daunting. Over the course of history, people have justified horrible atrocities for the “betterment of humanity.” With so many loud, clamoring voices claiming that they alone have the truth that will fix our troubled communities, it is incredibly challenging to discern how best to serve others as Christ commands us to. 

The idea of servant leadership has been on my mind as the ideological battle between the public-sector unions and Governor Scott Walker rages a few blocks from my front door. Both sides of the debate are certain that they are ultimately doing what is best for Wisconsin and its citizens. It is times like these that I feel like one of the blind men sitting on the side of the road waiting for Christ to help me see things clearly.

However, to “let our eyes be opened,” we must be willing to follow Christ. Jesus teaches us that leaders do not use power to set themselves above those who follow them, but rather they must be servants of the public. One cannot serve the people while refusing to listen to their needs.  And so I will do my best to lead through service, advocating for the working families of Wisconsin and following Christ through the dark.

Kate Siberine

Student at UW-Madison

St. Francis House Episcopal Student Center