Holy Week

How to have a ‘good’ Good Friday

How can Good Friday be good? Good Friday is the day that Christians all around the world remember the suffering of Jesus Christ on a cross.

Depictions of Jesus Christ’s suffering are immortalized within our cultural framework because of such movies as The Passion of the Christ. However, we are not meant to wallow or suffer in the grief of Jesus with torment and pain.

On this day of sadness, we wonder: what is so good about this phrase Good Friday? There is no clear answer, but the word “good” and “God” were mixed together in the English speaking world. For instance, the surname “Goodspeed” derives from “Godspeed”, which comes from the expression “God speed (with you)” The expression, “good bye” came from the phase, “God be with ye (you).

Despite the origins of the phases, we don’t really feel “good” on Good Friday.

No matter what the origins of the phase, we cannot escape our feelings. Are we meant to feel guilty and depressed on Good Friday? We don’t feel “good” about Christ suffering. Are we meant to feel the pressure to be grateful of Jesus’ torment?

No! We must acknowledge our feelings of grief and loss regarding Jesus’ suffering on Good Friday. We cannot deny these feelings, nor should we. The stages of grief are real for us as they were for Jesus and his disciples:

Pentecost

Great Pentecost Resources

Looking for some great Pentecost resources? The folks over at http://bluetruckpublishing.com got you covered.

“Anything but Ordinary – readings for worship during Ordinary Time (Pentecost to Last Sunday of June)”

This collection of liturgical helps is the second worship resource from Don Durham. Each of the pieces are tied to the lectionary readings for the day and every Sunday includes:

Invocation/Call to Worship Responsive Reading Benediction

There is also a free stock image included inthe purchased download. You can preview a sample of this product for free on the Blue Truck blog here. Don also wrote “Lenten Liturgies” and it received 5 stars and this review from a worship pastor: “A well written RCLliturgy resource. A steal at 99 cents even if you don’t use all of the resources. The Palm/Passion Sunday resources include both thematic elements to allow for Holy Week flexibility.

Download here.

Culture, faith

The War on Easter

As billions of Christians worldwide prepare for Easter this Holy Week, it seems that some television personalities think that our culture is waging a war on Easter. Bill O’Reilly declared on his show that the War on Easter is being waged via the Easter bunny:

But the war on Judeo-Christian tradition continues on in some public school districts… in some schools you are not allowed to say the word “Easter.” On Long Island, the East Meadow school district, holding a Spring egg hunt — not Easter eggs, Spring eggs. Same thing in Prospect Heights, Illinois. Manhattan Beach, California. Flat Rock Elementary School in South Carolina, and a school district in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. No Easter. They are having Spring egg events. Moderated by a Spring bunny, at least in San Diego. I know it’s stupid. You know it’s stupid.

There is a difference between saying “you are not allowed to say the word “Easter” and billing an event without the word Easter. Perhaps it is overly sensitive to have a “Spring Egg Hunt”, but I’m sure you are allowed to say the word “Easter” as a point of reference. I seriously doubt if two teachers were talking about their spring break plans that they would have to say “The holiday that celebrates Jesus’ resurrection” instead of “Easter”.

When it comes down to it, there’s nothing inherently Judeo-Christian about the Easter Bunny or Easter Eggs. Last time I checked the Bible, the Easter Bunny wasn’t there. There is nothing religious about a giant bunny magically giving children baskets of candy. Saying that there is a war on Easter is an affront to the nature of real wars in which people die.

The very word “Easter” is not very Christian. The modern English word “Easter” can be traced to an older English word Ēastre or Ēostre or Eoaster, which refers to Eostur-monath, a month that the Germanic peoples named after the goddess Ēostre. The word Easter has connections to pagan rituals of celebrating the spring time. So, to not use the word “Easter” shouldn’t offend Christians.

I don’t believe in the war on Easter. Secular and public institutions are not the keepers of Christianity. We Christians are keepers of Christianity. If Bill O’Reilly thinks the epitome of Easter is a public school Easter egg hunt, then he seriously misses the core message of Jesus. Perhaps O’Reilly misunderstands Christianity because he also thinks Jesus was killed over taxes.

Let us put down our Easter eggs as weapons and not allow the celebration of Christ’s resurrection be used as television entertainment.

Maundy Thursday

Why we call it Maundy Thursday

Today is Maundy Thursday — no, not Monday Thursday, which would be an interesting concept: society could work Monday through Thursday, with Fridays off! Some Christians misunderstand that this day is only a “Catholic” celebration. Christians both ancient and modern have remembered Christ’s last supper with his disciples on Maundy Thursday, which begins the great triduum, the three days of the paschal celebration.

The word “maundy” comes from the Latin word maundatum for “commandment”, which comes from Jesus’ words from the last supper: “I give you a new commandment; that you love one another…” The full Latin phase is maundatum novarum, which means “a new commandment.” According to Robert Webber (The Services of the Christian Year, #252), these words were translated in the French word mande. This in turn was anglicized into “maundy.”

During this day, Christians celebrate Jesus’ last supper with his disciples through serving and receiving communion with a special service. Often, all of or some of John 13 is read. This scripture recalls: Continue Reading…

Good Friday, Holy Week

Prayer for Good Friday

O Christ, your life was no triumph, you carried a cross; may we walk along the same road as you.

O Christ, by your suffering you learned faithfulness; you became a source of eternal salvation for the whole human race.

O Christ, when threatened you did not retaliate; enable us to forgive to the very end.

O Christ, you see the pain of those who are exiled and abandoned; take their suffering upon yourself.

O Christ, when lies and worries try to separate us from you, your Holy Spirit is always with us.

O Christ, you are the happiness of those who follow you: enable us to live by your trust.

O Christ, our life is hidden with you in God; that is a joy that touches the depths of the soul.

Strengthen us, Eternal God, and we will wait in silence and peace until the light of the Resurrection rises upon us. Amen.

Prayer from Taize

Lent

What makes Holy Week so… Holy?

This past Palm Sunday kicked off a week, to most Christians, that represents an important time in the life of the Church: Holy Week. The week before Easter is a special time in which Christians remember the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Is this week holier than all others? Well, yes and no.

Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University and an executive editor of Christianity Today, helps us understand this week in light of its “holiness”:

Holy Week

What is so good about Good Friday?

Good Friday? How about Bad Friday, Black Friday, or Depressing Friday? If this is the day in which we remember Jesus suffering, bleeding, and dying on the cross, what is so good about it? The movie, The Passion of the Christ, in many ways, change the way we feel about Christ suffering. The graphic and bloody movie was a stirring portray of Jesus’ last hours. For some, Good Friday induces feelings of guilt, depression, and even remorse. Christians, on this day, truly feel a sense of sadness.

On this day of sadness, we wonder: Where did we get the term “Good Friday? There is no clear answer, but the word “good” and “God” mixed together in the English speaking world. For instance, the surname “Goodspeed” derives from “Godspeed”, which comes from the expression “God speed (with you)” The expression, “good bye” came from the phase, “God be with ye (you). Despite the origins of the phases, we don’t really feel “good” on Good Friday.

No matter what the origins of the phase comes from we cannot escape our feelings. Are we meant to feel guilty and depressed on Good Friday? We don’t feel “good” about Christ suffering. Are we meant to feel the pressure to be grateful of Jesus’ torment?

Christianity Today recently published an article that gives a good take on this day. John Witvliet explains why we should not punish ourselves:

Holy Week

What is Maundy Thursday?

Today, Christians around the world commemorate Maundy Thursday — no, not Monday Thursday, which would be an interesting concept: society could work Monday through Thursday, with Fridays off! Some Christians misunderstand that this day is only a “Catholic” celebration. Christians both ancient and modern have remembered Christ’s last supper with his disciples on Maundy Thursday, which begins the great triduum, the three days of the paschal celebration.

Holy Week

Prayer for Holy Week

God whose word cannot be broken:
with Jerusalem we are stunned this Holy Week.
Like a city overcome with sudden devastation,
we are swept up in the confusion and desolation,
wondering what is happening.

Liturgy, Scripture, and song immerse us in the river
that flows to betrayal and the cross.
The gospel we have tried to make manageable
has overturned our tables of control.
The sufferings of Jesus
that we try to avoid engulf us.
The fruitless fig tree withers before the majesty
of one whose mission is
relentless and uncompromised.

Help us with all of your church to watch and pray,
to behold anew the unfolding scandal
and the ragged good news of salvation.
Behold with mercy the agonies of the world
where the suffering of Jesus is being completed,
both then and now.

Let the Via Dolorosa for us
be both acts of devotion and worship
and of compassion and justice,
so that Christ’s abundant sufferings
become the world’s abundant consolations.

Silent prayer and listening

Order of Saint Luke Publications. This prayer, written by Dan Benedict, is from The Daily Office: A Book of Hours for Daily Prayer (Volume II: For Lent and the Triduum).

On Facebook