Canterbury at Cal

This Sunday the Canterbury Fellowship will meet at 6:30 for dinner and discussion.  Our theme will be on creeds and belief as part of our Eastertide journey.  Night prayer will take place at 8:30.  Please join.

The Canterbury Fellowship will meet at the Canterbury House at 6:30 this Sunday.  We will have dinner, conversation about the resurrection as an end to negative desires and conclude with sung night prayer for the easter season at 8:30 in the chapel of St. Mark’s Church next door.

Mark 16:1-8

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Jesus. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

* * * * * *

Mark’s gospel ends on a very strange note.  This ending has been disturbing people for at least 1900 years.  The oldest gospel account provides none of the comforting reunions or mysterious encounters with the risen Christ.  Instead we have terror and silence.  Some people seize on the open ended gospel as proof that the resurrection was merely an emotional experience of overwrought nerves.  Early editors moved quickly to provide an ending that gave more tangible proof of the risen Jesus.

I would say both solutions leave us with unsatisfactory results.  Our reason and the evidence with which we are confronted informs us that the author of the Markan gospel did not choose to spend time writing a book in a language other than his native tongue with little hope of financial gain merely to recount a failed ministry and a delusional experience.  Likewise, paving over the gaping whole that is this last line is too neat and tidy.  If the author intended to provide an ending I’m not sure that it was a clean wrapping of loose ends.

On Holy Saturday I referred to the space between the crucifixion and the resurrection as one tingling with kinetic energy like the air before a strong thunderstorm.  Mark’s chaotic ending is the springing, the energy released.  Whether or not one believes in the authenticity of the shroud of turin, I think the idea that the image was created by a sudden release of energy creating the photographic effect rings poetically true to the Easter event.

Our gospel begins at dawn in the liminal early morning light.  The events are full of many “no’s.”  As Good Friday is the answer of those who seek power and desire to enforce a “NO” on the world, now the women visitors are trapped in the no that society has given them.  It is significant that the earliest witnesses in all four gospels are women.  Though their voices could not be heard in official settings, here the “NO” of ignoring those on the fringe of society is overturned.

From their place of weakness they wonder about the enormous obstacle of the stone as they bring forth ointments for a dead body.  

These concerns are expelled in the open cave.

The spring is sprung.  Christ has gone ahead.

Why in this day and age do we still seek Jesus among the dead?  Still the church prefers power over faith.  Still Christians exclude, ignore and legalize.  These are dead actions, they are the actions that provoked the crucifixion to begin with.  

Mark’s gospel ends on the note of fear as it should because it is actually easier to find Jesus in a tomb than on the move opening a new way for us.  We must go and seek, telling others along the way.  All of the world is reborn and still too many are looking in empty tombs.  

The orthodox icon of the resurrection shows Jesus bringing forth Adam and Eve from the dead.  Now for those of us running in fear from the empty tomb, it is time to become like the risen Christ.  

Who in your world needs to be told the words of life?  Taking the hand of the Risen One, who now can you reach to?

Bartolo di Fredi (d. 1410)

click on the image for a larger version

John 19:38-42

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews*, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. 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.

*the use of “the Jews” particularly in John’s gospel is long troubling to people of faith.  As Jesus was a Jewish man and most of his early followers were Jewish men and women, it must be noted this is not a racial categorization though subsequent European thinkers applied this logic.  The term “the Jews” referred to those in religious authority of that day.  In our own era it would be more appropriate to say “for fear of the Christians” in this gospel text because most Christians act from a place of power that is actually hurtful to the true followers and message of Jesus.

* * * * * *

Holy Saturday 

Perhaps one of the most forgotten holy days in our Christian year.  Though one does not fully observe the Paschal (meaning the full passion and resurrection experience) without this day.  Ironically, like the day of Christmas, the significance of this solemn occasion is lost in the clamor of the days which surround it.  Yet we should not let this simple quiet day pass us by.  It is one of my favorites because it requires us to wait.  Entering into holy longing can be one of the most transformative experiences of human existence.  As St. Paul writes of creation waiting for the revealing of the children of God, I think it is worthwhile to imagine all the ways in which creation, and we as part of creation, must wait.  

It is this idea of waiting which links again back to Christmas.  The two great feasts of the Church year are linked as mysteries of the incarnation (the taking on of human form by God) and are inseparable.  As T.S. Eliot observed in his poem “The Journey of the Magi” : “were we led all that way for Birth or Death?  There was a birth, certainly, we had evidence and no doubt.  I had seen birth and death, but had thought they were different; this birth was hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.”  All life is intrinsically connected with dying.  It is a journey required.  But the waiting is not one of passivity, it is one of kinetic energy stored for what is to follow. 

As John’s gospel tells us, Jesus’ body was wrapped in linen bands and placed in a tomb in a garden.  Centuries of Christian thought has made the parallel between this garden and the original garden of Eden.  It is thought that on this day, the sabbath, creation implodes back onto the garden and the Holy Spirit broods across the waters of chaos stirred by the passion of Good Friday.  Can we allow ourselves to fully enter into that space of brooding.  If the tomb is now the womb of a new creation then how will we find ourselves as part of the new creation on the Easter which is the first day of new life?  

Going back to the nativity of Christ, many artists painted the infant child in linen bands which mirror the same bands that wrap the body of the dead Jesus.  For example I provide a painting by Bartolo di Fredi (Italian d. 1410).  Note the corpselike swaddling of Jesus, arms pinioned to the side.  Also note that the manger is at the mouth of a cave, that liminal place going deep into the world.  For many, on this day, it is thought that Christ is entering hell and bringing forth the dead from there.  Even for us, can we enter the cave of waiting and uncertainty?  In our darkness will we find Jesus trampling on the gates of our own hell?  Are we willing to allow for others to be granted this same freedom?

Jesus is wrapped in linen bands, the body seems motionless, the way is sealed with a stone too large to move.  All the world says “NO” to this man who promised love as the fulfillment of human existence.  The energy is kinetic.  “All you who pass this way, look and see,” do not hurry into Easter, stay and watch and pray just this one more night.  In the dark space the universe is reborn.  The gates of hell will be overthrown.  Where are you in the new creation?

This is the passage used this year for Good Friday from the gospel of John Chapter 18 through Chapter 19 vs 42.

After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus replied, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they stepped back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, “I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me.” Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him. First they took him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people.

Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. The woman said to Peter, “You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing around it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming himself.

Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. Jesus answered, “I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said.” When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck Jesus on the face, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” Jesus answered, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, “You are not also one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.

Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate’s headquarters. It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” They answered, “If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.” The Jews replied, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death.” (This was to fulfill what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he was to die.)

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”

After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no case against him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” They shouted in reply, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a bandit.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face. Pilate went out again and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.”

Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.”

When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!” They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but the emperor.” Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill what the scripture says,

“They divided my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”
And that is what the soldiers did.

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.) These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, “None of his bones shall be broken.” And again another passage of scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. 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.

click on the image for a larger version

John 18:1-19:42

For the text see the separate post

He gave up his spirit.

There is nothing else, all is emptied out.  It is often noted that John’s gospel does not contain the same sense of agony and struggle that one finds in the synoptic gospels.  Jesus needs no help with the cross and from the cross Jesus calmly orders the last affairs of the chaotic world about him.  I am reminded of the painting by Hieronymus Bosch, Christ carrying the cross.  Jesus, eyes closed, is an island of tranquility in the middle of faces contorted by every horror of which humanity is capable.

Seen from the cross - that point to which, as Jesus said, all the world will stream - all other actions become pitiful.  Little people ordering little affairs.  Pilate, on a whim perhaps because he’s hedging his bets and might believe in Jesus or perhaps because he’s frustrated with Rome for sticking him in this redneck Palestinian backwater, calls Jesus a king.  It doesn’t hurt him, after all, it’s a little joke between him, Jesus and the people that Pilate despises.  The priests, who have already won the day, complain.  In essence Pilate says, “oh will you get over it, it doesn’t change the nature of things.  I could have you all killed if I wanted to.” 

Each one of us, ordering our little lives, each one of our little games and prejudices.  Every little comeuppance that we feel others should have received – can we see them from the fulcrum of the cross?

In ancient China it is said that the sacred princes could make no commands.  If they lived into the ritualistic role fully then the entire state could be ordered by the prince standing in one place moving no more than the blink of his eyes.  From the cross all motion is removed.  Jesus, naked, watches his clothes be divided and still he turns to his mother who is more truly naked in a world that did not offer support or aid to the widowed and childless.  In this case the widow will live the rest of her life as the mother of a bastard child left naked on a cross – an implement of death so barbaric that civilized Romans did not mention it in polite conversation.  Jesus gives his mother a child.

Come up to the cross and see.  Does the world change?  Can we become naked on the cross and not lament the petty pursuits of others?  What mother on the edge of civilization soon to be abandoned by the world can we care for?

The subjects of the Chinese princes, by law, had to move quickly arms outstretched like a bird.  This action demonstrated they were quickened by the energy and life of the prince who needs must be still.

In Midrash we are told that when crossing the red sea the waters would not part for the Israelites until one person, Nachson, trusting or desperate, walked all the way out into the water until he could no longer breathe.  Only then did the waters part. 

The nose,

that place into which breath enters,

into which the spirit or breath of God enters,

the spirit that blew across the waters of creation,

when the spirit could not enter,

when life could no longer be felt,

the waters parted and life came again.

HE bowed his head and gave up his Spirit.

Breathe in the spirit, come onto the cross and see the waters part.

Mirroring the one on the cross

Stretch forth your arms like a bird,

For we must be quickened by the prince now nailed in place.

Maundy Thursday

The name of this day comes from the Latin word “mandatum” from which derives the English word mandate and refers to the new commandment of Jesus - that we love one another.

Jesus did many things in his life and yet what we remember more than anything else on this day are his actions as well as the actions of his disciples.  The actions of Jesus commemorated on Maundy Thursday are threefold. 

First, Jesus the teacher washes his disciples feet.  No longer can they be inferior to him and with one act of humility Jesus demonstrates a world beyond positions of power and dominance.  “You must wash one another’s feet.”  For centuries we have studied and even acted out this event and yet still we strive to be better than others.  How many wars might have been averted had we turned to wash one another’s feet?  How many tears might not have been shed?  It is not too late, may we turn those tears into water that cleanses the world from all the “isms” of power and belittling.

Second, Jesus breaks bread and pours wine and tells his friends to remember his body and blood in that.  More mysteriously, we are assured that Jesus is present with us when we re-member him in this breaking of bread.  A simple meal reminding us that no one is turned away and there is no scarcity.  More significantly, the full personhood of Jesus becomes a part of who we are, his blood mingles with ours.  We become like Mary, with Jesus growing inside us.  What would happen in the world if we believed we contained the promise and compassion of Jesus?

Third, Jesus went into the garden and prayed.  He asked God to free him from the torture we will remember on Good Friday.  “Let this cup pass from me, but not my will but your will be done.”  God’s will for Jesus and for all of us is to grow fully into who we are made to be.  Jesus could not be Jesus if he turned from the final and total rejection of power that was the cross.  In the passover ritual, the final cup is the cup of blessing.  On a deep level the cup which Jesus drank in the garden was the same cup of blessing, a blessing poured out.  What would happen if we too believed we were called to live into who we are created to be?  What would happen if we recognized that we are not to escape trials but to find the cup of blessing poured into the world?

Jesus’ disciples struggled with the washing of feet.  In the last supper both friends and enemies were the same people.  In the garden, Jesus’ closest friends could not stay awake even for an hour.

This night, in the darkness, people feel dirty from the names and harms poured upon them by others.  Unwed mothers feel shame, drug addicts are told to get a job, prisoners are cut off from their families, many have no place to sleep, people are beaten for living into their gender or sexuality, children live without their parent’s love.  All too often the world is hurt by our inability to keep watch, even for one hour.

We are friends and enemies at once.  Jesus has been among us and now he has even said that his body and blood are found within us.  The new commandment was, “Love one another.  The world will know that you are my followers when you love one another.”  

What will that world look like?

The Canterbury Fellowship will be joining St. Mark’s this week.  All are invited to attend the evensong at 5:30 in the nave with the choir of Hurstpierpoint College, UK.  Dinner will be taken with the congregation in Hodgkin Hall at 6:15.  At 8pm we will commence the journey of Holy Week with a Taize Prayer around the cross in the chapel of St. Mark’s.