What a title! I'll work
to keep the rest of this short.
My sister, Penny, and I
went to see SON of GOD the other day. I was suspicious that it
was a right-wing version of the story but I went because I wanted to spend time
with her.
I liked it in spite of my
original thoughts. It was a good movie, the story was well told and the actors
good, especially Diogo Morgado who was Jesus. In this Holy season of Lent
I saw the entire story from Palm Sunday through the Passion and on to Easter
and the Ascension. The powerful story well told.
The movie opens with the
disciple John on the Island of Patmos. He speaks the opening words of his
Gospel: In the beginning was
the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and lived
among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full
of grace and truth. Amazing
language for a concept too large for words.
The 40 days of Lent
started last week on Ash Wednesday, the day the priest smudged ashes on my forehead and
reminded me that I came from dust and I shall return to dust. Serious stuff! It
happened that I got my picture in the paper for the first time ever. I enjoyed
it and I’m glad to think that it might have brought Lent to the mind of someone
who had forgotten, didn’t know, or had fallen away from their church.
I love that Lent brings
an increased solemnity to our corporate worship and to my own prayer and
spiritual life. On Ash Wednesday I went to St. Paul’s to set up for the 5:30
service. When I went into the nave and saw the veiled cross I felt that
everything had changed. Throughout Lent our crosses are veiled in purple,
signifying that the true purpose of the cross is veiled from our eyes. At the
end of Maundy Thursday (the name comes from Jesus’ mandate to go and do
likewise) the altar is stripped, candles and all decorations removed, and the
cross veiled in black. We leave the service in silence, without a dismissal.
All this ritual, repeated
every year, is rich in meaning for me. I’ve seen it a hundred times and more
and it is still very powerful. It’s not tired liturgy repeated again and again.
At the movie I watched the events on screen; in church I see the events through
ritual. Now I’m a member of the Acolyte, Altar, and Bread Baking Guilds I am an
very active participant, taking me ever deeper.
Unlike the disciples, I
know what’s going to happen; I know how this story ends; I know about Easter.
So, in this Holy Lent, the liturgy of my church helps me stay grounded through
penance, prayer, growth, and community. Sure, we make plans for the future,
who’s bringing bread, when, who’s setting up for services, when, yet I am
helped to stay in Lent, to ponder the great mysteries of the sacrifice of Good
Friday and the great victory of the Resurrection.
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