Tenebrae: Service of Shadows

Holy Week.

I keep hearing people say "Happy Easter!" and my only thought is: Wow.  It's still a long time until Easter.

Last night we observed the service of Tenebrae.  Normally a service of shadows cast from extinguished candles and the anguish of Jeremiah's Lamentations, we combined the structure of the service with words and images from the Civil Rights movement, the Arab Spring, and Hurricane Katrina.  The result was an overwhelming cascade of images and emotions forcing us all to consider how the world we live in is a world of crucifixion, not a world of delight in which Jesus happened to be crucified.

The following is the (207 word) reflection I gave.

(It makes more sense if you have the context of the readings from the whole service.   It has even more power if you get the context of my other Chapel Ministers who gave reflections as well.  One student asked how long (if) we had planned our reflections together, because they were so coherent and harmonious.  We hadn't, actually.  We called it groupness, teamwork, truth, the Holy Spirit.)

What was shocking to me was my experience of preaching.  I was saying to my wife last night that normally I (think I) preach more like a poet.  Emphasis on breath and pause and silence; attention to the specific meanings of words and their interplay.  That is what made my Advent sermon so special to me, was that I exercised my poetic gifts that often remain dormant in the rush of hundreds of other things.  You can judge my poetry for it's value separately from considering that it has been since high school one of the chief ways I process faith and emotion.

Last night's experience of preaching - even though it was very short - was one where I felt completely out of control of my delivery.  I felt something like anger coursing through me as I spoke.  There was a force, a power, something HUGE within me as I delivered the word.  My wife suggested that it was the Holy Spirit taking control of my words, and I was glad someone else reflected that back to me.  It was incredible, frightening, and I'll be processing those feelings for a long time.  Perhaps it is the mystical experience I have in some ways craved for a long time as a confirmation of the calling I have claimed but never, in the literal sense, heard.

Tenebrae: Nocturn 3

“God has allowed me to go up to the mountain.

I’ve seen the Promised Land.      

I may not get there with you.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Moses saw the Promised Land from the mountain, yet he died and did not enter into it.

Stephen saw the heavens open, even between the flying stones.

Jesus was willing to be betrayed, to be given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross.

Jesus became obedient to death.

It is easy to believe there is a promised land.

It is quite another thing to see it.

It is easy to speak of God’s power.

Resurrection.  HALLE-

It is not the time to speak of God’s power.

Now is the time to be dissatisfied.

Now is the time to become incarnate

As Jesus,

 to the world of suffering.

Incarnational love is not what we choose instead of death.

Choosing to love in the world of crucifixion is choosing TO die.

Now is the time to speak of the most awesome human power, revealed by Jesus himself:

The ability to rush headlong into the darkness of death.

To enter into the Promised Land.