Written by professors, graduates, and others in
the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary community, these reflections, prayers, and spiritual practices will take you along the journey with Jesus through the cross toward resurrection.
Good Friday
Friday, March 25, 2016
“What Moves Us”
“And when all the crowds who had gathered there for the spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts.”
• Luke 22:66-23:56
Every Lent begins the same way: as young and old come forward in worship, I smear the cross in ashes on their foreheads, saying: “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” With the young in their innocence I think, who am I to be warning you of death? With the old I wonder, will you be one I must bury this year?
Every Lent ends the same way: with the agonizing death of Jesus and then the silent tomb. We watch the slow inevitable tragedy, feel the visceral contempt, see the terrible suffering, and hear the tenderness of Jesus, even from the cross. We stand with his acquaintances, at a distance, not knowing what to say or do. We are silent.
What do we feel as we see him crucified? Is it anger, for all the unjust deaths, for the senseless tragedy of this world? Is it helplessness, like we feel when we watch the suffering of those we love? Is it guilt for what we could have done, but didn’t? Is it simply sadness that death is always, always a part of life? That it will end in ashes?
Or is it, simply, love?
Each Good Friday I read a poem by St. John of the Cross, “No me mueve, mi Dios.” I first read it in Madeleine L’Engle’s book Two-Part Invention where she reflects on this poem as her husband Hugh is dying. She is wrestling with deep questions of life and death. A friend translated the poem for her this way:
I am not moved, my God, to love you
By the heaven you have promised me.
Neither does hell, so feared, move me
To keep me from offending you.
You move me, Lord, I am moved seeing you
Scoffed at and nailed on a cross.
I am moved seeing your body so wounded.
Your injuries and your death move me.
It is your love that moves me, and in such a way
That even though there were no heaven,
I would love you,
And even though there were no hell,
I would fear you.
You do not have to give me anything
So that I love you,
For even if I didn’t hope for what I hope,
As I love you now, so would I love you.
Holy Jesus: you have promised that in life, and in death, and in life beyond death, we belong to you. As we meditate on your suffering, we are moved by your love; as we watch your dying, we are filled with love for you, our Savior. Deeply, gratefully, we receive your great sacrifice of love. Amen.
– The Reverend Karen Chakoian
First Presbyterian Church
Granville, Ohio
Our mission depends upon your
generosity.
You can make a gift online:
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
No comments:
Post a Comment