Dear Faith Family,
"Save us, we pray, O LORD!
O LORD, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!"
(Psalm 118:25-26)
Today is the midpoint of Holy Week, that final stretch of the pilgrimage of Bright Sadness that we started six weeks ago today. Along the journey, we have told the story of sin as our story, a story of moving away from God, not by feet or across great distances, but spirited by disorder lust, springing from a twisted will. And while we can not escape this story, we also cannot tell our story truthfully without telling the intertwining story of redemption.
To be human is to be created from love with purpose and potential, only to fall away from both by our own willful entanglement with the deceiver, and, simultaneously, to be persistently and providentially pursued, drawn back to the "good" and "very good" of our beginnings, to life with God, by none other than God himself. And so, we have learned to say,
"But since you are not ruthless in searching out our faults, we trustingly hope for a place in your house... If only humans would acknowledge being human, and anyone minded to boast would boast in the Lord!" (St. Augustine)
Boasting in the Lord, is where the final week of the Lenten season began. O Sunday, like those in Jerusalem nearly two thousand years ago, we joined in singing Psalm 118 as we see Jesus approaching the means by which he unites our story with His.
"The next day, the large crowd that had come to the [Passover] feast heard Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, 'Hosanna! [Save, we pray!] Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!'
And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it was written [in Zechariah 9:9] 'Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!' Jesus' disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.
The crowd that had been with Jesus when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign."
(John 12:12-18)
Perhaps anticipating another sign, a glimpse of God's power to restore the good and very good within humanity and the world, the crowd goes out to meet the one who has come to save, follows him through the streets of the city of God, and, as the other three gospels testify, to the temple itself, the place where we meet and are made right with God. Here, as Mark tells us, Jesus entered.
"And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve." (Mark 11:11)
So much for another sign, whether the end of the oppression by the Roman overlords, or the restoration of God's glory upon the temple, or the easing of labor, or the abundance of land and life, or the end of evil. Whatever was expected or anticipated did not arrive with Jesus in Jerusalem that day. Yet, what was needed and necessary—what would ultimately, fully, and forever change the course of history and the human story—did arrive with the humble King upon a long-promised donkey, to do not what was expected but what was promised and what was effective for our salvation.
Unlike the people and disciples on this day nearly two thousand years ago, we do not need to shout "Save, we pray," "Hosanna!" in ignorance or veiled hope. We have seen Jesus glorified on the cross and risen from the tomb. Therefore, we "add [our] own 'hosannas' to the festive shouts and implicit prayers" of those who have looked to Jesus' arrival to save us not from what we think, want, or will, but from what truly binds us, and doing so for all time.
So, today, in the middle of the final days of our yearly pilgrimage, let us join our voices in prayer, proclaiming what we see in Jesus because of what he walked through in the days we are about to remember.
TODAY
Prayerfully and slowly, and with eyes wide open to all that Jesus is and has done, pray these words:
This is the day that you have made, O Lord; we will rejoice and be glad in it. We will give thanks to you, for you are good; your steadfast love endures forever!
Hosanna! Save me, O Lord! I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. You are my God and I give you thanks; you are my God and I sing your praise.
Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—the righteous King of kings, the ruler of all the earth. Hosanna... Save We Pray… in the highest!
Hosana! Save We Pray! Blessed are you, our leader! Our high priest! Our holy sacrifice! Our Savior!
Hosanna… Save We Pray… in the highest!
MAUNDY THURSDAY
Join us for dinner @ 6 pm as we remember Jesus' final meal with his disciples and friends. Then, stay afterwards and spend some time with our friends ministering in Southeast Asia, the Fairs! Full details here.
GOOD FRIDAY
Join the Church as we reflect on the cross of Jesus. We encourage you to do so either...
@ noon with St. Barts
or
@ 7 pm with LHBC
HOLY SATURDAY
Spend ten minutes asking and letting God do what Psalm 139:23-24 encourages:
"Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Examine me, and know my disquieted thoughts!
See if there be any grievous way in my living,
And lead me in the way ancient and everlasting!"
EASTER SUNDAY
Join us as we celebrate Christ Jesus risen @ 10 am!
Love you, faith family. God bless.