Church of the Ascension

Archives for April 2020

Doubting with Thomas and breathing together

The Story
Second Sunday of Lent

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. 

Something to Do

He breathed on them

Perhaps you, like me, have noticed that Jesus did not have to worry about social distancing! And perhaps you, like me, have noticed that you miss breathing with other people.

When we sing or speak together in church, we breath together – matching our sound-making out breaths and our replenishing in breaths. On-line community doesn’t really allow us to breathe together.

When we gather as a small group for conversation, we pay attention (whether consciously or not) to one another’s breath as it gives us cues about who wants to speak next and when someone is done speaking and how people are reacting to what they are hearing. On-line community doesn’t really allow us to attend to one another’s breath in this way.

But even though we aren’t breathing in the same room and we ARE still breathing together – and our breath is not just the air that goes in and out of our lungs. Our breath is the very breath of God, the Holy Spirit breathed into us and upon us. So, this week, breathe with the knowledge that we breathe as one.

Breath Prayers – This is an ancient prayer practice (dating back to at least the 6th century) in which the prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner is prayed to the rhythm of deep, slow breathing. Over time, and in other cultures, the practice has developed to allow for other words but the principle is the same: a simple phrase which orients you towards God and the need you are bringing forward. Consider these possibilities:

Jesus, Risen Lord, give me your peace.
Holy One, let me feel your love.
Source of all being, draw me into your presence
Creating God, create the world anew.

Doubting Thomas

Thomas’ doubts are entirely understandable – it’s not like his friends believed in Jesus’ resurrection without seeing him for themselves! Thomas’ doubts also don’t make him unacceptable to Jesus – who makes a special visit just for him.

As with Thomas, so with us. Doubts are an understandable and acceptable part of the life of faith and should be welcomed by our families and faith communities as expressions of genuine learning and searching. Doubts neither interfere with God’s love for us nor our love for God.

This is an especially important lesson for children and teenagers – but is a good reminder for all of us all of the time. Take the time to name your doubts this week and offer them to God in hope and trust that the truth will be revealed to you in good time.

Something to Wonder

“Peace be with you”

What does peace feel like?
Are you finding peace hard to come by? Or are you finding a greater peace in the current situation?
Either way, what is bringing you peace in these days?

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

What do you believe without having seen?
What has led you to believe those things?

Something to Learn

The Meaning of Peace

Peace is a simple word for a big idea. The Hebrew word that gets translated as “peace” is shalom, which contains ideas of wholeness and harmony and well-being. Watch this Bible Project video for a word study on Peace: https://youtu.be/oLYORLZOaZE

Something to Pray

Holy God, we do not always understand your word or your ways. 
Give us wisdom and imagination and courage as we learn and grow. 

The story this week has made me wonder about…
         (what questions are still on your heart?)
Receive my questions and help me hear your answers.

The story this week has filled me with…
         (how are you feeling?)
Accept my praise, heal my hurt, ease my worry.

The story this week has reminded me of…
         (are there situations or people you are thinking of?)
Be with all who are in need of you.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.

Good Friday – April 10, 2020

where we consider what “take up your cross” really means
a sermon for Good Friday
The Rev’d Rhonda Waters

Take up your cross and follow me.  That’s what Jesus told his disciples and those who would be his disciples as they gathered around to watch him heal diseases and cast out demons and go toe-to-toe with the Pharisees.  Take up your cross and follow me.

How many of them, do you imagine, understood what he meant before this moment?  How many of them, as they watched in horror  as Jesus was forced to carry the instrument of his execution – how many of them had to discard lovely poetic explanations for what he meant, for what the cross represented, for why they were right to follow him in the way they chose to follow him?

How many of them, as they watched in horror as Jesus was nailed to a cross and lifted up so that his death might be a sign and a warning – how many of them wept not only for Jesus but for themselves?

When Jesus chooses to speak in plain language, it is often too much to bear.

Take up your cross and follow me.

Even then, Jesus owned his cross.  It was not imposed upon him by Rome or the Temple authorities, although they were the ones who passed sentence.  He took it up as an act of self-giving – knowing that the life he was called to lead; the life he was inviting others to lead – would surely lead to suffering and death for the sake of that life.

Because a life faithfully lived for the love of other people, the love of the world, necessarily includes suffering – and all life necessarily includes death.

This truth is revealed with an unpleasant starkness on this particular Good Friday when we are all called to take up our cross and follow Jesus, albeit in different ways.  And to name all the ways as participation in Jesus’ suffering is not intended to suggest that all suffering is the same; all risks equal; all sacrifices interchangeable.  But there is no need for competition – there are crosses enough to go round.

People working with and for the sick and dying; people working with and for those living in shelters and rooming houses and under bridges; people working in grocery stores and pharmacies under stressful circumstances and not knowing who might be bringing disease into their places of work.

People living in fear for vulnerable loved ones; parents and grandparents who won’t stay home or who are in retirement residences or care homes; dear ones who already suffer from illness or disability.

People who contracted COVID-19 and are sick; some of whom are dying of a disease that seems to barely touch some while it kills others; people who are mourning those who have died but have to wait to gather for funerals.

People who have lost income; mental well-being; physical well-being; relationships due to social distance and isolation.  People who have had to postpone weddings; cancel long-awaited travel; give up classes.

People who are working long hours to learn more; to find solutions; to reach decisions.

Even, simply, people who have lost the ability to gather for prayer and song and sacrament.

People are suffering for the sake of the well-being of all; for love of the world – so that the greatest suffering may be lessened, especially for the most vulnerable.

This is, fundamentally, the sign of the cross; suffering entered into for love’s sake. 

Jesus did not live his life for the cross’s sake – he lived his life for love’s sake and so willingly took up the cross that such a life demanded.  His love for the people he dwelt amongst – people suffering from illness and oppression and division and guilt – led to a life that led to the cross.  God’s love for the whole hurting world, led to a life that led to the cross.

Our love, for a world endangered by a virus we don’t yet understand, leads to a life that leads to the cross.

And today we are reminded that we are not alone with our cross for suffering entered into for love’s sake is transformed by that love – not made easier, necessarily, or less risky – but made holy because it is God’s own suffering.

Take up your cross and follow me, Jesus said.  He is with us as we struggle under our burdens, before and beside us to show us the way.

And, lest we forget, the way leads not simply to death but through death to life – this is our hope and our faith. 

So, this Good Friday, as we contemplate the cross, I invite you to claim it for yourself.  Unite yourself to Jesus in his compassion and his love and his suffering.  Offer your own sorrows and struggles and fears as a sacrifice to be made holy by God’s love in and for you.  And then I invite you to wait, in faithful hope and longing, for the life that is to come. 

Holy Week – Scattered but Together

This year, Holy Week will not be what we are used to. Ours is an incarnational faith, celebrating and relying on our bodies and the world we encounter with those bodies. We will miss the comfort of one another’s presence. We will miss the physicality of our corporate worship – shared food, shared touch, shared movement, shared breath. Some of us will be grieving our inability to participate in the Eucharist, especially on Maundy Thursday and Easter morning. Some of us will be grieving our inability to sing and speak in audible chorus together. Some of us will be grieving our inability to embrace one another.

These griefs are real and reasonable. This is not Holy Week as we want it.

But might it be Holy Week as we need it? Might this Holy Week help us focus on something about our Christian faith that we particularly need to understand right now – that it is not only an incarnational faith but also a faith capable of transcending and transforming the limitations of the flesh?

This Holy Week, we will need to rely on our imaginations more than ever before. We will need to rely on the power of the Spirit – the Holy Breath of God that enlivens each one of us – to join our very breathing to one another. We will need to rely on the unseen communion of saints, living and dead, to sweep us up into the mystery of the Passion of Christ.

We need this Holy Week to teach us how to peer behind what the world shows us to see the greater truth of communion with Christ in God, so that we might be ready greet the Risen Christ in a world still bound, still scared, still isolated – but also still made new.

Below are a number of ways to enter into the Holy Week we have been given this year, some alone or with other members of your household and some in communal on-line worship. Whatever you choose to do, I pray that you will be open to the gifts of this particular Holy Week and that you will feel the presence of the Spirit as near as your own breath.

The Story
Holy Week

Matthew 26:14-27:66
John 18:1-19:42

As we are in Year A of the lectionary cycle, we will be reading the Passion according to Matthew on Palm Sunday (although not quite all of it) and, as in every year, we read the Passion according to John on Good Friday. Both are too long to copy into this post but the links above will take you to the Oremus Bible Browser site. Or, better still, pull out your own Bible and work your way through the story in your own time this week.

Self-guided Retreats

Holy Week Story with Symbols (for kids)

Prepared by the Rev’d Susan Oliver Martin, Rector of Christ Church in Edmonton, this story is designed to be told bit by bit over the course of Holy Week. It requires a little advance preparation but is a beautiful option for households with children under the age of 6 or so.

Contemplative and Creative Arts

Prepared by members of the Art and Spirituality Practice Group, this resource provides options for Scripture based meditations and creative responses, including visual art, movement, writing, baking, and music. It makes use of materials you likely have at home and is easily adaptable for use with younger children.

Encountering Jesus in the Gospel of John

Our Lenten Quiet Day has become a Lenten Very Quiet Day as we will not be gathering to read the Gospel of John but instead reading it on our own. A simple pattern for organizing your time can be found here.

Music for Holy Week

The Contemplative and Creative Arts Kit, above, includes suggested songs to sing or listen to (all findable on Youtube or similar services). In addition, our music director, Aude has created three Youtube playlists to accompany your prayer time.

Praying Holy Week

The Society of St. John the Evangelist, an Episcopal monastic order, provide a resource page for each day of Holy Week with readings, prayers, reflections, and music.

Prayer Services – online or in private

Good Friday

Love is Stronger than Death: Stations of the Cross for All-Ages – 10am
This moving service uses simple language and the hope-filled refrain that love is stronger than death to tell the story of Jesus’ journey to the cross in a way that is suitable for young children as well as their elders. Unlike a traditional Stations service or the Liturgy of Good Friday, we end the service with the (quiet) good news of the Resurrection in order to ensure our youngest members feel safe and reassured as they wait for Sunday.

How to join the service:
This service will take place on Zoom at 10 am with time for people to interact with one another. This service will no longer be available as a recording.

Join the Zoom service with a computer or smartphone or call in to Zoom by dialing 1-647-374-4685 and entering the meeting ID 301 177 504. We will not be livestreaming this service.

Liturgy of Good Friday – 12pm
Set up your worship space with just a cross – perhaps one you make for the occasion by tying two found sticks together.

This simplified Good Friday service includes the reading of the Passion of Christ according to St. John, the solemn intercessions, and a time of meditation on the Cross of Jesus. The Zoom service will make use of a contemplative video.

How to join the service:
Download the order of service.
Pray the service on your own, knowing you are not alone, or join others on Zoom with a computer or smartphone or call in to Zoom by dialing 1-647-374-4685 and entering the meeting ID 301 177 504. We will not be livestreaming this service.

Easter Sunday

Claiming the Hope of the Resurrection

Easter is coming, friends, even if it’s going to feel a little weird.

Easter Morning Greeting
Join in a phone chain to spread the Good News of the Resurrection with the traditional Easter greeting: Alleluia! Christ is risen! Sign up here to give permission for your number to be shared with your designated Easter Greeter and to be assigned a number to call in your turn. Calls will be made betwee 9 and 9:45 on Easter morning. Deadline to sign up is Tuesday, April 7.

Easter Service – 10 a.m.
Our Easter service (on Zoom and streamed to Facebook) will include some of the stories of God’s saving work, presented with poetry, song, and imagination by different members of our community. We will release the *lleluias and ask God to set our hearts free to soar after them as we proclaim the Easter Gospel. We will renew our baptismal vows and be reminded of who we are called to be in a world that is crying out for rebirth.

Prepare to join in the celebration by setting up your worship space with :

  • your Good Friday cross, now decorated with lights, flowers, or streamers
  • a candle ready to light
  • Alleluia streamers or banners to wave (perhaps this familiar butterfly)
  • a big bowl of water

How to join the service:
Download the order of service. Join Zoom or watch on Facebook with a computer or smartphone or call in to Zoom by dialing 1-647-374-4685 and entering the meeting ID 301 177 504.

Good Friday Services

Love is Stronger than Death:
Stations of the Cross for All Ages – 10am

This moving service uses simple language and the hope-filled refrain that love is stronger than death to tell the story of Jesus’ journey to the cross in a way that is suitable for young children as well as their elders. Unlike a traditional Stations service or the Liturgy of Good Friday, we end the service with the (quiet) good news of the Resurrection in order to ensure our youngest members feel safe and reassured as they wait for Sunday.

How to join the service:
This service will take place on Zoom at 10 am with time for people to interact with one another.
We regret that no video recording will be available.

Liturgy of Good Friday – 12pm

Set up your worship space with just a cross—perhaps one you make for the occasion by tying two found sticks together.

This simplified Good Friday service includes the reading of the Passion of Christ according to St. John, the solemn intercessions, and a time of meditation on the Cross of Jesus. The Zoom service will make use of a contemplative video.

Service Booklets

To follow along with readings, hymns, and prayers, download the order of service. The print booklet is formatted for printing out at home:

Good Friday Printable


Get the mobile format scrolling on your smartphone:

Good Friday Mobile

How to join the service:
Pray the service on your own, knowing you are not alone, or join others on Zoom with a computer or smartphone or call in to Zoom by dialing 1-647-374-4685 and entering the meeting ID 301 177 504. We will not be livestreaming this service.