107 Concord Road, Wayland Massachusetts 01778

An article about our confirmation students, their “affirmation garden” and our celebrity Lutheran readers appears in the May 2014 issue of The Lutheran.

I ask each of you to make a special effort to attend the services of Holy Week. These are the central days of Christian devotion in which we enter into the events of our faith. For us Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday (at Church of the Holy Spirit) and Good Friday.

Palm Sunday

 In the 4^th century a European woman, Egeria, made a Christian pilgrimage to Palestine. There she described the liturgical life of Christians, especially in Jerusalem. Rituals and customs at Holy Week (or The Great Week) which traced the steps of Jesus in and around the city were already established. The movements and accompanying texts of those ancient ritual processions and services are the deep roots of Christian liturgy today. Here’s a passage from Egeria on Palm Sunday in worship in Jerusalem. (The Anastasis is the Church of the Resurrection in the center of Jerusalem):

As the eleventh hour draws near, that particular passage from Scripture is read in which the children bearing palms and branches came forth to meet the Lord, saying: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ The bishop and all the people rise immediately, and then everyone walks down from the top of the Mount of Olives, with the people preceding the bishop and responding continually with ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’ to the hymns and antiphons. All the children who are present here, including those who are not yet able to walk because they are too young and therefore are carried on their parents’ shoulders; all of them bear branches, some carrying palms, others, olive branches. And the bishop is led in the same manner as the Lord once was led. From the top of the mountain as far as the city, and from there through the entire city as far as the Anastasis, everyone accompanies the bishop … the whole way on foot, and this includes distinguished ladies and men of consequence, reciting the responses all the while; and they move very slowly so that the people will not tire. By the time they arrive at the Anastasis, it is already evening. Once they have arrived there, even though it is evening, vespers is celebrated; then a prayer is said at the cross and the people are dismissed.

Our Palm Sunday procession begins the service tomorrow. I’ve always appreciated how Kathryn includes our children in our procession. Children should arrive early tomorrow—between 9 and 9:15—to rehearse their processional song with Kathryn.

Members of choir, please try to be at church by 8:45 am so that we can begin the rehearsal.

Teachers and students will read the Passion according to Matthew. Thank you to Kim Canning for organizing this.

Maundy Thursday service at 7:00 pm at Church of the Holy Spirit in Wayland. If you would like to sing in the choir be there at 6 pm.

Good Friday service at 7:30 at Peace.

Youth and Confirmation students meet with Marisa on Saturday at 3:00 pm. Bring a bag or two of nut-free candy to fill plastic eggs for the Easter egg hunt.

Easter Sunday worship at 9:30 am. The Easter brunch follows the service.Sign up in the narthex for the brunch or just come. Children should bring an Easter basket for the egg hunt.

Living Waters

Some of you may have been aware that yesterday was the internationally-recognized World Water Day – a day that the United Nations and its member countries have devoted to promoting sustainable management of the world’s water resources. The observance began in 1993, and continues to grow in public recognition and support ever year. One particularly popular observance has become encouragement of the public to try not to use their taps throughout the entire day in solidarity with the nearly 768 million people worldwide who lack accesses to sources of sufficiently clean drinking water. It’s hard for me to imagine how I would function without water flowing from the taps in my apartment. It’s uncontestable – water is in integral part of my life.

Water is surely an integral part of our Christian narrative, too. In this week’s gospel readings, we hear a story about Jesus and his conversations with a Samaritan woman at a well. Jesus asks the woman for a drink of water, and she points out that she – a Samaritan – cannot share things with him, as he is a Jew. Jesus replies to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

The woman is surprised – she questions him, asking if he is indeed a prophet. Yet she soon becomes concerned with the question of where God’s presence dwells. Is it on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, or a mountain outside of her town where her ancestors have always worshiped? Jesus’ response to her is this: “The hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem…” What we learn from Jesus’ words is that he is the locus of God’s presence on Earth. Jesus is the I AM who is bigger than any one mountain.

While it would seem here that Jesus’ presence negates the necessity of worship in relationship to the natural formations of creation – such as Mount Zion or this mountain in Samaria – I argue instead that Jesus’ words decisivelylocate God’s holy presence within all of creation. We can recognize this because Jesus – the I AM – offers us living water, a “spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Jesus’ words are not instructions to move away from connecting our worship of God to the lands that we live on, but are instead a reminder that all spaces and corners of creation contain the presence of our Creator. Water is the very touchstone that indicates God’s presence on Earth.

Water is, undoubtedly, a powerful symbol for Jesus to have chosen. We know that water is a universally present and uniquely life-sustaining element. All forms of life, from the cellular level up, are mostly water in all of its many forms. For example, up to 60% of our adult human bodies are water. The Earth, too, is mostly water – so much water in fact, that some have suggest that instead of calling our planet “Earth,” we ought to call it “Water,” as that’s what 75% of the planet is covered with. The Old Testament reading from Exodus this morning dramatically reminds us that the abundance of water is indeed a sign of God’s presence and blessing.

In water we can find a divine manifestation of God’s presence on Earth, with us, in our daily acts of participation within creation. We are brought into Christian community with water poured onto our head, and while our daily acts may lack the same sacramental significance as our ritual of baptism, it is rare when we do not feel the wetness of water upon our bodies daily. We rise in the morning to shower, brush our teeth with flowing water from faucets, feel the coolness of water on our lips as we drink, and find our hands wrinkly after spending too much in water while washing the evening dishes. How often do you touch water every day? Or better yet, how often does water touch you?

I read an essay by Lutheran pastor Dennis Ormseth on the Lutherans Restoring Creation website this week, and he made a beautiful connection to the Lutheran tradition on this very point. He notes that Lutheran catechumens are often encouraged to follow the practices of Martin Luther, who, it is told, upon beginning his day, splashed water on his face, reciting the words baptismo sum, “I am baptized.” Ormseth says, “For Luther, it was a way to ward off the power of the devil and all his temptations…[and] we should do likewise, and we might well add, “and I thank God for water; may the Spirit help me to serve and keep it this day.”” I think Ormseth is right to suggest that in our acts of every uses of water, we ought to “give the profoundest thanks for the [precious] grace of water.”

Water reminds us of our baptism, but it also can remind us of God’s presence in our lives, as well as our interconnectedness, interdependence, and responsibility for the wellbeing of the rest of creation – from the worms in our gardens to our human sisters and brothers – especially the 768 million people who struggle to identify with this symbol of living water, as their only sources of water are often causes for serious illness.

In reading about World Water Day yesterday, I learned that 1 child dies every 21 seconds from a water-related disease. Or, consider the chemical spill into the Elk River that compromised the potable water for 300,000 West Virginians. The integrity of nature’s most complex ecological systems is at stake, do in no small part to many compounding human actions that have taken for granted the sacredness of water.

I think we ought to challenge ourselves to always view water as a theological symbol of divine presence in our lives. For example, I’m sure you’re familiar with the saying, “April showers bring May flower….” Springtime is, especially here in New England, a time of rain showers. While often I find rain to be an irritant, I wonder how my own mindset might change if I saw water as a sign of God’s divine presence in the world. We know that water is essential for all life on Earth, and thus we must respect water as sacred gift. Our gratitude for this gift of God’s presence and abundance may be expressed in many ways, but perhaps no more relevantly as concern and care for the water that sustains life throughout the world God loves.

In a bit we will be heading outside to bless the gardens as we enter into the sometimes rainy spring season. We have placed a bowl of water outside, and I invite you to dip your fingers into the it – embrace the feeling of water on your skin, and remember God’s continual presence in your life, and in all life within the cosmos. If you are so inclined, feel free to shake the water off of your fingertips and share God’s love with the earth we stand on, too.

In this time of Lent, we may find ourselves in a spiritual state that resembles dry wells and desert-like streams. Yet we anxiously await the spring rains, the incoming flood of living water in the resurrection of Jesus on Easter morning. As we go out into the world today, may we witness to and give thanks for the ever present, living waters that remind us of God’s overflowing love.

I would like to close now with a prayer offered by the National Council of Churches on Earth Day in 2003. I think it captures well my prayer for our Christian community as we reflect on our relationship with living waters.

 Creator God,

whose Spirit moved over the face of the waters,

who gathers the seas into their places

and directs the courses of the rivers,

who sends rain upon the earth

that it should bring forth life:

we praise you for the gift of water.

Redeemer God,

who spared Noah and creatures of every kind

from the waters of the flood,

who led your people over dry land through the sea

and across the Jordan to the land of promise,

who marks our adoption as children

with the sign of water:
we thank you for the gift of water.

Sustaining God,

create in us such a sense of wonder and delight

in this and all your gifts,

that we might receive them with gratitude,

care for them with love

and generously share them with all your creatures,

to the honor and glory of your holy name.

Amen.

Korba, Bryce Thomas Bryce died March 8, 2014, at Children’s Hospital in Boston while awaiting a heart transplant. He was born April 1, 2013, in Boston to Daniel and Loretta (Ramoo) Korba.

Bryce Korba was baptized in the evening, on a bed in Children’s Hospital.  He was dressed in a white suit and was surrounded by his family and new friends. He was baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, marked with the cross on his forehead, and reborn into a new humanity.  In that evening event, Bryce was surrounded by loving people and bathed in love as a child of God.

His life of less than a year— brief, in our way of measuring lives—opens into the eternity of God’s grace.

His days—amounting to such a fragile few in our conventional way of counting and evaluating—are held firmly in Christ’s everlasting love.

The weakness of his body over the course of his life was supported by the attention of good and careful people, and infused with the Spirit’s power.

In the course of Bryce’s short life—less than a year on our calendar—he experienced the unconditional love of his mother and father.

He played with his brother, was adored by his grandparents and other family members.

He became a delightful friend to aides, nurses, doctors and staff at Children’s Hospital.

The brightness of his budding personality drew people to his bedside.

With courage and forbearance he cooperated with medical personnel as they did their best to give him more time.

Now—as was witnessed and believed on the evening of his baptism—B ryce Korba is bathed in love and held forever with Christ.

Pastor Jeff Johnson

The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Matthew 4:3

As we begin the season of Lent we receive again an invitation to let our faith lead us into a Christian life: to take in the law as our guide, to hear the gospel as our hope. Most of us realize that we consistently deny our faith, actively and passively. We don’t act as if we are Christians at all. This is well-known to Christians and non-Christians alike. The confession of Ash Wednesday takes this well-known state of affairs seriously. We confess that while we say we are Christians, it would be hard to tell that we are, based on the things we do and say. So…the beginning of every service, indeed, the beginning of the Christian life, is a confession.

In the confession that begins Lent we hear some of the general ways in which we deny our Christian faith and fail to live Christian lives. The words are straight-forward and undeniable. On Sunday we’ll take time to read through that confession and examine our lives according to it. Then I’ll ask you to think about renewing your vocation as a Christian disciple by adopting some simple Lenten discipline. We will discuss how the commandments relate to the confession, and how the confession is made with respect to the commandments.

One can begin again as a Christian, at any time. Luther taught that Christians should return to their baptisms daily. By this he meant, return to God’s grace and forgiveness. Begin again, today. Christ will not abandon you. You may have failed, but today is a new day and a new chance to amend your life in a healthy way.