Click here to add text.
drapped cross
and lecturn
Understanding Holy Week, Easter and the Services
The Palm Sunday procession began a long, long time ago. The children and the people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem that day, knowing that He had shown himself victor over death by raising Lazarus from his four-day’s tomb. “You see we are accomplishing nothing!” shouted the Pharisees: “The whole world has gone after him!” And so it has! As we wave our palms and sing to the King who comes in God’s name to bring us blessing, we cry out to him: “Save now!” (which is what Hosanna literally means). We hear how that cry was answered in the reading of the Passion – a solemn reminder that Jesus our King enters the holy city as sacrifice, to die for the sins of the world. At the Table of the Lord this same King is welcomed into our lives, and we still sing there (every week!) “Hosanna!”
Holy -Maundy- Thursday - Readings
Maundy comes from the Latin “mandatum,” mandate or commandment. Two commands of Jesus were given on this night, and this service commemorates them both.
After the giving of the Supper, Jesus went to the Garden to pray, and then he was arrested. According to ancient tradition, this section of the Tridium (Three-Day) liturgy ends with the stripping of the altar – symbol and sign of Jesus being stripped of every friendship and compassion as he enters into suffering.
From the most ancient times this day has been observed as a strict fast. Christians are encouraged on this day to eat nothing at all in honor of the great sufferings that Jesus himself endured for us during its hours.
Many Churches observe the three hour vigil from noon to three, in memory of the time Jesus spent on the cross. This is the time of our Chief Service – beginning at noon.
The most ancient custom is that the Sacrament of the Altar is not celebrated on this day. The liturgy for this day is at its simplest, starkest and barest. The people gather in silence, a prayer is offered, scripture is read (always the Passion of St. John), a brief homily is often given, and then the people join in the ancient “Bidding Prayer” – so called because it has the deacon call out the “bids” (Let us pray for…) followed by silent prayer by the people, and then the pastor speaks a concluding collect. The Church this day in this prayer brings to the throne of grace her concern and love for all peoples.
Vespers on Good Friday is the Tenebrae, the service of darkness. As psalms are prayed, readings are meditated upon, hymns are sung, and prayers are offered, the candles upon the altar are snuffed out, one by one: the Light of the world dying before our very eyes. In the total darkness, as the final light is extinguished, we hear the loud sound symbolic of the earthquake, and the choir sings a final piece in honor of our Lord’s sacrifice. We leave in the same silence in which we entered, and the service goes on...
Great Vigil of Pascha
As on Good Friday we walked into the growing darkness. The service of the Great Vigil walks in the opposite direction: light coming back into the world, the Light of Jesus’ resurrection.
This is one of the oldest services of the Church, and has newly been restored to Lutheranism with the publication of Lutheran Book of Worship and Lutheran Worship Agenda. It has four parts: an opening section of praise, a section of readings that recount the history of salvation, a renewal of our baptism vows (and confirmation of adult members), and the Holy Eucharist. It was on this night that many of the Adult converts to the faith were first welcomed to Baptism and the whole Church rejoiced with them and remembered that by Baptism all of us have been joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Thus water is sprinkled on the people in reminder of how God first adopted us as His children and brought us to hope again. For the Easter/Baptism connection especially:
With the Easter Gospel ringing in our ears, we go out to await the light of dawn and the overwhelming joy of the Easter Eucharist.
Holy Wednesday, Also Called Silent Wednesday Reading
OP Kretzmann on Silent Wednesday
Holy week... The most important seven days in the history of man... Although the exact sequence of events is not always clear to us, we can discern, even now, the straight lines of divine order... Sunday: The garments in the dust - the Hosannahs as the prelude to the "Crucify."... Monday: Sermons with the urgent note of finality - the withered fig tree - Caesar's coin... Tuesday: The terrifying wrath of the Lamb over institutionalized and personal sin among the Scribes and Pharisees - the fire and color of His last sermon to the city and the world - the sureness of justice and the coming of judgment... Night and prayer in the light of the Easter moon on the Mount of Olives...
Wednesday is silent... If anything happened, the holy writers have drawn the veil... Everything that God could say before the Upper Room had been said... It was man's turn now... Perhaps there were quiet words in a corner of the Garden, both to His children who would flee and to His Father who would stay... Wednesday was His... The heart of that mad, crowded Holy Week was quiet... Tomorrow the soliders would come, and Friday there would be God's great signature in the sky... Thursday and Friday would belong to time and eternity, but Wednesday was of heaven alone...
Silent Wednesday... If our Lord needed it, how much more we whose life is the story of the Hosannah and the Crucify... Time for prayer, for adoration... Time to call the soul into the inner court and the Garden... In our crowded world we are lonely because we are never alone... No time to go where prayer is the only sound and God is the only light... We need more silent Wednesdays... In the glory of the Cross above our dust our silence can become purging and peace... God speaks most clearly to the heart that is silent before Him... [The Pilgrim, pp. 27, 28]
HOLY WEEK...Observing Holy Week and Easter at St. Paul's
Holy Week in the Church Year is the week from Palm Sunday or Palmarum, also called Passion Sunday, through Holy Saturday. The events of Holy Week lead to the Easter Sunday Feast and Celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus.
The Church Year finds its high point and center in Holy Week, when we celebrate the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord. No other week of the Church Year is celebrated with such solemnity, devotion, and reverence. No other week deserves the name Holy Week alongside those days in which the church accompanies her Lord on His way to the cross and to the grave and rejoices in His victory over death. It is the week toward which the entire church year moves and from which it receives its meaning and content. During this time, the church's services crowd together as she sings her most earnest laments and her songs of penitence and then again rejoices most heartily in His victory.
The journey of Christ to the cross draws close to it's fulfillment as our Lord's Passion begins when He enters Jerusalem in triumphal procession. The palms of Palm Sunday greet the Victor who by His death frees His people. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week we continue to prayerfully reflect on our Lord's Passion, we meditate on the events which took place leading to the cross, and we petition our Father in heaven to hear the cries of His people and prepare our hearts. Our worship is heightened during the last three days of the week, the "Holy of Holies" of Holy Week, as we commemorate our Lord's first institution of the His Holy Supper (Maundy Thursday), His betrayal, and then walk with Him anew to the Holy Cross of Calvary (Good Friday). Though Good Friday is the high point of Holy Week it is not the high point of the Church Year, as on Holy Saturday evening our sorrow gives way to Easter joy!
During this week, we do not worship as a sort of historical society simply commemorating past events but rather we adore Jesus Christ as our true King, who is not humbled by His passion and cross but rather glorified and exalted through them, and who will soon be revealed as the victor over sin, death, and hell. Thus, through all the lamentation and sadness there is also solid trust, unwavering hope and joyful thankfulness as we await His, and thereby our, victory!
Palm Sunday or Palmarum, Also Called Passion Sunday - Readings
Palm Sunday in the Church Year is the Sunday before Easter. Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus' entry into Jerusalem to the cheers of the crowds jsut days before his Passion. The Passion is the theological term for the Jesus' suffering in the hours before and during his trial and crucifiction.
Holy Monday Reading
Holy Tuesday Reading
Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.
He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrows the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: "My Lord be with you all." Christ answered him: "And with your spirit." He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying, "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."
I am your God, who for your sake has become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.
For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.
See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.
I slept on a cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that turned against you.
Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by the cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.
--An Ancient Homily, read at Matins of Holy Saturday
The Cross and Passion of Our Lord Are the Hour of His Glory
“Behold, your King is coming to you . . . humble and mounted on a donkey” (Zech. 9:9–12; Mt. 21:1–9). Our Lord rides in this humble fashion because He is entering Jerusalem to humble Himself even to the point of death on a cross (Phil. 2:5–11). His kingly crown will not be made of gold but of thorns, the sign of sin's curse. For His royal reign is displayed in bearing this curse for His people, saving us from our enemies by sacrificing His own life. The sinless One takes the place of the sinner so that the sinner can be freed and bear the name “Barabbas,” “son of the Father” (Matthew 26 and 27). It is at the name of this exalted Savior, Jesus, that we bow in humble faith. With the centurion who declared, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Mt. 27:54), we are also given to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11).
Let Us Love One Another, as Christ Jesus Has Loved Us
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). By eating His body and drinking His blood, we proclaim to all the world that Jesus is, indeed, our Passover Lamb (Ex. 12:1–14), who was sacrificed for us on Calvary. In Christ, the Lord remembers us in mercy and remembers our sin no more; He forgives us all our iniquity. With such love, he “loved His own who were in the world,” and even loves us “to the end” (John 13:1). As He washes us and feeds us in love, let us love one another, just as He has loved us (John 13:34).
Christ's Resurrection Brings Us Life
“In Adam all die.” For we are all participants in the sin of Adam, who rebelled against God in the garden and brought the curse of death into the world. But “in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22)). For He was faithful to His Father and destroyed death on the holy tree. Jesus, the Second Adam, now walks in the garden in the cool of the day and reveals Himself to the daughter of Eve (John 20:1–18). The risen Christ brings not the curse of death but the blessing of life, the resurrection of the body. He leads us through the baptismal sea to new life on the other side, conquering our mortal enemies in its depths (Ex. 14:10—15:1). In this way our Lord Jesus wipes away the tears from all faces. For He has swallowed up death forever. Let us therefore be glad and rejoice in His salvation (Is. 25:6–9)!
Christ's Resurrection Means That We Will One Day Be Raised
“Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7). By the shed blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, eternal death has passed over us. Now we pass with Christ through death into life everlasting. For Christ the crucified One is risen! The stone has been rolled away from the tomb, revealing that the tomb could not hold Him (Mark 16:1–8). Now our Redeemer lives eternally to save us from sin and Satan and the grave, and we can live in the sure hope of our own bodily resurrection with Christ. “After my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:26). Feasting on the living Christ, who is our meat and drink indeed, we boldly say: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? . . . But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:54–55, 57).
The Passover Lamb Is Known in the Breaking of the Bread
The celebration of Easter is a neverending feast. Therefore, let us “sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously” (Ex. 15:1). He is our strength and our song because He has become our salvation. “They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him on the third day” (Acts 10:39). His chosen witnesses, “who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead” (Acts 10:41), now preach “forgiveness of sins through His name” (Acts 10:43). By this preaching, Jesus draws near and leads us home. He opens the Scriptures to us, and He opens our minds to understand “the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). He opens our eyes to recognize His wounds and to know Him “in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:35).
Behold the Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sin of the World
Jesus, the Lamb of God, is led to the slaughter of His cross as the sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the world. “Despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Is. 53:3), He is the righteous Servant who justifies many by His innocent suffering and death. He bears our griefs and carries our sorrows; He is wounded for our transgressions; He is crushed for our iniquities; He suffers our chastisement, so that “with His stripes we are healed” (Is. 53:4–5). As the Son of God, He fulfills the Law for us in human flesh, and so fulfills the Scriptures (John 19:7, 24). For in Christ, “God was reconciling the whole world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them”
(2 Cor. 5:19).
The practice of sunrise service (Matins) commemorates the journey that the women made to the tomb on Easter morning only to find the tomb empty and Jesus risen.
The Easter Eucharist (Divine Service) is the heart of all joy for the Christian! Here in this liturgy we truly know ourselves to be a participant in the worship of heaven itself. There is no confession and absolution at this service, for all of Lent was our confession and the day of Easter is itself the Absolution of God upon the sins of the world. Paul expresses this in:
Alleluia is the overwhelming shout of joy in this liturgy. It rings out again and again as we welcome into our midst the One who has overcome sin and destroyed death.
Holy Saturday
