It’s a Three Day Weekend!
It’s a Three Day Weekend!
We’re about to head into the biggest weekend of the year at the Chapel of the Resurrection. It’s the celebration of the history-making event from which the Chapel gets its name: the resurrection of Jesus on the first Easter.
Like any great three day weekend, we get started the night before with Maundy Thursday, a name that is related to the word “mandate” and references Jesus’ mandate that his followers love one another they have been loved by him. At our 7 p.m. service at the Chapel, we’ll celebrate the love that Jesus offers and then we’ll begin to act on it by providing those in attendance with an opportunity to have their feet washed, just as Jesus – in an act of counter-cultural selfless service – washed his own followers’ feet. Yet, Jesus’ self-sacrifice doesn’t end there. The service will conclude with our remembrance of Jesus’ arrest and complete abandonment. The Chapel will be in total darkness.
It’s a three day weekend, but things are about to get heavy.
Friday is called “Good” because the day centers on Jesus’ willing sacrifice for all of humanity and the whole creation through his complete humiliation and shameful death on a criminal’s cross. Crucifixion was a complete humiliation. The goal was to strip every shred of dignity from the accused. Jesus willingly takes on this shame as his own. His intention is to take on your shame (for whatever you might be ashamed) as his own as well. By the end of our service that starts at noon (Jesus was hung on the cross at noonday) we’ll be singing our praises to the cross because it is the instrument by which Jesus takes our shame away from us. So we call the day “good.”
The Biblical accounts of the crucifixion tell us that after Jesus died, some of his followers asked to take his body so that they might give it a decent burial, they do this before sundown on Friday. It would seem that the story of Jesus has come to an end.
God’s stories never end in death.
On Saturday night beginning at 8 p.m, we’ll gather at the Chapel to light a fire in the darkness, then we’ll light a new candle from that fire and carry it into the small lower chapel, called Gloria Christi, and in the semi-darkness, we’ll share stories from the Bible, like the Great Flood, the Exodus and the Three Men in the Furnace, that show how God has always pulled life out of death. We’ll introduce a new believer into the death defying action of God through the gift of Holy Baptism and then we’ll announce the news again, that Jesus was not held by that tomb but has been raised and is alive today and we’ll gather for the Lord’s Supper to celebrate the presence of the risen Jesus among his people.
Then Sunday morning at 10 a.m., we’ll gather again. A celebration like this lasts all weekend long.
You’re welcome to join in any part of this weekend. You’re especially invited if you’ve never been before, especially if you don’t really understand what’s going on, especially if you’re not sure that you believe any of it.
God never waits for us to have it all figured out before the gifts of life are given.
Peace be with you.
Pr. Jim
March 28, 2018
Rev. James A. Wetzstein serves as one of our university pastors at Valpo and takes turns writing weekly reflections.
- Archives of Devotional Writings from our Pastoral Staff
- “HELP!”
- “Some Lent!”
- (Your vocation here) of people
- A Point of Privilege
- A season of anticipation
- Advent = Hope
- All will be well
- Are we willing to cross the road for one another?
- Better Together
- Can we learn to be happy?
- Carrying the COVID Cross
- Come and See
- Did Jesus really suffer?
- Doing without in a life of plenty
- Don’t miss this moment
- Exiles with Vision
- Fear not!
- Feeling at Home
- Finding Purpose in the Journey
- Finding Words for Times Like These
- Forgiving others – and ourselves
- Getting ahead with Jesus
- Getting down on Jesus’ level
- Have yourself a merry little Christmas — somehow
- Holy Week and Taking Out the Trash
- Holy Week: The aid station late in the semester
- Hopes & Dreams vs Life in the Wilderness
- How glad we’ll be if it’s so
- I almost slipped
- In a time of uncertainty, these things are certain
- In praise of plans B … C … D …
- In Praise of Skeptical Disciples
- In the midst of grief, God will bring life
- Is there such a thing as being too forgiving?
- It’s a Three Day Weekend!
- It’s In the Bag
- It’s What’s Happening
- Killing off our future selves
- Lessons in fire building
- Let us work for real wellness in our communities
- Life Is a Highway
- Lilies and leaves and whatever else is beautiful
- Living in the Present
- O Lord, you know I hate buttermilk
- Of Fear and Failure
- On Christian Unity: When we’re not one big happy church
- On the Bucket List
- Overwhelmed
- Pray and Let God Worry
- Preparing for the world to be turned rightside up
- Recovering from an Epic Fail
- Reformation calls for examination
- Remembering among the forgetful
- Seeing beauty in brokenness
- Signs of Love
- Starting Small
- Still in the storm
- Taking a Break from the Relentless
- Talking ourselves into it
- Thankfulness leads to joyfulness
- The Art of Holy Week
- The Funny Business of Forgiveness
- The Greatest of These is Love
- The Magi: Exemplars of Faith and Learning
- The Power of Small Conversations
- The Power of Taking a Sabbath
- The Spiritual Gift of Hindsight
- This can’t be done alone
- To be known
- You will be in our prayers this summer of 2020
- Ventures of which we cannot see the ending
- We had hoped
- What do you do with your anger?
- What is your base reality?
- What to do after you find your voice
- What to do on the day after
- What we know and what we don’t know
- When bad things happen
- When joy and sadness live together
- When the promise of resurrection is hard to believe
- When you offer up your broken cup
- Where God will be found
- Where is the good shepherd carrying you?
- Wilderness Journeys
- Year-end time management: Keeping the main thing the main thing
- Your Valpo roots will help you grow into your future