Friday’s Word

Two Momentous Days

Good Friday and Easter.

Today is Good Friday—for those reading Friday’s Word on Friday. And this Sunday is Easter.

Two momentous days.

One no more important than the other.

On Friday evening, our great choir will sing, Without His Cross, there Is No Crown.

Without Good Friday, there is no Easter.

The “prop” for the Good Friday service tonight is a life-sized image of the burial shroud of Jesus.

The “Shroud of Turin,” as it is called.

(The radio-carbon dating was wrong. Two more recent dating tests are right. It comes from the time of Jesus.)

The Shroud image will be referenced as we follow the story of Jesus’ last hours from John’s gospel.

John’s gospel carries the close-to-first-hand account provided by “the beloved disciple.”

It is powerful.

Standing at the foot of the cross were four Marys: Jesus’ mother, Mary the wife of Clopas. And Mary Magdalene.

Jesus’ aunt, his mother’s sister, was also there.

And “the beloved disciple.”

That is the only way he is named in the Gospel of John. I do not believe he was John. He was not one of the twelve. We do not know his name. But his witness takes us close to both the death and the resurrection of
Jesus.

I turn to that witness again on Easter Sunday morning.

Please consider this your personal invitation to both of these services.

Tonight, we have a light supper at 6:30 before worship. The service starts at 7:00.

On Sunday the kids hunt Easter eggs at 10:00.

Easter worship starts at 11:00. Let us, too, gather at the foot of the cross.

Max’s Corner

Last Sunday—Palm Sunday

It was a memorable Sunday.

What a great lunch! Thanks to Bill and Linda Parker and all who brought food.

Folks called me to comment on the choral anthem, the great piece by G. F. Handel. It had all of us rejoicing. We thank the Lord for the blessings of the day.

Holy Thursday—7:00 p.m.

I don’t mention it is Friday’s Word, which comes out the day after. I hope you can come on Thursday evening. (Light supper at 6:30 before worship.)

Mary will lead this service.

What’s it all about? It is about celebrating our Lord on the yearly anniversary of the Last Supper.

“Do this,” he said, “in remembrance of me.”

Good Friday—7:00 p.m.

Light supper at 6:30.

The crucifixion narrative from John (and “the beloved disciple”) will be illustrated with a life-sized image of the Shroud. The image will be mounted on a 7-foot piece of plexiglass. I am working on how I will get
this large piece of plexiglass to the church from Oak Cliff Glass and Mirror in Dallas. Then, how do I make it stand up at the front of the church?

Is it worth all this effort?

The Good Friday service is—for me—the most important service of the year. I consider it a privilege to be part of it.

It is always a hard service to prepare for.

And this year, it will be different from all previous years. Come, if you can.

Easter Sunday

Egg hunt for the kids at 10:00.

The great Hallelujah of Easter begins at 11:00.

Our great choir. A brass quintet. Lilies fill the sanctuary. Joy abounds.

You know how it is.

And I can hardly wait.

God bless—MB

Friday’s Word

Can We Be Certain?

Jeffrey Long, a radiation oncologist, was fascinated by near-death experiences.

And for 30 years he has studied them as a scientist and a doctor. He has also written extensively about them. He now says he is certain there is life after death.

Being “certain” about life after death may seem strange to you. But you can also be certain.

All you have to do is what Dr. Long has done:

Look at the evidence.

I once heard a teacher at Perkins, our Methodist seminary at SMU, deride certainty—and people who claimed to be certain.

He said, “The opposite of faith is not doubt, it is certainty.”

He would define faith as trusting things we can’t be certain about. Trusting things that may turn out to be wrong.


That means he teaches future ministers of the Gospel things that he feels are only possibly true.

But they may be wrong.

In other words, faith is a guessing game.

I don’t believe that.

I’m with Jeffrey Long.

If you look at the evidence long enough, you can come to conclusions.

You can reach certainty.

I am certain about the Resurrection.

I have found that, when God does a work among us, God will always give us sufficient evidence to believe it.

The evidence for the Resurrection is more than sufficient.

When I stand in the pulpit on Easter Sunday morning, I will tell a story I know to be true.

Join us.

But remember—the only way to Easter is through the Cross. Good Friday worship is at 7:00 p.m.

A week away.

Easter is 11:00 a.m.

Come. Behold what God has done for love of us.

Max’s Corner

Palm Sunday

Holy Week begins.

The entrance into Jerusalem.

Remembered in our Parade of the Palms.

It’s a day of celebration, with our Palm Sunday dinner after worship.

We need food.

We passed a sign-up sheet last week. If you did not see it, you can still bring something. (I think a lot of people did not see the list and the sign-up looked insufficient. If you want to know what is needed, call Linda Parker: 817 296 0064.)

Palm Sunday is a great Sunday.

And we need kids to carry the palms!

Breakfast

None this week.

We have lunch after.

Holy Week Services

The two Holy Week services are important.

I hope they are important to you.

Mary will lead the Maundy Thursday service. It may be a little different. It may not. Depending on what Mary decides. Let us gather on the anniversary of the Last Supper our Lord had with the disciples.

It was important for him.

Let it be for us.

Good Friday this year WILL be different. It will feature a life-sized reproduction of the image on the Shroud (of Turin). It will assist us as we follow Jesus in the last hours of his life.

This is one of the most important services of the year. I hope it is important to you.

See you Sunday. Palm Sunday.

What joy!—What love awaits us in the coming week of worship!

Remember plastic eggs and candy for the kids.

Remember kids for the palm processional and for the Easter egg hunt on Easter.

God bless—MB

Friday’s Word

A Misconception

The late John Shelby Spong, Episcopal Bishop, was a skeptic. He asked of the Resurrection:

Do bodies dead for 36 hours resuscitate and walk out of graves?

Do these revived bodies have working vocal cords allowing them to speak? Do they have a functioning skeletal system so that they can walk?

And how can such a body walk through walls with locked doors and barred windows?

Clearly, Bishop Spong thought the Christian claim for Resurrection meant a resuscitated corpse. And he did not believe in that.

I don’t either.

But Bishop Spong had no other concept. And I suspect many (or most) Christians share the same misconception.

A resuscitated corpse would simply put Jesus right back in the world.

Flesh and blood again—someday to die again.

Is this what you believe?

Have you ever really thought about it?

This is where the image on the Shroud of Turin becomes a vital witness.

For those who are willing to think about what they believe, the image on the Shroud presents a powerful picture.

The Shroud image records a physical event that left physical forensic evidence.

Jesus did not resuscitate. His body transformed.

It dematerialized in a quantum physics event.

It returned to the spiritual state from which it had come.

The cloth fell through the body, recording x-ray-like images of the bones in the hands and the sockets for the teeth.

A life-sized replica of the Shroud will feature in our Good Friday service two weeks from today.

Light supper at 6:15.

Worship at 7:00.