Good Friday: the Tenebrae

Have you ever heard of it? It is the "service of the darkening"...or of shadows, and it is the dark part of the easter story, it follows the last seven statements of Christ on the cross and as each part is contemplated...a candle is extinguished.
Then you leave the church in darkness and silence, in mourning... which makes the miracle of Easter that much more powerful and joyful

What I get out of it is different every time. It's really a profound thought, what must the disciples felt as Jesus died? They had no idea what was coming, for all they knew, it was OVER, their hope was done. They had been schooled for a couple years by this great teacher, and now he was gone...they thought he was there to deliver them from the romans, they had no idea his teachings were more about Christ-in-All-of -Us ...and in my opinion, anchoring that energy into the grids. To them, they had to plan a funeral now, and take care of his body, they had to look on his face and note the absence of his spirit there... how desolate they must have felt...

The passage of the last words spoken on the cross are also profound: forgiving a criminal next to him, forgiving the ones who nailed him up there, telling his mother that he was no longer her son, crying in abandonment, saying to god and them all that it was finished (he completed his soul purpose) and then releasing himself to the light... all of these are stages of faith we ALL go through no matter what our doctrine. and it never ceases to make me cry, truth has a way of doing that i guess.

I love that fact that my Pastor digs up these obscure old-world concepts...

http://www.kencollins.com/instructions/how-05.htm

So ya, while I am quite a 'new ager' I still enjoy my Lutheran Churchy-ness...especially when I feel this stuff on so many levels.
I just wanted to share...