Category: Lent

On Being Lazarus

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Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

lazarus

Raising of Lazarus, Jacapo Tintoretto, 1558

Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
(John 11: 21-26)

I suspect that from time to time we each wish God would free us from the necessity of facing death and wonder why God does not do so. Martha’s pained awords of loss after the death of her brother, Lazarus, echo in our hearts even if they do not escape our lips. The fantasy of God whisking persons off to heaven in whirlwind and chariot of fire like Elijah or the prospect of Christ descending in glory, heralded by archangels’ trumpets, and being lifted to meet Him are equally appealing. Yet our experience has more in common with that of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus than that of Elijah or those living at Christ’s Second Coming. Followers of Jesus may not be “of” this world (i.e. shaped by its values) but we continue to live in this world and so must deal with its adversity.

While faith in Christ does not remove us from this world or free us from its tribulations, it can sustain us and point to a reality beyond present circumstances. That’s what happened in Martha’s case. She knew Lazarus had been dead in his tomb for four days. Through grieving and hurt by Jesus’ delay she still made a powerful profession of faith the equal of St. Peter’s: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God …” Elsewhere in the Gospel of John, Jesus defines eternal life as a quality of existence characterized by relationship with God rather as a limitless number of years. By that measure Martha is already living eternal life. She is connected to God through Jesus Christ. Though Martha’s body may die – like that of her brother – she (her truest self) will not. Martha “gets it;” many of those watching when Jesus raises Lazarus do not. They are so fixated on the miraculous physical restoring of life that they miss the deeper truth Jesus is trying to convey. There is more to life than material existence and more to us than a physical body. Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

Do you believe this?

Lent as an expression of counter-culture

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Given our hedonistic culture it’s no surprise Mardi Gras, that pre-eminent celebration of personal indulgence, has found broad acceptance while the season of Lent has not. Themes of penitence, preparation, and reconciliation do not resonate with our society’s consumerist or narcissistic proclivities.

lent_ash_wednesday

Pop culture and marketers urge us to gratify our desire for pleasure and convenience whatever the cost and tell us that we each deserve such things. Lent suggests we forgo certain pleasures for the sake of spiritual discipline in order to grow in our faith. Culture celebrates the ego-self and places each person at the center of his or her own virtual world with every perceived need and whim being catered to. Christ calls us to self-sacrifice, saying: “Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:38-39)

The conflict between the values of secular society and those commanded by Christ make Lent the most profoundly counter-cultural season of the church year. Followers of Christ can expect no support from the culture around them as they try to deepen their relationship with God or grow spiritually. For this reason, it is important that the church help its members keep a holy Lent. One way your church supports your growth as a disciple of Christ is by scheduling dinners and programs each Wednesday in Lent.

Ash Wednesday Worship (imposition of ashes if desired) Sanctuary, March 5 at 7:00 PM

Wednesday Lenten Dinners & Programming March 12, 19, 26 and April 2, 9
(To be held in Fellowship Hall)

Dinner at 6:00 PM followed by prayers and song at 6:50 PM

Half hour programs for adults and children on Christian discipleship 7:00 to 7:30 PM

Children will be learning the good news about Jesus as they add one reminder bead each week to a bracelet in a program entitled, “The Good News Beads.”

The adult program is entitled “Jesus Still Lead On” and is a study of Christian discipleship based on the Moravian Covenant for Christian Living and The Foundation of Our Faith by The Rev. Kevin Frack of the Moravian Church in America, Southern Province.

Holy Week Reading Services April 14-16, at 7:00 PM

Maundy Thursday Holy Communion April 17th at 7:00 PM

Good Friday Tenebrae Service April 18th at 7:00 PM

– Pastor Derek

Pastor Derek French’s Lent message appears in The Star, March 2014

Easter Flowers 2014

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Order flowers now to beautify the East Hills Moravian Church sanctuary for Good Friday and Easter morning services.

good friday services bethlehem

Good Friday at East Hills Moravian Church

We are offering lilies, daffodils, and tulips for purchase, and you may take them home after the last service Easter morning.

Please order by completing the form below and return it with payment to Anna Koehler (address is on order form).

Order deadline is Sunday, April 6th, 2014

  • Lilies: $10.00
  • Tulips: $8.00
  • Daffodils: $8.00

Click here to download the order form (a window will open – save the order form to your desktop or other folder)

easter flowers

Easter morning at East Hills

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The Lord is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Now What?

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One of the cherished memories of my youth is playing trumpet in the Easter dawn service
held on God’s Acre in Winston-Salem, NC. I recall years of glorious sunrises as well as cold
and rainy years, the sound of a five hundred piece Moravian band, and the spectacle of
thousands of Christians gathering to celebrate their Lord’s Resurrection.

One of the repressed memories of my youth is the utter fatigue which overcame me each
year when, with the arrival of dawn and the conclusion of worship, the sustaining power of
Krispy Kreme doughnuts, coffee, and Moravian Sugar Cake no longer sufficed to keep me
awake.

Sometimes we complete Easter feeling a bit like that – fatigued – even if we didn’t get up at
midnight to begin early morning rounds with the band. If we embrace the discipline of Lent,
with its weekly services, the nightly services of Holy Week, and attend the Easter Sunrise
Service, we do so in addition to our other responsibilities to family and career. Then too, we
may have lost loved ones in the past year, faced illness, or loss of a job. Sometimes what we
need most after Easter is rest.

It was that way for the disciples. They had faced the persecution of the state and religious
leaders of their day. They had seen their friend, Lord, and Savior crucified. They had
experienced the depths of despair and a rebirth of hope beyond their wildest imagination.
Now what they needed was time to process all that they had done, experienced, and seen.
Previously Jesus had urged his followers to action on behalf of God towards those who were
most vulnerable in the society of that day. Now Christ tells them to be still – to wait for the
Lord to act.

After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs,
appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While
staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the
promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; or John baptized
with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts
1: 3-5)

The human soul has seasons just like the year. There are times for vigorous action and times
for contemplation and rest. Without both we cannot fully become what God desires us to
be. Are you getting adequate spiritual, emotional, and physical rest and rejuvenation in your
life? If not, what adjustments do you need to make to return to health and draw closer to your God?

See you in church,

Pastor Derek

Easter Sunday and the significance of The Day Of Resurrection

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bethlehem easter service moravianOn Easter morning we gather to hear and respond to familiar affirmations of faith:

“The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!”

Moravian Easter liturgies speak of a God who so loves humanity so much that he chose to enter a suffering world in the person of Jesus Christ in order to mend our relationship with God, free us from the power of sin, and open the way to eternal life. At the Easter dawn service the congregation responds to such statements of faith with the words: “This we truly believe.”

On Resurrection Sunday, when the band is playing, the choirs are singing, and the church is decked out with daffodils and Easter lilies, it is not hard to affirm Christian faith and attach ourselves to its message of hope. Yet how many of those who gather on Easter Sunday are also willing to walk with Christ through the Garden of Gethsemane, stand with him on the Pavement of Judgment before Pilate, accompany him as he carries the cross on the Via Dolorosa, or stand at the foot of the cross on Good Friday?

In terms of worship, every member of the congregation has the opportunity to experience the last week of Christ’s life prior to his execution by crucifixion during our Holy Week Reading Services. Each night we will take turns reading from the Gospels’ accounts of what Jesus was doing on a particular day or evening. The week comes to a liturgical climax with Maundy Thursday Holy Communion and our Good Friday Tenebrae services.

All evening worship services will be held at 7:00 pm.

In terms of life, every day presents us with many choices to serve God or to serve the world which crucified our Lord. What you decide to do with each day of your life will reveal whether Easter’s affirmation of faith “This we truly believe,” is an accurate expression of personal faith or empty words. Fortunately for all of us, God allows U-turns. No matter how insincere we have been in the past; no matter how unfaithful we may have been in attending worship, in loving our neighbor as ourselves, in keeping God first in our lives, we always have the option of turning towards God.

Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
and all the world go free?
(There’s a cross for everyone
And I know that there’s a cross for me).

No Cross. No Crown.

See you in church,

Pastor Derek

Order Easter Flowers

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Easter Flowers

These are not what your daffodils will look like, but they’re beautiful nonetheless

It’s time to order flowers to beautify the church sanctuary for Easter services 2013.

This year’s choices are lillies for $10.00, tulips for $8.00 and Daffodils for $8.00.

Deadline to order is Sunday, March 10th.

When you fill out the form, don’t forget to fill in the “Presented By” line and the “honor”, “blessings” or “memory” lines.

Click here to download the order form. It’s in Microsoft Word, so you can fill it out very easily. When you click the link, a window will open – save it to your desktop so you can easily find it after it downloads.

Hint: These flowers are perennials and can be planted in your garden after Easter. When they’re done blooming in their pots, cut the stems off just above the bulb and plant them in a sunny spot. Next spring you’ll enjoy the blooms! The cool thing is, they “naturalize”, which means they’ll keep creating more flowers every year. So if you have a spot to fill in, this is your perfect opportunity (daffodils are the most prolific).

Hint 2: Lillies have a wonderful aroma, and daffodils have none. But squirrels and rabbits won’t eat daffodil bulbs.

Happy Easter.

The Paradox of Lent

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“… you are dust and to the dust you shall return.”

(Genesis 3:19b)

Meditating on the reality of human mortality is something most of us prefer to avoid. While we know our days are numbered, we usually manage to distract ourselves from this ever present fact with work, family responsibilities and recreation. Yet the Church has a whole liturgical season dedicated to contemplation of death and to the transience of all human endeavors? Why?

monkey trapThere’s an old story about an ingenious monkey trap. Reportedly, the monkey hunters tie a coconut to a tree, drill a hole in the coconut just large enough for a monkey’s hand to reach in, and place a piece of fruit or a nut inside. The monkey comes and is easily able to reach his hand into the hole to grasp the food. Yet when the monkey closes his fist around his prize he can no longer withdraw his hand from the coconut. The delay provided allows a hunter to aim, shoot, and bag a monkey for dinner.

Nothing in the material world lasts forever, but that doesn’t keep us from clinging to families, achievements, possessions, and institutions like a monkey grasping fruit in a coconut. Familiar surroundings provide the illusion of security and permanence while the hunter creeps closer each passing day. Some live to a happy old age. Others fall to illness, accidents, natural disasters, or senseless acts of violence. In the end, we all die. Can we escape this “monkey trap”? Christian faith answers, “Yes!”

The spiritual disciplines of Lent – prayer, worship, fasting, and the imposition of ashes – exist to help us let go of our old selves, our old securities and old identities. It is only with open, empty hands that we can hold the hand of God. When we take God’s hand and follow Christ we discover that acceptance of our mortality has paradoxically led us to a new life on earth, followed by eternal life with God in heaven.

“When this perishable body puts on imperishability and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: Death has been swallowed up in
victory.”

(I Corinthians 15:54)

Lent and death gives way to Easter and life.

See you in church,
Pastor Derek

Easter and holy week services

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easter sunday east hills moravian church

Easter Sunday Morning at East Hills

 

We invite you to celebrate Holy Week and Easter services at East Hills Moravian Church. Please join us as we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

Palm Sunday April 1st

8:30 am & 11:00 am Worship Services

 

Sunday through Wednesday April 1-4

7:00 pm

Holy Week Readings

 

Maundy Thursday April 5th

7:00 pm Holy Communion

 

Good Friday April 6th

7:00 pm Tenebrae Service

(what’s a Tenebrae Service?)

 

Easter Sunday April 8th

6:00 am Easter Dawn Service

8:30 am Holy Communion

11:00 am Easter Celebration