Dear Caldwell,
In our Maundy Thursday service (thanks to SO MANY people who prepared and contributed), I was struck by one word that we heard in two pieces of music. It was “wondrous.” We sang it in “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” and we heard Allie Eidson’s haunting gift of a few verses of “What Wondrous Love is This.”
In this two-day time when mere words hardly capture the sum of our emotions and reflections, “wondrous” is as fine as any for Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Wondrous is defined as “so good as to inpsire awe. I suppose that’s what the great composer Isaac Watts had in mind in describing how the cross “on which the Prince of glory died” caused him to “pour contempt on all my pride.” Then an unknown American folk hymnist used the same word, writing:
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul,
What wondrous love is this, O my soul.
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the heavy cross, for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the heavy cross, for my soul.
It may be coincidence or a little divine nudge that this word sticks with me today. It echoes my thoughts in my Christmas Eve meditation on the hymn, “I Wonder as I Wander.” So we see that great composers have used “wonder” to describe Christ’s birth and death. Hmmmmm.
Faith is a mystery, in large part, and wondering is often about as far as we get when we try to “make sense” of God’s grace in the face of this world’s vast brokenness. When we ponder what the world did to Jesus, for simply preaching love and justice, how else but “wondrous” can we describe how, in Jesus, God still “loved us to the end,” as we heard in Thursday night’s reading from the Gospel of John.
Wondrous, indeed.
It was wonder-ful to see so many people come through for our prayer vigil – a meaningful witness you are making to these hours of waiting for Easter sunrise. THANKS to Peg Robarchek, Linda Sluder and Caroline Lublinkhof for preparing so many avenues of reflection and prayer.
Now as our waiting builds to a climax, don’t forget tomorrow’s schedule:
6:30 a.m. – Sunrise worship service at Romare Bearden Park, Church Street, Uptown
9:45 – Fellowship and Flowers: We gather on the church lawn for breakfast and decorate the cross with new life.
11:00 – Easter Worship, as we sing, pray, praise and consider the story of those who ran to the tomb on that first day of our resurrection.
A special prayer request for your staff: Please pray for peace and healing for Leslie Gipple, who is encountering significant complications related to her bicyle accident several months ago. Also, please do the same for Rev. Evie. She was diagnosed with an ear infection and the beginnings of a sinus infection last night. She is scheduled to preach at our four-congregation sunrise Easter service Sunday at 6:30 a.m. Prayers do matter.
In Christ,
John