A Message from Pastor Kaji
Dear Church:
Holy Week is here.
We will gather tomorrow at the Cross for Good Friday, at noon with our friends at St. Ignatius Loyola, one block away from the church. On Sunday, we will gather again for Resurrection Sunday. I hope you will make room for both. There is something holy about staying close to Jesus through the tenderness, the grief, the waiting, and the joy.
Before I say more about worship, thank you!
Thank you to everyone who helped us pack 110 meal kits through our growing The Park Sets the Table ministry. Thank you to all who made that work possible, and thank you to our leaders who helped pull it together with such care. I am especially grateful for our staff, Chef Jasmin, Treasurer Candace, and Marcos Lindley, along with every volunteer who gave their time and strength. Those meals were distributed to families through Community Health Academy of the Heights and MS/HS223, The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology in the South Bronx. I am grateful for the way this congregation keeps loving people in concrete, nourishing ways.
Now let’s turn toward worship.
Worship Syllabus for Good Friday: The Seven Last Words
The Seven Last Words are a later Christian compilation, drawn from all four Gospels and gathered into one devotional sequence for prayer, preaching, and meditation. The church has long treasured them because they let us linger with Jesus from different angles. We hear his mercy, anguish, humanity. We hear his trust.
The three-hour Good Friday tradition comes from the Passion narratives themselves. The Gospels tell us that darkness came over the land from noon until three o’clock while Jesus hung on the Cross. Christians began marking those hours with prayer, music, silence, and preaching. It is a way of staying with Jesus while the day unfolds.
The traditional Seven Last Words are:
1. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
Luke 23:34
2. “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:43
3. “Woman, here is your son. . . . Here is your mother.”
John 19:26-27
4. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46 / Mark 15:34
5. “I thirst.”
John 19:28
6. “It is finished.”
John 19:30
7. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Luke 23:46
I will be preaching on the Third Word, “Woman, here is your son . . . Here is your mother,” at around 12:45 pm. I hope you will come and keep watch with Jesus.
A few things to notice as you prepare:
The church calls them “words,” though several are phrases or sentences. These are the final utterances of Jesus from the Cross, and the church has learned to hold them carefully.
Each Gospel gives us a different texture of the Passion. Luke gives us forgiveness and surrender. John gives us intimacy, thirst, and completion. Matthew and Mark give us the cry of abandonment in the language of Psalm 22.
In the Third Word, even from the Cross, Jesus is still making community. He is still entrusting people to one another. He is still forming love in the shadow of death.
Questions for Reflection for Good Friday
Where do I find myself resisting the Cross because I would rather move quickly to the ending?
What kind of love keeps making room for other people, even in pain?
What does it mean for me to stay near Jesus, not only in triumph, but in suffering?
Worship Syllabus for Resurrection Sunday: Matthew 28
Matthew 28 is one of the great, thunder-filled chapters in the New Testament. Matthew does not narrates the resurrection like heaven has broken into the earth.
A few things to notice:
The women come “to see the tomb.” Matthew slows the moment down. They are present, paying attention. They’re there because they loved Jesus.
There’s a great earthquake. In Matthew, the earth is never far from the action of God. The ground itself seems to testify. Resurrection is cosmic news.
The angel rolls back the stone and then sits on it. That detail matters to me. What was meant to seal death is rendered powerless.
The guards shake and become like dead men. Meanwhile, Jesus who was dead is alive. Matthew gives us a sharp reversal.
The angel tells the women, “Do not be afraid,” and Matthew tells us they leave with “fear and great joy.” I love that. Resurrection meets us inside human feeling. Fear and joy can travel together.
The women are sent. Before the disciples get to Galilee, the women receive the news, carry the message, and encounter the risen Jesus on the way. Pay attention to that. In Matthew’s telling, women are the first witnesses and the first messengers of resurrection.
And one more thing: Jesus is already ahead of them. “He is going ahead of you to Galilee.” Resurrection is about being summoned forward.
Questions for Reflection for Resurrection Sunday
What part of my life feels sealed shut, and what would it mean to believe God is not finished there?
Where have fear and joy been living side by side in me?
What does it look like to follow Jesus forward, instead of standing still at the place where I last expected to find him?
Beloved, I hope you will join us for Good Friday and for Resurrection Sunday. Come ready to pray. Come ready to notice. Come ready to be surprised again by Jesus.
Pax Christi,
Pastor Kaji
A Prayer for the Rest of Holy Week
Lord Jesus, keep us near you. Keep us tender at the Cross and awake to the wonder of resurrection. Teach us to stay, to listen, to grieve, to trust, and to rejoice. Gather us again in your love, and lead us forward in the power of your life. Amen.
SCRIPTURE
Matthew 28:1-10 (Year A, p. 259)
1 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And look! There was a great earthquake, for a messenger of God, descending from heaven, came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. 3 Its appearance was like lightning, and its clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of the messenger, the guards shook and were as though dead. 5 But the messenger responded to the women and said, “Fear not; I know that you all are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, just as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and see, he is on to Galilee ahead of you; there you all will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8 So the women left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples the news. 9 Then all of a sudden Jesus met them and said, “Shalom!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and bowed down worshipping him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Fear not; go and tell my sisters and brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
