Rector's Reflection: This is the Night, April 19, 2025

Beloved Members of St. Martin’s,

Today, for me, two events collide. First today is the 30 anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. As someone who had countless elderly loved ones who went into that building all the time, it was especially frightening for me and my family in those first few hours. It was such a shock to me that it took me twenty years to go to the Memorial and Museum that now stands on the site.

And then, today is Holy Saturday.  This is the day that we remember Jesus in the tomb. Tradition says that he was not resting, but actually went to empty out the abode of the dead, sometimes called Hell, first, to welcome them to paradise. My remembrance of the Oklahoma City Bombing and the domestic terrorists who accomplished this terrible act has a very “Holy Saturday” feel to it.

But then there is the night. And this night provides a balm to my soul, and helps free me from my continued heartbreak over the violence and hatred this day represents.

Because tonight is the night of the Great Vigil of Easter. We celebrate it tonight because in Jewish custom, a new day began at sundown, and we are told in the Biblical witness in the gospels that, no matter how early the women who came to anoint Jesus’s body got to the tomb, even before dawn, Jesus was already risen.

Tonight we will light a new fire, and light the new paschal candle, and process into the nave of the church by candlelight as the Exsultet, an ancient hymn of rejoicing, is chanted. After we recount the saving history of God, we then celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. I hope many of you will be here, and bring some bells to ring---that’s another fun part of the tradition.

At several points in the Exsultet, we are reminded “This is the night.” This is the night of liberation— for deliverance from death and sin is indeed liberation, that frees us all to pull ourselves from the orbits that force some into oppression and entices some into the role of oppressor. This is the night when instead of being plunged into the waters up to our neck, we have laid before us instead the dry land of deliverance for the life of the world. And we shout Alleluia to God. This is the night we are delivered like a newborn, from sin to grace. This is the night we remember our baptism, and that that baptism was itself a resurrection for us from the shadow life we once lived into the life in Christ that fulfills the humanity God has consecrated and perfected in Jesus which we are all called to model by living for each other. And we shout Alleluia to God. This is the night when Love’s call transforms darkness into light, and that light beckons us to turn again to our proper course, our proper orbit around the one who is our All-in-All, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Shepherd. This is the night when Love repeatedly bids us not to be afraid, for through fear we close our hearts to keep prisoner the little we have, rather than open them to receive the abundance offered to us by a Savior who holds nothing back, not even himself, that we may have life by loving and serving the world. And we shout Alleluia to God.

Alleluia!

In Christ,

Mother Leslie+

(The image above is a panoramic photo I took of the Survivor Tree at the site of the Oklahoma City Bombing.)

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Music Notes from Denise, April 12, 2025

This Sunday we will begin our Holy Week journey as we celebrate Palm Sunday when Jesus rode through Jerusalem on a donkey with crowds cheering and waving palm branches. Our service will begin outside with The Liturgy of the Palms and then we will sing All glory, laud, and honor as we process into the church waving palm branches to the ringing of bells.

For the Offertory, St. Martin’s Choir will sing an arrangement of the hymn, There in God’s garden stands the Tree of Wisdom by K. Lee Scott titled The Tree of Life. The congregation is invited to join us on the final two stanzas. The text comes from Eric Routley’s hymn of that name. The tune was written by K. Lee Scott for the annual Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama in 1986. Scott describes writing the hymn: “As I followed the text phrase by phrase, the tune logically unfolded with ease…As I proceeded through the text with my new tune, I was amazed at the mounting energy from these few, simple notes…I named the tune Shades Mountain after the lovely mountain in Birmingham where I have made my home for the past quarter century. To me the simple elegance of the tune allows the great dignity of the text to shine through.” (Copyright 1997 Birnamwood Publications; MorningStar Music Publishers, Inc) You will be able to follow the poetic phrases in the bulletin as the choir sings about the image of a tree and how it parallels the image of Christ in his teaching, passion, and resurrection.

Before we read the Passion of Jesus Christ, our Communion hymn will be Ah, holy Jesus. This hymn was originally based on a Latin text, Meditationes, written by a medieval monk, Jean de Fecamp, in the eleventh century. John records in his gospel the long discourse Jesus gave before his Passion, where Jesus foreshadowed what was to come. First, he foretells Peter's denial: “Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!” (John 13:38b). Later, he describes what he will do: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). In the first two stanzas of this hymn, we recognize that, like Peter, we are guilty of rejecting Christ, as we sing, “'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee; I crucified thee.” Then we meditate on the great love of Christ in suffering for us, and conclude with a promise to “think on thy [Christ's] pity and thy love unswerving, not my deserving.” (hymnary.org)

St. Martin’s music ministry will enhance our worship during this Holy Week. On Maundy Thursday, the choir will sing a new hymn, Lord, help us walk your servant way, written by Herman Stuempfle in 1997 to a tune by Mary Haugen called Shanti. The lyrics readily describe the experience that may be felt during the footwashing ceremony: Lord, help us walk your servant way wherever love may lead, and bending low, forgetting self, each serve the other’s need. You came to earth, O Christ, as Lord, but power you laid aside. You lived your years in servanthood, in lowliness you died. No golden scepter but a towel you place within the hands of those who seek to follow you and live by your commands. You bid us bend our human pride nor count ourselves above the lowest place, the meanest task that waits the gift of love. (Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr 1997 by GIA Publications, Inc)

I want to especially recommend our Easter Vigil service on Saturday, April 19th, beginning at 7:30 pm. We start outside (weather permitting) as the sun begins to set. We light the Christ candle from an open fire and then pass the light to each person holding a candle (as on Christmas Eve). With beautiful liturgy, we process into the dark nave, bringing the Light of Christ into the church, and begin reading Genesis and other scriptures from the old testament and the Psalms, interspersed with lovely songs sung by everyone: Many and great, O God are thy works, Canticle of the Free, Surely it is God who saves me, Healing River of the Spirit, and finally, Christ Be Our Light written by Bernadette Farrell specifically for Easter Vigil: This is the night of new beginnings. This is the night when heaven meets earth. This is the night filled with God’s glory, promise of our new birth!…Now will the fire kindled in darkness burn to dispel the shadows of night. Star of the morning, Jesus our Savior, you are the world’s true light! (2000 OCP) After this, we begin the First Eucharist of Easter and finally, once again, sing Alleluia! It will be a unique experience to participate in the first service of Christ’s resurrection before it is replicated again on Sunday morning. I challenge any of you who are able to attend an evening service to join us as we celebrate Easter on Saturday evening, just as we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve! The Holy Spirit can fill your soul!