A blessed Easter

Our pastoral, church staff and volunteers went all out for Holy Week at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church. There were two high lights in a week of wonderful worship experiences.  At the Friday night solemn service, there were several teens participating, and one young girl was tasked with lighting seven candles between  the scripture passages read by the pastor and two other teens.  She was taller than me, but the candles were high enough and in a clear glass globe, that her arms were just not quiet long enough even stretched well above her head.  After she struggled with the first 2, our 6’5” senior pastor, Steve Turnbull. quietly stepped up from his pew and stood behind her in the dark.  When she struggled, he stepped forward took the candle lighter from her hands and effortlessly with one arm raised high and the other low to control the tool, lit the candle.  But he didn’t do it until she had tried.  What a beautiful example of God’s love and grace.

And then on Easter Sunday, Pastor Dave Mann gave the sermon at our Lytham Road traditional service.  I suppose it was full of the usual Easter message, but what I remember and what we told our family at dinner was the story he told about John and Ali.  John was having a very busy day, and he passed a black man on Route 23 going north who’d had a flat tire and was attempting to flag someone down.  John felt the Lord tap his shoulder but proceeded on as he had a busy schedule.  Then he felt a firmer tap, so he turned around to help the stranded motorist.  Not only was the tire flat, it was ruined.  Not only was it ruined, but the man, Ali, had no money.  So John paid for the tire himself, and then installed it for Ali.  When they were finished, Ali told him he’d been waiting for two hours and no one had stopped, so why did John stop?  “Because I serve the King,” John told him.  Then Ali said, he’d like to know about this King that John served.  Last Easter Ali was baptized a Christian and joined our Lutheran church.  Dave told him that he would experience rejection and even hate from his Muslim community, but God’s love, through John had touched him and he came to know the living Lord.

Pastor Dave also comments occasionally on Facebook and shares his faith.  Last summer Dave’s little grandson and his adult son both died within a week of each other, and Dave’s witness on Facebook probably reach many weak Christians or non-believers.

The Redeemer (movie) 1965

This morning I turned on EWTN about 5:30 a.m. and the movie “The Redeemer” was just starting.  It appeared to be the story of the last hours of Jesus beginning with Judas’ betrayal, and since this is Good Friday, I sat down to watch it.  Something seemed familiar, but also odd, then I realized the face of Jesus was never shown and the faces of the actors weren’t familiar. So I looked it up on Google and learned it was a Spanish film from 1959, directed by Joseph Breen and Fernando Palacios, dubbed for American audiences in 1965.  Macdonald Carey was Jesus’ voice and the narrator was Sebastian Cabot, which is probably why something seemed familiar to me. In the style and mood of the 1950s, the well-known, but always fresh story of the cross and resurrection moves more slowly and thoughtfully with pauses for thinking—much less whip lash than modern films.

Here is a blog entry from Bible Films Blog which provides some information, but also in the comment window there is additional information with links to two other films in the series,  "The Savior" ("El Salvador") and "The Master" ("El Amo" or "El Maestro"). Some parts have been recut for use in Sunday School. The links to those other films no longer work, and one website that promoted them said “no longer available.”  The Amazon link is called “The Life of Christ the Amazing Trilogy,” and are for used DVDs.

It's the week-end

Busy Friday. At least for me, because I usually don't plan much. Attended a lecture at the Faculty Club at Ohio State by Loren Haarsma of Calvin College, on "Is Faith the opposite of Reason?" [No, irrationality is the opposite of reason, and unbelief is the opposite of faith.] I parked at the vet college, and since it was a beautiful day, walked the 20 minutes to my destination, giving both my body and mind some good exercise.

In the evening we had our date night at the Worthington Rusty Bucket with Wes and Sue, and then back to their lovely condo in southern Delaware county for strawberries and angel food cake. Lovely evening and we always enjoy getting together with fellow Lakesiders

Today I joined with women from my Saturday Bible study group to walk for MS at the Columbus Zoo. There was a huge crowd, with many teams. Also could see many participants with canes and walkers and wheelchairs who are afflicted with this terrible disease. One gal took a photo with her cell phone, but doesn't know how to send it, so it may or may not get added to this blog. Our team's name was "Overcomers" for Jim Manos [totals not in yet], but we were also walking for Jackie's husband--she's part of our group. I'm not sure why but certain areas of the country have more MS than others, and Columbus is one of them. Panera's was very generous and provided with a really nice snack at the end of the walk--love those Asiago bagels!

This afternoon we went to the Mill Run Tavern movie theater (the theater has been there a long time, but I think the food service is new) to see Atlas Shrugged. It's a good thing I keep up on politics and governmental economic mischief with my blog, or I might have been a little confused. The bad guys have such great lines in this movie, just like our elected officials and some corporations on the government dole. It's only part 1, so we'll have to wait and see what happens. The book was written in 1957, but the plot of the film takes place just about 4 years from now. I can't say it was great film making, but the actors did an adequate job--didn't recognize anyone. Ayn Rand was a libertarian and an atheist, so Christian conservatives won't like a lot about this film. I do think it shows the direction we're heading with more and more government regulation and distribution of wealth (except the truly wealthy get to keep theirs).

Tomorrow is a joyous day, being Palm Sunday--but we all know Friday's next and then Sunday's coming. And actually that's good news too--in fact, that's what it's all about, for Christians. Tomorrow night we're getting together with our couples group from church to hear about a mission trip to Romania.

Holy Week Intermission

For Christians the week before Easter is called "Holy Week," or as Buff Delcamp wrote in this week's Cornerstone (newsletter of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church), Major Week, Greater Week, Authentic Week, Passion Week, Week of Salvation, and Sorrowful Week. It tells the story of the last week of the life of Jesus on earth, the week the sins of humanity are forgiven, and the world is redeemed. Jesus' life and teaching were not about man's solution to poverty, or slavery, or politics, or clean water, or green space, or domestic violence or anything else you might hear preached on Sunday morning from many pulpits. It was about God's solution for mankind's disobedience, told from "In the beginning. . ." in a garden to the end where we see a great city, a holy city, a New Jerusalem, dressed as a bride for her husband. Since I've so recently returned from "The Steps of Paul" in Greece, Turkey, and Israel I do want to continue updating my trip photos and log, but will avoid the day-to-day chaos in Washington, the steps of our President, and the world economy while I focus of the events of Holy Week. See you after Easter (unless you'd like to check the Holy Land Cruise 2009 link).

When the word "HOPE" means something

Yesterday I came across the web page for Hope Lutheran Church in Aurora, Colorado, an evangelical, confessional, liturgical, Bible-believing Lutheran church and member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It also has a web master who knows how to design an easy-to-navigate web page and a pastor with a heart for communicating the Gospel from the pulpit, from Sunday school, and with decently current technology. So many churches (and libraries, businesses and schools) seem to have cartoonists and quasi-lunatics on contract for web design with a cacophony of colors, hidden links, and wiggling widgets. I was looking through their key to the events of Holy Week, and now the names and places really jump out at me after so recently visiting Jerusalem, the Upper Room, Caiaphas' home, the Mount of Olives, and Gethsemane. There are many Christians who want to focus exclusively on a "social justice" message for Jesus, but 1) one-third of the Gospels are devoted to one week of his life, and 2) all the moral and ethical values Jesus taught had already been given to the Jews long before his birth. He wasn't needed for that message; he was needed for our salvation.