Sunday 29 March 2020
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, Amen.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Fifth Sunday in Lent, otherwise known as Passion Sunday. The dictionary definition of which is ‘a very strong feeling about something’. To use the word in a religious sense, however, is to refer to that which befell Jesus in that last crucial phase of his ministry as he turned his face towards Jerusalem and his encounter with those who would deny life. This he did knowing that it would cost him his.
Passion, it’s a very good word for us to use, given the strength of feeling involved in the decisions – words, prayers and actions – taken by him on behalf of others, even to the point, we are told, that in the Garden of Gethsemane he sweated drops of blood.
We use the word Passion to describe that part of each of all four gospels that relates to this period of Jesus’ life, and to take just one of them – Mark, for an example, the earliest of them – it’s possible to argue that his Passion narrative begins at chapter 8 and verse 31. And so, when we think that Mark is only 16 chapters long, we understand just how central the Passion is to Christian faith.
Today, traditionally, marking the start of the season of Passiontide, which lasts almost two weeks ending on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday.
In anticipation, then, of Easter, our traditional readings for today are ones of resurrection – Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones in the Old Testament, and of how God breathes new life into them. And the story of Lazarus in the New. They are both well worth reading.
Given the circumstances that prevail at this time, however, I wanted to share another Bible passage with you instead. And it’s the 23rd psalm:
The Lord is my shepherd;
I have everything I need.
2 He lets me rest in fields of green grass
and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water.
3 He gives me new strength.
He guides me in the right paths,
as he has promised.
4 Even if I go through the deepest darkness,
I will not be afraid, Lord,
for you are with me.
Your shepherd's rod and staff protect me.
5 You prepare a banquet for me,
where all my enemies can see me;
you welcome me as an honoured guest
and fill my cup to the brim.
6 I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life;
and your house will be my home as long as I live.
Just as the Passion has been set to music numerous times, so too has Psalm 23. I want to talk about just one setting just now though, and it’s the most familiar to us. It’s familiar to people all around the world as well following its use at the Royal Wedding in Westminster Abbey in 1947. Called Crimond, the composer, Jessie Seymour Irvine, who was born in 1836 was only in her teens when she wrote it. She was the daughter of a Church of Scotland minister who served at increasingly northern parishes in the North East of Scotland: Dunnottar (with its famous castle – it features in Lewis Grassic Gibbons’ novel Sunset Song), Peterhead (named after St Peter, a fisherman like many of that town’s residents have been over the years), and then Crimond itself.
Which is famous not just for that wonderful hymn tune, but for its Church tower clock as well. For, when it was first painted, a ‘happy’ accident caused it to have an extra minute between the 11 and the 12. It was then restored in 1948, and repainted ‘correctly’ leading to a furore over what was deemed a desecration, for people (not just in Crimond but far and wide as well, given the recent wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten) had come to hear of the clock, and they loved that extra minute in each hour. And so the ‘mistake’ was restored.
Let us pray:
God, at this time of the year when the clocks go forward, and we often say we lose an hour, remind us of Crimond and of that extra minute we might all have in every hour. And remind us to use it wisely.
And God, while we know there are certain – digital – clocks that will have automatically changed overnight, there may well be other – analogue – clocks, and some in public places including churches, that may have to just be left at the moment, telling a different time.
May these serve to remind us of all that is most valuable in life: our health; family and friends; school, work, rest and play; food and shelter; culture; care – and time itself.
We give you thanks especially for all who at this time are working to bring us our food and keep us healthy as we pray for all those who are sick, scared, bereaved or alone, Amen.
Blessing:
And now may Christ’s peace be with us, and may the blessing of God be upon us, Amen.
---------------------------------