My Blog

Tag: Good Friday

  • The Tree of Wisdom

    Yesterday, a friend shared a couple of stanzas of a Good Friday hymn written by Seventeenth Century Hungarian poet Király Imre von Pécselyi and translated into English by Twentieth Century Congregationalist minister, composer, and musicologist Erik Routley. The common title of the hymn is “There in God’s Garden” and it is also known as “The Tree of Wisdom.” Alabama composer K. Lee Scott wrote the tune “Shades Mountain” specifically for this text.

    I was introduced to the hymn during my two-year residence in Mississippi as Interim Dean of Jackson’s St. Andrew’s Cathedral. It became one of my favorite hymns, with its message of hope for the healing of the nations. Organist/Choirmaster Jessica Nelson led the Cathedral Choir and Congregation in singing it in my last Sunday service there, which was also the occasion for my retirement from active ministry. This seems like a good time to share it.

    I invite you to contemplate the words, read the article by Emily R. Brink, and immerse yourself in the music, here sung by the Choir and Congregation of First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska.

    There in God’s garden stands the Tree of Wisdom,
    whose leaves hold forth the healing of the nations:
    Tree of all knowledge, Tree of all compassion,
    Tree of all beauty.

    Its name is Jesus, name that says, “Our Savior!”
    There on its branches see the scars of suffering;
    see where the tendrils of our human selfhood
    feed on its lifeblood.

    Thorns not its own are tangled in its foliage;
    our greed has starved it, our despite has choked it.
    Yet, look! It lives! Its grief has not destroyed it
    nor fire consumed it.

    See how its branches reach to us in welcome;
    hear what the Voice says, “Come to me, ye weary!
    Give me your sickness, give me all your sorrow;
    I will give blessing.”

    This is my ending, this my resurrection:
    into your hands, Lord, I commit my spirit.
    This have I searched for; now I can possess it.
    This ground is holy.

    All heaven is singing, “Thanks to Christ whose Passion
    offers in mercy healing, strength, and pardon.
    Peoples and nations, take it, take it freely!”
    Amen! Our Savior!

     

    Blessings!

    Ron Short Blue Sig Cropped

     

     

     

     

    The Very Reverend Ron Pogue

     

  • Holy Week: A Time to Remember Who and Whose We Are

    Holy Week: A Time to Remember Who and Whose We Are

    In Baptism, we are incorporated into the Paschal Mystery. That is, we are incorporated into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His life is our life. His death is our death. His resurrection is our resurrection. It is for this reason that Christians observe Holy Week every year. It is a commemoration intended to put us in touch with that life which the world can neither give nor take away. It is a time to look at the Paschal Mystery and to recover our true identity, our authentic self, in him.

    Five hundred years before Jesus rode into Jerusalem, Zechariah prophesied that the Messiah would be a king. Since the time of the Exile, no Jewish ruler had borne the title of king. “Look, your king is coming to you. Rejoice, rejoice, people of Zion” (Zech. 9:9). The time was just right and the people were happy that day to acknowledge it.

    They wished to crown him their king. In their enthusiasm, they missed the paradox. They saw the glory but overlooked the shadow. But Jesus was conscious of both.

    He knew who he was so the acclamations of the crowd did not impress him. He saw that their palm branches cast the shadow of a cross. He sensed that the kingly crown they were offering to him that day would become a crown of thorns by the end of the week. Jesus knew that the identity the world offered was not a secure identity, not a legitimate identity, and certainly not a dependable identity. No, for Jesus, the only true identity is consciousness of who we are in the eyes of our Creator.

    To the disciples, on the next weekend, it must have looked like the world’s biggest failure, a cruel joke. Imagine being sucked in to a group like “the Twelve.” To them “the Way” must have appeared more like a primrose path. Because they were still so dependent upon the things of the world for their sense of identity, they had to be the most embarrassed people around Jerusalem.

    Then came Easter. Out of the tomb came the Risen Messiah with his identity still intact. “He is risen!” is shorthand for Jesus’ message of resurrection:

    Behold, I have overcome the world. Behold, I died and I am alive. Behold, who you are need never again depend upon who you know, what you wear, where you live, what you do, how much you possess, or even what people say about you. Because I live, you will live also. You will experience new life in me and you will be able to face the popularity contest the world is running with confidence that you don’t really have to enter it in order to find out who you are. Here is my crown. It is yours! Take it! And believe me when I tell you that this crown of glory, which is both mine and yours, will never fade away.

    Who and whose we truly are – that’s what Holy Week and Easter are all about.

    I’ll see you in Church!

    Ron Short Blue Sig Cropped

     

     

     

    The Very Reverend Ron Pogue
    Interim Dean
    Saint John’s Cathedral
    Denver, Colorado