Letter from the Pastor's Desk: March 2023

Dear faithful people of Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church:
 
By now you have seen that we have removed the Paschal Candle from the nave and placed our Lenten cross on tables near the font, with candles available for worshipers to light as you enter, as you leave, during the Greeting of Peace, or after you have received communion. We believe that, especially at this time, the act of lighting a candle as you pray might be particularly helpful. This arrangement will remain in place every day through Maundy Thursday, April 6, 2023.
 
Our use of this cross has led to some interesting questions about why there is no cross on the Table. These questions, in turn, offer me an opportunity to respond from the historic tradition of the Church and from Christ the King Church’s own liturgical practice, based on that tradition. I begin by asking a question I’ve recently asked at server training:
 
What is the primary symbol of Christ in any church?
 
Historically, it was never the cross; not as the primary symbol.  In the Church’s historic tradition, the primary symbol of Christ has always been the Table (altar). There have been a number of ways that has been communicated over the centuries. In some churches, five crosses, representing the nail and spear wounds Jesus received at his crucifixion, have been carved into the wood or stone of the Table. In others, those same five crosses are embossed on the fair linen (the white “table cloth”) one in each corner and the fifth in the center. However, since the Fourth Century CE, there has always been a more dramatic demonstration of the Table as primary symbol; an ancient tradition enacted by the members of our altar guild every Holy (Maundy) Thursday. Do you remember what they do at the end of the liturgy that day, the first day of the Triduum (Three Day liturgy) that begins on Maundy Thursday, continues through Good Friday, and concludes with the great Vigil of Easter?
 
The Maundy Thursday liturgy has four distinct parts, three of which re-enact the events Jesus and the disciples experienced “in the night he was betrayed.” The first part of the service that evening is the rite of Confession and Absolution. This declaration of forgiveness is the first one we will have heard since Ash Wednesday’s lengthy confession inaugurating the forty days of penitence we know as Lent, when we confessed our sins and began the forty-day penitential season of Lent. This absolution concludes Lent and readies us to celebrate the passion, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus.
 
The next three parts of the Maundy Thursday service re-enacts—remembers— the events of Jesus’ Passion. Part one is the “maundy” (command) section, in which we remember that after Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, he gave the command that they “love one another as I have loved you.”  In part two, the Church remembers, again as Jesus commanded (“Do this for the remembrance of me.”) the institution of the Lord’s Supper, which Lutherans also call Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the Divine Service, and the mass. Third, and finally on this night, we remember Jesus’ arrest, trials, and humiliation. It is in this part that the Table as primary symbol of Christ is made absolutely clear:  Members of the altar guild “strip the Table,” removing all of the vessels, linens, and paraments, re-enacting symbolically what the Roman soldiers did to Jesus during his trial. Here at Christ the King Church we go one step further to make this abundantly clear: Altar Guild members place a crown of thorns on the Table’s center. For nearly 1700 hundred years, this simple yet moving ritual, which we repeat every year, makes the point that the Table is the primary symbol of Christ in the nave.
 
Therefore we treat that Table with reverence. Only those items necessary to convey Christ to God’s people – communion vessels mainly -- are placed on the Table. Our offering gifts are also placed as an indication that it is always through Christ that we offer our gifts to God. An altar book with liturgical materials may be placed as well, although these can just as easily be held for the presiding minister by an assisting minister. Otherwise, nothing else is placed on the Table. It is the primary symbol of Christ.
 
I know, you’ve seen other items placed there before and you’ve seen other items – flowers, candles and the like placed on Christ the King Church’s Table and in other churches. Truth be told, the recovery of this ancient understanding  that the Table symbolizes Christ only happened in the last 75 years or so in the liturgical renewal of which Christ the King Church has always been a part.
 
There are other secondary symbols of Christ in our nave: 
the Paschal Candle, symbolizing the risen Christ, the “first fruits” of the resurrection, which we light for all fifty days of Easter and at baptisms and funerals;
the Baptismal Font with its running water, filled and flowing every day but one; 
the Presence Light in the Narthex, which many call an “eternal flame,” announcing that Christ is present in the sacramental elements here.
 
Since each of these is a symbol of the risen Christ; the font is emptied, and the presence light extinguished from Maundy Thursday evening through Good Friday and until the Easter Vigil.

There is, of course, the processional cross, carried into and out of the nave as a symbol that Christ Jesus leads into worship and out in service to the world. Often there is a crucifix visible to preachers reminding them to always proclaim “Christ crucified.”  For those wishing to always see a cross in the nave, there is, I believe, an excellent place for that and for other symbols in the Nave. I’d be happy to discuss that place with any who wish to see that happen.
 
In the meantime, please find cross and candles accessible for prayer and meditation in the nave each day this Lent. The Table – Christ Jesus -- is always at the center of our life together, reminding us of the One who “prepares a table in the midst” and who is for us, both Gift and Giver divine; Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord.
 
Peace and Joy --- and Courage!

Amandus J. Derr
Interim Senior Pastor