Back in the days when young boys from upstanding, God-fearing families could take their bicycles out into the countryside to gawk and explore county roads, the rolling hills, fields of corn and soybeans, and herds of beef and dairy cattle proved themselves the summer diversion of choice for my good friend and me. No cell phones to keep in contact with home and no real information given to the parents other than “We’re going bike riding…,” this opportunity to get us out of the house and from under their feet was a happy prospect. Navigating the normally gentle ups and downs of central Indiana backroads gave my friend and me a good workout and the chance to burn off some teenage energy. The real workout was when we decided to take a trip to Morgantown and back, which would take us up Mt. Nebo hill past the Mt. Nebo Community Church. The church and cemetery were perched on the second highest point in the county at 291 meters which translates into 954.724 feet. The strenuous haul up the hill was amply rewarded by the long coast downhill into the final stretch toward the town. A little used backroad led us home without having to negotiate Mt. Nebo twice on the same day.
Mt. Nebo near my hometown was named after a biblical site, the Mt. Nebo mentioned in Deuteronomy 32:48-49 [around 2,300 feet/700 meters]: On that very day the Lord addressed Moses as follows: “Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for a possession…” Moses and his brother Aaron were forbidden to enter that land long promised by God — הארץ המובטחת, translit.: ha’aretz hamuvtakhat, the Promised Land – since they both had broken faith with God during the exodus out of Egypt. Two places during this wearisome trek Moses named Meribah, meaning a place where a quarrel took place. The second quarrel occurred at Meribah-Kadesh. God had instructed Moses to strike a rock out of which water would pour to slack the people’s thirst, thereby demonstrating God’s fidelity to them. Instead, attempting to reestablish the people’s trust, the brothers took credit for the miraculous water God provided; thus, their punishment: But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” These are the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and through which he showed himself to be holy…” [Numbers 20:12-13].
While the consequences of Moses’ and Aaron’s actions seem harsh, God nevertheless allowed Moses a glimpse of the Land of Promise / of Milk and Honey from the peak of Nebo. One of the oldest cities in the world, Jerico is usually visible from the Mount, and on a very clear day, one might not see “forever,” but at least as far as Jerusalem. Moses died somewhere on the slopes of Mt. Nebo, and Aaron died on Mt. Hor [Deuteronomy 32:50-52]. Scripture tells us that both brothers were “gathered to their people,” a phrase likely meaning that they joined the generations of God’s people who already had died.
God’s gift to Moses, a glimpse of the long-sought destination of the Exodus, calls to mind Henry Alford’s hymn set to Marty Haugen’s popular melody, We Walk by Faith [ELW 635]. Even though the hymn’s first stanza states: We walk by faith and not by sight, Moses’ gracious privilege of seeing the land of promise reveals that perhaps we are able to see by faith as well. As we rapidly approach Holy Week, the destination of our Lenten pilgrimage each year, it is helpful to understand why and how we yearly observe this holy week and the Holy Days: Palm/Passion Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and the Triduum, the three holy days of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter — the Resurrection of our Lord at the very center of the Christian Year. In effect, these holy days of the coming week unfold the “mystery of faith,” the ways and means of God’s saving actions “…for us and for our salvation” achieved by the Son’s obedience to the Father’s unrelenting mission to save and refashion God’s cosmos [John 3:16-17]. While we struggle to find words for God’s unfathomable love played out as a life freely given up to death on a cross so that we might join Jesus in the eternal life of God’s in-breaking kingdom, it is helpful to remember, despite the popular hymn We Walk by Faith, that sometimes seeing IS helpful for believing. Ask blesséd Thomas on Easter II.
The earliest, clear record of Holy Week observance appears in the Apostolic Constitutions written in Syria around 380 CE. The document is based on a number of earlier writings of the post-testamental era [i.e., the time after the extant, scattered texts of the New Testament were completed and gathered. It was the period of the Church’s first growth and expansion beyond the Eastern Mediterranean region]. One of the Church’s earliest dilemmas was how to “hand on” the liturgical and ministerial traditions of Christianity with fidelity and integrity – it’s another way to ask, “O.K. So how do we newcomers to faith DO church? Thus, various Greek, Latin, and other documents were penned to address both the practicalities of “doing church” along with providing coherent presentations of the theological and scriptural underpinnings of what Christians undertake to order their communal lives.
However, probably the most fascinating early document regarding the pragmatics of being Christian from week to week was the diary of an Hispano-Roman noble woman who left her community to visit the Holy Land. Her intention was to provide for the women of the community she left [perhaps a convent or simply the accepted name for those who are related to one another (brothers and sisters in Christ) through Baptism] a reliable account of faith in practice. Egeria’s (or Aetheria’s) Diary is a treasure trove of detailed information about what she saw and did, particularly during the Holy Week liturgies she attended. Written around 381/2 – 384 CE, it is a surprising document for latter-day Christians. While reading her observations we begin to recognize traditions, objects, and actions long hallowed and still in use. Her euphoric description of the faithful gathering early in the morning at the place where people understood Jesus’ tomb to be combines both location and the Biblical record woven into an unforgettable experience. She remarks that people continue the Good Friday mourning as they gather, then begin to sing hymns as the Bishop and other ministers arrive for the liturgy. The Bishop enters the tomb and soon comes out again, bearing a “very large candle.” He chants in Greek, “Χριστός ἀνέστη” – “Christ is Risen!” and the people respond. “Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia!” [Does that sound and look familiar? Take a gander at the VERY large candle next to the font.] The Palm Sunday entry is lived and proclaimed in scripture in the streets of Jerusalem. The meal Christ consecrates in his “Last Supper” [I Corinthians 11:23-26] is heard, seen, and experienced through 4th century interpretive actions and locations. The solemnity of Good Friday takes the people to the site of the crucifixion. It is these peripatetic, stational observations and doing of the central things of faith, redemption, and salvation that to Egeria’s eyes and in her hearing laid the foundation for how people continue to commemorate and memorialize the unfolding, proclaimed and embodied Word even to the present. Importantly, this “pattern of good things” occurs even at 101 East Boundary Street, Chapin, SC. No, we don’t “do again” what first happened any more than we “redo” Christ’s crucifixion at the Table of the Lord each Sunday. Liturgy is NOT, I repeat, is NOT play-acting! Christ’s sacrifice is “once and for all times” – period. What we do is ritually embody “these good things” so that we can perceive through our senses [sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, and the sense of presence] the fount of grace. God uses every means available!!!
Egeria’s witness, brothers and sisters, is a “right fer piece” for such an account to travel from downtown Jerusalem during Egeria’s visit – BUT IT HAPPENED! Moreover, we are still embodying and proclaiming these saving mysteries each time we gather as God’s people. Maybe Allen Jay Lerner’s and Burton Lane’s hit song, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, inadvertently speaks of the Paschal Mystery we celebrate, for indeed, we can see forever, clear into the banquet hall of the Lamb’s high feast in the eternal kingdom of God’s love. “Alleluia! Christ IS risen, indeed!”