From the Pulpit: Tenebrae

Greetings and Salutations to you! I hope that your Eastertide has gotten off to a great start!

This week, I wanted to share with you another audio file in our “From the Pulpit” series that I started last month. However, this month’s edition comes with a great and fun twist… I am not the only one speaking on this audio.

Before you listen, allow me to do introduce some terms and explain what is going on. This audio comes from my church’s Good Friday service, which (as the title above notes) is a Tenebrae service. If you are unfamiliar with that term, never fear, I’m going to help define it for us. Tenebrae is simply a word that means “darkness” and typcially refers to a worship service where there is a progressive extinguishing of candles. In the case of this particular Tenebrae service, which occurs on Good Friday, the extinguishing of the candles represent the death of our Lord Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross. This Tenebrae service is one of prolonged meditation on the suffering of Christ as he hung in agony on the cross, paying the penalty for sin, as the full wrath of God was laid upon his shoulders.

Tenebrae services have been observed in throughout Christian history since the fourth century, particularly to remember the crucifixion of Christ.

The purpose of this service is not only to meditate on the sufferings of Christ, but also to pray and contemplate on what his suffering means for guilty sinners such as we are. In this service we do this by recalling Jesus’s seven last “words” (or sayings) on the Cross. For those who are unfamiliar with those, they are:

1. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
2. “Today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
3. “Woman, behold your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “behold, your mother.” (John 19:26-27)
4. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
5. “I thirst.” (John 19:28)
6. “It is finished.” (John 19:30)
7. “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)

Throughout this audio you will hear not only myself (I give the lesson for the fourth word) but also other elders, deacons, and members of my church. As you draw near to the end you will hear a bell ring after the seventh word, signifying the death of Christ on the cross. Afterwards, if you listen carefully, you will be able to hear our alter coverings being stripped from their places. We use velcro to hold them into place, but in many ways this signifies the tearing of the veil in the Temple (Matthew 27:51).

This is a solomn service that brings an appropriate close to the season of Lent and increases our Joy for the season of Eastertide. Listen to all of this and I am confident that you will be blessed.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!