Seven Last Words

I went to my first Service of The Seven Last Words of Christ at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Owatonna, Minnesota. I don’t remember this service from when I was a kid growing up in the Episcopal Church in my hometown. My family didn’t attend the “extra” services. Having been back with the Episcopal Church for seven years I just find it strange that this is my first experience with this service. Really points out the variety in “TEC MN”.

Marc Chagall, The White Crucifixion

The service was very good. Rev. Michael does a great job. I particularly liked his reflection on “He said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" (John 19:26-27). He talked about Mary at the “beginning” of Jesus' public ministry. They are at a wedding feast. The host runs out of wine. Mary says to Jesus, “They have no wine”. Jesus answers her, “Woman, what concern is that to you or to me? My hour has not yet come” Mary says to the servants standing there, “Do what ever he tells you.” And so Jesus turns water into wine and it begins. Three years later (more or less) he is being crucified. Mary watches from the foot of the cross. Rev. Michael made an observation about Mary and what she must have been thinking. She probably isn’t thinking about the salvation of the world, the coming Kingdom, the resurrection; she was watching her son die. So John took Mary to be his mother. They lived with each other and shared this memory.

There were only a small handful of people at this service. Some were there at the beginning and left at some point while others came in later and stayed till the end. The sun was shinning. It was a quiet and pleasant day. Michael did most of the service while we responded to a reading of the psalms or a prayer. It was quiet and somber as it should have been. I don’t know the history of this service. I wonder what cultural milieu it grew out of? Does it fit today? It’s an old fashioned service; quiet and cerebral.