Welcome to the 2014 Virtual Vigil

Thank you for joining us today. You are about to embark on a journey that invites you to enter into reflection and meditation that aims to bring the ancient story of Christ's passion into a personal experience in the life of the seeker today. We have designed today’s experience for you to go on a journey into the life of Christ. It is not a “Stations of the Cross” however some of the thresholds are designed around that “Holy Week”. They do not follow in order though.

We have designed a series of “thresholds” (the starting point for a new state or experience; the smallest detectable sensation; the entrance, the space through which you enter). You are invited to step across the threshold to another time, another place. Using all of your senses, you are encouraged to participate fully in each one.  Each threshold of the physical vigil will be presented in a separate post on this blog. Be sure to continue to the older posts" to see all of the thresholds.

Feel free to “journal” your experience. We encourage you to share any special thoughts you may have and leave it n a comment for those who come after you to read. Throughout the day we will add notes from the physical vigil to the virtual vigil and vice versa. At the end of the day, we will have a service in the church sanctuary beginning at 7:00 p.m. At that time we will read aloud any comments that have been left.

We invite you to participate fully in the life of First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Brimfield.  Please visit our web site to learn more about us.

"God is at his best when our life is at its worst. We often learn much more from our trials than from periods of happiness...God's right there even if you can't see him. That's the message of Lent and the Resurrection. There is always something wonderful and surprising around the corner on earth and beyond. That is the sacrificial truth of Lent, the music that builds to the miracle of the Resurrection." - Max Lucado

Every time someone encounters Jesus, the outcome is surprising, not what they expected would happen. In the thresholds you see today, it is our hope you will encounter Jesus as you contemplate the stories of others' encounters with him. Get ready, you may be in for a surprise!

Like a Rock

"For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ."

I Corinthians 10:4;

Long before "Like a Rock" was a popular Bob Seeger song, and later the theme for a macho Chevy truck commercial, it was a phrase used in the Bible to describe God. For example, Psalm 18:2 says: "The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge . . ." A rock means strength and security: "solid as a rock." But God could use even this unbreakable solid object to provide the people with nourishment, as we see in Psalm 81, when God promises to satisfy the people with "honey from a rock. " And in Exodus 17 Moses strikes a rock in the wilderness and water flows out to nourish the thirsty people. It is this story in Exodus that the Apostle Paul is referring to here: "the rock was Christ," the one who provides living water to all who thirst.How else might we think of Jesus being "like a rock?" My Welsh forebears would often end their prayers "in the strong name of Jesus Christ." Their faith knew that Jesus was solid, unshakable, immovable, dependable, and strong.

- "Like a Rock"Richard L. Floyd

The Last Supper

When it was time, he sat down, all the apostles with him, and said, "You've no idea how much I have looked forward to eating this Passover meal with you before I enter my time of suffering. It's the last one I'll eat until we all eat it together in the kingdom of God." Taking the cup, he blessed it, then said, "Take this and pass it among you. As for me, I'll not drink wine again until the kingdom of God arrives." Taking bread, he blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, given for you. Eat it in my memory." He did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant written in my blood, blood poured out for you. "Do you realize that the hand of the one who is betraying me is at this moment on this table? It's true that the Son of Man is going down a path already marked out—no surprises there. But for the one who turns him in, turns traitor to the Son of Man, this is doomsday." They immediately became suspicious of each other and began quizzing one another, wondering who might be about to do this.

Luke 22:14-23

Join Jesus at the table, the folding chair is for you, Jesus sits in the other.  This meal has been prepared just for you.  Take a piece of bread and dip it in the cup.  As you cup your hand under the soaked bread you may catch a drop of the grape juice.  Recall that Jesus proclaimed this to be his blood.  What does it mean for you this Good Friday to have Jesus’ blood on your hands? Do you know God loves you so much God wants to break bread with you? 

Loaves and Fishes

When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” Jesus replied,“They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Bring them here to me,” he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

John 19:1-3, 28-30

The disciples complain to Jesus and tell him to send the people away. He tells them to feed them instead! Then in an amazing twist, after feeding more than 5000 on 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, they have many leftovers! Has there ever been a time in your life when you knew you didn’t have enough? Perhaps your paycheck could only stretch so far….Were you ever surprised by help at the last minute? Did you realize it was God helping you? Stretching your meager amount into much more!

The Suffering of Jesus

So Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. The soldiers, having braided a crown from thorns, set it on his head, threw a purple robe over him, and approached him with, "Hail, King of the Jews!" Then they greeted him with slaps in the face. Jesus, seeing that everything had been completed so that the Scripture record might also be complete, then said, "I'm thirsty." A jug of sour wine was standing by. Someone put a sponge soaked with the wine on a javelin and lifted it to his mouth. After he took the wine, Jesus said, "It's done . . . complete." Bowing his head, he offered up his spirit.

John 19:1-3, 28-30

There are no words to describe the suffering that Jesus had to bear. There is nothing that you have gone through or will go through that he has not gone through. You are not alone in your suffering. Jesus is there no matter what happens to you.

Jesus Calms the Storm

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

Matthew 8:23-27

Fear can be immobilizing, causing terror-filled moments. Are there times when you are filled with fear? Jesus tells us to have faith, He is there with you. There are many different storms in life. He is there through them all. Sometimes, Jesus will either calm your storm or allow it to rage while He calms you.

Jesus in the Temple as a Child

Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

Luke 2:41-52

While you are in this space, think about the fact that Jesus was just a boy when he went to the temple alone without his parents in a crowded city. Do you wonder what Jesus was talking to the teachers about? Scripture says he asked questions. What questions would he have asked? What would you ask?

The Cross

As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Luke 23:26-34

“Remember that death was the last enemy I destroyed. So with death My Victory was complete. You have nothing then to fear. Sin, too is conquered and forgiven, as you live and move and work with Me. All that depresses you, all that you fear, are powerless to harm you. They are but phantoms. The real forces I conquered in the wilderness, the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Cross, in the Tomb.” –God Calling by A.J. Russell 

 What do fear? What sins do you need forgiven? What depresses you? Nail them on the cross. Leave them, do not pick up your burdens again. Go forth forgiven and lighter.

Woman at the Well

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

John 4: 1-29

This woman was a Samaritan, people that the Jews did not talk to, in fact despised. Yet, Jesus not only talks to her, he knows very personal things about her. Then as a complete surprise He offers her “Living Water” (God’s Spirit). Her life is changed forever by this encounter as were all the people she told! How will your life change when you encounter Jesus and accept his gift of Living Water? Will you tell others of his love?

The Pool at Bethsaida

After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.] And a certain man was there, who had been thirty-eight years in his sickness. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, "Do you wish to get well?" The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Arise, take up your pallet, and walk." And immediately the man became well, and took up his pallet and began to walk.

John 5: 1-9

Do you wish to get well? We think this is an absurd question. However, we often become so comfortable with the way things are, or become so complacent that we can’t imagine anything different. What about you? DO YOU WISH TO BE WELL?

The Denial

Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

Luke 22:54-62

How often do we deny Jesus? We like to think that if we were in the same situation that we would never deny him. If there was a possibility that you too could be arrested and persecuted for simply being a follower of Jesus, would you deny it? There are places in our world today where this happens. Pray for strength. Pray for those who are persecuted for their faith.

Jesus and the Centurion

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”Jesus said to him,“Shall I come and heal him?”The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him,“Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then Jesus said to the centurion,“Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

Matthew 8:5-13

This Centurion believed that if Jesus said it, it would happen. Can you say the same thing about your faith? Jesus tells the crowd with him that he had not seen anyone in all of Israel with this much faith. How can we get that type of faith? By asking for it! Ask Jesus to increase your faith. Push away doubt. Practice having faith.

Jesus and the Money Changers

After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

John 2:12-22

This is a rare glimpse of Jesus angry! How do you react to injustice in the world? Do you turn a blind eye? Or do you just accept that it’s part of today’s world and not your problem? While turning over tables in our society would surely get you arrested, there are ways to help. If we all help even a little, we can make big changes.

Run and Not Grow Weary

The Lord is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
   his understanding is unsearchable. 
He gives power to the faint,
   and strengthens the powerless. 
Even youths will faint and be weary,
   and the young will fall exhausted; 
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
   they shall walk and not faint.

 Isaiah 40:28-31

Today marks one year since the death of Officer Sean Collier on the campus of MIT and the pursuit and capture of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing. Each year in our Good Friday vigil we encourage donations to a different group. This year we invite you to donate to the One Fund to aid those injured in the bombing.

The Tomb

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Then they remembered his words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

Luke 24:1-12

“Fear and despair and tears come as you stand by the empty Tomb. “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” Rise from your fears and go out into the sunlight to meet Me, your Risen Lord. Each day will have much in it that you will meet either in the spirit of the tomb,or in the spirit of the Resurrection. Deliberately choose the one and reject the other.”-God Calling by A.J. Russell 

Are you searching for Jesus? You wish you could see him in the flesh. He is there, he is here. He is in the faces of those you love, those who love you, those you help and those who help you. Look in the mirror, he is there in you and he will never leave you. He loves you so very much. If you have not met him and wish too, there are those who will pray with you, but all you have to really do is ask Jesus to come to you and he will.