55 :: Westminster Presbyterian Church

 

On Good Friday, we worshipped at Westminster Presbyterian Church. This absolutely beautiful church is nestled between Charlotte's Elizabeth and Eastover sections, which means in a very nice setting. This is our third Presbyterian church in twenty-four hours. That this many mainline churches are opening back up (most did close) is a sign that things are changing. Westminster is an ECO congregation, a more conservative spin off of the PCUSA. ECO stands for A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.

This was a mid-day service, held at noon. The weather was more brisk than it usually is, but the clear skies and flowering trees made for a beautiful setting. Being cognizant of the gravity of this sad day, it felt slightly discordant to be in such a strikingly attractive setting.

Note that the sash on the cross at the bottom is black, changed from the standard royal purple that has adorned the crosses in front of mainline churches for weeks.

With that said, it was very fulfilling to be in a place that was this attractive. This is definitely in the top five of stunning settings that I have encountered during this experience.

Upon arrival, we had our temperature taken. We were told to sit every other row and to sit at the opposite end of the row of the people two rows down. This fully-masked congregation practices social distancing in a more structured fashion than any other place we have been.

This is the bulletin, showing the structure of the service that was organized around seven readings that focused on the last moments of the Crucifixion. Each had a meditation given by an Elder from this church (one was my friend Carol, someone I know from consulting a few years back), plus a few lines from composed oratory music.

It was deep, pensive, quiet and profound. Here is some of the music that we heard, including Wondrous Love. Very nice.

One of the meditations given by an Elder was very creative and meaningful. It was a first person letter written by the thief on the cross. It was a reflection by that man on how he sees the experience of being saved during an excruciating execution after the passage of the last two thousand years. Very creative and well-delivered.

It was noted during this meditation that the word "excruciating" has its roots in the suffering of the cross. Ex CRUC iating. I didn't know!

In another meditation, the focus was given to when Yeshua cries out in the absence of God's presence. "Eloi! Eloi" Lama Sabachtani!" At that point, Yeshua became corruption, evil and sin itself. His assumption of our darkness happened in fullness at that moment. God had to turn from Him and remove His mantle from Him. That was the only point at which Yeshua was without God. 

That happened so we did not ever have to be without God.

That such a promise exists and so many people are eager to cast Yeshua as an imparter of wisdom and but one teacher among many throughout the ages - it misses the very point of the cross and the empty grave. 

I enjoy how CS Lewis worked on this theme of Yeshua as a "great teacher." He called it the "trilemma." 

Instead of Yeshua being a great teacher only, we have to look at His claims of being God Itself, said Lewis. Instead of a great teacher only, Yeshua must be understood as either "...lunatic, liar or Lord."

From Mere Christianity:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else He would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.

That captures very well what we pondered at Westminster Presbyterian Church. If Yeshua is God Itself, then His death on the cross is the only event of spiritual significance to a seeking heart. If He was a great moral teacher, His death becomes an ignominious demise of a madman. There is no in between.

And so it is with us. Yeshua became evil so my evil didn't condemn me.

Grateful!

And now we move onward to the plot twist of Easter.

Sincere thanks to Westminster Presbyterian Church for a moving Good Friday experience. It was sufficiently dark on a gorgeous Carolina day.