Holy Week & Easter Day from St Martin-in-the-Fields

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Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields - Amazing Grace.

Sermons from Holy Week at St Martin-in-the-Fields

Read and listen to sermons from Holy Week at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Maundy Thursday
Abiding in Love by Revd Katherine Hedderly

'Our theme for Lent this year has been Abiding, based on the book by Ben Quash. It has seen us reflect on how we abide with God in our care for others and in our relationships with them, in the physicality of our bodies and minds, by being attentive and making space for God in our everyday actions and behaviours.'

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Good Friday
A Cross in the Heart of God by Revd Dr Sam Wells

'I believe that the longing to be with us in Jesus was the reason God created the world. But this longing was always going to carry immense risk, and that the fundamental choice God made was to say, ‘I am going to carry the consequences of that risk and I am not going to expect humanity to shoulder a burden it cannot bear.’'

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Easter Day: Parish Eucharist
Resurrection in Nine Words by Revd Dr Sam Wells

'Resurrection is a breathtaking mystery. It’s also the epicentre of the Christian faith. It’s something to be discovered, believed, and lived. It’s an idle tale if it simply remains a technical event: if it’s real, it’s a cosmic transformation. It’s not something to agree with in your head.'

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Easter Day: Choral Evensong
Journeys, conversations and epiphanies by Revd Jonathan Evens

'In the English language we have many words and phrases that use the metaphor of a journey for aspects of our lives. When babies are born we say that they have arrived. When we have a big decision in front of us, we say we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.'

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St Martin's Voice - I Stood On The River Of Jordan.

Three Hours: This Is My Body

Revd Professor Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity and the Arts, Kings College London, was the preacher at today's service of reflections on the passion of Christ, The Three Hours at St Martin-in-the-Fields. 

His talks on the theme of 'This is my Body' included images by Unknown artist, Rogier van der Weyden, Stanley Spencer, Sebastiano del Piombo, Matthias Grünewald, Lorenzo Veneziano, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Unknown artist, Graham Sutherland, Gionvanni Bellini, Michelangelo, Dirk Bouts, and Norman Adams.

I made the following notes via twitter:

• Active ministry of Jesus then passive - fulcrum is The Transfiguration. Jesus's body a treasure of great price.
• Jesus' feet carry good news - beautiful. Mary Magdalene adored the feet that brought her good news.
• What makes you kneel in your daily life? Like children kneeling to play, we need to kneel more to pray.
• Spencer - Consider the Lilies. Huge + humble Christ delights in flowers for what they are. Child-like use of knees.
• Brought to our knees by life. Weight of world's rejection forces Jesus down. We are implicated.
• Hands some of the most creative parts of our body. Hand of God from Sistine Chapel raises Lazarus in Sebastiano's painting.
• Grunewald's hands of Christ violently immobilised. Baptist does what Christ can no longer do - signals life. 
• Sides of Jesus exposed on the cross; place of protection + formation. By Jesus' side the shared position of Jesus' disciples. 
• Thomas' finger touches Christ's pierced side - his preparation for new life, being born again.
• Jesus' body was and is the message - God's language of preference in The Transfiguration + Crucifixion. Our bodies compatible with glory.
• Jesus' body compatible with love - his body on the cross asks us to attend to it, to lean in to it, like the beloved disciple.
• The at-homeness of God with himself invites us to take up our abode and rest. 
• Crucifixion the most tragic event but within is salvation. Full meaning of active ministry only seen in passivity.
• Mother-Child relationship deeply formative - intimate, reciprocal relationship. Our God contracted to a span.
• God placed in our hands. Jesus' body born from Mary's. No one's heart closer to Jesus'. Her God made flesh through her.
• Difficulty of being looked at by suffering Christ - exposed by Christ's gaze. Called to seek God's face - this is heaven.
• Salvation begins with fall - creation groans. Liberation into light - Christ redeems thorns into gentleness.

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William Walton - Drop, Drop Slow Tears.