A bit of explanation for those who do not have the same Holy Week experiences as I do: Our church body (and others, but I’m not sure which ones) celebrate specifically during Holy Week, a.k.a., the week leading up to Easter. We start with Palm Sunday the week before, waving palm branches in church and celebrating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. Then we have services on Thursday, Friday, sometimes Saturday (depends on the congregation), all leading up to the biggest Christian celebration of the year on Easter Sunday (more about that later).
So today is Maundy Thursday, where we celebrate the institution of the Lord’s Supper, the night when Jesus gave us the first Communion celebration and also commanded (mandate, why it’s called Maundy Thursday) his disciples and us to love one another. This service involves communion, sermon, all the usual parts, and finishes with the “stripping of the altar” to remind us of how Jesus was stripped of his clothing, beaten, and pretty much humiliated with his arrest and trial. Whew. Explanation part over.
The tradition is to leave in silence at the end of tonight’s (and tomorrow night’s) service. Here’s the thing – I’ve never known the luxury of truly leaving in silence, finishing the service, heading straight for the car or walking home, just filled with the experience of worship and mediating on what it means that Jesus died for me. Some of you who know my husband might think this is because he likes to talk. Not so – he respects this tradition as much as the next person, probably more than most! It’s because I’ve always been part of the pastor’s family.
See, the thing is, pastors rarely get to experience holy days the way the rest of the congregation does. Part of their calling is to create the opportunity for others to worship, to plan the experiences, to take care of the behind-the-scenes details so others can just come and worship. And their families usually participate at some level.
I’ve always had to stick around after the services. I’m not always helping with prep for the next service, but my husband is. And before that, it was my parents. So I’ve not had the chance to experience the whole leaving in silence thing, something I wouldn’t mind doing, personally.
What amazes me is how many people do not take advantage of this opportunity. Despite the announcement at the beginning of the service, despite the note in the bulletin, there are always groups of people who merely leave the sanctuary proper but start talking the second they hit the lobby. Or others wait for the parking lot. I don’t fault them for this, but I’m a little frustrated that they CAN have the silence and choose NOT to take it. Of course, I realize there are those who are uncomfortable in silence, others who have children where silence is nearly impossible to achieve for more than a moment or two, and still others who have similar responsibilities. But if I could, I would maintain the silence until I got home (or at least, partway down the road).
Blooming Joy! 
I’ve often been involved in the service too, as an acolyte or reader or altar guild. And now that I have a child, as you said, it’s nearly impossible to remain silent! But I’ve always thought the mere fact that there is no music to usher everyone out of the church, nor a farewell blessing, makes it different enough to feel strange and solemn, even if I have to start talking once I’m in the parking lot. And I tend to maintain hushed tones even when I do talk.
Is Pastor Travis going to do the slamming the book/dropping something/some other loud noise thing tomorrow? I hope so 🙂 I always love that part.
Oh, and were people quiet tonight? If my memory serves correctly (which it isn’t right now unless you want to know that Caravaggio created a piece called “The Calling of St. Matthew” and it’s a Baroque style), people here normally start talking/whispering when they hit the narthex.
I am, as you undoubtedly remember, a cynical and sarcastic person by nature. I take a fairly pessimistic view on a lot of things. Peg points this out frequently. Of course, if the world really does cave in on top of you, it’s OK to say that bad things are happening, you know – like if you just have surgery and your wife has a subarachnoid hemorrhage and two cerebral aneurysms, for example, that is beyond just being pessimistic. But, I digress from leaving in silence.
I rarely go to the Holy Week services. I have a hard time dealing with hypocrisy and impiety. I don’t like disrespect for our Lord, particularly during our remembrance of the time of His death. The people talking when they leave and so on just irk me and fill me with feelings that I know I should not have for them and cause me not to be able to have the feelings I think I should have. Now, I really enjoyed chapel at Concordia when we went with Steve Arnold – we had a bunch of people who were there because they wanted to be there instead of a bunch of people who thought they had to be there/didn’t know what else to do/were there because they had always done it that way/fill in this blank with your favorite Lutheranism.
There’s a thought – why do people go to Holy Week services and ignore them?
Is that a rhetorical question?
Is my cynicism overwhelming for Good Friday? I love our Lord and thank Him for what He did and does for us. you know that.
jim
Maybe the people who leave the services and start talking right after aren’t ignoring the request to leave in silence. Maybe they just don’t get it…”it” being the significance of the silence…the significance of this week…the significance of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Why do people go to Holy Week services and ignore them? Why do people go to any worship service and ignore them? My hopeful answer is because the Holy Spirit is moving them to be there. Every service attended, every hymn sung, every sermon heard, every communion participated in, every scripture reading read, every baptism witnessed, and every children’s message proclaimed is one more seed planted, one more time for watering, one more opportunity for the Son to shine and growth to occur. I am perfectly content with people attending services and “ignoring” them because I am confident that our God is not ignoring those people. I know from experience.
Becky,
That was awesome! Just awesome. It brought tears to my eyes. Luther says the Holy Spirit is always working. God says His Word never returns void! You are so right… All I have to say to that is Amen! Thanks!
Well said. Amen.
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Yes! I agree with Becky 100%.
I also try to remember what C.S. Lewis wrote about this. When he was a new Christian and first started worshiping at his local parish, he tended to feel cynical and annoyed by the people in the pews. He’d focus on something like a squeaky boot or on the fact that the man praying in the pew in front of him was an insufferable boor. Gradually he realized that only God knew these people’s hearts, knew how far all those people had come. Perhaps the poorly-dressed, singing-out-of-tune woman next to him was a mighty prayer warrior, or maybe that hypocritical jerk had started out at a much worse place than he knew and had come much, much farther in his walk with God than he (Lewis) could ever imagine.
And of course, I know how sinful I really am, and how far I’ve come and how far I have yet to go. I pray for humility every single day. 🙂