MADISON AVENUE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
921 Madison Ave.
(At E. 73rd St.)
NY, NY 10021
T: (212) 288 8920
F: (212) 249 1466
(At E. 73rd St.)
NY, NY 10021
T: (212) 288 8920
F: (212) 249 1466
March 21 - Lent 4
9 and 11:15 am Service of Word and Sacrament
Josh. 5:9-12; Ps. 32; 2 Cor. 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32.
“The Prodigal Father” The Rev. Beverly A. Bartlett
4
pm - St. Andrew Chorale Concert - A Bach Birthday Concert
March 28 - Lent 5
9 and 11:15 am Service of Word and Sacrament
Is. 43:16-21; Ps. 126; Phil. 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8
“Priorities” The Rev. Dr. Fred R. Anderson
April 4 - Palm Sunday (Daylight Saving Time)
9 and 11:15 am Service of Word and Sacrament
Is. 50:4-9a; Ps. 118:1-2, 19-29; Phil. 2:5-11; Luke 19:28-40. “The
Things That Make for Peace” Dr. Anderson
Maundy Thursday - April 8
7 pm Service of Word and Sacrament
Exod. 12:1-14; Ps. 116:1-2, 12-19
1 Cor. 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35.
The Rev. J.C. Austin preaching
Good Friday - April 9
12 noon to 3 pm Devotions
St. Luke Passion (new musical setting by John Weaver)
The Pastoral Staff preaching
7 pm Service of Tenebrae
April 11 - Easter Day
9 and 11:15 am Service of Word and Sacrament
Is. 54:17-25; Ps. 118:1-2, 14-24; 1 Cor. 15:19-26; Luke 24:1-12. “The
Beginning of the End” Dr. Anderson
The One Great Hour of Sharing Offering will be received at MAPC this year on Palm Sunday, April 4. A tradition of more than 50 years in our church, the offering supports ministries of disaster response, refugee assistance and resettlement and community development. This year, consider making a generous response one of your Lenten practices and help to demonstrate the presence of a spirit of generous caring in our midst.
Many of you have asked me about Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of
the Christ,” which I saw on the Saturday following Ash Wednesday.
The film is, as Gibson himself has acknowledged, an interpretation of the
story. But it is more than a dramatic reading of an established text. Rather
than follow one of the four gospel narratives, as recent film makers have
chosen to do, Gibson—like Cecil B. DeMille before him—has chosen
to form a composite story of his own. If you know any of the four gospel
stories well, you are immediately aware of the interpretative license Gibson
has employed. Consequently, my first response to the film is that it is
a very Roman Catholic view of the passion. Not only has Gibson incorporated
extra-biblical material from the Roman Catholic medieval devotional tradition
of the stations of the cross and the rosary, he has placed Mary in almost
every major scene, whereas in scripture, Mary appears in the passion narrative
only at the foot of the cross. He also follows the legendary tradition that
Mary Magdalene was a reformed prostitute (for which there is no biblical
warrant), portraying her as the woman caught in adultery who is saved from
stoning by Jesus’ famous injunction, “Let the one who is without
sin cast the first stone.” (John 8:1-11) Other non-Biblical events,
like Pilate’s wife giving the two Marys linen cloth with which to
collect Jesus blood, Veronica’s attempt to give Jesus a cup of water
on his way to crucifixion, her wiping the blood from his face to produce
its miraculous image on her cloth, are incorporated into the film script.
The temptation narrative in the gospel of Luke tells us that the devil left
Jesus until a more opportune time (Luke 4:13). Gibson correctly introduces
Satan’s return in the garden of Gethsemane, but adds the Genesis narrative
of God’s curse of the serpent as Jesus, having resolved to do his
Father’s will, crushes the serpent’s head just before his arrest.
The devil will continue to show up in various scenes, as though continuing
to press this last temptation, only to be defeated at Jesus’ death.
Much has been made of Gibson’s use of brutality and violence, and
rightly so. It begins with Jesus’ arrest by the temple guard—who
it seemed to me were portrayed in a far more harsh light than any of the
biblical texts would warrant, escalates in the courtyard of the high priest,
becomes especially grueling during the eleven-minute extraordinarily graphic
scene portraying Jesus’ flogging by the Roman guards, and continues
as Jesus stumblingly struggles to carry his cross along the Via Dolorosa,
culminating in a graphically realistic crucifixion. It is as though Gibson
is searching for yet one more camera angle by which to convince us that
this is the single most grueling death in the history of all life. For instance,
neither of the two criminals crucified with Jesus bear the marks of the
flogging that was preparation for Roman crucifixions. It is as if Gibson
wants to say no one else has ever borne this much physical violence, a statement
that would not only be open to the challenge by any prisoner of war in Vietnam,
or victim of the prisons of Idi Amin or Saddam Hussein, but which also shifts
the focus from Jesus’ self-offering—his determined willingness
to suffer rejection, abuse and death at the hands of those God created,
loves, and sent him into the world to redeem—to an exploration of
the sheer brutality and violence that humans can heap upon one another,
as though Jesus’ silent acceptance of abuse is what made atonement
for humanity’s sin. The gospel narrative simply says, “they
crucified him.” The more the violence continues, the more inured I
found myself becoming to it, almost the way the human body goes into shock
to protect itself against inexorable pain. In fact, I later asked the trauma
surgeon who saw the film with me if a human body could bear such pain without
falling into shock, simply as a means of self-preservation. I will leave
it to the professional film critics to judge, but my impression was that
the violence neither drew me into the story, nor moved it forward, but was
simply gratuitous. Interestingly enough, I had earlier seen a production
of the mystery plays of the 14th century and found the portrayal of the
crucifixion in that production far more gripping and agonizing. One other
thing about the physical violence: its realism detracts from the emotional
pain, anguish and ultimate horror Jesus suffers as he begins to feel himself
abandoned by his Father.
Much of the pre-release publicity focused on the question of whether or
not the film will foster renewed or increased anti-Semitism. Gibson has
employed several tactics that seem designed to avoid that. First, the entire
dialogue is in Aramaic (the Hebrew dialect of Jesus’ day) or Latin,
and I found myself wondering what happened to the Koine Greek of the day
by which the Romans and Jews surely communicated with one another. Though
one hears the crowd shout for Jesus’ destruction, it is decidedly
smaller than one might expect. The council of Jewish leaders, though intent
upon arresting Jesus and bringing him before them for trial, does betray
some ambivalence, so that it is ultimately the High Priest Caiaphas, and
not the council itself, who condemns Jesus and demands of Pilate his crucifixion.
Perhaps Gibson’s fixation on the violence is his attempt to be clear
that it was the Romans and not the Jews who killed Jesus. What is missing
from the film, and what could have easily been incorporated into it, are
a series of flashbacks to let us witness why it was the council was so intent
on being rid of Jesus—his constant ridicule of them, his almost intentional
violation of ritual law, his explosive violence and disruption in the temple,
his judgment upon the religious system and leaders of his day, and, at least
in the gospel of John, his insistence upon using the sacred, ineffable name
of God as his own. That, in and of itself, would have set a better context
for understanding the reason Jesus was arrested and finally handed over
to the Romans. When Pilate finally pleads with the crowd to let the flogging
be punishment enough, it is Caiaphas who demands Jesus’ crucifixion.
The phrase “Let his blood be upon us and upon our children,”
though present in the Aramaic, is not translated. However, more than one
commentator has wondered if the same scrupulosity will be observed when
the film is released in the versions that will be distributed around the
world, especially in Muslim countries and other lands where anti-Semitism
is again on the rise.
Is the film anti-Semitic? That is a question I am not in a position to answer—I
am not a Jew. I would say that from my perspective, Gibson has worked hard
to keep it from being so. Consistent with both contemporary Roman Catholic
and orthodox Protestant tradition, it was the sin of all humanity that took
Jesus’ life, just as it was for all humanity that Jesus died. Were
the Jewish leaders of the day a part of the events? Yes. To suggest otherwise
would be a denial of historical fact as serious and absurdly revisionist
as attempts to deny the holocaust and the role Christians—not simply
German Christians—played in it. But to lay the responsibility for
Jesus’ death solely upon the Jews is a denial of the gospel itself.
Jews and Christians cannot undo the past. We can only express our complicity
and sorrow, and seek God’s grace to move forward, welcoming one another
as those who are among God’s beloved while working carefully not to
repeat the sins of the past.
The film is, as the title suggests, a portrayal only of Jesus’ passion,
death, and resurrection. Curiously, it does not include the burial, and
leaves the resurrection decidedly understated. The centurion does not utter
the astonishing phrase, “Truly, this man was God’s son”
at Jesus’ death. Nor does the film tell the story of Jesus’
life, his teaching, his welcome of sinners in God’s name, and his
proclamation of the presence of the reign of God unfolding in him. But as
I said in the beginning, this is Gibson’s interpretation of the story.
Its value is that he has told the story in a realistic way that can be compelling
to those who have never heard it or have forgotten that Jesus was more than
a traveling spiritual healer and guru—as much New Age spirituality
of the last decade has attempted to portray him. As is always the case,
the book is better than the movie; read it! If this film has caused others
to go back and do so, that is value enough.
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Interested in learning more about the Christian faith in general, the Presbyterian
Church, or MAPC in particular? Have you been thinking about making MAPC
your church home?
These are all good reasons for attending our next Inquirers Seminar on Saturday,
April 24, when we will address all those questions and more. We will begin
gathering at 8:30 am for coffee and continental breakfast in the Phillips
Lounge next to Dana Chapel in the Church House. The Seminar itself begins
promptly at 9 am and concludes around 4 pm. Dress is casual, and lunch will
be provided. Professional child care is available but needs to be arranged
in advance by calling Bill Philip at the church office (212-288-8920 x241).
If you have questions or concerns in general, please call the Rev. J.C.
Austin at the church office (212-288-8920 x242). He will be pleased to speak
with you about the seminars or other questions you might have about membership
or the church. E-mail: jca@mapc.com.
If you would like to contribute to the Easter decorations, please send your names for the memorial list and your check, payable to Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, (not MAPC), with "Easter Flowers" in the memo line, before Palm Sunday, April 4, to the chair of the Chancel Committee, Mrs. Allen T. Hazen, 460 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10027, or telephone her through the Church Office 212-288-8920 x271. The memorials will be listed in the bulletin on Easter Day, April 11, 2004.
The MAPC Youth Library, located just off the passageway connecting the Church
House lobby and the Sanctuary, offers a variety of reading for borrowers
of all ages. Parents of toddlers will find some charming picture books among
the library’s religious collection. Try Small Rain, with its short
Bible passages and engaging illustrations. As Easter approaches, The Egg
Tree by Katherine Milhous is timely, or, more to the point, The Easter Story
by Carol Heyer would be a nice choice. Older readers will want to take advantage
of the books by Madeleine L’Engle and C. S. Lewis as well as G. K.
Chesterton’s clever mystery stories in the Father Brown series. And,
there is always the latest Harry Potter book, which is the library’s
newest acquisition.
The library is open just after Church School from 10:45 to 11:15 and again
after the 11:15 service. In order to keep the library open after the 11:l5
service, help is needed. This volunteer job is best for that person—middle
schooler to adult—who attends the 11:15 service and can stay in the
library until about 1 pm. Please contact Amy DeRosa if you are able to help.
It is a happy coincidence that Bach was born on the first day of spring.
As that happens to be a Sunday this year, the St. Andrew Music Society has
planned a concert of his music, opening with Cantata No. 208, the Birthday
Cantata. This jovial work is one of Bach’s few secular cantatas that
have not been lost. It is believed he composed over 50 such works, often
borrowing from his sacred cantatas. For Bach all music was sacred. In this
cantata four mythological personages, Diana, Endymion, Pales and Pan, join
forces to praise Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels on his birthday in 1713.
A highlight of this cantata is the popular soprano aria, Sheep may safely
graze.
Pianist Peter Vinograde will perform the famous D Minor Keyboard Concerto
with the orchestra. The concert will conclude with the Missa Brevis in F
Major, one of four short masses consisting of the Kyrie and Gloria in excelsis
of the ordinary.
The orchestra will consist of two oboes, English horn, bassoon, two French
horns, two flutes, strings and continuo. The suggested donation is $15.
(Seniors & Students $10.)
John Weaver’s setting of the passion story, composed last summer, will be heard for the first time at the three-hour service beginning at noon on Good Friday. As with his other settings (Mark and John) this work uses the NRSV text of the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion. Our soloists will sing the narration and take the parts of the principal characters in the story. The choir will sing the words of crowds and groups of people as the story unfolds. The work is dedicated to Fred Anderson.
Morgan Weiler Hollanda, daughter of Raymond F. Hollanda and *Katherine
Stockbridge Hollanda
Clara Elizabeth Ilseven, daughter of Dojen Ilseven and *Stephanie Buffington
Charles Case, son of *Brian Michael Case and *Isobel Brooker Case
Melissa Jane Ehmann
James J. Haugh
Frank Hohmann
Cynthia Hollmann
(*MAPC Member)
Sunday, April 25 at 1 pm the New Amsterdam Boys Choir will once again sing with our Youth Choir. The New Amsterdam Boys Choir is one of MAPC’s Outreach grant recipients, so we are delighted to hold this joint concert. A free-will offering will be taken. Do come and support this event.
Yes, what a feast it is! It’s delectable, delicious
and delightful, filled with goodies. You might want to check out the recipes.
The chefs are all authors, and what a feast they concoct with originality
and with seasonings to taste.
By now you know the feast is enticing, and proof of the pudding will be
found in a great assortment of new books just acquired by the Hood Library.
One or more may suit your taste, and some will transport you to a different
world, perhaps where you never expected to go. Here they are. Take your
pick.
Also, see: