March 2015 – A Seminarian’s Letters Home

MARCH 2015 Seminarian’s Letter Home

To the membership of Circle of Faith Parish:

Greetings to you all from Evanston, IL! As I write this, it’s bitterly cold outside. But spring is on the way. The days are getting longer now, and eventually they will start to warm up. In the meantime, we get to begin planning our gardens, working on machinery to get it ready for planting, and praying for a safe, healthy growing season ahead, hoping that it will come. During Lent, we as a parish are doing a lot of talking about prayer, specifically the Lord’s Prayer.

On internship, I remember a vivid moment involving the Lord’s Prayer. It was Good Friday, and the congregation’s unique custom was to completely darken the entire church late at night, except for one single candle on the altar, as the story of the crucifixion was read from John’s Gospel. At the moment of Christ’s death in the story, the acolytes slipped up behind the altar to an enormous piece of sheet metal hanging from the ceiling. They then pounded on it with giant hammers to symbolize the earth shaking and heaven rumbling with thunder at that moment. It made a noise like a severe thunderstorm right inside the pitch-black sanctuary – scary stuff! Then the Bible was slammed shut to recall the tomb being sealed with the stone.

At that point, at the end of the liturgy, we were in total darkness and silence. It reminded us that here, at the foot of the cross, we could not celebrate or praise or bless. We could do nothing but pray, and not even in our own words, but in the words that Jesus taught us. As we prayed the Lord’s Prayer, the candle was carried to the door to guide people out in silence. Then it was replaced, and left burning on the altar until the Easter Vigil.

It was comforting to know that, even at that darkest and scariest of moments, we could still pray that prayer that Jesus taught us. What’s more, it was comforting to know that Christ had promised that this prayer would be heard, and honored, always. Even if we are too small, or too dumbfounded, or too nerve-wracked to understand what we pray, or even if we have prayed it so many times we can do it without thinking, we can still pray this prayer. Even now, in the desert of Lent and before the uncertainty of the future, we can still pray in this manner. And God, whose promise we seek after during this purple time, will answer.

Following Christ through the wilderness of Lent, let us pray for God’s blessing, using these words:

Bend your ear to our prayers, Lord Christ, and come among us. By your gracious life and death for us, bring light into the darkness of our hearts, and anoint us with your Spirit, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. [ELW, Lent IV]

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Your fellow member and pilgrim,

Carl P. Rabbe, M.Div.