I was teaching an outreach English class in the room designed to be the cry room for the sanctuary in which the 10.30-11.30 AM service was held. So, I heard the hymns sung, and the piano played, and, if I strained my ears, I could hear over and over the two pastors saying (in Japanese of course):
"This is the body of Christ, broken for you. ... This is the blood of Christ shed for you,"as they offered the elements to each believer individually and then prayed for each one.
Through the window (between the cry room and the sanctuary) I saw a church member who is grieving a very recent death in her family. She was there, in her grief, but remembering and celebrating her hope, as the Heidelberg Catechism states it so well:
Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?Afterwards, as I washed the coffee cups from English class, I talked with two ladies, who each attended Good Friday service for the first time today, and are learning to live in hope. One was baptized at Christmastime, and exudes joy! The other is in baptism preparation class now, growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ.
Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.
I saw a young mother, recently widowed, helping move the chairs afterward. A recent believer, this was probably her first time to attend a Good Friday service as well. Although she lost her husband last year, through his final illness, she came to believe in Christ's blood as her only hope, just as he had done some years earlier.
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