What Holy Week Asks Us...

Dear People of Christ Church,

By now, you've heard my pitch about why you should do Holy Week, so this year I'm not going to give it. The fact is, I don't know why you should do Holy Week. I'm thinking about why these stories still have something to say to us so many years later. Maybe in some of these questions you'll find your answer. Maybe in these questions you'll discover that Holy Week has already come to you, and you want to go there with others in worship as well.

Tonight, at our Maundy Thursday service, we read the story of the Last Supper. Jesus alarms everyone by kneeling on the floor to wash the disciples' feet, Peter says: "Lord, you will never wash my feet." He fears the vulnerability, the intimacy this will create. Now, I wonder how often we still try to shut God and each other out of our lives; is it that we'll never let anyone see us cry? Never admit how much something hurts? Never tell another how they've hurt us?

Late into the night, we sit in Vigil with Christ in the sacrament. Church-speak calls it an "Altar of Repose," but there isn't much that was restful about that last night for Jesus. When we sit and pray with him, we stay awake-one of us will be in witness there all night, trying to offer our prayers and presence. What is the long night that you're experiencing now? Whose long night are you sitting with, in support of someone you love?

Friday, we reverence the cross, a sign of torture and suffering. Jesus goes to the cross in taking on the worst of human cruelty, taking it on for love, unwilling to respond to violence with violence. What is at the cross for you? What is the pain that you are trying to keep for yourself? Is it possible to share it with God there? Or does the cross hold something else? Is there something that God is longing to share with you, some work in the world that you are being asked to take up your cross to accomplish? Is there some witness to God's peace, some relationship to nurture that God asks of you?

Saturday, we celebrate. We really, really celebrate. But first, we watch and listen. With the new fire at the front steps, we remember the light of Christ that could not be extinguished. We hear the stories of the Old Testament where God stayed with God's people, again and again, offering life out of death and comfort in suffering. We renew our baptismal promises and ring in Easter with bells and rejoicing. What will be raised for you?

Sunday-we celebrate some more! We celebrate for weeks and weeks, into Easter's Great Fifty Days.

Thanks be to God!

Blessings, Sara+