Acting Out in Holy Week

Acting Out in Holy Week

This is a week like no other
as we remember the last week of Jesus’ life.

It’s not a head trip …
for the invitation is to let the story in, under our skin
to let it come alive in our imaginations,
let it touch our hearts, be felt through our emotions.

The invitation is to let ourselves
be drawn into the drama
step into the story
that is tender and fierce,
grievous and breath-taking beyond telling.

This is the week we find ourselves
waving palm branches, singing our hearts out,
celebrating a dream coming true right before our eyes.

This week we get real about the sinister power of fear,
its capacity to melt our courage,
to unleash atrocious violence.

This is the week we’re drawn by a love
so deeply understanding, so compassionate --
drawn past our comfortable distance
to experience tenderness between us.

This is the week we connect with our capacity to betray, to turn away.
This is the week we encounter our capacity to abide,
to bear the horror of another’s suffering.

This is the week we touch into the mind blowing experience of resurrection …
the unthinkable gift
of a new beginning.

It’s not a head trip.

It’s about wading in over our heads,
and moving through the sacred motions,
such that when on Good Friday the beloved spiritual asks
‘were you there when they crucified my Lord?’
we can reply not only that we were truly there with him,
but also that he is truly with us now.

Come! Step into the story
Close the distance
between then and now,
between there and here.

beginning Sunday March 25 …

Palm Sunday ~ the beginning of the end
10:15 in the sanctuary
Maundy Thursday ~ the night of his arrest
7 pm in the lower hall
Good Friday ~ the day of his trial and execution
11 am in the sanctuary
Holy Saturday ~ bearing the loss
10 am in the sanctuary
Easter Sunday ~ greeted by news of resurrection
7:30 am meet at Michigan @ Douglas St
8:30 am breakfast in the lower hall
10:15 am in the sanctuary