Holy Week ONLINE
EASTER SUNDAY April 4
Easter Sunday is here. We have arrived. This morning, we woke up knowing that this is not the end of the story.
On Easter Sunday we hear this resounding response:
“Love is always stronger than death, and unto love you have now returned.”
So, welcome to Easter! To the Feast of Feasts! The joy of the resurrection renews the whole world.
Feel it, savour it, allow it to renew you too.
Hear God sing over you:
“I order you, o sleeper, to awake!
I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.
Rise up, work of my hands, you were created in my image.
Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you.
Together we form only one person and we cannot be separated!”
–Easter prayer from ancient liturgy
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STATIONS OF THE CROSS - March 30, 31
The Stations of the Cross began as pilgrims retraced Jesus’ final steps in Jerusalem up to the hill where he was crucified. Wanting to share that practice and experience with people who couldn’t make the trip to Jerusalem, they created local stations of meditation that became in itself a tradition. You can find this tradition on the inside of many churches still today.
GOOD FRIDAY Apr 2
Good Friday marks the darkest point in the Christian year. The point where all of our fears are made manifest. Where violence wins and hatred reigns. Where grace and peace are left lying tattered on the floor.
And of course, we know where the story ends. We wouldn’t hold on to trust if we didn’t, but for today, to believe, we first have to lose our faith.
This is one of the deep and lasting paradoxes of the Christian faith, that once a year, we let go of hope and we embrace our doubt as central to our faith. Today we allow ourselves to sink into the darkness so that we can feel fully what it means to be hopeless.
Sunday is coming, and we cannot pretend we don’t know how the story ends, but today we are all atheists. Our Lord has died, and we struggle to see what joy could possibly be ahead.
As Jude verse 22 says, “be merciful to those who doubt” because today is all about our doubt.
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PALM SUNDAY March 28
In the narrative of Palm Sunday, the crowds surround Jesus as he enters Jerusalem. There’s so much enthusiasm for a new kind of king. Could it be that their liberator is finally here? The crowd shouts, “Hosanna! Hosanna!” It’s a cry for salvation from Psalm 118. It’s a cry to be saved.
The Palm Sunday celebration is an ancient tradition. Just a few centuries after Jesus’ death and resurrection, pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem to rehearse Jesus’ entry into the city. The Palm procession meant a lot to these ancient worshippers of Jesus. Thousands of years later, we enact the story of Jesus’ provocative entrance into the city all over again.
We wave palm branches, we welcome the children to lead us, we cry out from our own lives, “Save us! Never stop saving us.” May Palm Sunday welcome you into the holiest of weeks. May you not fear your suffering, but sense God’s desire to confront and transform your pain.