I know what is coming. I've walked this Week before. It's not easy. I know a good and holy work is done in me each Holy Week, but the spiritual/emotional/intellectual/personal ups and downs of faithfully walking with Jesus during is final days is trying indeed. It is not for the faint of heart. But, walk it we must. And to a good end.
We start with Palm/Passion Sunday. We begin by praising God for his arrival. Waving palms and shouting for joy, we sing out, "Yes, he has finally come to be free us, he has come to be our King!" But, when it turns out that this is not the King we asked for or wanted, we simply turn away and receive the instruction from those in power who seek to kill all that threatens their position. We turn from praise to crying out "Crucify him! We want Barabbas! Crucify him!" In a matter of an hour of worship we go from light into the Darkness.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we slowly walk with Jesus during his final week. The first three days are a solid footing. A good begin to spend this time with our Lord. Sure we are devoted. Sure we want to worship and be with Jesus! And so we come Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday out of our desire to follow well, to be devote and listen. And it is good.
And then the action starts on Maundy Thursday. We enter into the upper room of the last supper. Jesus serves us and washes our feet; and he shows us how to serve one another by washing feet - sharing the daily task of preparing for the fellowship of meal at table with one another. And in the midst of this meal the betrayal begins. One of us leaves to betray our Lord. And when we are asked to pray with him in the garden we fall asleep. The altar is stripped...the aumbry candle of our devotion to the presence of Jesus is blown out and the aumbry door is left hanging wide open. The bread and the wine are left uncaried for on the altar of repose (rest). The precious bread and wine of Jesus presence among us is left exposed in the wide open. Any one can come into the church and knock it off the table, they could so easily stamp the bread underfoot. They can drink the wine freely without recognizing it as Jesus' life. There might be a few who come and pray at the altar of repose...but then again maybe not. Maybe someone will forget to come at their hour. Don't all disciples fall asleep from time to time? Maybe no one identified themselves to come for an hour to keep vigil. Maybe Jesus is left, just we've left him before.
And then Good Friday. The world's verdict upon the presence of God among us. God comes to offer a new way, a way of shared life for one another, a way of love and wholeness. But it threatens our position and status far too much. We understand how the world works and how to get what we want in this world. And the last thing we need is Another coming into our world and telling us how it really is. How our life, religion, and resources, and not for our own security and purposes, but to be shared with others. We don't need this confrontation. We don't need this exposure. We will not share. So, we kill God among us. Good Friday is the world's verdict upon God. And on this black day it seems the world's verdict stands. Wars, famine, poverty, economic/social/political oppression for the benefit of the rich continues. In a world who has enough food to share with everyone, people still die of hunger. Christ is still crucified among us. Will the world's verdict of Good Friday still stand?
The silence of Holy Saturday. Resting in the tomb. The Church rests in stillness. No Eucharist on this day. The only day of the year that no bishops or priest bless. Only still silent prayer, if that is still possible. A few come. Maybe a few women...two or three. They'll come to the tomb...they come and pray, maybe see the aumbry hanging wide open. Open. Resting. Silent. Still. Waiting beside the Tomb. What will come of this?
The Easter Vigil begins in the darkness of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and continues to wait in the Holy Silence of the Tomb of Saturday. In the darkness and stillness we begin to remember. A new fire is lit from outside and it is brought into our awareness. The light is not of our own making...it is from another. And amazingly there is just enough light now that we begin to remember the old stories of how God is with us and God acts in the world.
The Story: God has created all things and has acted mightily throughout history to restore and redeem. We remember the creation story. God's spirit over the chaos, bringing order and boundaries for life to thrive and bud. God has created this Good world. We remember that God doesn't desire to destroy this world...sure, there was our sin, and the Flood. But, God has hung up his warriors bow in the sky vowing to never seek to destroy the earth again. God has chosen life for humanity. Abraham is called. A new remnant for all the nations to be called back to God is born. We hear the story of the prophets when the remnant forgot who it was and became a valley of dry bones. Has the remnant for the redemption of the world died? Is it a pile of dry bones never to be raised again (the question of Holy Saturday)? No! Ezekiel sees the wind blow life over the bones...and they join together again. Bone upon bone, sinew attaches to sinew, flesh covers that which was once dead and new life is given! AND THEN and earthquake, a surprise:, those who had been remembering and worshiping in darkness now see a new light. Light, a Holy Noise! THE ANNUNCIATION OF ALL ANNUNCIATION: RISEN! Yes, JESUS IS RISEN!
It is a walk of all walks. A pilgrimage into the world's and our own darkness. A descent into the blindness of our own turning away from God and the crosses and tombs we erect and dig. But, underneath, around, before, above and through it all is the amazing love of God. Holy Week into Easter is the Truth, the Story, of God's Love that reaches out beyond all boundaries, even beyond the line we've drawn in the sand of our world that seeks to eradicate God's presence among us. God loves us to the cross, to the tomb, to the dead and beyond. It is ultimately a pilgrimage into the Love of God. What can separate us from the love of God? Highest, Depths, Spiritual Darkness, Death? Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ! Nothing! And well, my friends...that is Everything...
