To-Doing Holy Week...

Wonder what Jesus would have thought if he had known how Holy Week would morph over a couple thousand years. One church my husband served had a mini-revival beginning on Palm Sunday. So you had evening and breakfast events Sunday through Wednesday, plus the pastor had to entertain the guest speaker. Oh yeah, and still prepare the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter sermons. I always said (in my nicest preacher's wife annoying way) that I though that church put their preachers in the tomb for the week to see if killing him resulted in a funeral or a resurrection.

Wonder if Jesus could do anything more than put one foot in front of the other during his last week, "left foot, right foot, breathe" as Anne LaMotte says. When life…or death…comes at you that fast, I'm not sure you have the ability to reflect. Today, I pray for families in South Korea. The sinking of a ferry carrying 300, with most of those being high school students on a school trip, is devastating. I wonder how you even put one foot in front of the other in light of that event.

Sometimes I wonder instead of making Easter Sunday the celebration day with the new dresses and family dinners and congregational decorations…what would happen if we met on Easter like the women at the tomb. They didn't know to wear their new dresses. They were still trying to breathe. What would happen if we just showed up after a slow week of contemplating death and suffering; of confessing our own complicity in the sin that took Jesus' life, that takes our own lives a little every day. What if we just showed up in our regular clothes and listened to the good news of the gospel, that new life is possible. What if we, undistracted by the to-do list, were able to really hear the reality of the promise of new life and transformation.

Hearing that promise, being surprised by the possibility, glimpsing the kingdom…that is worthy of celebration. That is when we might buy the new dress. That is when we might invite friends and family over for the renewal of community. Then as we continue to live into the Easter reality all through the season, more and more signs of new life might arise…

I guess I hope our focus on the celebration doesn't eclipse the good news that will be ours. 

He is risen…

The Lord is risen, indeed!