Weekly Meditation
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. - Mark 15:15
Holy Week is upon us once again. For most people I suspect the days between Palm Sunday and Easter pass like most weeks of the year. You go to work, raise the kids, pay the bills, yell at the squirrels at the bird feeder. Just another typical week.
For clergy like myself, it is not a typical week. There are extra services to be led, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and for some, Saturday's Easter Vigil. Devotions like this, which in a "typical" week can focus on anything, need to reflect the solemnity of the events that occurred between Palm Sunday and Easter. Our task is to help our congregations see this is not just a typical week and Easter Sunday is not just another Sunday.
It can be hard to set this time aside and see it as different, special, holy. The world around us goes on as if nothing unusual is happening. For many, Thursday is a special day not because of Jesus' last supper but because it is opening day of the baseball season.
Perhaps that makes this an opportunity for us. God's kingdom, proclaimed and brought near in Jesus, calls us to see the world in a different way. As disciples, as people of faith, as Christians, we are called to act different; to love even our enemies and give away our abundance and turn the other cheek. These are not the values of THIS world. These are the values of the kingdom of God.
If we shake up our lives just a little this week and treat it just a little differently than a typical week - maybe join in the service for Maundy Thursday, or spend a set time each day in prayer, or make a donation to serve some greater good - maybe such acts will help us focus on God's kingdom after Easter and all the way until Christmas. A new habit can make this week holy, and us as well.
When I was younger, my mother, like most mothers, liked to say, "If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?" And when I was younger, my honest answer was, "Probably."
Today, the question we should ask might be, "If everyone was shouting, 'Crucify him,' would you?" Our honest answer is what truly can make this week holy.
Worship This Week
Easter Sunday, 8:30 and 10am
In-person and streaming on Facebook Live (10am only on FB)
If you join us in-person, you must wear a mask and follow safe distancing.
If you are not well or have been exposed to someone with the corona virus, please watch from home.
Keep In Prayer:
Sherry Williams, Mary Wallen, Alvin Shelley, Dee Kuhlman
Our shut-ins: Kate Shelley, Dot Ann Smith, Nora Smith, Helen Payne, Bernie Reynolds