A Letter to Holy Week
Alicia Reese
April 4, 2023
Hello Holy Week,
This past Sunday, we celebrated your beginning with a boisterous and beautiful Palm Sunday! The processional was joyous. Your children, young and old, waved palms. We welcomed new members into our church family. We heard your Word and were reaffirmed of our need to always be reforming. Even the sun shone through the windows, creating dancing colorful light in our midst, serving as a reminder of your Spirit, present and at work among and within us.
Yes, there is no doubt in our minds that you, dear Holy Week, have commenced. Lent has been preparing us for your arrival and we continue our preparations together this week. We will bake bread, set tables, and gather candles and chalices, so that we can gather for a shared meal to honor, remember, and give thanks.
We are reminded that you, dear Holy Week, are not just holy to us, this is also a sacred time for our Jewish siblings who are preparing for the Passover as well as our Muslim siblings who are preparing to break their Ramadan fast. Our God is a God of many faithful people.
It has been three years since we have observed our Maundy Thursday and Easter services in our own building. We are grateful for the opportunity to do so this year. Together we will finish the Lenten journey we began together, through the Last Supper, through the arrest, the trial, crucifixion, and burial, and then, we will gather at your end where the tomb will be found, stone rolled away and empty. There we will be reminded that one end is really just a new beginning. Where hope and promise will be found, and death will be no more.
Ah, Holy Week, it is good to be with you.
Amen.
