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Why Attending Holy Week Will Transform Your Faith
Growing up in the Episcopal Church, I knew about the season of Lent - it was the time when our parish and the local Methodist Church got together for a soup-and-study series. Those evening programs ended with the celebration of Easter. There was also Good Friday, of course, but the only kids who celebrated that were the lucky Catholics who got out of school early on that day. My faith went from Lent straight to Easter...
That is, until I went to college. That was when I learned that the days leading up to Easter were marked with several different worship services, meant to mirror Jesus's final days among us - a Holy Week that the faithful moved through deeper into the love, the passion, the betrayal, the sorrow. I swear, my faith has never been the same since I let my priest wash my feet on my first Maundy Thursday, feet that the next day processed around Boston in my first Stations of the Cross.
Maundy Thursday combines so much emotion into a few short hours. Jesus shares his last meal with his friends and this moment becomes a love feast. Jesus, over and over, tells his disciples how deeply he loves them, how deeply they should love each other in return. In our Agape Meal (April 2 at 6pm) we remember this outpouring of Jesus's very self; it's a time of sharing food and wine, of laughter and love. From here, we move into the church and the focus shifts to servanthood: mirroring Jesus's own loving action of washing his disciples' feet, we enter into that same vulnerable service with each other. We recite the devastating Psalm 22 and strip away as many holy symbols as we can from our sanctuary - emptying the church as if Jesus never existed.
We carry that emptiness into Good Friday (worship at noon) and hear, once again, the story of Jesus's last hours. We follow the cross, stopping to hear scripture and story that reminds us of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus's crucifixion. We end in darkness, at the tomb where Jesus's broken body was laid; we end in death.
From death....to light and life! On Saturday evening, we celebrate the Resurrection by telling God's stories of new life, told around the new fire. From this fire, we light our sanctuary candle - carrying Jesus's light into the world. Our Great Easter Vigil takes place at 6pm in our field at the fire pit.
When you hear clergy strongly encouraging you to attend the services of Holy Week, especially the Great Three Days (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil), it’s not just because they like to see more people in the pews, or it’s good for their egos, or they want parishioners to see how much effort goes into these liturgies.
Fr Tim Schenck (he of Lent Madness fame) wrote on Facebook a few years ago, "When you hear clergy strongly encouraging you to attend the services of Holy Week, especially the Great Three Days (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil), it’s not just because they like to see more people in the pews, or it’s good for their egos, or they want parishioners to see how much effort goes into these liturgies. It’s because they believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the transforming power of the Christian faith. It’s because they love you and want nothing more than for you to have such a moving encounter with our Lord, that it will change your life. It’s an invitation rooted in profound love, and a recognition that there is literally nothing more important in the entire world than to participate fully as we collectively journey from the Upper Room to Calvary to the Empty Tomb."
Year after year, we remember this Holy Week. Year after year, we are transformed by walking the same steps as Jesus, from darkness and betrayal to light and love, from death to life. Join me in this Holy Week pilgrimage.
Blessings,
Rev Jill
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