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Being Present Step by Step
Associate Regional Minister
Rev. David Woodard shares
a message for Holy Week.
My earliest memory of the liturgical life of the church came when I was in third grade. Back then it must have been a universal rite of passage because everyone I knew that was my age and went to church received a Bible when they were promoted to the third grade.
In Sunday school, we used those new Bibles to read about the birth of Jesus during Advent/Christmas. Then we continued reading the Gospel lectionary passages during Epiphany and Lent. I remember asking our Sunday School Teacher how Jesus could have already aged 33 years. After all, he was just born and the next we know he's an adult teaching, preaching, healing, eating, and dying. From womb to tomb in just three months! Her response was amazing; so much so that it has stuck with me all these years - "We like to cram a lot of things in a short amount of time."
Maybe she didn't know anything better to say to a child who wouldn't stop asking questions. Or maybe she offered the best answer in the history of the liturgical church. Just look at Holy Week! Many of us have to prepare for, or participate in, four worship services...in one week. What are we, Baptists?!
The danger in packing everything into one week comes in not giving each moment enough of our time. From the waving of the palms to the eating and drinking the bread and cup, from the cross to the grave to the empty tomb Holy Week is an opportunity for us to be present. Each. Step. Of. The. Way.
Let us enter into a covenant with one another and with God that we will be present: present in other's suffering, present in other's triumphs, present in darkness and present in light. Let us show up and be present in all places of injustice and bring the grace of God for the whole people of God. Thanks Be to God!
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