April 11
Are you ready for another roller coaster week? I don’t mean with the news, but with the annual experience of Holy Week in the Christian tradition. For centuries, Christians have walked with Jesus from the triumphant entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday through the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday and the crucifixion on Good Friday. These are the highs and lows that culminate first in the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening and the bright joy of Easter Sunday.
This week with its profound meaning and expression of loss, grief, triumph and hope give us as a community the opportunity to make sense and meaning of the ongoing suffering of our world, our own griefs and losses and to experience viscerally the hope of new life in the resurrection.
I hope you will have an opportunity to participate in the Easter Vigil where we hear the centuries-long stories of God’s people in their triumphs and failure, abuse of power, wealth and repentance, hopelessness and rekindling. We gather first around the bonfire as people have done since time immemorial. We light candles in the darkness. We wonder at what it all means for us. Then the light and music burst forth as we sing our first “Alleluia’s” of Easter. Afterwards there will be a party. Of course.
If you have bells, bring them to the Easter Vigil to ring in the resurrection. If you have flowers, bring them on Sunday morning so that our children can flower the cross with the hope and beauty of creation. If you have food to share, bring it to the Agape meal on Maundy Thursday. And if you have grief, anxiety and woe, bring it all to the foot of the cross on Good Friday. God is waiting to meet us in all our joys and sorrows. God takes our humble offerings and transforms them into the Body of Christ, the Holy One present with us and in us.
With faith, hope and love,
Canon Britt