In the midst of this week I find myself about halfway through the homilies I must prepare for Holy Week. I have needed and do need some manner of remarks for Palm Sunday,

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Holy Week, a Good Friday mediation, and of course, Easter Sunday. I can’t speak for other preachers this week, but sometimes when we have these services with stories and commemorations we know so well, it can be hard to know what to say. In some instances these stories speak for themselves. At other times they require a bit of context and contemplation.

There are moments in this week as I study these stories again and again that I realize no amount of study is going to help me understand. Sometimes I find that I just need to sit with a piece of it, not trying to understand it theologically or homiletically, but in order to let myself enter into the moment. Perhaps it is just a phrase or an action, as opposed to the whole arc of a story. Some of what goes on this week is really hard to process, which should not be unexpected when we consider the grandeur of these events and their impact on the world.

For instance, what do we do with Judas’ betrayal? I’m not sure the early church knew what to do with him either. I think they

crafted a back-story, as we often do when someone in the modern era does something horrific. Like the pilot of the German airliner that crashed his plane; we desperately want to know what makes a person do something like that, even though we might not ever find out. We will blame it on depression for now, even though plenty of people live with depression and don’t do anything like that. But it helps us wrap our brain around it. No doubt the accusations that Judas was a thief helped. But at the end of the day such stories are designed to keep us distracted from the scarier reality: sitting with the betrayal and the mystery around it. NOT knowing what to do with Judas’ betrayal is harder.

It’s not just the “dark” stuff that’s hard. The love of Jesus that is on display in the washing of feet; in the words of affection for his beloved friends; in offering himself for the benefit of the world. Such love is still almost unfathomable. We get glimpses of it in those we know and love ourselves, and maybe we even come close to displaying it from time to time. But when Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you,” we aren’t sure that it’s really possible for us to love that way. Sometimes we just have to sit with that love and let it wash over us. We may never fully understand it, but it can work in us nonetheless.

Sit with the events of the next three days. Don’t let yourself rush on by, even if you can’t get to church. Get out your bible. Turn to the end of one of the gospels (I particularly like John’s version); read these stories. Sit with them. Close your eyes and imagine that you are there. You may not yet understand everything that is going on. I’ve been preaching on these stories for ten years and I don’t understand it all yet. Fortunately, we don’t have to. Easter comes whether we understand it or not. By living it, we internalize deep truths much deeper than we are aware of, and that is the power of Holy Week.

I pray the rest of your Holy Week journey is fruitful, even if you do nothing more than sit in place to experience it.

Tom+

Abide with us, O Lord, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent; abide with us, and with they whole Church. Abide with us in the evening of the day, in the evening of life, in the evening of the world. Abide with us in thy grace and mercy, in holy Word and Sacrament, in thy comfort and thy blessing. Abide with us in the night of distress and fear, in the night of doubt and temptation, in the night of bitter death, when these shall overtake us. Abide with us and all thy faithful ones, O Lord, in time and in eternity. Amen.