One of my great joys is serving in an awesome circuit. Here is something one of my brothers, Pastor Jon Bonine, wrote about Holy Week. I had to share it with you. Email him at the above link or leave your comments below.
Every year, I hope to be prepared for Holy Week, with the multitude of services. And yet, so far, I fail to be fully ready for all the services before it arrives. This year is no different in that, yet seems to be different in other ways. My mind has not been as focused on repentance. The sermon series for Lent was catechetical; I did not include the passion reading divided among the weeks of Lent. So this year, it is here already and the first service is done. At the close of the Maundy Thursday service is the stripping of the altar and the reading of Psalm 22. I do the reading, while the Altar Guild clears the altar and the chancel. Watching it take place has always been striking to me. But I read the Psalm, facing the congregation, with the altar behind me. I see the ladies as they retreat down the two steps from the chancel to the side door to the sacristy. Back and forth they go. From the corner of my eye, I can see the different items being carried out; the communion ware, the paraments, the candles. But it’s over, without me being able to reflect upon it. I don’t get to see it happen, before I know it, everything is done and I’ve finished with reading the Psalm.
This year, the service carried me along. I wasn’t prepared as I should have been. I don’t know if the congregation was as prepared as I should have helped them to be. There was the passion reading on Palm Sunday. Do they see how the readings for today fit into the story? Especially, when I used the readings from St. John’s Gospel, the footwashing? Do they see the overarching story of what is going to happen to Jesus? They know it, but have they heard it of late? As I said, the service carried me along, from Confession and Absolution to the Service of the Word. Reading to Reading, Creed to Hymn. Before I know it, all have received the Lord’s Supper and the service is about to end. ((The Maundy Thursday service doesn’t really end, at least on Thursday. It begins the Trivium, one service over three days. Hence, no Benediction Thursday or Invocation on Friday or Saturday. The service truly ends with the first celebrations of the Resurrection.))
Did the disciples know the overarching story? Did they understand what was happening, and what came next? I doubt it. Did they know how the foot-washing fit into the Lord’s Supper and the Passion of the Christ? They didn’t have a Passion Reading earlier in the week to landmark the events. They had the promises of the Old Testament and they had Christ’s predictions. But they were carried along by the events, from Seder to Garden to an arrest. They were not prepared for what happened and how it carried out.
The disciples, a pastor, the utensils for the altar, all being carried along. All carried along by Christ, who leads the way to the cross and beyond. Ready or not.
