Holy Week is again upon us. Palm/Passion Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Some years, these days bring special reflection and introspection. Other years, they seem like just another day on the calendar. No matter what kind of year I had been having, time was when Lent and Holy Week elevated my spiritual life in a way that sustained me through the rest of the year. I remember in high school, when my spiritual life was really in a growth spurt, that Good Friday was a day that transformed me and made the whole Easter celebration real in a way that it had never been before. Through college and divinity school, I always found a way to kick-start my spiritual life that enabled me to do my academic work with a sense of purpose. During the time that I served churches, I strove to make the whole Lenten/Holy Week/Easter experience something that could be transformative to my congregations. I met a huge challenge while serving a three-point charge in eastern North Carolina and discovered that Maundy Thursday was not something the people there had ever heard of, and they were not accustomed to coming to worship on Good Friday either. So, I grew in ways I had not expected in order to adapt to the local customs. Then I entered the wonderful world of campus ministry and was based at a large church that made the most of all religious holidays. We had Maundy Thursday services with stripping of the church, and Easter sunrise services with paschal fire, and a glorious service of resurrection, packed to the rafters and featuring magnificent choral music.
Since that time, I have been on my own, pretty much, to design worship and other experiences to appeal to small numbers of students who take the time for such observances. I was happy that my own daughter, for whom I was chaplain for two years, always took the time for such observances. She and I are so similar in the way that the religious holidays and observances shape our lives. At this point in my career and ministry, I had come to expect not much new when Holy Week rolls around. When I was able to get away on a Sunday morning, I attended a local United Methodist Church, just as I have all of my life. In the past years, I began to lose enthusiasm, for my church, and for the Christian year as it came round and round. Then I made the decision to find a church that speaks to me, liturgically and in terms of a commitment to social justice. In January I took a chance and attended the cathedral church of the local Episcopal diocese. Aside from a breathtakingly beautiful sanctuary, I found solid preaching, and a good mix of different people who made up the congregation. So, the next week I went back, with my wife and son joining me. Ever since, we have attend the cathedral, usually on Saturday evening for the Eucharistic service, since I have Sunday morning duties on campus. Occasionally, we are able to make it on a Sunday, and find our worship enriched by beautiful music, liturgies that bring the historic traditions of the church alive, and preaching that continues to challenge not just spiritually, but intellectually as well. Often, when pastors, especially those who work in higher education as I have done for almost twenty-five years, get to this stage of their careers and life, they become a bit more agnostic about the traditions and theologies of the church. I was certainly among them in the recent past. But this year, Holy Week holds great attraction for me, as a leader, and as a Christian. By recovering some of the wonderful liturgical traditions of my Methodist-Anglican heritage, I have reawakened to the message and challenge that is the mystery of our faith. My wish for you during this holiest of seasons is that the mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord may capture your spirit in a way that is new, familiar and utterly transformative. May you never be the same!
