A Message from Bishop David Bard
| So what makes it holy? What makes anything holy? |
| Dear Friends in Christ- Greetings in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the peace and power of the Holy Spirit as we enter the most significant week in the Christian year, Holy Week. Considering this week’s events sends one on a roller coaster of human emotion and on a deep dive into human experience. There is joy and jubilation as the week begins. Jesus enters Jerusalem with great fanfare. There are moments of edgy confrontation during the week. There are conversations containing deep wisdom; the greatest commandment is to love God and love your neighbor. There are moments of intimacy; the washing of feet. There is shared food. One finds failure, betrayal, violence, injustice, and death in the week. It is a good week to understand something about emotional granularity. So much human emotion and experience are encapsulated in this week we call “Holy Week.” So what makes it holy? What makes anything holy? God. Frederick Buechner writes that to say something is holy is “to say it has something of God’s mark on it” (Wishful Thinking). To call this week holy is to see that God is present, and the heart of God’s presence, as the teaching of Jesus during Holy Week asserts, is love. God is present in this week of jubilation and joy, conflict and wisdom, intimacy and sharing, failure and betrayal, violence and injustice, and death. Holy Week is holy because it reminds us that God does not abandon us in our failings, betrayals, and injustices. Rather, God finds ways to speak wisdom, to create intimacy and community, to inspire love. And it is at the end of this week that we proclaim God is most wonderfully and powerfully present. At the end of this week is Easter, the resurrection. Not only does God refuse to abandon us in our failings, injustices, and betrayals, but God is able to bring forth new life. Injustice, failure, and death are all overcome through resurrection. God raised Jesus from the dead, this Jesus who spoke wisdom, touched others with healing, stood against injustice, formed a beloved community, and lived love. Holy Week is especially holy because, in it, the power of God’s love is seen as the power to overcome and the power to bring new life. Live as if joy outlasts tears. Live as if justice overcomes. Live as if beauty always returns. Live as if beloved community is always possible. Live as if tenderness is our greatest strength. Live as if love is the most powerful thing there is. Friends, we don’t simply live “as if.” We trust that it is so because God continues to make things holy in love, and God’s way is the way of resurrection. Blessed Holy Week and Easter, |