To the Cross and to the Tomb

Mostly I hope you will be on a journey with me this week, a journey that each one of us must take. Every night we will gather at 7:00 pm, and then on Easter Sunday at 8:00 am, 9:30 am, and 11:00 am.

I want to be with you as we once again approach the cross of Christ, stand with him in his pain, and then watch as he rises from the dead.

The poet Ann Weems shares these words about Holy Week:

 

Holy is the week.

Holy, consecrated, belonging to God.

We move from hosannas to horror with the predictable ease of those who know not what they do. Our hosannas sung, our palms waved, let us go with passion into this week.

It is a time to curse fig trees that do not yield fruit. It is a time to cleanse our temples of any blasphemy. It is a time to greet Jesus as the Lord’s Anointed One, to lovingly break our alabaster and to pour perfume out for him without counting the cost.

It is a time of preparation.

The time to give thanks and break bread is upon us. The time to give thanks and drink of the cup is imminent. Eat, drink, remember: On this night of nights, each one of us must ask, as we dip our bread in the wine, “Is it I?”

And on the darkest of days, each of us must stand beneath the tree and watch the dying if we are to be there when the stone is rolled away.

The only road to Easter morning is through the unrelenting shadows of that Friday. Only then will the alleluias be sung; only then will the dancing begin.

 

On the journey with you,

Pastor John D. Morris
 

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