Holy Week
24/03/24 00:06
Palm Sunday has been a big deal in my life since I was a child. Our dad was a farm boy who made his living with airplanes and selling farm machinery, but he always had an interest in raising animals. One of his hobby farming ventures was raising donkeys. When he got our first donkey, the forest service was still using donkeys and mules and pack animals to service remote locations, built trails, and other jobs in the backcountry. He had a half interest in a male donkey and so our Jenny was bred from time to time. Gestation for a donkey is about a year, so he would try to arrange things with our donkey so that she might give birth to a colt in time for the colt to make an appearance in church for Palm Sunday. It didn’t aways work out. Some years the colt was late. One colt, who we named Hallelujah and called Lulu, was born on Easter morning. That year all we had for palm Sunday was one very pregnant and quite wide donkey. A few times things worked out and we were able to take a young colt to church to play the part in a Palm Sunday pageant.
I have known the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem in triumph, riding on a donkey with people waving palm branches to greet him, for as long as I can remember. It was one of those “when we always” events in our lives. I think that the usual practice in our church when I was growing up was for a regular worship service with a bit of extra pageantry for Pam Sunday, a somber communion service on Maundy Thursday, a community Good Friday service win which several congregations joined together, and special Easter services. It was our tradition to participate in an Easter sunrise service that took place at the edge of airport hill. Because our father worked at the airport, we were familiar with the location and were used to going there early in the morning. Easter, however was different. We had thermos bottles of hot chocolate and our father would make a bonfire around which people would gather for the service. There would be a second service at the regular time and often an Easter egg hunt after the regular service. Some years, the Easter Egg hunt was held on the day before Easter.
As a pastor, I began to pay close attendance to who attended Holy Week services. Attendance at church was generally large on Palm Sunday and on Easter and pretty light at midweek services. After years of being a pastor, I began to think of Holy Week as an opportunity to offer special ministry to families who were experiencing loss and grief. More and more, I grew to see the week as a time of preparation and practice for occasions of grief. Everyone experiences loss at some time in their lives. When a death occurs, immediate family members of the deceased person tend to drop everything for a week or more and focus on the process of grieving, preparing a funeral service, and sharing grief with family and community. I began to see Holy Week as a time to practice for those events. Spending a week focusing on Jesus death in preparation for Easter celebrations became a way to help people learn about the reality that we all will one day face. I started to emphasize Holy Week services and activities.
For many years we followed the practice of the Revised Common Lectionary called Palm and Passion Sunday. We would start the Palm Sunday service with the readings of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and include a longer than usual reading of scripture that told the entire story of Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion. I practiced dramatic reading of the story and some years involved other readers in the presentation. This was, in part, a response to the fact that attendance was good on Palm Sunday and Easter, but light for midweek services. By reading the passion texts on Palm Sunday more members of the congregation heard the story of the events of holy week and had them as preparation for the celebration of Easter.
At some point, however, I felt that the service of Palm and Passion was becoming an awful lot to process in a single worship service. The services seemed excessively full and often ran very long. We decided to try a different approach. Our plan was to have some special event on every day of Holy Week and to promote attendance at at least one Holy Week event for each member and friend of the congregation. On Palm Sunday we focused on the Palm Sunday story only. On holy Monday, we read the passion narrative in its entirety. Tuesday was reserved for music and meditation and became the occasion of a blues concert in the later years of my career. Wednesday was a time for families and included a meal. Some years we held a kind of a wake meal for Jesus, telling stories of Jesus life over a simple meal. I would recruit storytellers in advance who might tell a biblical story about Jesus, or who might tell a personal story of how Jesus had become important in that person’s life. Then one year as our relationship with the Synagogue of the Hills developed, lay leaders from the Synagogue became leaders of a Seder Meal that was celebrated as an opportunity to teach congregational members about Judaism and think about what Jesus’ practice of the Seder as a faithful Jew might have been.
Maundy Thursday was an opportunity for a traditional communion service, often with special music by the choir. Some years the choir prepared a cantata for that evening’s service. Some years we had a dramatic service with costumes and lay leaders playing the part of disciples as we constructed a tableau of the last supper.
A noontime Good Friday service developed over the years into a kind of modified stations of the cross service with movement and special prayers. After a couple of years of personal and family grief that started with the death of one of my brothers in the spring of 2010 and continued with the death of my mother in January of 2011 and Susan’s father on Ash Wednesday of that same year, I wrote a new Good Friday liturgy of readings and prayers in 2012. I continued to revise that service and those prayers for the rest of my career.
Holy Saturday featured a shortened version of the Great Vigil of Easter and Easter Sunday included a sunrise service, a breakfast, and a large Easter service.
After we went to that practice of events every day of Holy Week, we kept careful attendance records, including the names of every person that we could identify who attended Holy Week events. We discovered that the attendance at the midweek services grew each year and soon total midweek attendance exceeded the usual large attendance on Easter Sunday.
The practice continued until the Pandemic shut down all of our in person services during Holy Week of 2020, which was also the year that we retired.
I confess that since that time Holy Week has been a bit of a letdown for me. The congregation to which we now belong has only a very lightly attended service on Palm Sunday, and a small service on Good Friday. Neither seem to be the passion of worship leaders and tend to lack the passion and energy we used to find during the week when we were pastors. At no point is the passion story read in its entirety. In fact, the readings of scripture are shortened and less focused than even recommended in the lectionary.
I know that it is not the role of a retired pastor to criticize actively serving pastors, but i confess that I find the lack of energy and commitment of the pastors who are currently serving the congregations I have known and loved to be disappointing. I approach Holy Week with a sense of disappointment, which may, in fact, be appropriate. I suspect Jesus’ first disciples approached the week with dread. The week continues to have much to teach me.
I have known the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem in triumph, riding on a donkey with people waving palm branches to greet him, for as long as I can remember. It was one of those “when we always” events in our lives. I think that the usual practice in our church when I was growing up was for a regular worship service with a bit of extra pageantry for Pam Sunday, a somber communion service on Maundy Thursday, a community Good Friday service win which several congregations joined together, and special Easter services. It was our tradition to participate in an Easter sunrise service that took place at the edge of airport hill. Because our father worked at the airport, we were familiar with the location and were used to going there early in the morning. Easter, however was different. We had thermos bottles of hot chocolate and our father would make a bonfire around which people would gather for the service. There would be a second service at the regular time and often an Easter egg hunt after the regular service. Some years, the Easter Egg hunt was held on the day before Easter.
As a pastor, I began to pay close attendance to who attended Holy Week services. Attendance at church was generally large on Palm Sunday and on Easter and pretty light at midweek services. After years of being a pastor, I began to think of Holy Week as an opportunity to offer special ministry to families who were experiencing loss and grief. More and more, I grew to see the week as a time of preparation and practice for occasions of grief. Everyone experiences loss at some time in their lives. When a death occurs, immediate family members of the deceased person tend to drop everything for a week or more and focus on the process of grieving, preparing a funeral service, and sharing grief with family and community. I began to see Holy Week as a time to practice for those events. Spending a week focusing on Jesus death in preparation for Easter celebrations became a way to help people learn about the reality that we all will one day face. I started to emphasize Holy Week services and activities.
For many years we followed the practice of the Revised Common Lectionary called Palm and Passion Sunday. We would start the Palm Sunday service with the readings of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and include a longer than usual reading of scripture that told the entire story of Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion. I practiced dramatic reading of the story and some years involved other readers in the presentation. This was, in part, a response to the fact that attendance was good on Palm Sunday and Easter, but light for midweek services. By reading the passion texts on Palm Sunday more members of the congregation heard the story of the events of holy week and had them as preparation for the celebration of Easter.
At some point, however, I felt that the service of Palm and Passion was becoming an awful lot to process in a single worship service. The services seemed excessively full and often ran very long. We decided to try a different approach. Our plan was to have some special event on every day of Holy Week and to promote attendance at at least one Holy Week event for each member and friend of the congregation. On Palm Sunday we focused on the Palm Sunday story only. On holy Monday, we read the passion narrative in its entirety. Tuesday was reserved for music and meditation and became the occasion of a blues concert in the later years of my career. Wednesday was a time for families and included a meal. Some years we held a kind of a wake meal for Jesus, telling stories of Jesus life over a simple meal. I would recruit storytellers in advance who might tell a biblical story about Jesus, or who might tell a personal story of how Jesus had become important in that person’s life. Then one year as our relationship with the Synagogue of the Hills developed, lay leaders from the Synagogue became leaders of a Seder Meal that was celebrated as an opportunity to teach congregational members about Judaism and think about what Jesus’ practice of the Seder as a faithful Jew might have been.
Maundy Thursday was an opportunity for a traditional communion service, often with special music by the choir. Some years the choir prepared a cantata for that evening’s service. Some years we had a dramatic service with costumes and lay leaders playing the part of disciples as we constructed a tableau of the last supper.
A noontime Good Friday service developed over the years into a kind of modified stations of the cross service with movement and special prayers. After a couple of years of personal and family grief that started with the death of one of my brothers in the spring of 2010 and continued with the death of my mother in January of 2011 and Susan’s father on Ash Wednesday of that same year, I wrote a new Good Friday liturgy of readings and prayers in 2012. I continued to revise that service and those prayers for the rest of my career.
Holy Saturday featured a shortened version of the Great Vigil of Easter and Easter Sunday included a sunrise service, a breakfast, and a large Easter service.
After we went to that practice of events every day of Holy Week, we kept careful attendance records, including the names of every person that we could identify who attended Holy Week events. We discovered that the attendance at the midweek services grew each year and soon total midweek attendance exceeded the usual large attendance on Easter Sunday.
The practice continued until the Pandemic shut down all of our in person services during Holy Week of 2020, which was also the year that we retired.
I confess that since that time Holy Week has been a bit of a letdown for me. The congregation to which we now belong has only a very lightly attended service on Palm Sunday, and a small service on Good Friday. Neither seem to be the passion of worship leaders and tend to lack the passion and energy we used to find during the week when we were pastors. At no point is the passion story read in its entirety. In fact, the readings of scripture are shortened and less focused than even recommended in the lectionary.
I know that it is not the role of a retired pastor to criticize actively serving pastors, but i confess that I find the lack of energy and commitment of the pastors who are currently serving the congregations I have known and loved to be disappointing. I approach Holy Week with a sense of disappointment, which may, in fact, be appropriate. I suspect Jesus’ first disciples approached the week with dread. The week continues to have much to teach me.
