Did you happen to catch what happened here in front of our eyes? We traveled through time here, just a moment ago. Or, more accurately, time traveled to us. Through the vehicle of liturgical worship, we slipped into a retelling of a biblical story so monumental, so heart-breaking and life changing, that we didn't even notice that we left one century for another, if only for a brief moment.

Good liturgy works like that, it transports us into time out of mind, so that our minds might be transformed, so that when we return our very person might be changed and transformed.

Now before you think I've gone mad, and have spent far too much time conjugating Spanish verbs, let me briefly show you how this occurred this morning, and explain what it can mean for us this coming week.

We began with the liturgy of the palms. Look at the front of your bulletin, and see again that for which we prayed at the beginning of today's service: "Assist us mercifully with your help, O Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts, whereby you have given us life and immortality." We first pray for God's help, and then to enter into contemplation. We wish to contemplate, to dwell upon, to ruminate and think about "those mighty acts." What mighty acts? The ones we do in our worship. By our repeating these acts in the liturgy, which requires the participation of us all, no matter how large or small, we literally "re-member" them- we give them legs to stand on again, we bring them forward through time to the present for our contemplation.

Later, in the Collect of the Day we prayed, "mercifully grant that we may walk in the ways of his suffering," "his" being the suffering of Christ. Holy Week is all about this total immersion into and "re-membering" of Christ's passion and death. Like a trailer at the movies-you know, the previews of coming attractions- Palm Sunday, the Sunday of the Passion, represents only a glimpse of what is to come this week: The blessing of community gathered to share a meal; the treachery of selfishness; self-delusions of faithfulness; vulnerability; betrayal; political expediency; mob mentality; institutionalized violence; self-sacrifice, suffering and death.

Holy Week affords us the opportunity to walk with Jesus and the disciples step-by-step through all this and more, and allows us to emerge on the other side transformed-resurrected, if you will.

On Maundy Thursday, we gather in that Upper Room, as tradition calls it, for the Last Supper. Here Christ gives the new mandatum, a new commandment, and begins a new covenant that is to be repeated, and hopefully, always remembered and lived out. We, too, shall join them around the tables for this meal. Then we shall return to the church to experience Christ's mistreatment at the hands of his captors by our stripping of the altar.

Bread and wine consecrated for Good Friday's eucharist will be moved to an altar of repose, and there we shall wait.

All through the night, from the silent conclusion of Maundy Thursday until noon on Good Friday, we have the opportunity to watch with Jesus at the altar of repose. You may spend any amount of time, a half-hour, an hour, whatever you wish.

Come in the middle of the night, at day break, or before noon and watch and wait with Jesus; experience the fatigue and tiredness that the disciples felt in the garden. Contemplate these mighty acts from within their very midst.

Good Friday we then walk with Jesus from Pilate to Golgotha. We move from prison to torture, from torment to execution, from innocence to victim. It isn't pretty. But it is his life. And truth. How can something so good come to such bad ending?- or so it seems on Good Friday. We also bring to Christ's suffering all the world's sufferings, in the hope that one day all these wrongs might be made right, too. And we bury the body of Jesus of Nazareth.

Holy Saturday begins at a tomb-in our case, literally. We gather in our Memorial Garden that morning, the final resting place of so many of our faithful departed. And, quite possibly, it is here that the reality of it all sinks in for the first time. That Jesus experienced this, too. And we walk away in disbelief, from the contemplation of then and now.

Later, that evening, on Holy Saturday fifteen minutes or so after total sundown, in a darkened church and in silence, a new fire comes to life. It is the Light of Christ and the dawning of a new day, a day never before seen in the history of the world-Resurrection Day.

Of the services the church has to offer during the year, this is the queen of them all- the Great Vigil of Easter. It is the most ancient and historical way to proclaim that Easter has arrived: The new fire, the hearing of salvation history, the renewal of baptismal vows and the great acclamation of Easter. Back after its long Lenten departure, we joyfully sing the Gloria in excelsis, ringing the bells we brought throughout it. And together we celebrate the first eucharist of resurrection day. This journey through the last days of Jesus' life, death and rising has come to an end. The Great Fifty Days of Eastertide has begun. Simply put, Holy Week is not to be missed. Walk the path of these three great days once, and you will never miss the chance to walk the path again. For we walk it, not here and now, but then and now. We walk it in a profoundly real way, so real that we can, in some strange way, say, "Yes, I was there. I experienced it first hand. And it has changed me forever."

For that is why we pray, "Assist us mercifully with your help, O Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts, whereby you have given us life and immortality… Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection."

May you have a blessed and grace filled journey through Holy Week.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Rev'd Timothy M. Dombek
ST. JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH
301 Piney Mountain Road
Greenville, SC 29609-3035
(864) 244-6358
stjamesrector@mindspring.com

Copyright © 2002 Timothy M. Dombek All Rights Reserved.