Spring has Sprung

The birds are chirping. The flowers are blooming. Everything that went dormant over the winter is coming back. We have more light in the afternoon and evening. The weather is getting warmer. Our cars and porches may have a lovely shade of yellow green on them from the pollen. We may be making summer vacation plans. Our children and young people are counting the days to the end of school. 

And yet, it is odd to write an April article when we have a week of Lent left and then Holy Week. We also have Easter Sunday and the beginning of the Season of Easter at the end of the month. As you may know, I grew up in the Episcopal Church and then spent fifteen years at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Spartanburg prior to attending seminary. During those years at St. Christopher’s, as a Lector, Eucharistic Minister, and Verger, I was deeply involved in the Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter services. Growing up in the Episcopal Church, I didn’t know anything different about Holy Week. I certainly had friends from other denominations and traditions, but we never really talked about how often we went to church and whether they had services all during Holy Week. 

During my time in the United Methodist Church, I learned that not every denomination has services on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. One of the United Methodist churches I attended had Easter Lilies in the church on Palm Sunday, which seemed weird to me knowing that no one was going to remove the Easter Lilies for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. This same church had a life-size wooden cross in the front of the church during Lent (which also became the cross they flowered on Easter Sunday morning). There was a table in front of it with symbols of Holy Week – bread and wine, several huge nails, and a crown of thorns. I thought it was odd they loved singing hymns like “The Old Rugged Cross” and “Victory in Jesus” and they had the powerful display up in the front of the church all during Lent but did not actually have a service on Good Friday. 

I have also had conversations with people who are not Episcopalian or from a more liturgical tradition who have questioned why I went to church so much during Holy Week and asked if I really had to go to every service. What I always answered people who asked and what would still be true, even if I were not a priest, is that I want to attend every service during Holy Week. I am thankful to be in a tradition that intentionally walks through Holy Week, and we do it in a way that pulls us in and engages all our senses. Through what we see, sing, hear, smell, feel, and taste we can remember all the events that happened during Jesus’ last week on earth. 

Only once we have taken this journey with Jesus and fully immersed ourselves into the events of the last week can we look forward to what lies ahead. Only once we have gone through Jesus’ last week, to the cross and the grave, it is then and only then that we can truly celebrate Easter, dancing and singing joyously.  

I look forward to walking with you all through Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter!