Holy Week

Recently I had the opportunity to meet with the confirmation class at Myers Park UMC in Charlotte. More than 70 young people have been meeting together, learning together, and serving together since last fall. In preparation for an evening with the bishop they submitted a long list of very good questions which indicated to me that they are taking their commitment to follow Jesus seriously.

One of their questions was one I have been asked many times over the last fifteen years since first being elected to serve God through this office. “What do you miss most about not being a pastor?” My first response is generally to note that I have never stopped being a pastor except that now my appointment and my constituency is much larger. I have learned and lived into the reality that John Wesley highlighted: “the world is my parish” … literally! Never did I think that my response to God’s call would take me to more countries than I could have imagined, or to preach in more places with more translators and interpreters than ever dreamed.

However I know the intent behind the question is really about serving as pastor of a local church as opposed to this large and significant ministry of superintending. As I shared with them, and have said often, what I miss most is the opportunity to walk with one particular community of faith in all the joys and challenges of life. Even more than that, I think, I miss making the journey through high, holy seasons and days with a congregation: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, and Easter.

As we enter Holy Week we are invited to retell the stories recorded in the Gospels. The events from the Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem to the crucifixion and to the empty tomb capture the essence of God’s amazing love extended to the whole world. Everything is turned upside down as a result.

Jesus enters the Temple and in a bold act repurposes and reclaims the Temple to be “a house of prayer.” (Luke 19:46) A woman makes an offering of everything she has in order to worship God (Mark 12:41-44); a woman pours out “costly ointment” (her life savings) to anoint the feet of Jesus (Mark 14:3-9), interestingly enough while Jesus is in the home of a leper. Jesus draws attention to a fig tree to teach a lesson about watchfulness and fruitfulness (Luke 21:29-33). He celebrates the Passover meal and goes out to an olive garden to pray. In all these accounts, we are learning what it means to follow Jesus not only for a few days of a week we call holy, but through all of life.

I recall all of those churches I was privileged to serve along the way and especially the moments when the holiness of this week broke into my life and the lives of others: a Good Friday Tenebrae service as darkness closed in around us; a Holy Thursday service of communion with 12 people at a time gathering around a make-shift table in an unfinished room during a building expansion; a community-wide “seven last words from the cross” service; and greeting the rising sun on Easter morning standing in the cemetery next to the church building. He is alive! Hallelujah!

Yes, I miss moments like that. I enter this Holy Week with the prayer that I might once again share in the obedience of Christ Jesus and in his sacrificial love for the whole world. I pray that this week will bring a holy, redeeming and transforming power deep in your souls and lives.