Holy Monday

After worship yesterday, I was brought to tears by this video of a mom lifting her beautiful voice in song to the accompaniment of a karaoke track with her toddler on her hip, another kid in the background, and boxes of diapers piled high next to the couch. It is chaotic, honest, humble, and delightful.

As I think about the typical Palm Sunday, all the preparation, careful planning, big anthems, and vibrant palms that usually mark this occasion, it strikes me as a very unexpected gift that this week we have none of that. As excited as I was to celebrate Holy Week with MCCGSL in a big way, I am overcome with the presence of God because of the simplicity, not in spite of it.

Our online worship services and prayer calls are modest and humble. It strikes me that our worship was probably like Jesus‘s entry into Jerusalem that we celebrated yesterday. A bit thrown together. Planned, but loosely. Triumphant, but not flashy. After all, Jesus was in a donkey, not a war horse. His way was lined with coats and palm branches. He was protesting the greed and militarism of the world while entering into the last week of his life, preparing for his final lesson.

Eighth-Century Martyr Andrew of Crete wrote, “Let us say to Christ: Blessed is [the one] who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Let us wave before him like palm branches the words inscribed above him on the cross. Let us show him honor, not with olive branches, but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another. Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our own hearts under his feet like garments, so that he may draw the whole of our being into himself and place the whole of his in us.”

As we enter into Holy Week, let us open ourselves to the wonder and chaos of the Palm Sunday procession. May we throw down our cloaks, raise our palms and do our best to stay true to the way of Christ: a life of service to one another, and to the poor.

This week, we will be reflecting on the theme of service as we humbly mark Jesus’s last days.