Not Just Another Week
Holy Week is just like every other week. There will be seven days (Lord willing) with 24 hours each. There will be a Monday, a Friday, and a weekend. Business will be conducted. Some people will get sick and others will get well. Babies will be born and some will come to the end of life. Children will play baseball and soccer; teachers will give tests and all of us will watch for signs of economic recovery. The sun will rise and set and the weather will do what weather does in the South, in the spring—change. In hundreds of ways this week will be like every other. And yet, it is different.
This is Holy Week. During this week we not only remember, we also relive the final week of the life of Christ on earth that we call His Passion. We retrace His steps with our own feet. We follow Him into the Temple as He expels the merchandisers. We listen in the courtyard as He teaches about the final day that will come when sheep and goats will be separated. We watch as a woman washes His feet with her hair and anoints them with perfume all the while realizing that we should have done the chore ourselves. Then we remove our sandals and allow Jesus to wash our feet. We share the bread and the cup and struggle to stay awake in prayer in the Garden. We stand boldly by His side and then run away as night gives way to morning. We watch from a careful distance as our Savior hangs upon the cross and we weep as he breathes His last. Then we will wait. We will wait for a new week to begin.
It is a struggle, is it not, to superimpose the extraordinary on the ordinary? How do we do all that must be done in this week, all the things which people depend upon us to do, and yet be mindful and even engaged in the holiness of the week? How can the two coincide? Well, it begins by realizing that every week holds the same challenge. Every week we live as Christ-followers is an imposition of the extraordinary on the ordinary. For as Christ lives in us, we are existentially otherworldly even while we engage in worldly work and play. The key to it all is intent. This week will be not just another week only if we determine it to be. This week is not different because we attend extra services or have new clothes for Sunday. This week is only different as we determine with our heart, soul, mind and strength to make it so. So, let us agree together that this is not just another week and that no week after this one will ever be the same again.
Here is the schedule for Holy Week:
March 28 Palm Sunday, Worship at 11:00 AM
March 29-31 Noon, Community Holy Week Services at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 101 East 4th Avenue, Rome
April 1 7:00 PM, Maundy Thursday Service, The Chancel Choir will present Faure’s Requiem
April 2 Noon, Good Friday Service at Second Avenue Baptist Church
April 3 (9:30 Registration), 10:00 AM Community Wide Egg Hunt
April 4 Easter Sunday - Celebration of the Resurrection, Worship 11:00 AM