The time comes when we feel the need to make joyful sounds because we are bursting with love, we recognize God's faithfulness, and we cannot hold those feelings inside anymore. That is the time when most of us will either shout out with gladness in our hearts, burst out singing, or want to listen to people singing songs that express the same joy that was caught up in our bones but now must be released.
Throughout our lives, there are important milestones that mark momentous occasions. Can you think of any of the major ones from your life? Maybe it was a Sweet Sixteen or Quinceañera. Maybe it was a wedding or the first time you drove a car, at graduation, or watched a child take their first steps. Within the Christian tradition, there are also a variety of milestones. For some denominations, a child may engage in education and a particular ritual as they prepare for their First Communion at a certain age.
It is an exciting season in the church! Two weeks ago we celebrated Easter. Last week the bells rang out their witness through the sanctuary. This week, we have the Children's Cantata, and then comes Confirmation Sunday and the Chancel Choir Cantata. In some ways, this is a shake up for us and the way we usually do worship. This month we are invited to worship in ways that don't follow our traditional structure and order. And you know what? I think that's great!
Holy Week is upon us! Together, we gather in worship Thursday, Friday, and Sunday as we journey with Jesus to and from the cross toward resurrection. Yesterday, we honored Maundy Thursday by washing each other's hands and honoring Christ's celebration of service. Today with worship leadership from our Chancel Choir, we gather around the cross and mourn as Jesus dies. All of this happens in one week as we make it to Sunday - to Easter.
Does the ancient Palm Sunday scene sound familiar? If we take out Jesus' riding through the streets of Jerusalem, on a donkey and a colt (the foal of a donkey), we will see similar kinds of public gatherings that have happened recently, especially because it is election season.
The streets, squares, halls, and stadiums of our communities have been populated with people of various kinds, including the well off, political elite, middle class, and many who are disenfranchised, losing faith in the government, or who suffer needlessly due to societal indifference.
"She's in a better place." Have you ever been on the receiving end of these words after a loved one has died? Maybe it brought you comfort, or maybe you, like me, found anything but that in this response. Why couldn't this world have been a good place? What does it mean that "a better place" is away from loved ones? The power of grief is significant, particularly in the face of early, unexpected, and/or tragic loss. Each of us processes these losses differently, but grief is normal. Grief is a healthy response. It can also be maddening and devastating.
What comes to your mind when you hear the phrase, "coming out of darkness into the light?" Most of us create images in our mind's eye about what darkness means and its negative imagery like danger, insignificance, shady people, vagueness, and doubt that we were taught to associate with it. How entering the light is imagined also, and what light means as a metaphor for clarity, positivity, goodness, happiness, peacefulness, and calmness.
Usually, I'm a team player and am willing to try new things. Every now and then though, I am reminded of my boundaries and limits. When I was in college, I worked in the Center for Leadership. I created and facilitated workshops and retreats on different aspects of leadership with a team of other students for various student groups on campus. I loved this job! When I started, we had a week-long training before we got to work. So much of it was meaningful. We went over different leadership theories, over the mission and vision of our center, we built relationships, and more.
Our flesh, our earthly bodies, are the most common way that we experience this world. We do so specifically through our sensory perceptions. Human DNA made from the physical union of two people, over a nine-month gestation period will produce a baby made of extremely cute and cuddly baby skin and baby bones. But, it only happens once in a lifetime. Our spiritual self is the most common way that we experience the extraordinary connections that we all know, or can possibly know, and depend on to inform us about who we are intuitively in God's love.
What are those things in life that you had to memorize and recite? For many, there's the "Pledge of Allegiance." Often students in schools start their day off reciting this. For Christians, there's The Lord's Prayer which we say every week. Maybe you are in Scouts or another group that has a law or oath that you state at every meeting. You might not have it memorized, but if you are in worship on the first Sunday of the month, you're probably pretty familiar with the communion liturgy. As Methodists, we participate in communion at least once a month because it is sacred.
This week we prepare for Ash Wednesday and the end of Epiphany season. However, we first must stop to consider what the transfiguration of Jesus, in front of his disciples, on the high mountain does and consider the words that came from God in Matthew 17:5 that reads, "from the cloud a voice said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!'"
Throughout my life, I have been fortunate to have some truly incredible teachers. Each of these teachers had their own gifts. My elementary music school teacher? So very fun and able to connect with children in a way that had us all wanting to participate. My critical thinking professor in college? He cared enough to see the talents and needs of each student and support them in living out their potential, and through personal crises. My seminary Old Testament professor?