On Sunday we will enter the story of the passion by waving
palms and singing “All Glory Laud and Honor” while making our way to pews we
occupy most Sundays with less fanfare. We’ll hear the horrible, beautiful story
read and sing the familiar hymns; Go to
Dark Gethsemane, O Sacred Head Now Wounded, Ah Holy Jesus. At the end of
the service (at least at Calvary) Michaelann Berry will bless us by singing Via Dolorosa and the beauty of her voice
and the images invoked by the lyrics will make the ancient story of sorrow and suffering
more real for us. But even if the end of the service is the beginning of Holy
Week the Texas Rangers opening day will still happen on Good Friday. We might
lament such a thing, especially those of us in the clergy class who will be
working a different “home plate” on Friday but truth is most folks will treat
the week we call holy as any other; although for Sunday they might buy a basket
for the kids and pop a marshmallow peep as a guilty pleasure. Does it matter? I
might have thought so in the past but more and more I’m thinking Jesus would
want every week to be a holy week where the sacred abandons the position of
power (Hosanna in the Highest) to be crucified for the sake of the secular so
that in surprising ways we “Father forgive” those in our everyday while engaging
them in a “Jesus remember me” relationship. It is a mistake for the
pious faithful to act like Scribes and Pharisees when
the Christ we follow ate and drank with people who would
choose Opening Day over Stations of the Cross.
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