Tomorrow is Palm Sunday.  The story of Jesus’ Passion will permeate the whole week, should we let it.

Sometimes it’s easy (okay, it’s always easy) for clergy, people and choirs to get overwhelmed by the number of services and the variety of stories, texts, plot and subplots that make up Holy Week in a liturgical tradition like ours.  When looked at it on its face, there seems to be just about more than one can manage.

I have found myself less anxious and overwhelmed about all that lies ahead this week.  Instead I sense that I’m more eager and expectant about what graces walking through the week will bring.  One thing I’ve been thinking on in the runup to this week is that we celebrate more than just the resurrection if we attend to all that God has to offer us in the liturgies of this week.

We are invited into unbridled optimism on Palm Sunday.

On Monday we’ll say our Evening Prayers as is our custom.

On Tuesday, we’ll gather to pray for a Service of Public Healing, a remembrance of Jesus’ ministry of healing that culminates in the events of the week.

On Wednesday, it’s Evening Prayers again, a quiet oasis in an eventful week.

Thursday we gather as Jesus’ disciples did to ponder the power of humble service as the cornerstone of discipleship.

Friday, Good Friday, we walk the Via Dolorosa with Stations of the Cross, a special gathering of the young in our community and end that night in the shadow of the cross recalling the despair and uncertainty that terrified Jesus’ followers and friends.

Saturday we wait, we wonder, we hold Vigil, light a new fire and wait for the curtain of death to be rent apart.

Sunday, Sunday, we marvel at the empty tomb and speak a word absent from our lips these forty days.  We hide things. We find things.  We laugh. We sing.  But do we wonder enough?

Through it all it can become a daunting task to know what to say to God’s people as a preacher.  Here’s where I believe our liturgical tradition can be wonderfully powerful.  The story is replete with the glory of God.  What might happen if we, (congregation and preachers alike) were to really marinate ourselves in the emotional and spiritual power of this most wondrous tale?  Sometimes in this week less can be more in our preaching.  Given half a chance, I believe that the liturgy and the Triune God that resides in it, can carry us to places that preaching can only describe.  This is liturgy (the work of the people) in its highest form.

From Hosannas to despair to joy, it’s all here.  From committed defense of the Holy One to denying him thrice, it’s all here.

From unspeakable horror, to undescribeable joy, it’s all here.  From life to death and back again, it’s all here.  I pray that we can present to as much as our hearts, minds, souls and strength will bear.

Blessed Holy Week to all!!