Let
me start with this statistic that I just saw: “A
recent study calculated that over the last two decades,
10 million Indian girls have been aborted. The most
recent estimated rate is 7,000 per day.”
So
what is “Holy Week?” It’s a time to
remember why we humans really, really need a way to reconnect
with our holy and good Creator God. It’s the time
set aside each year to intentionally enter into the darkness
of the human soul that can be so destructive and then
find the light at the other end. It’s a time to
walk with Jesus from a hopeful entering into Jerusalem
to heart-rendering tragedy that seems to bring the world
to an end on the cross and then to find again the reality
of new life, which in the church we call “resurrection.”
Easter
Sunday, this year on March 23, is the centerpiece of the
Christian year. This is the day when we can say with confidence,
“God Wins!” People come to church on Easter
because all of us need to know this. We need to know that
there is hope in a world that often seems bent on destruction.
A world where baby girls are aborted freely because they
are not considered economic assets. A world where untold
billions are spent on weapons of mass destruction but
where people try to sleep at night with empty stomachs,
and ill after drinking contaminated water—and very
little of that. A world where designer handbags sell for
$4000, and where that same $4000 could purchase 400 treated
mosquito nets and save that many people from the nasty
and debilitating scourge of malaria.
Yes,
we need to know that God does win, and that God gives
us all hope that we too can and will triumph over the
deaths in our own lives. Holy Week observances serve as
the most useful way I know to re-learn that each year.
Just for this week each year, we at Krum United Methodist
Church hold services each night at 7:00 p.m. so we can
take that walk into darkness with Jesus. At the last service
of the week on Friday night, called the Service of Tenebrae,
we will slowly extinguish the lights in the sanctuary
to mimic the darkness that covered the world at the moment
of Jesus’ death. We go home in sorrow that night,
but we too find the resurrection Sunday morning. This
is an experience of joy that is far more powerful and
lasting than the momentary pleasures we seek to distract
us from the difficulties of life. This is real transformation—a
covering like white snow that lasts, not one that melts
away quickly.
I
encourage you to come and join us for any or all of these
services. More information can be found here
or by calling the church office: 940-482-3482.
