OrEd-T-20.1,2-Intro, Holy Week
1. This is Palm Sunday, the celebration of victory and the acceptance of the truth. We will not spend this holy week brooding on the crucifixion of God's Son, but happily in the celebration of his release. For Easter is the sign of peace, not pain. A slain Christ has no meaning. But a risen Christ becomes the symbol of the Son of God's forgiveness of himself, the sign he looks upon himself as healed and whole.
2. This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign the Son of God is innocent. No dark sign of crucifixion intervenes between the journey and its purpose, between the acceptance of the truth and its expression. This week we celebrate life, not death. And we honor the perfect purity of the Son of God, not his 'sins'. We offer to each other the gift of lilies, not a crown of thorns, the gift of love and not the 'gift' of fear. We stand beside each other, thorns in one hand and lilies in the other, uncertain which to give. Now we join with Jesus, throwing away the thorns, offering the lilies instead. This Easter, Jesus would receive the gift to him of our forgiveness, and the same gift is returned to us by Jesus.
3. We cannot be united in crucifixion and death. Nor can the resurrection be complete until our forgiveness, along with Jesus', rests on Christ. A week is short, and yet this holy week is the symbol of the whole journey the Son of God has undertaken. He started with the sign of victory, the promise of the resurrection already given him. He will not wander into the temptation of crucifixion and be delayed there. I help him to go in peace beyond it, with the light of his own innocence lighting the way to his redemption and release. We will not hold him back with thorns and nails when his redemption is so near. We let the whiteness of our shining gift of lilies speed him on his way to resurrection.
4. Easter is a time of joy, not of mourning. It is the celebration of the end of sin, not its cost. If we see glimpses of the face of Christ behind the veil, looking between the petals of the lilies we have given and received, we will behold each other's face and recognize it. Because we gave our brother lilies, we know him. Jesus was a stranger and we took him in, not knowing who he was. Yet, in our forgiveness of him is his release, and our redemption with him. I look on my risen Friend, and celebrate his holiness with Jesus. With Jesus, Easter is the time of my salvation, along with his.
