We started off by celebrating Palm Sunday in the back yard of Mary Ann's brother, Gordon. Together with many of Mary Ann's friends and family, we gathered to remember her life and celebrate her influence on our lives.
While the children held crosses made from palm leaves, the adults stood up, one at a time and shared their memories of Mary Ann and how she had touched their lives. A circle of red-tailed hawks flew in a thermal over our heads as we lifted up our voices and sang "The Old Rugged Cross" together.
I stood and reminded those who had gathered to remember to honor the living while they are with us, and to practice letting go. Letting go of toys to embrace responsibility. Letting go of fantasy to accept reality. Letting go of anger and hard feelings to embrace forgiveness and receive love. Letting go of life in this world to embrace eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
Last night we gathered again, this time in the home of Betsy Kollberg, to celebrate the Passover Seder. It always amazes me that God instructed the Israelites to observe Passover on a specific date every year, and on that date to blow the shofar at 3pm when the passover lamb was slain, so that roughly 6,000 years later when His Son was hanging on the cross, ON THE SAME EXACT DAY, and they blew the shofar at 3pm, Jesus would say, "It is finished."
On Friday we will celebrate Good Friday together in my home. We will enter quietly and move silently from station to station as families to tear cloth, drive nails, taste vineagar, touch a crown of thorns, tumble dice, and leave our red handprints on the same paper curtain.
Afterwards, we will sit around a low table and light our candles, sing worship songs, share communion, and one by one voice thanksgiving for what Jesus has done for us, blowing out our candles as we go. When the room is dark we will leave as silently as we have come, or perhaps revisit one of the stations to reflect more on the love of Christ for us.
On Sunday morning, we will meet in the morning, on a grassy hill, under a tree and surrounded by passing cars and sunlight we will raise our voices to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, read scriptures of the events and experiences of that first Easter, and share our thoughts and open our hearts to one another on resurrection and what it means for us.
Aftewards, we'll return to our home and help the children create resurrection rolls and continue to share and worship and love one another as Christ loved us.
I love Holy Week.
