Joy and Grief

As Pastor Tuula wrote in her weekly email, during this stay-at-home time, each day is, “a mixture of grief and joy, of strangeness and routine, of faith and doubt.”  This must have been the experience for those who witnessed the events of Holy Week.  The joy of a parade on Palm Sunday, the strangeness of the Last Supper, the emotions in the Garden of Gethsemane, the grief of Friday, imagine the doubt on Saturday, and all of it coming together on Sunday.  God knows our human experience is complicated. 

And so is Holy Week this year.  So many thoughts, feelings, and unknowns.  While we walk with assurance through our Holy Week traditions, they are changed this year.  Washing hands has a whole new meaning this year.  As you wash your hands this week, remember how we wash each other’s hands on Maundy Thursday as our gesture to relate to Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. 

As we stay apart, we will know our own time in the Garden.  Loneliness, fear and anxiety.  I never thought going grocery shopping would cause fear and anxiety as it does now.  And the loneliness as we cannot be near our family and friends.  This is a time of prayer.  Jesus was “deeply grieved” we are told.  He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.”  This is a hard prayer to pray.  And he knew what was about to happen.  What is your prayer during the pandemic?   

As the deaths from COVID-19 are reported each day, we experience the tragedy and horror of this pandemic.  The grief.  On Friday, we will pause to consider the death of one man.   His anguish and suffering for us.  His last words:

And, as Pastor Tuula wrote in her email:

This is Holy Week unlike any we have observed before. Yet the simplicity and starkness of it might allow us to feel the mystery of God's story even more than usual. Without the celebrations we will be left only with the story – the story of love, betrayal, suffering, death and love again.

I invite you to observe this Holy Week with an open mind and open heart, ready to hear what God might have to say to you. After all, the risen Jesus went into the locked rooms, where the disciples were hiding out of fear. Why would Jesus not do the same for us?

May you have a blessed Holy Week.  And as you walk through all the emotions of this week, may you find joy.  We know Sunday is coming.  We know there will be an Easter.