A Holy Week reflection

As Holy Week begins, Rev Dr Marjory MacLean, minister of South Ronaldsay and Burray Church, reflects on the hope it provides.

It is tempting to look forward along the length of Holy Week from today as if we are at the start of something that lasts this one week. There's a dramatic arc ahead as we move through the Passion story, perhaps evening by evening in special services, aiming towards the relief and joy of Easter.

In truth we are not at the beginning of something today, nor at its end next Sunday. Christ who rode into Jerusalem in today's Gospel story was already precious to us as God's Son, as healer, teacher, leader, as the one who had already called us into the distinctive love and service of the Christian way. And Christ encountered in the early morning garden next Sunday is not departing the scene, and there is glory and assurance and comfort and power still to come.

When we dare to look round us at our community or nation or world right now, it feels rather as if we are in the middle of ghastly times. The greater dramatic arc, the arc of all history, scarcely seems to be bending towards justice. Religious promises of peace and love are a challenge to pronounce. Holy Week reminds us to cling to hope in things greater, and much longer, than we can see and grasp all at once.

Prayer

Jesus Christ, you walked through this world from Bethlehem to Nazareth, from Capernaum to Jerusalem, from Bethany to Gethsemane, from Calvary to the lake-shore.
Be patient with us as we try to find the courage to go on your way with you in the prayers and praises of Holy Week, as we bring muddled words and feelings along with us, as we flinch in the painful moments and take refuge in the victorious ones.
Take us with you, all the way.
AMEN