A Theological Invitation to Holy Week
Palm Sunday, March 29
Join us as we mark Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem! We begin by blessing palms and processing into the church with them as a reminder of the people of Jerusalem who cut branches from trees and spread them and their cloaks along the road—a practice usually reserved for kings and people of great importance.
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week and is also called “the Sunday of the Passion.” In addition to marking Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, this is also the first day where the Passion Gospel (the story of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, torture, and crucifixion) is read all or in part. Palm Sunday is unique among Sunday services because it begins with a joyful parade and ends with the heartbreaking realization that Our Lord has been murdered. We carry this heavy mood for the rest of the week, tempering it with the knowledge of what comes when the sun sets on Saturday.
Holy Monday Eve, March 29 at 5:30 p.m.
Our 5:30 p.m. service on Palm Sunday traditionally celebrates Holy Monday, in keeping with the Jewish tradition of reckoning the new day beginning at sundown. The commemoration changes annually, and this year the Gospel tells the story of Jesus’ feet being anointed by Mary of Bethany immediately before his entry into Jerusalem. The scene takes place in the house of Lazarus, whom Jesus had risen from the dead. Judas balks at the great expense of the perfume and says that it could have been sold to give money to the poor. Jesus rebukes him, saying, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me” (John 12:7-8).
This Holy Monday, we strip away the pomp and imagery of Palm Sunday and sit with a Jesus who knows that he is a dead man walking. He is anointed as a corpse would be at the beginning of the week leading up to his execution. Yet we still celebrate the Eucharist, for even at the beginning of the end, we know light will triumph over darkness and love over hatred and greed.
Photo credit: Laura Sullivan
Maundy Thursday, April 2
Join us for the beginning of the most sacred part of the Church Year: The Paschal Triduum! This is the three-day period leading up to Easter beginning on Maundy Thursday and ending with the Easter Vigil at the conclusion of Holy Saturday. The Triduum is considered one service so there is no dismissal at the end of any service until the Easter Vigil.
Maundy Thursday takes its name from the Latin word “mandatum” which means “commandment.” We commemorate Jesus washing his disciples feet in an act of humility and to set an example to all of His followers. It is after this that he gives his new commandment: “that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,” (John 13:34-35). At the end of this service, the Altar is stripped, the Sacrament is removed, and the lights are turned out as we enter the darkest hours of the Gospel. No Communion and no celebration will take place from now until Easter. Yet we carry the commandment to love and serve others as Christ did into even the darkest night.
Photo credit: Laura Sullivan
Overnight Vigil - April 2-3
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Stay and watch with Christ in His hour of anguish. We keep watch from Thursday to Friday as Jesus asked His disciples to do while he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane immediately before he was arrested. His disciples could not manage to stay awake while Jesus agonized alone, praying “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want,” (Matthew 26:39). Pain is often easily tolerated. Fear of pain is not. Jesus knows the suffering that he is about to endure and must wait alone for it to come upon him.
We stay up as an act of devotion to Our Lord who desired companionship and comfort in his hour of sorrow and to whom it was denied. We may not be able to individually stay up all night, but we can as a collective, taking shifts to keep watch and show a small bit of the love Jesus has for us.
Photo credit: Katherine Hilton
Good Friday, April 3
Join us as we follow Christ to the grave. Good Friday focuses around the latter half of the passion: Jesus’ crucifixion and death.
At 9 a.m., we walk the Way of the Cross, which commemorates Jesus being forced to carry his own cross to Golgotha before he is crucified. The service ends in our Garden of Peace and Remembrance with Jesus being laid in the tomb.
At 12:10 p.m., we listen to the reading of the full Passion, pray solemn collects as we reflect on Christ’s sacrifice for us, and end with the Veneration of the Cross as a means of honoring and thanking Jesus for paying the ultimate price to save us from death.
At 7 p.m., we listen to Bach’s St. John Passion. This is another telling of the full Passion, and J.S. Bach’s musical interpretation of the Gospel adds a level of depth and emotion as we process the death of Christ.
Photo credit: Laura Sullivan
Holy Saturday, April 4 at 10 a.m. in the Sanctuary
Join us in the morning as we bury Our Lord. After great pain and suffering, Jesus lies dead, and his mother and disciples are left to mourn Him. This is a day of great contrast. We are called in two directions: We are called to sit with Mary in her grief and we are called to make solemn preparations in the manner of Joseph of Arimathea. As Joseph washed, perfumed, and laid Jesus’ Body in a tomb, so we must also make ourselves and our space ready for the miracle that is to come Saturday night. This is a day of waiting, where the surety of death is tempered by our knowledge of what is to come.
Easter Vigil, April 4
From darkness…light! Join us for the first Easter Service and the conclusion of the Triduum and Holy Week. This is the opposite of Palm Sunday where our joy was replaced by sadness. Now, we gather outside of our once-bare church and kindle a new fire—the symbol of the Light of Christ coming to lighten the dark world. Since our Holy Saturday service, the church has been filled with flowers and candles and is ready to proclaim the miracle of Easter. But first, the stories of God’s people through the ages must be told in a church that gradually grows light with the candles held by congregants. After several readings, but before the Gospel reading, the church is fully lit and Christ is proclaimed to have risen! We say and sing our first Alleluias since the beginning of Lent, more than 40 days earlier.
This service is typically when adults are baptized, as it follows a time of fasting and preparation, and now is a time of great celebration as Christ is revealed to have risen from the dead and destroyed death itself in the process.
The service concludes with the first Eucharist celebrated since Maundy Thursday and ends with great fanfare as we excitedly move into the Easter season.
Photo credit: Laura Sullivan
Credit: Thank you to Caleb Briggs for writing this theological invitation to Holy Week and to Laura Sullivan for her photos.