Dear soul friends, 

“On the edge of Holy Week”

It’s hard to know how to date a pastoral message that is written well before the mailing date. But as I thought about it, I began to believe “on the edge of Holy Week was more accurate than anything else I might choose.

Holy Week is the heart of our church year. Each event provides a snapshot of everything that can go wrong and everything that can go right in our lives with God. We move through the ecstatic glory of Palm Sunday’s entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, to Judas’ betrayal of glory around the Lord’s Supper and the gracious glory of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, to the injustice toward glory in a fickle public and a frightened politician, to the terrible and profound glory of Jesus’ faithfulness on the cross, to the unexplained and quiet glory of Easter resurrection, and finally to the shared glory of this news among Jesus’ followers and their first, uncertain treasuring of this glory in their lives. 

For those who live closely with the stories and themes that move us through the church year, Holy Week is like a dose of discipleship concentrate. It’s all there. Everything that can happen to individuals, to spiritual fellowships, to communities, and their leaders, happens in Holy Week. And at LUC we step into each story with reverence and the expectation that we will encounter God there in a powerful way. Holy week grounds us in the life-changing power of Jesus’ message to trust God, honour the truth we know, and live out the meaning of our faith, no matter what the cost, for God’s love is more powerful than anything else that is or will ever be.

On the edge of Holy Week.  In a hundred ways life is always bringing us to the edge of Holy Week, when we must choose who we are and whose we are, for better or worse. This year, gather with LUC for life-changing worship on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We’re on the edge of Holy Week. And, as they say, “if we’re not on the edge, we’re taking up too much room."

With you in ministry,

Rev. Diane Strickland