This Sunday is Palm Sunday which begins Holy Week, and this year’s Palm Sunday and Holy Week will be anything but normal. In one sense that isn’t all bad. Holy Week is the genesis of liturgical time and the Christian calendar. From early centuries of the church, Christians have made pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to commemorate the last days of our Lord before his passion, death, and resurrection, for they knew this was no normal suffering and death. And so we too will gather, but not in the customary way. This does not take away from the holy nature of this time but might give us the opportunity to enter into it with more focus, stillness, and expectation. .

Holy Week also marks the apex and final days of our lenten fasting. I’m tired of fasting. In fact, with our new normal the fasting I’ve participated in has been more difficult and made me more prone to swings of emotions: hope and expectation, fear and anger, cynicism and lethargy. I feel like I’ve experienced it all, and I’m ready for Easter, for deliverance and relief. I’m ready for life to break in and for death to be trampled down by death. And, it will be one day completely, but not yet. Look for daily videos in Holy Week where Chris and I will hope to connect with you and walk alongside you in your journey.

I hope you’re enduring with faith, hope, and love. I hope you’re persisting in prayer as you’re able. But most of all, I hope you’ll be present to God and one another as we enter Palm Sunday and Holy Week. I’ll see you on the web this weekend.

I miss you all and look forward to seeing you in the flesh soon!

Jay+