Every time I approach Holy Week I seem to see it from a new angle. Some new bit of information gets added to my experience and it changes a little. When I was young Holy Week was something other people connected with, it wasn’t really for me. As a Jehovah’s Witness we had ‘The Memorial’ (Usually on Maundy Thursday) where the story of Jesus’ last few days was told. A plate of bread was passed around, and then a glass of wine, but very few (if any) would take a piece of bread or sip from the glass. You had to be ‘special’, be ‘called’, to be able to do that, and worldwide there was supposed to be only 144,000 people who qualified.(Taken from Revelation).
Of course I now see the event very differently. Instead of being an event for the select few it is an event for all of us It’s not something we do once a year, it’s something we do every week. Communion is not something you partake in because you’re ready, or special, but because you’re not ready and not special! The point of communion, as I see it now, is to draw us into the mystery of God at God’s invitation, just as we are. Everyone is welcome! In fact, to wait until we are ‘ready’ is to miss the point. God doesn’t invite us because we have worked to somehow become worthy, but despite the fact that we think we’re not! It’s an invitation to take part in the eternal truth, that we are loved just as we are and worthy because God says so. To think that God wants ‘special’ people is to miss the point of the cross. – “Reject me as you will, I will always love you” is the message stamped all over the event.
The tradition you hail from may not be as dogmatic or as fundamentalist as the one I came from, but there are probably elements in common. Most likely judgment, guilt, and a little fear thrown in for good measure. Which is ironic since the Gospel message reveals a God of love, not judgment – a God who wants a relationship with us right now just the way we are. We’re the ones that reject Jesus, not the other way around! We’re worried he might be like us! lol!
This easter I pray that you are blessed. I pray that the Gospel message touch you afresh and draw you ever more deeply into communion with the Amazing God that just wants to be in relationship with you. God wants to be in relationship with you. …….That’s what makes you worthy. – Duh!
Be blessed.
Rev. Michael