The edge of Holy Week: sunsets and sunrises

I am almost finished in my preparation for worship for Holy Week, just a Maundy Thursday supper, a sermon for Good Friday and an Easter Sunday service to write, somewhere in the busyness of this coming week. This week not only will bring church services but also two funerals and two pastoral visits which need to be done this week because people are struggling. We also have a big day personally as we go to see our future home in Hastings again, which is exciting, yet a reminder we are soon on the move which is a bit scary!


I guess I am reminded in all this activity that Holy Week is all about Jesus entering the busyness of the real world. In a week, he feels the acclaim and rejection of people, he goes through every human emotion possible, he suffers and dies, and he gives us hope that negativity is not the end of the matter. Part of what I still feel called to do is to share with people that in the craziness of life, and yes, even in the craziness of the Church, there is always hope. The Christian story has to face hard things, even death, in order to celebrate new life. At two funerals this week, I shall preach the Gospel. My pastoral tutor taught me years ago always to preach the Gospel at a funeral and I have never forgotten his advice.


I enter Holy Week which is always a tremendous privilege to lead people through, remembering the good news that there is nothing we face, where Jesus has not been first. I have a crucifix in my hall in the manse. Some Methodists find this difficult, but I need it there to know that my God suffers with me and transforms that suffering. Easter Sunday is a wonderful celebration. Jesus had to rise from something, and it was from the worst that another person could do to you in his day. To see Jesus on the cross is a constant challenge to me to help those who struggle and a constant source of peace to me that he is somehow there ahead of me especially at times when I struggle with stuff.


I took this picture of the sun while I was on Holy Island. It is setting above the hills. We were just coming out of Evening Prayer at about 6pm from the Parish Church and felt a tremendous sense of peace as we just watched the view in wonder. I guess that Holy Week while hard is a comfort, in that there is nothing in life or death that can separate me from God's love. Tomorrow, it being All Fools Day, I am thinking about Jesus being a holy fool, using some of an essay I read a few days ago. The author writes: " I believe in the hopeful, comic spirit that stays one step ahead of the darkness reaching out to swallow it – or is reborn out of the darkness when it chances to be swallowed. I believe in the unexpected, sometimes preposterous spirit of grace breaking into the times of darkness in our lives.” And he concludes thinking about the hard work, the pain, but the determination to journey the right way, even if it is madness:“The divine dances in our lives and something  new comes into being."


What does this week mean for me? Well, we were sent this reading some time back which one of our friends used going through a hard time. Perhaps this is why this week should be kept by all Christians properly. My picture is of a sunset which brought peace. This is all about a sunrise, and is about Easter morning.  I love the picture I've put below. It is sunrise on Easter morning last year on the Downs above Storrington, another time of real peace.  

"When I cannot see the end of things. When the darkness shines brighter than the sun. When the wound will not be healed. When I can see no answer to my questions. Fill me with knowing you are there, for me.

You are the first to weep over shattered lives. The wounded healer who mends broken hearts. The first to die and rise. The holy victim who shouts through the silence, “It is finished!”

When I am blinded by the power of present things, fix my eyes on you, the battered God of the cross. And break the power of my painful days, with reminders of new and better days, still to come. Your resurrection sunrise, for me. Amen."