Waiting in Line
Standing in line in Animal Kingdom last week, one family behind us played with their small children to pass the time. This Brazilian father and mother came to Disney World when they were children and now they were bringing their own. After each round of fun, one child pleaded, “Again and again.” The fun they had waiting in line was just as delightful for the children as the ride they were waiting to board.
Next week, we gather as a church to participate again in Holy Week. These services offer the dramatic, worshipful reenactment of Jesus’s last week. We’ve heard these stories before; we know the music; we remember how the story ends; we repeat them each year. With childlike faith, however, we come knowing that we are going to hear and see something we’ve never seen before. We’ll enjoy the experience of worshiping with each other. We’ll invite friends who have not been here for a long time. Or we’ll gather because our grandparents brought us here, and now we’ve invited our grandchildren to come.
Karl Barth began his Church Dogmatics with the statement, “We can only repeat ourselves.” It was his overt acknowledgment that most of us have heard this before, and we need so desperately to read this Gospel again in order to be faithful to what we have seen and heard. We circle back to where we left off last year in order for God in Jesus Christ to find us again at the cross and meet us in our Galilee on Easter Sunday. This can’t happen too often; but unless we participate, we’ll miss out on the importance of the journey.
So I hope you’ll join us again beginning Sunday. We gather to wave branches on Palm Sunday, singing joyfully of his humble entry into Jerusalem as our crucified and risen King. On Wednesday evening, we study his trial before Herod and realize how deafening his silence really is. We remember his sacrifice by partaking in the Lord’s Supper in the Sanctuary on Good Friday. We worship on Good Friday evening as we hear his last will and testament to us—his 7 last sentences from the cross through choir and drama. We celebrate with families on Saturday morning in the CLC.
What could be a better, more memorable time with the body of Christ? I can’t wait to be with you to do this again.