As a general rule, Baptists do not celebrate Holy Week very much. However, some of our churches are becoming more in tune with the church calendar to include recognizing this time. Our more mainline friends take this time very seriously. I try to keep up with the season of Lent in my own life. Most years a better job is done of it than this year. If one fails at reflection during the season of Lent, is that not a awkward sign of why it is needed? This coming Sunday will be Palm Sunday. I do need to do a better job being ready than I am now.

My habit is to look through other websites or resources for points to ponder. Calvin Seminary has a terrific website where I come often for a nudge. It helps me think outside of my baptist box. Sometimes it can be a bit discouraging. The more material that I read the more that I realize how much my mind gets locked down. We become so accustomed to our experience and education we often miss even more truth around us. We mostly know the Easter story to the degree we do not stop to take a longer look at what it means.

Today in my reading I was reminded again that Palm Sunday is only the beginning of a wild and wooly week. What began with a happy parade passed through a horrific experience only a few days later. Crowds would shout praises to God on one day even if they were following for all the wrong reasons. This leads of course to the same crowd calling out phrases and wishes too ugly to describe. Never forget the people who were so happy on Palm Sunday would be so ugly on Good Friday. Also, never forget it can happen to us as well.

Happiness can give way to hatred much too fast. When the celebration meets head on with reality we experience the same mood swings as the crowds. Last year the economy was perking along with sky high stock numbers. This year we watch as capitalism is giving way to socialism with each passing day. If we could only return to those happier times how good it would be. But we are faced with the harsher realities of 2009. The same people who drove the economic numbers to new heights became the same ones who drove them right off a cliff. Happiness is not near enough to get us through these days. There must be a greater reality.

The good news is that the story does NOT end on Palm Sunday. We do have a Good Friday that changes everything. The bloody horror of the cross is far more meaningful that spontaneous happiness. It forces us to see our responsibility in life. We are the ones who sinned. We are the people who can take the best of times and create failure. God comes to save us from our sin but also from shallow sentimentality. There are two words every church needs to keep at the front of their mind. Grow up. Recognize we are still prone to the same silly sin that plagued the original Holy Week. Every minute spent blaming someone else for life's condition is a moment wasted in finding God's very real grace. Let us give ourselves to owning up to our feelings. Let's be real about our tendency to mess up a good thing. Then we can look forward to more than a happy parade. We can find very real grace for our messy life.

Bro. Trey