We are now entering Holy Week – Palm Sunday represents the beginning of the week when we remember the terrible incidents leading to the cross – this morning Palm Crosses were held as we remembered the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but tonight the Palms, as they were 2000 years ago, have been put away – just as the crowds who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem, we have moved on…
The late priest Henri Nouwen wrote about this last stretch of Lent with a wonderful prayer, that you may see yourself in. It begins “O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly. I entered into it with fear, but also great expectations. I hoped for a great break-through, a powerful conversion, a real change of heart; I wanted Easter to be a day so full of light that not even a trace of darkness would be left in my soul…”
We will all have entered Lent differently – some with ideas of things to give up or take up, some with no thoughts at all ! Like Nouwen time may well have passed on with none of our hopes and expectations really completed, but we can still look at this day as a day to celebrate that Jesus was on the verge of completing his victory !
When Bishop David preached here he quoted a verse of scripture and suggested we used it every day throughout Lent – I won’t test you by asking what it was or how many of you have done it ! He quoted the verse from Psalm 118 – ‘This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it’.
Through the solemnity of Holy Week there is no less cause to say that verse, because it reminds us that even through the darkness of Holy Week, there is cause for celebration because Jesus, in this week of suffering, showed his love for us and for all people in the greatest act of self sacrifice ever offered.
Henri Nouwen in his prayer came to the realisation that it was not in his time that his journey would continue, but in God’s time…
We are all on a journey, and these weeks of Lent have been only one small part of it. Lent is good for helping and forcing us almost to take a step back and look at a bigger picture and to see where we fit in.
The place we fit in, being the place where God has put us now, ready for the future that He wants to take us into. The place where we can take a step back to look at the world, look at its needs and pray that it will know the love of Christ that led Him to the cross.
To take a step back and look at our own lives and to pray that we will continue to know the love of Christ and His challenges to us.
We are indeed on the last stretch, but in this last stretch we may feel a little confused, or disorientated almost, as we remember the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and we will go through the pain of Holy Week as we remember not only what Christ has done for us, but also as we remember that we are a part of that bigger picture, the bigger story and into all this we will grieve as we remember our sins, and then we will be ready to step into the happiness and joy of Easter.
Talk about being put through the emotions ! In the gospels we hear of the preparations Jesus made for his disciples as he approached his last days before the crucifixion – we hear of the way others prepared to capture Jesus…. There is innocence and hope with the disciples, but there is the sinister side of what was to happen and take place. It is a strange feeling but it is all part of this bigger picture.
In Holy Week we will enter into the drama a little more closely, of the remembering of God’s love for us in a more intense way almost, than we do at any other time of the year.
And we must remember we are very much a part of the story… Holy Week is a time for reflection, but it is also a time for rejoicing, because whilst we remember the suffering of Jesus, the suffering caused by people like us…, by us, we can be sure that he still loves us and in our Lenten acts of recommitment he offers us his strength and his love…
I would like to finish with the end of the prayer from Henri Nouwen. Let us pray:-
I pray that this time, in which you invite me to enter more fully into the mystery of your passion, will bring me a greater desire to follow you on the way that you create for me and to accept the cross that you give to me. Let me die to the desire to choose my own way and select my own cross. You do not want to make me a hero but a servant who loves you.
Be with me tomorrow and in the days to come, and let me experience your gentle presence. AMEN
The late priest Henri Nouwen wrote about this last stretch of Lent with a wonderful prayer, that you may see yourself in. It begins “O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly. I entered into it with fear, but also great expectations. I hoped for a great break-through, a powerful conversion, a real change of heart; I wanted Easter to be a day so full of light that not even a trace of darkness would be left in my soul…”
We will all have entered Lent differently – some with ideas of things to give up or take up, some with no thoughts at all ! Like Nouwen time may well have passed on with none of our hopes and expectations really completed, but we can still look at this day as a day to celebrate that Jesus was on the verge of completing his victory !
When Bishop David preached here he quoted a verse of scripture and suggested we used it every day throughout Lent – I won’t test you by asking what it was or how many of you have done it ! He quoted the verse from Psalm 118 – ‘This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it’.
Through the solemnity of Holy Week there is no less cause to say that verse, because it reminds us that even through the darkness of Holy Week, there is cause for celebration because Jesus, in this week of suffering, showed his love for us and for all people in the greatest act of self sacrifice ever offered.
Henri Nouwen in his prayer came to the realisation that it was not in his time that his journey would continue, but in God’s time…
We are all on a journey, and these weeks of Lent have been only one small part of it. Lent is good for helping and forcing us almost to take a step back and look at a bigger picture and to see where we fit in.
The place we fit in, being the place where God has put us now, ready for the future that He wants to take us into. The place where we can take a step back to look at the world, look at its needs and pray that it will know the love of Christ that led Him to the cross.
To take a step back and look at our own lives and to pray that we will continue to know the love of Christ and His challenges to us.
We are indeed on the last stretch, but in this last stretch we may feel a little confused, or disorientated almost, as we remember the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and we will go through the pain of Holy Week as we remember not only what Christ has done for us, but also as we remember that we are a part of that bigger picture, the bigger story and into all this we will grieve as we remember our sins, and then we will be ready to step into the happiness and joy of Easter.
Talk about being put through the emotions ! In the gospels we hear of the preparations Jesus made for his disciples as he approached his last days before the crucifixion – we hear of the way others prepared to capture Jesus…. There is innocence and hope with the disciples, but there is the sinister side of what was to happen and take place. It is a strange feeling but it is all part of this bigger picture.
In Holy Week we will enter into the drama a little more closely, of the remembering of God’s love for us in a more intense way almost, than we do at any other time of the year.
And we must remember we are very much a part of the story… Holy Week is a time for reflection, but it is also a time for rejoicing, because whilst we remember the suffering of Jesus, the suffering caused by people like us…, by us, we can be sure that he still loves us and in our Lenten acts of recommitment he offers us his strength and his love…
I would like to finish with the end of the prayer from Henri Nouwen. Let us pray:-
I pray that this time, in which you invite me to enter more fully into the mystery of your passion, will bring me a greater desire to follow you on the way that you create for me and to accept the cross that you give to me. Let me die to the desire to choose my own way and select my own cross. You do not want to make me a hero but a servant who loves you.
Be with me tomorrow and in the days to come, and let me experience your gentle presence. AMEN
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