The days say to us: Enter.
Come experience.
Come live.
Come savor.
These days are ours to know.
Ours to enter.
Ours to walk.
Ours to pray.
Ours to love.
This Holy Week calls each of us.
For 40 days we’ve waited and watched. We’ve turned to the darkness. We’ve let the darkness teach us. We’ve trusted that the light is present even as we doubt.
For 40 days we’ve met in worship. To hear the stories of God’s people. To sing the songs of old. To pray for the world. To look into the eyes of our neighbors.
For 40 days we’ve looked to Jesus. To his teaching and healing. To his questions. To his disciples. To the road laid before him.
For 40 days we’ve thought about death. The sign of the cross marked on our foreheads. We’ve given thanks for dust. For the saints. For the body that connects us all.
As we go through the days we are stripped.
We are laid bare.
We gather at the table.
We eat and we drink.
We wash feet.
We let our feet be washed.
We come to the garden to pray.
We come to rest and worry.
We come to watch with horror.
We come to see our own guilt.
We come to lay it all at the foot of the cross.
To let the emotions wash over us.
The pain, wonder, fear, uncertainty.
And then we wait.
In the darkness.
In the holiness.
The days say to us: Enter.
For 40 days we’ve waited for this week.
This Holy Week.
This week that has been waiting for us.
This week marked by humility and triumph.
Hope and despair.
Beauty and disgust.
Hatred and compassion.
This week that always was.
And always will be.
Holy.
Kimberly Knowle-Zeller is an ordained ELCA pastor, mother of two, and spouse of an ELCA pastor. She lives with her family in Cole Camp, MO. You can read more at her website: http://kimberlyknowlezeller.com or follow her work on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimberlyKnowleZeller/