Today begins the most important week of the year in Christendom. It begins as a brief ray of light in the greyness of Lent. Our service begins outside with the waving of palm branches and shouts of "Hosanna! Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord." The beauty of a brilliantly sunny day added to the feeling of lightness today.
But just a few minutes later, the Gospel reading takes us from the triumphal entry in Jerusalem to the desolation and abandonment of Christ as his disciples fail to watch and pray with him in Gethsamane and then one of his own betrays him and the others flee. All of those voices of praise disappear and he is left alone.
We have failed Him. We have failed to keep our Lenten commitments, we have failed to trust Him, we have failed to pray, we have failed to come to Him for strength, we have failed to bear His light to the world.
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we read today's gospel lesson, the trial and crucifixion scenes from st. matthew's gospel, aloud. it was organized into almost a reader's theatre approach, with three readers up front and with the congregation chiming in on the parts spoken by the chief priests and the raving crowd. talk about an effective way of driving home our own participation in his death! to have to speak those words aloud and in unison is heart-breaking and sobering.
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