It's been a busy month here, but I think I can breathe for the Triduum. An article I was assigned is written and with the publisher. A book group that I facilitate at a retirement home was today, so I can let that slip from the forefront of my mind. I have music to still learn for services, but I'm not too stressed about that. I choreographed a foot-washing and the rehearsal went well tonight. I have to carry a huge cross (with two other men) on Friday, but I've done that procession before, too, so nothing to stress about.
Each year, I take the Triduum off from work. I've come to look at it a bit like a religious retreat for which I don't have to travel. I go to all the services my church offers (yes, even the 3-hour 7-last-words service on Friday afternoon). I assist at the Saturday vigil (I savor the chance to read the story of the three young men in the fiery furnace again---perhaps the funniest story in all the Bible and I read it so that people know they can laugh and still learn from scripture). But I also try very hard to take time to breath, be still, RETREAT. I don't slow down well, and although I know it is a busy busy time for clergy everywhere, I take advantage of the chance to stop and think and pray and reflect. It's weeks like this that I'm glad that I didn't just go ahead and get ordained after seminary. Besides being ill-suited for ordained ministry, I would come to resent this time, which is truly my most favorite time of the year.
It's Wednesday in Holy Week and I just realized how . . . not quite right it seems to say I find these days as days to slow down and breathe. Jesus would surely be feeling the heat by now, even as his disciples remain somewhat clueless. Judas, perhaps, has already made his deal, or is on the verge of it, but the rest of the twelve appear unaware. They surely sense some tension, but maybe they just experience it as excitement. Maybe they think this is the time for Jesus to assert his Messiah-dom, to bring in his kingdom, to take back Jerusalem from the Romans. It's all coming to a head and I want to be still and reflect.
Well, that's the benefit of having read ahead in the story, I suppose, the benefit of living in a post-Easter world.
Except, of course, we all live in this space of uncertain expectations, maybe even false expectations. We all wish for some things that just aren't going to materialize. And the excitement we feel? Maybe it's just stress from the people around us who are paying closer attention.
Apply that, as you see fit, to the current situation that's going on in the ELCA.
It's Wednesday in Holy Week. How are you feeling?
About Me
- Neil Ellis Orts
- NEW: My novella, CARY AND JOHN is published and available for purchase at parsonsporch.com or Amazon.com. Arts, religion, where those intersect, and where they don't . . . a freelance writer with credits in OutSmart Magazine, Dance Studio Life, Dance Source Houston, The Christian Century, Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Living Lutheran . . . impractically educated, with a BFA in theater (Texas State University), an M.Div, (Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest), and an MA in interdisciplinary arts (Columbia College Chicago) . . . visit my other blogs, listed in my full profile . . . available for all kinds of things, most of which fall under standard legal, ethical, and moral guidelines.
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