“For the average American Christian who is genuinely committed to his or her faith, the most a church can expect is 3 hours of participation each week.”
Before Incarnation opened its doors, I received this warning from a priest who reads surveys on church life and growth. Don’t ask me to cite the study (I don’t have it!), but the claim seems right. Sunday morning Eucharist, small group, Bible study—life is busy and most of us can only make two of the three. Anything more endangers the balance on the scale and only dilutes participation at the rest. So why in the world do we add three extra services (plus a picnic) during Holy Week?!!
The answer is simple: Our only hope is Jesus Christ, and we need a moment every year when we stop everything to remember and rehearse that.
We spend hundreds of hours every year making money, cooking meals, cleaning the home, going on vacation, watching TV, going to our kids’ activities, answering emails, studying for school—the list of what consumes our time is large. But our only hope is in Jesus; nothing else (even the good and necessary things) truly offers life. He alone is a secure foundation.
We need a yearly moment when we rehearse and re-enter this hope and foundation. We aren’t computers, where information can just be downloaded and then it remains there perpetually. We are living creatures with affections, wills, and minds, and creatures have to practice and celebrate things regularly if they want them engrained in their hearts. Our practices and habits shape our souls more than we know.
During Holy Week, we are given the chance to re-center our life on Christ in an explicit way. It is our yearly call to grow in the faith in the only way our faith can actually grow—through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The services work together to draw us into Jesus’ death and resurrection. Each service is beautiful on its own, but together they are more than their sum. By following him from the Triumphal Entry to the Last Supper; from his agony, betrayal, and arrest at Gethsemane to the mockery of his trial; from the darkness of his crucifixion into the glory of his resurrection—by following him in each of these moments, we have the chance to re-center our life on him.
Even though life is busy, make a point to set aside every other pursuit during Holy Week. There is nothing more important for us to do! Let following Jesus from the Triumphal Entry to the empty tomb be the only goal for the week.
Steven+