What do you hold in your hands at the beginning of Holy Week - nails or palm branches?

For the beginning of Holy Week the service this morning in the ecumenical centre was called "From hosanna to crucify him".
In the meditation I asked - what do you have in your hands? Palm leaves, palm crosses, branches to greet the coming king? Or nails to crucify him?
There is such hope among the crowd as they strew their garments and give Christ the red carpet treatment - Hosanna is a cry of wanting to be saved, save us, be our saviour ...
Do the same ones just a few days later scream crucify him?
This movement from the jubilant expectant hopeful crowd to the murderous mob is one of the aspects of the passion story I find most difficult to bear and contemplate, am I too so unable to remain faithful even for a few days?
As I reflected this morning I realised that I hold both nails and celebratory branches in my hands - the capacity to be part of the murderous mob and the hopeful crowd.

And when the resurrection comes it is not in the first place to crowds but to individuals, small groups of doubting, stunned, hopeless believers. Hosanna ...

After asking my question about the nails and the palms I read this wonderful poem which my colleagues Manoj Kurian wrote in 2008. And we kept silent as the sun streamed into the chapel before singing "Jesus Christ is waiting ..."

Are we part of the crowd or are we among the witnesses?
Are we part of the crowd ?
Swayed by the influential and the appealing?
Making convenient compromises,
Preserving and expanding our power and status;
Oblivious of the Messiah among the vulnerable and the poor;
Broadening the highways of our selfish desire;
Obstructing the narrow paths;
That lead to the reign of God.

Are we among the witnesses?
Striving consistently to know God;
In creation, community, in the other and in oneself;
Reflecting truth in our own lives and all that we do.
To recognize the crucified Christ amongst us;
To be with and work with the suffering and the tortured;
For the liberation of all creation;
From the shackles of greed and exclusion.

Striving consistently to see the risen Lord;
In creation, community, in the other and in oneself;
Working for liberation in all we endeavor.
Humbly persisting to be transformed, to transform the world.
In victory and in failure;
In joy and in pain;
In solidarity and in betrayal;
Are we among the witnesses or are we with the crowd?

copyright: Manoj Kurian / WCC

Foot washing - the dream ...

On Maundy Thursday I always have crazy day dreams that the kings and queens and presidents and primeministers might be found at the local homeless shelter washing people's feet. Or that the CEO of a top company will wash the feet of the cleaning personnel - or maybe make coffee for the secretaries ...

These days of course such events would simply be part of the constant barrage of the celebrity round of photo opportunities.

Such gentle focused sensitivity, such practical sensuality in Christ caring for his disciples' feet, washing them and preparing them for the way ahead.

A crazy dream that the great of this world, the true leaders will have humility enough to care - enough even to care for the betrayer.

If I am not ready to take up bowl and towel I am not ready to lead.

Betrayal ...

It's a week for thoughts on passionate elemental themes. Manoj Kurian led prayers in the ecumenical centre this morning and encouraged us to think about betrayal.
I realised that the end of Christ's betrayal begins with a kiss, Judas delivers Jesus to the authorities using a kiss of greeting. Does betrayal matter? It is certainly a powerful word and emotion, a feeling most of us will encounter in some way in our lives.
I got lost in thought this morning about the pettiness of much that we think of as betrayal, yet also the deep personal pain that is caused by lying, adultery and simply not bothering to stand up for others when they are under fire.
Then I got to wondering who and what I have betrayed in my life ... of course I cannot think particularly of anyone or anything as I write this. I am clear minded enought to realise this doesn't at all mean that I am a person of exemplary integrity, quite the reverse. I am aware I am not even a person who always tries to do the right thing. My betrayals often begin not with a kiss but with good intentions of some kind - or intentions I like to think of as good ... I want to believe that I am driven by the idea of what is right ... is that what it was like for Judas?

Are Christians making any difference?

We are praying this week for the peoples and churches in Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia. As Holy Week begins our colleague Dr Manoj Kurian prepared a liturgy for which he wrote music for a Malaysian version of the Orthodox acclamation of the gospel - using the in recent times much contested word "Allah" to refer to the trinitarian Christian God.
In his sermon on the suffering servant from Isaiah Manoj asked us whether the more than two billion Christians in today's world were making any real difference. "We conform so often to what Christ was against rather than try to find new ways to transform society". Just like the people who celebrated Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, we need to ask ourselves what kind of Messiah we are expecting, just a new king who'll sort out all our problems or someone working to a different set of rules, a new system of renewed relationships as opposed to the systems of the world that push the poor to the margins.
Manoj went on to plead that to follow the way of Christ the suffering servant we we should see our service as part of our worship and see God in each other.
So are we Christians making a difference or would the world be just the same without us?

Service for Maunday Thursday

I've just posted tomorrow's midday Maunday Thursday service to the docs section. It's a short communion service with water as the theme. Now I'm off to do a bit of etymological research about the word Maunday or should that be Maundy?
Meanwhile I am trying to calm down my guest blogger who seems to be getting rather over-excited about somewhat arcane and esoteric aspects of ecumenical theology. It's all a bit above my head but I will insist he uses some pictures at least next time. Mind you I'm not quite sure how you illustrate the thoughts of Pope Benedict XVI, now there's a challenge!

Passion and Betrayal on Seven Weeks for Water

Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday a day when Christ's last meal with his disciples is remembered by the church. By coincidence it is also the day this year when the UN in Geneva is marking World Water Day - two days early because of the Good Friday holiday.
This week's meditation on Seven Weeks for Water focuses on the idea of water as a sign of passion and commitment, and as a sign of betrayal.
Two bowls of water and ritual washings are told of in the narratives of Christ's passion - Jesus washing his disciples' feet in John's gospel and Pilate washing his hands in front of the crowd in Matthew's gospel.
I don't normally like mixing up the gospel narratives like this but as our meditations on water have progressed the image of these very different ways of washing really challenged me.
The meditation ends:
"As we meditate Christ's passion we reflect on our own service of others. We also seek to understand and enter into the suffering of so many in our world whose right to be human is being undermined by their daily struggle for access to clean water.
So are we going to follow Christ and take up the cloth and the bowl or follow Pilate and wash our hands of responsibility?"
In the section on how to take action there are ideas about doing things in preparation for World Water Day on Saturday including these:

• Wash your hands and think
  Everytime you wash your hands this week remember to take responsibility for talking about water as a basic resource everyone has the right to.
• Get passionate about water
  Find out what's going on near you for World Water Day and get involved with others in local, national and international water campaigns.

Please keep supporting the Ecumenical Water Network and building up your local water networks. The water Lenten meditations will continue past Easter - those following the Julian calendar will still be in Lent for several weeks yet. Next week young people from various places around the world will be writing about their involvement in water issues.
And remember the closing date for the Ecumenical Water Summer School is March 24th so use the holiday weekend to fill in the forms.

A poem for Holy Week by Janet Lees

My friend Janet Lees started blogging today and immediately posted this brilliant poem for Holy Week she's just written. You can find more of Janet's prayers and poems at the back of her excellent book Word of Mouth, and also in many of Geofrey Duncan's anthologies.

The week

This is the week:
the week of cheers
that turn to mocking and jeers
and then to silence
that storms out of twisted streets
to stand at crossroads
in Lhasa, Harare and Rangoon;
the half-remembered week
where guttering flames
and a few lined faces
keep this vigil, still;
the week that takes us further
than any other
and always ends in tears.

copyright: Janet Lees all rights reserved

Are you one of the crowd or are you prepared to bear witness? A reflection for Holy Week from Rev. Dr Setri Nyomi

Setri Nyomi, who is general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, preached a thought-provoking sermon this morning taking us from Palm Sunday to Good Friday.
He asked us to consider whether we were simply members of the crowd, crying "Hosanna" when everyone else did and "Crucuify him" when that was more in vogue; or whether we were witness willing to hold on to a longer term and more difficult truth.
Setri put it this way,

"A witness stands by what he/she has seen, and is prepared to go against the tide to proclaim it. A witness looks at the evil and injustice in society, and sees God’s call to be agents of transformation – and we can do no other. Someone who goes with the crowd, may when convenient speak the language of justice because we find ourselves in the company of people who are talking justice in this house – but when we are in another setting where people are condemning those who stand for justice as fanatic and ideological, we go along with the flow. It is easy to do."

His preaching also inspired Manoj Kurian to write some verses in response to the challenge. I've posted the verses here but here's a taste:

"Are we part of the crowd ?
Swayed by the influential and the appealing?
Making convenient compromises,
Preserving and expanding our power and status;
Oblivious of the Messiah among the vulnerable and the poor;
Broadening the highways of our selfish desire;
Obstructing the narrow paths;
That lead to the reign of God."

You can find the order of service from this morning here.