Beloved in Christ,
Holy Week is upon us. This week is the heartbeat of our faith because it reveals the heartbeat of God. Just one a year ago, our opportunity to enter the rhythm of this heartbeat was interrupted as we entered an incredibly prolonged season of isolation and hiatus, a season we continue to observe. And yet Holy Week teaches us that in our isolation and hiatus we are not alone, God has powerfully entered into our lives and draws us even now unto Him as He is raised up on the cross, renewing our hope and peace.
As we continue to love one another by remaining apart I know that for many of us it will not be easy to find the heartbeat of God this Holy Week. These days, most of us are experiencing deep emotion. Our own hearts beat loudly with grief, foreboding, anger, anxiety. There is no easy way to still our anxious hearts. There is no quick fix, no cheap resolution.
In the midst of this anxiety, I encourage you to enter Holy Week in real time, with deep attention, experiencing the tension, finding yourself in the story, joining the cries from “Hosanna” to “Crucify Him.” I encourage you to let the heartbeat of God find yours. I encourage you to go to church. From Palm Sunday through our Stations of the Cross on Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Great Vigil and Easter morning, I encourage you to let the heartbeat of God find you, every day of Holy Week, if possible.
Once more we can’t go to church – at least not in the flesh. And so St.Margaret in-the-Pines seeks to bring church to you through ZOOM. So come, or let the church come to you. May the reading of scripture together, the prayers, and the liturgy of the church be the stethoscope to the heartbeat of God. Come, because God’s heart beats for you. It is a heart beat that fills our hearts with a hope deep and profound enough to stand in the face of death itself.
This most holy of all weeks I pray that you allow yourself to be unsettled by the heartbeat of God and, in so doing, find your life lifted up by the One who pours His life out for you.
In peace and love,
Andrew+