"The Importance of the Journey..."
I remember one Holy Week when I was a teenager. My mum is a priest and I used to play the piano at church so we were both very involved in the services of Holy Week. We’d done Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and a vigil service on Holy Saturday evening - only to return home that night and find water coming through the lounge ceiling. My dad (who is not so into church) would normally deal with such things. However, he was away in the Isle of Man visiting my Grandma. After frantic phone calls to him and a visit from a helpful friend, we managed to drain the leaking water tank, turn the water off and eliminate the immediate risk of the ceiling falling in. But we were without heating or hot water and so Easter Sunday morning was spent not in church but at home waiting for a very expensive emergency plumber. We had journeyed with Jesus from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to the Upper Room and then to the cross, but we never made it to the joy of the resurrection. We were stuck at the emptiness of Holy Saturday.
Then there was Holy Week at theological College in Mirfield. We had four Offices each day (Morning Prayer, Midday Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer) as well as the Holy Week liturgies. We were in silence from Maundy Thursday evening until Easter Day, when our worship began at about 4.30am and finished at about 8 am, followed by prosecco and chocolate in the church grounds. The journey that week was intense but awesome – literally. Words can’t do it justice. And, of course, the nature of theological college meant we’d done that journey as an enclosed community together, with none of the distractions of the outside world.
The year after was my first Holy Week in the parish after ordination. Like this year, schools were in right up until Maundy Thursday and so there was a funny mix throughout the week of celebrating Easter with our schools when we were still at Maundy Thursday in church. And, of course, I was experiencing everything for the first time as an ordained person: washing feet on Maundy Thursday, carrying the paschal candle and singing the exultet as a deacon on Holy Saturday. After the experience of the previous year there were some frustrations: the organist practicing ‘Thine be the glory’ for Easter Day just a few minutes after we’d finished the Good Friday liturgy rather spoilt the mood! But it was, and has been ever since, a huge privilege to lead people on that journey through the week.
Those are the most memorable Holy Weeks I’ve experienced. There have been many more that, although slightly less memorable, are still very important. But each of these examples I’ve given, in their own way, demonstrate the importance of the journey that we go on during Holy Week.
All of us are invited to take part in this journey during Holy Week this year and I encourage you to do so as fully as you can. Jesus told his disciples that they must take up their cross and follow him. We too, must take up our cross; we should not, if we can possibly help it, move straight from the Hosannas of Palm Sunday to the Alleluias of Easter Day without first walking the way of the cross.
So, my friends, come with us on the journey. It is not an easy journey to make but it is so so worth it. We will begin on Palm Sunday with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem as we shout ‘Hosanna’. On Maundy Thursday we will move through the footwashing and the Last Supper to keep watch in the Garden of Gethsemane. On Good Friday we will go with Jesus to the cross and then we will wait in the emptiness of Holy Saturday before we finally reach the triumph of Easter Day. And then, how great our rejoicing will be when we proclaim once again that Jesus Christ is risen. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
"Making Room for Mary and Joseph."
I just don’t want this journey to end” is a regular cry from the contestants of BBC’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. They are having the best time of their lives, transformative even, and they can’t bear to leave it! I have to admit that when the series comes to an end, I find myself in complete sympathy with them; the journey has been a great joy and I’d appreciate a few more weeks of it.
Many journeys are not that enjoyable though are they. In fact, for many folks a journey can be torturous, and they pray for it to end quickly and safely!
Take Maryam Nuri Mohamed Amin, aged 24 from Northern Iraq, journeying to the UK be with her fiancé who drowned in the English Channel two years ago. She was one of twenty-seven who died during that journey, seventeen men, seven women, two teenage boys and one teenage girl. According to one of her relatives, Maryam’s story “is the same as everyone else, she was looking for a better life”.
These journeys are an urgent humanitarian issue, yet the lives of Maryam and countless others have become politicised and her human dignity is denied with slogans such as “stop the boats”. It is overwhelmingly an issue of and for humanity but also it is a deeply theological issue, as every death in these circumstances is an affront to a loving God in whose image Maryam and everyone else was made.
And as we start this season of Advent, I am struck particularly by Maryam’s story. Maryam is the Aramaic word for Mary, now the Islamic version of Mary. Mary the God bearer, and such a central figure in what unfolds over these next few weeks. Mary who was herself a so-called migrant traveller, journeying through dangerous and potentially hostile terrains. Mary, chosen by God to be the mother of His Son.
It may be hard for us here in Shaw and Crompton to imagine what we can possibly do about the plight of Maryam and the countless others making terrifyingly dangerous journeys to find a safer place to stay. Maybe though the first thing is to face this issue head on and don’t pretend it isn’t happening. The story of Mary and Joseph might just help us to do that! They travelled about eighty miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and the journey would have been hard, dirty and dangerous. Mary heavily pregnant and no doubt exhausted.
We all know well that when they got there, there was no-where for them to stay. There was no room for them, so they ended up in an unsuitable place to sleep, and an even more unsuitable place in which to give birth. It’s a far cry from what we know now to be the right circumstances for a birth but at least the journey had ended, and they were somewhere safe.
The Church is entering the season of Advent, ‘Adventus’ in Latin which means ‘coming or arrival’. It’s a time for thinking about that long journey made by Mary and Joseph and maybe it is also a time when it is good for us to think about the other Mary, or Maryam, and the countless others like her, and to pray for them as they make such dangerous journeys. Perhaps praying isn’t enough for you, and if not, see what you can do to help their plight.
In some of our schools we are honouring a tradition called ‘Posada’ which is a Spanish word for ‘inn’ or ‘place for stopping’. It’s a really lovely tradition, a tradition that encourages us to think about those less fortunate than ourselves, to think about those who just like Mary and Joseph can’t find a place to stay and so have to sleep in dangerous and uncomfortable places. Traditionally in Spain, people dress as Mary and Joseph and with their donkey go from house to house looking for hospitality and blessing. Another way of participating in the tradition is by passing on small figures of Mary, Joseph and the donkey from one home to another, and in each place praying for the journey.
Here there is a simple picture of Mary, Joseph and the donkey and I invite you to look at it as our Posada and as they travel around, looking for somewhere to rest, I challenge each one of you – amidst all the exciting preparations for Christmas - to make some room for Mary and Joseph in your hearts this Advent. And not only for them but for the others too.
This prayer might help:
As we welcome these travellers into our home
We remember all those who are travelling tonight
We remember all those who are looking for rest and shelter tonight
We remember all those who care for and comfort those in need
May God bless us and all those we love as we journey with Mary and Joseph towards celebrating the birth of Jesus at Christmas. Amen.
Every blessing for your Advent journey.
Paul.