Not-so-holy week

Holy week gained it's title after the fact, and I'm sure it was deemed holy because of Easter (the resurrection) not because of anything else.  I mean, think about it.  Mob mentality. Persecution. Pride. Ignorance. Betrayal. Murder.  Not really a holy combination.  

And yet, in the church we honor and celebrate holy week as if the whole week were holy.  Now, maybe you were fortunate enough to have a really blessed holy week.  I was not.  This has been a miserably hard week in the church.  I have been reminded again and again of how broken and fallible we all are.  I have been reminded that I still have a lot to learn and there are many things that were not taught in seminary.  I have been reminded that the power of evil is overwhelming.  It can be suffocating and completely devastating.

Now, it hasn't been all bad.  There have been praise reports and glimmers of hope.  There is a man who has had a foot infection for 22 months who came to have me lay hands on him and pray who later in the week reported that his foot was healing at a rate of 10 days worth in 24 hours...in other words, what should have taken 10 days to happen, took only 1.  I praise God for that!!  

There have also been reminders that people care and that God is doing many marvelous things in our midst.  But it has also been really hard.  It is the reminder that I still desperately need Easter...it's not a one time redemption/celebration, instead it is a regular reminder that Christ has conquered sin and death--that guilt and shame and evil do not have the last word. Christ does.  God prevails at the end of those not-so-holy weeks.  

There is hope.  There is cause for celebration.  There are also reminders that we are sinful people in desperate need of God's saving grace.