Holy Week - Sensible Things

Palm Sunday.
Holy Week begins.

Another week at home, collecting thoughts.
We are not able to reflect and celebrate together in church. Yet....we can always reflect and muse in our hearts these meaningful days of Holy Week.

Palm Sunday reminds me of how fast crowds can turn. Those who were singing songs of praise on this day, will be shouting "crucify him" by the end of the week. Isn't that what we experience in our own lives? The mentality of a nation or a group shifting when things don't go the way they had in mind?

They thought Jesus would be coming to tear down a government and ride in on a white horse to battle for the people. Instead, Jesus does the opposite. Coming humbly riding on a donkey (not a horse), and succumbing to the powers of the controlling government and mass of people.

God's ways are higher than our own. We need to trust in that, knowing our vision of how we would like things to happen very likely won't. God has even bigger plans we cannot see.

When Jesus came into Jerusalem that Palm Sunday the crowds were singing joy filled songs, yet He knew what was going to happen. Jesus is one with God, so of course He knew. He knew this week would end with his death. He knew the people would turn on him. He knew the path set before Him.

What strikes me so closely, especially right now in our current stress and anxious times of living through a pandemic when we know the end means a lot of death and a changed world, is how Jesus handled the week knowing all that would come.

He took each day as it came and did all the normal, sensible things He would do each day anyway. He ate with friends, taught, told stories, took quiet time to pray, and maybe had tea time (did Jesus drink tea?). He did not panic and hide. He did not fall apart and huddle close to His friends in fear. He continued to love people, talk with people, and spend time with his close friends.

He kept going on, each day, doing the normal things. As we should do now, aside from going places or being close to people. As much as we can, keep the sensible going. Wake up at the usual time, get dressed, make breakfast, drink coffee, read scripture, have quiet time, take some exercise, organize a shelf, make dinner, donate to church or another cause, call family/friends.

I have always liked the essay by C.S. Lewis "On Living in an Atomic Age", published in 1948. Listen to it HERE. He wrote in a time just a few years after the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. He addresses the fears of dying by atomic bomb during a time of high stress and uncertainty in the world. We could easily apply this essay to our current crisis. In the essay, Lewis writes:

The first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things - praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts - not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They make break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

Here and now we do not have risen fears of an atomic bomb, but of an invisible microbe, as Lewis puts it. Our options are a little limited today, keeping social distance and staying at home, but we can still go about our daily lives doing sensible things. We, in this modern age, have technology to aid in our ability to call, text, email, or video chat to stay connected. We do not need to let the current situation dominate our minds. There is much we can still do amidst a crisis.

Importantly, we all have gifts that can be used during this fear-filled time, and these things we can do are even more needed now. So often, looking back through history, the greatest of the good creations came out of the darkest times. How can your gifts give glory to God whilst doing good? An easy example is to write a letter to someone. So simple, and yet mail is a sweet way to let someone know they are not alone. It doesn't have to be a big thing (sometimes when things are dark we don't have room to do anything big and all we can manage is something small, and that's okay) but we all are designed with specific gifts to share with the world. Sometimes the smallest act can change the course of the future.