You Can't Skip the Stuff in the Middle

There are 40 days of Lent. A Holy Week. Ash Wednesday. Maundy Thursday. And Good Friday. But Easter Sunday is the main event. The headliner. The one we break out our finery for. I have to admit, I'd just as soon bypass the internal reflection that is Lent, ride in with Jesus on Palm Sunday and skip on over to Easter Sunday with all it's surprise and glory and celebration. You know, hit the high notes and skip the unpleasant stuff. But those short 6 days between Sundays - those days that are packed with drama, pain, betrayal, fear, injustice and even death - those are the days that are necessary for Easter to be the beautiful celebration that it is. Like most things in life, the beauty and strength and success we may experience don't come without pain, trials and suffering. Those things have to sit side by side to make sense.

Maundy Thursday is traditionally a time to observe a re-enactment almost of Jesus' last supper with his disciples. On Thursday, Downtown Church celebrated its first communion. But while in one room we experienced being one with Christ and connected with others at the table through the breaking of bread and drinking of wine, in the next room we honored the Jewish tradition of Passover and its story of the Jews heartbreaking suffering in slavery.

Those things sat side by side and one gave meaning to the other.