A Family Guide to Holy Week
Dear Abbey Friends,
Holy Week is filled with big emotions and powerful stories. Approaching Holy Week with care is essential to a meaningful experience. We wanted to make sure families had tools to talk about the whole week and support talking through the violence of Good Friday, the grief of Holy Saturday and the wonder of Easter Sunday.
My favorite story Bible, Growing In God’s Love is edited by two feminist scholars, contains beautiful art and each story ends with some prompts for exploration.
Many Blessings on your Friendly Local Abbot,
Rev. Debra McKnight
Palm Sunday: Protesting
Passover is an important holiday for Jesus. Everyone goes to Jerusalem to celebrate. Passover is so important because it reminds the Jewish people of their courage to leave Egypt. Because it's so powerful and important the Roman Empire sends leaders and military people to town because they want to make sure no one in the country of Israel thinks about becoming independent of Rome. Rome wants to show the smaller country how powerful and rich they are, like a bully, they want Israel to be afraid.
Jesus marches into town and his parade is different from the Roman Parade into town. The Roman parade is shiny armor and powerful horses. Jesus has a parade of poor people with their only cloaks and branches from trees. They sing an ancient song about coming to the passover. (When you come to church on Sunday, listen for this Psalm in our communion time.) This song fills the people with courage and hope. It’s called a Psalm of Ascent because the people are walking uphill and it helps them when things are hard. Jesus has a parade to protest the Romans, he is saying that he is not afraid and inviting others to be brave.
Mark 11:1-11
”Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.”
Read “Jesus Visits Jerusalem” page 270 of Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible by Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Carol A Wehrheim, editors
Read the stories and think about a song that makes you feel brave. Sing it out loud together.
Monday: Praying
Jesus spends time in the temple teaching and praying, this is the center of his community. He also names how he wants the leaders to make better choices when he tells the “money changers” and the people selling animals for rituals to stop harming their neighbors by taking advantage of people with less money.
There is a story of Jesus staying in the temple when he was young and you can read it and think about what it means for you to be in community at church.
Read “When Jesus Was Twelve” page 198 of Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible by Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Carol A Wehrheim, editors
Jesus prays in the temple and he prays everywhere he goes. Prayer helps him listen to his heart and sense God’s love. This is a way that we can learn to pray together at home. It’s called a breath prayer.
First, think of how you want to name God. Write it on a piece of paper in front of you with a comma after it. (You might write, “Loving God, ... Loving One, ... Heavenly Mother,…”)
Second, think about what you need. What would help you right now? What do you need? Easy to remember, easy to repeat. Write that phrase down after the first one. It might be something like bring me peace or help me love or give me courage.
Finally, say the two parts of your prayer together like this: Your Name for God, your deepest desire for God.
For example: Holy One, bring me peace. Or Loving God, give me courage.
Repeat the phrase as you breathe in the first phrase and as you breathe out repeat the second phrase. Another way to practice your breath prayer is while you walk, one foot can be the name for God and another foot can be your desire.
Consider praying this week as we prepare for Easter.
Tuesday: Generosity
In every Gospel a woman anoints Jesus. This is costly and beautiful. In every story the men are angry about the cost and the boldness of the woman. In the Gospel of John the woman is Mary of Bethany. This ritual names how important Jesus is to this woman and shows her deep care, willingness to give whatever she can to the work he is leading to change the world and most importantly, it shows that she is the first disciple to really understand the violence that is likely to come from challenging the Roman empire and the religious leaders.
Read “The Thankful Woman” page 234 and “The Short Man” p242 of Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible by Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Carol A Wehrheim, editors
Read the story and explore what you might share this week as we prepare for Easter? Can you make a special offering on Sunday? Can you share love with someone at your home?
Wednesday: Community
The Passover is a big celebration that the whole family gathers to celebrate, it's like our Christmas. In the story of the Passover, the Jewish People remember how God helped them leave life in Egypt where they were forced to work and not free.
Jesus has his friends and family at the table and he invites them to share the bread and the cup of wine and asks them to remember him and the work to make the world a better place. Today we celebrate this as communion. We remember Jesus and we try to live like Jesus. We receive the bread and that inspires us to try and share the bread with others.
Read “A Passover Meal” page 272 and “A Boy and His Lunch” page 264 of Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible by Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Carol A Wehrheim, editors
Listen to The High Women’s song Crowded Table.
“I want a house with a crowded table
And a place by the fire for everyone
Let us take on the world while we’re bold and able
And bring us back together when the day is done.”
-The Highwomen
After you read and listen, think about what it will mean to share the bread tomorrow on Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday.
Maundy Thursday: Serving
Maundy means to mandate or command. Jesus washes the feet of the people who learn from him and travel with him. In his time, it was normal for a servant to wash the feet of someone when they entered a home.
Feet get stinky and dirty. Washing feet was a humble act. Washing feet was something that a powerful person may not have to do. But Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and it makes them nervous, they don’t want him to. He is teaching them about power that looks and feels different. And then he asks them to wash more feet. He tells them to be like servants to others.
Read these scriptures and explore what they mean:
”Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.”- John 13:5
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you should love one another.” +John 13:34
Join in church this evening as we share the bread and remember the stories of Jesus Washing the disciples' feet.
Good Friday: Witnessing
Today’s part of the story is scary. It is about how bad people can be to each other. Powerful people will arrest Jesus and sentence him to death. It is violent and shows what happens when people make decisions out of fear.
Jesus’ friends will even make bad choices out of fear. At first they even try to fight the powerful people with swords and Jesus tells them no, that’s not the way to make peace. His Friends will pretend they don’t know him (denial) and they will tell the powerful people how to arrest Jesus (betrayal).
Crowds of people will watch this terrible and mean event without trying to stop it. That’s the lesson of this day, we have the job of not just watching but of witnessing.
Being a witness means telling the truth about bad things in the world. A witness works to make the world better, even if it's hard, stressful or makes other people mad.
Read “Jesus Dies” page 274 of Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible by Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Carol A Whrheim, editors
Good Music to Check out: “All Sad Songs” by Butterflyfish
Join us to write letters to leaders and ask to make the world a safe place for everyone.
Holy Saturday: Grief
“Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.”+Matthew 27:61
Love never dies.
This is a day about sitting with sadness. We don’t always learn to do that very well. This is called grief. It can make us tired and cloudy and angry and sad and we can even laugh, sometimes. Maybe you have lost someone you love.
There is a story about an invisible string. That even though we are not able to see someone we love we are still connected, we are tied together in love. Today, think about Mary and the women who were so sad and so heartbroken staying right there by the tomb. It can be really hard to show up in a hard place. They have so much courage and love.
Think of someone you love, maybe they have moved away or maybe you can’t be together for a while. Maybe there is a person you love that has died. Think about the string of love between you. Imagine it. What color is it? What does it look like? Is it braided, are there knots, how did you make it?
Good Books to check out:
The Rabbit Listened
The Invisible String
Easter: Love
Seeds remind us that trees will grow strong and tall from something small. Eggs hold new baby animals waiting to emerge. Butterflies begin as wiggly, fuzzy caterpillars before they fly. Easter is about love surprising us. The disciples miss Jesus. Mary Magdalene misses Jesus and they feel like he is still with them. That is what Easter is all about, life finds a way and love never dies.
Explore this scripture:
“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” +John 12:24
Read “Mary Finds Her Friend” page 282 and “Memory and Surprise” page 280 of Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible by Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Carol A Wehrheim, editors
Join us for worship on Easter and imagine what ways you can express love in the world that is surprising!