A Full Journey

Holy Week freaks my friends out. Imagine the four weeks of Advent and all the pageantry of Christmas Eve Services all crammed into seven days. That’s Holy Week for church workers. Most of my friends are church workers of one kind or another and the month with Holy Week and Easter in it has them on edge.

You can find us pouring over music scores and phone lists, drinking buckets of coffee day and night, desperately trying to book all the musicians for all the services, coordinating with children’s ministry teams over the donkey processional, the communion folks with timings and locations for all the services, flowers, bulletins, video and lighting, cleaning up the chancel area, rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing…it’s a much busier time of year (for we protestants anyhow) than Christmas….…And I LOVE It! Seriously! Don’t get me wrong, the Advent and Christmas Season are filled with beautiful music for bands and for choirs, the children’s bright eyes and anticipations on the Sundays and Christmas Eve Services are great, but nothing beats Holy Week for me.

It took me a long time to realize that the days from entrance processional on Palm Sunday through the mortality of Good Friday to the Resurrection of Easter Sunday could be so powerful. As a musician, I get the opportunity to sing about all these things all year long with various groups. I’ve sung and recorded Holy Week Music in French, Latin, English, German…you’d think I’d be bored with the texts or just going through the motions after twenty years of it…but every year the same darn thing happens.

On Palm Sunday, when we sing the Hosanna’s and watch the children come down the aisle I get choked up and joyful. On Holy Thursday, I participate in the communion meal and I remember what communion is REALLY all about. On Good Friday, I thank God for the greatest sacrifice that I could never imagine, I admit that I have not done all that Christ has called me to do, and I vow to do better in the following year (and I do…a little better every year)..and I get choked up. Then Easter Sunday comes, the Resurrection happens here at Church and the people sing “Hallelujah”…and…you guessed it, I get choked up full of joy once again!

I invite you to allow yourself to go through Holy Week this year. I mean the whole week. If you leave Palm Sunday waving your greenery and full of joy…then return joyfully on Easter Sunday, that’s ok. But if you allow yourself to walk for seven days in the life of our saviour, and fully experience those six days in between Sundays, I think you’ll find the Call to Worship on Easter even more meaningful. “He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!”.

Alan Murray Walking the Road

Alan is the Director of Music and Emerging Ministries at Asbury. He lives with his wife Catherine in south Kansas City. Email him at alanm@visitasbury.org.