Holy Week

In Ancient Israel, sin was often depicted as a sticky substance, something spread in the touching, cleansed as much by washing as by piety. 

Knowing this, it makes sense that holiness was associated with a set-apartness.

Visiting the Temple of Jerusalem involved a process of ritual cleansing, and even so, only the priests entered the inner spaces. The Holy of Holies, the innermost space in which God was said to dwell, was visited by only a single priest each year after even more ritual cleansing.

All that to say, holiness was not for everyone.

And then came Jesus.

God incarnate, birthed with the animals, touching lepers, friend of outcasts. Turning the world on its head, Jesus changes alters into communion tables, transforming holiness from set-apartness to togetherness.

And so, as we enter Holy week, walking this well-worn path between Palm Sunday’s Hossanahs to Easter’s Hallelujahs, we are called not into isolation but into community, both within and beyond Broadway.

On Maundy Thursday we remember the sacredness of shared meals, of listening to each other's stories and of offering acts of radical grace and hospitality. On Good Friday we remember our shared brokenness that leads to pain and destruction, we grieve with one another the fruits of that brokenness, and we remember that even in our grief and imperfection, we are not alone.

And then we wait.

On Holy Saturday we practice not skipping ahead to the promise, but sitting in the not-knowing, remembering our powerlessness in the face of all we do not know and cannot control, trusting that God and our community will not leave us there.

And then…

Well, if we walk this road together - open to the journey and the Holy Spirit at each step along the way - who knows what miracle we may find waiting for us on the other side?

But whatever it is, we will discover it. Together.

Welcome to Holy Week at Broadway.

Visit our [Easter] page for the full schedule and join us in the holiness of community this week.