Holy Week Art Walk
Station 7: Spirit
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It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land[a] until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed;[b] and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last.
- Luke 23:44-46 |
March Madness
...March Madness
is not just for college basketball junkies.
There is yet another “madness” at work during these days of March.
We who follow Jesus indulge in our own sort of March Madness each Lent.
We allow ashes to be marked in the form of a cross on our foreheads.
We engage in deep reflection about our lives.
We enter into a time of darkness voluntarily.
We read the Gospels and kneel in prayer and fast one day a week
and gather for worship and sing hymns.
We load up our tools and go to Mexico to build a house
for a family we do not know and will likely never see again.
March Madness
Then, at the end of our madness,
we gather on a Thursday evening to break bread and drink wine
even as Jesus did the last week of his life,
and on Friday night we gather
to allow the agony of the cross to overwhelm us and
the darkness of the tomb to become a reality.
March Madness
Yes, much of the world thinks we are mad
for devoting our lives to an obscure carpenter
who lived 2,000 years ago
in an arid land occupied by a foreign army.
We say our lives “belong” to a Jewish peasant
who advocates an outlandish and absurd ethic.
He dares to teach us that we should
love our enemies,
turn our cheeks to those who offend us,
return no one evil for evil,
show hospitality to the strangers in our midst,
visit the prisoners in their cells,
feed those who are hungry and give drink to those who thirst.
Then, as if that is not enough, he says that
the meek and those who mourn and peacemakers
will be the ones who are blessed in this life.
And the final madness is that he tells us
that if we want to follow him
we must sell all that we own
and give it to the poor.
March Madness
In a world seemingly gone mad,
what is madness anyway?
Is it madness to believe that
Faith will overcome fear?
Is it madness to believe that
Love will triumph over hate?
Is it madness to believe that
Peace will prevail over violence?
Is it madness to believe that
Hope will be victorious over despair?
Is it madness to believe that
Death does not have the last word?
March Madness
If you resonate with any of this madness,
if you have any faith in this hope that does not disappoint,
then you may be ready for the ultimate madness,
not [two weeks from tomorrow] when a new national champion will be crowned,
but the madness that will finally prevail [two weeks from today]
when our alleluias will reverberate off these hallowed walls
and into the streets.
Do not miss March Madness.
For in the end this madness is our only hope in a world gone mad.
~March Madness, a poem by David Evans, Outlook contributor
...March Madness
is not just for college basketball junkies.
There is yet another “madness” at work during these days of March.
We who follow Jesus indulge in our own sort of March Madness each Lent.
We allow ashes to be marked in the form of a cross on our foreheads.
We engage in deep reflection about our lives.
We enter into a time of darkness voluntarily.
We read the Gospels and kneel in prayer and fast one day a week
and gather for worship and sing hymns.
We load up our tools and go to Mexico to build a house
for a family we do not know and will likely never see again.
March Madness
Then, at the end of our madness,
we gather on a Thursday evening to break bread and drink wine
even as Jesus did the last week of his life,
and on Friday night we gather
to allow the agony of the cross to overwhelm us and
the darkness of the tomb to become a reality.
March Madness
Yes, much of the world thinks we are mad
for devoting our lives to an obscure carpenter
who lived 2,000 years ago
in an arid land occupied by a foreign army.
We say our lives “belong” to a Jewish peasant
who advocates an outlandish and absurd ethic.
He dares to teach us that we should
love our enemies,
turn our cheeks to those who offend us,
return no one evil for evil,
show hospitality to the strangers in our midst,
visit the prisoners in their cells,
feed those who are hungry and give drink to those who thirst.
Then, as if that is not enough, he says that
the meek and those who mourn and peacemakers
will be the ones who are blessed in this life.
And the final madness is that he tells us
that if we want to follow him
we must sell all that we own
and give it to the poor.
March Madness
In a world seemingly gone mad,
what is madness anyway?
Is it madness to believe that
Faith will overcome fear?
Is it madness to believe that
Love will triumph over hate?
Is it madness to believe that
Peace will prevail over violence?
Is it madness to believe that
Hope will be victorious over despair?
Is it madness to believe that
Death does not have the last word?
March Madness
If you resonate with any of this madness,
if you have any faith in this hope that does not disappoint,
then you may be ready for the ultimate madness,
not [two weeks from tomorrow] when a new national champion will be crowned,
but the madness that will finally prevail [two weeks from today]
when our alleluias will reverberate off these hallowed walls
and into the streets.
Do not miss March Madness.
For in the end this madness is our only hope in a world gone mad.
~March Madness, a poem by David Evans, Outlook contributor
Prayer Prompt
What do you need to release into God’s hands? Pause here and think about the ways you have been trying to control outcomes or other people. What would it feel like to feel the burdens lifted from worries from your past, present, or future? Whom or what in your life can you more fully commend to God?
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