Transcript:
Greetings beloved in Christ. I hope that you are well on this day and I hope that you have had a good beginning to your Holy Week. This Holy Week is an important part of our spiritual journey. In it, we are invited to walk with Jesus the way that leads to Calvary. As I mentioned in my sermon on Sunday, in the gospel according to Matthew, there is a lot that happens between chapter 21's triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the crucifixion and ultimately the resurrection that we proclaim, that we celebrate, that we rejoice in on Easter Sunday. During this week, each of us is invited to go deep within our spirit, discerning as we walk with Christ what it means to be a follower and apprentice to Jesus.
We're invited to see the way Jesus confronts the powers of this world. We're invited to see how Jesus stands up as an example against the oppression of empire. We are invited to see how the disciples fail, how they fall by the wayside, how they abandon the one that they claimed to be not only their teacher, but the son of God. We're invited to ask ourselves, how have we abandoned Jesus for the riches of this world, for status, for popularity, for all of the things that clamor for our very souls, how have we abandoned them and left Jesus on the cross alone?
This Holy Week, we're also invited to ask ourselves what does it mean when we vow that we will strive for justice and peace among all people? I don't know if you've noticed, but the world is really difficult right now. It's difficult here in these United States, it's difficult across the ocean where there's war, war that our nation has declared against Iran, war in Ukraine. It is difficult where people are starving, who don't have access to clean water, it is difficult because the world is not a just place. And yet, we as followers have promised, we as Episcopalians have promised that we will walk in the way of Christ and that we will seek and serve Christ in every human being respecting their dignity, that we will strive actively for justice and peace, because there cannot be peace if there is not justice. And justice is for everyone.
One of the ways that you and I can help be healers and peacemakers in this world, especially during this season of Holy Week, is to contribute generously to our Good Friday offering that goes to our siblings in Christ in the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem. Archbishop Hosam has been working diligently for years to keep his community together, to be a consistent, persistent witness for grace and for love, for justice and for peace. And as you might imagine, the church there is suffering. And so I ask, as you walk this Holy Week journey, to discern in your spirit what you are being called to give to this world, how you are being called to be striving for justice and peace. I ask that you give and you give generously, because all of that money goes to supporting the clergy and people in the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem, and they need us.
They need our prayers and they need our support. I hope that you will take up this Holy Week journey in faith, that you will take it up with an openness to what the spirit might bring you, and that you walk it faithfully in Jesus' name. Blessings.