Nebraska Synod ELCA

by Dn. Timothy Siburg

Holy Week Blessings to you! As we journey together through this holiest of weeks, what is one way that you might take a moment to lean into the journey? Not to just go through the motions and potentially familiar flow from Palm and Passion Sunday to Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, to the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. But to take a little time to reflect intentionally and be more fully present. Perhaps to experience the story of God’s life-saving and life-changing love in a new way?

One idea. In my family growing up, we did this in part through creating a scene together each year. It became such a family tradition in our own home, that word spread about it, and it became a common tangible activity for Children Sermons in my home congregation too. Before building anything, we would always put down a layer of aluminum foil to make for easy clean up afterwards. We took what we could find, some sand or dirt to make a hill, some rocks or bricks to make a tomb. We made a bit of a trail connecting the two, made three wooden crosses, and added some vegetation or moss and pebbles as well. Then as we journeyed through the week, the tomb would be sealed usually with candle wax melted over a penny. But come Easter morning, the tomb would be opened and the greenery would have new colors of wild flowers or dandelions added to it. Transforming the Holy Week scene into an Easter resurrection scene. (The picture here is from Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Clinton, Iowa, where my sister, Pastor Tamara Siburg, has continued this tradition.)

What might it look like for you to be a bit more intentional this Holy Week? In whatever ways you experience it, may God’s blessings, peace, and love be with you in the highs and lows, and the good and hard times. God’s story, that we are each a part of continues for you and for me. And this week in particular may we breathe deeply, be fully present, and intentional as we “Go And…” as God’s people together to the table in the upper room, to the garden to pray, to a sham trial and the cross, and then to the garden and the empty tomb.