Welcome to the Suntree UMC‘s 2020 Holy Week Devotional Guide! Last year, we spent time together in our Prayer Labyrinth. The space we offered in the Dining Room was a place where you could wander, pray, and spend time apart. Obviously… that’s a little bit different this year! For me, and maybe for you, Holy Week is such a tactile time. We get to spend time together, remembering the walk that Jesus took to the cross in physical and familiar ways. I will miss that this year. But we hope that you and your family will take this devotional guide seriously, spending time in prayer and with our Scriptures for this week. Each day, the guide revisits a theme that we explored during our “Landscape of Lent” Sermon Series this season, alongside a practical and tactile challenge. This is a way that we can “socially distance” and take time to experience each moment of Holy Week, together. If you have social media, I encourage you to comment on our posts with your thoughts and questions, and respond to others. Let this be a time of holy community, even as we are apart! We miss you, and we celebrate this week alongside you through this guide.

Sunday- Palm “The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the

colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.” - Matthew 21:7-8 I am so grateful for the beautiful spring weather that we are having here. Each day, I make sure to spend time outside in nature, walking, doing yard work, and generally enjoying the sunshine. This means, too, that I have spent a lot of time with plants. As we begin this

Holy Week with Palm Sunday, I wondered about the significance of the palm branches we wave and that were laid at Jesus’s feet.

Palms throughout the Bible are used for celebration, signifying victory and peace. Solomon had palm branches carved throughout his temple, (1 Kings 6) and Revelation 7 writes of a time where the whole multitude will gather and wave palm branches as we worship.

On this day, of course, the palms signify the kingly expectations the people had for Jesus. They hoped his entrance to Jerusalem would be one of victory over Rome and their oppressors. Yet Jesus knew his mission was not what the people had in mind. He would offer peace and victory, but in a way no one expected. He would proceed forward into Holy Week, knowing that his fate was to suffer and die with us, that he might defeat death in Easter.

Challenge: Each day this week, lean into the elements of the landscape. Today, go outside and look at palm branches, or other plants. Think about the kind of peace and victory that Jesus offers. Where do you see peace in your landscape? Where have you asked for or expected much of Jesus? Journal about this or share it with a family member.

Monday- Dust “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” - Genesis 3:19

Today is the second day of Holy Week, and we are returning to the first day of Lent with the element of dust. We remember on Ash Wednesday that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. The ashes we use on Ash Wednesday are always from the previous year’s palms, reminding us that

the height of our worldly expectations and fervor often turns into ashes around us. As we proceed forward into Holy Week amidst this coronavirus crisis, it might feel

uncomfortable to remember our mortality and fragility. We already know that! We read it in the news, we hear it in our fear-filled family members, we wonder ourselves what our fragility will mean for our lives going forward. Yet in the fragile dust and dirt, God has created each of us with tenderness and love. From the dust and dirt of our lives, God breathes new life and new hope. Our honesty about our condition and our familiarity with our “dusty-ness” helps us to repent and ask for God’s grace in our weakness and fragility.

Challenge: Do you have an extra dusty spot in your home? (It's okay, we won’t tell!) Or do you have access to a little patch of dirt? Go and touch that dust or dirt. Rub it between your fingers and remember that in Genesis, it says that God created us from the dirt. We may be dust, but we are dust filled with God’s love and God’s spirit. How can you honor that love in yourself, and someone else today?

Tuesday- Wilderness “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” - Matthew 4:1

So many people keep using the words “uncharted territory” to describe where we are today. Another word we could use to describe this feeling is wilderness. Sounds familiar, right? Early on in Lent, we remembered the times that we have found ourselves, like Jesus, in a wilderness of temptation and barrenness. Yet God provided for Jesus in his desert wilderness, and God provides for us as well. In our first steps of Lent, we were encouraged to explore the landscapes of our wildernesses to know and experience God’s love and grace in our lives.

During this time, we have been exploring our inner landscapes through spiritual disciplines, fasting, prayer, and reflection. As we journey towards the cross this week, where do you find your landscape? Does it still feel like that dark, unfamiliar wilderness we talked about in the first week of Lent, or does it feel like there is more light shining? Challenge: Take a moment today to go outside and walk in your yard or your neighborhood. Think about your inner landscape. Where are the hurting spots? Where are the dust bunnies, the

messes? Now think about the places you’ve made some improvement in during Lent. Thank God for the opportunity to heal and grow during this season.

If you can’t go outside, or want more time to think, engage this finger labyrinth! A regular, physical labyrinth helps us take time apart to pray and proceed slowly inward and back outward. As your finger moves “inward” on the labyrinth, think about what God has done in your inner life during Lent. As your finger moves “outward” on the labyrinth, think about what God has done in your family, community, and world during Lent, and give thanks.

Wednesday- Wind “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” - John 3:8

Living in Brevard County means that we are intimately aware of the power of the wind. Our familiarity with tornadoes, afternoon thunderstorms, hurricanes, and even water spouts reminds us of the power of the untamed wind in our environment. However, when Jesus tells Nicodemus of the wind, he is referring to the power of the untamable Holy Spirit in our lives. The Holy Spirit is just like the wind: moving in our landscape, and showing evidence of its

presence, even when we cannot see the Spirit itself.

When we say yes to God’s

grace in our life, we are inviting the Holy Spirit to stir up our landscape. Sometimes, this will feel gentle like a sea breeze and other times, it will feel as painful and chaotic as an afternoon thunderstorm’s heavy winds. How has the Holy

Spirit been at work in your life this Lenten season? Have you paid attention to this? Sometimes, we have such busy lives and such full minds that noticing slips to the end of our to-do list. But we can see the “wind” of the Holy Spirit in our family, in our neighbors, and in the helpers that are hard at work in our community. There is an abundance of Holy Spirit work in our landscape. The question for us is whether or not we take time to notice it.

Challenge: The beautiful part of this part of our landscape is that we can experience the wind on almost a daily basis here in Brevard County. This week, on a particularly breezy day, go outside and feel the wind. Watch what moves on your walk, in your yard, or in the trees. Or, if you don’t have a breezy afternoon, find a fan in your house or a vent to feel the artificial “breeze” it creates. Make time this week to notice those winds, and then notice the wind of the Holy Spirit at work in your life. Give thanks to God with your family or in your journal for this work.

Thursday- Water Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. - Psalm 51:10 “...So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” - John 13:4-5

When we evaluated our landscape during Lent, we were bound to find places that we were not proud of, and sin we had not dealt with. The good news is, Lent is about cleansing our sin as we prepare for Easter. When we invite God to cleanse us, often scripture writers use the image of being “washed clean.” (What a metaphor for our time- so much hand washing!) We see this language prominently throughout Scripture - in the Lenten Psalm 51, and even here in Maundy Thursday.

At the table, Jesus cleans the disciple’s feet, which was the dirtiest part of them. With the disciples, on this night, we experience Jesus’s servant-hearted cleansing of the messiest and most sinful parts of ourselves. At the beginning of Lent, alongside David in Psalm 51, we invited God to create pure hearts and right spirits within us. When we invited God to do this work within us, it was to prepare us to receive at the table and experience the joy of Easter resurrection in just a few days.

Challenge: Go to your sink and run water. You could even wash your hands! Each time we touch water, we are instructed to remember our baptism, and be thankful. In all the times we have washed our hands during this pandemic, have you been thankful? Remember that God cleanses you, and offers the living water of everlasting life. May you take this day to enjoy that living water and the cleansing that God has done within your spirit throughout the Lenten season. Where do you need God’s living, cleansing water?

Friday- Cross “Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.” - John 19:17-18

We have crosses all over our homes, don’t we? From my writing vantage point, I can

see at least three crosses and I know of a few others in various parts of my home. I sometimes

wonder what the earliest disciples would think of my symbolic crosses, hung with decorative care. They certainly would have seen this symbol differently; for them, it would have been a symbol of torture instead of faith and beauty. In the same way, it seems counterintuitive to call this day “good,” doesn’t it? For the

disciples on that first “Good Friday,” this day was an incredibly fearful, painful day as they watched (and hid from) the brutal beating and murder of the one they considered to be a Savior. It is on this day that Jesus of Nazareth died on a wooden cross.

There is a reason we call it good, though. Throughout the Passion narrative, we see a Jesus that suffers with dignity and humility. He receives each part of his punishment, knowing that through the cross, God accomplished God’s greatest work of love and salvation in Jesus. This is the goodness of

the cross: that through it, Jesus would take on all of our suffering and death, empathizing with us and saving us from condemnation. Good, indeed. Challenge: Today, think about what the cross means to you. Journal or have a conversation with a friend. Does today feel good, or hard? Do you appreciate the cross or are you apprehensive of it? Whatever way you approach it, know that Jesus is with you and on this day, has shown that there is no place that he would not go to know and love you.

Saturday- Cave “Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid.” - Luke 23:50-53

Today, in the life of the church, it is Holy Saturday. This is the day that Jesus is said to have descended to the dead, showing that there is truly no place that Christ would not go for us. Holy Saturday is dark, ambiguous, and quiet. It is ordinary. The first Holy Saturday must've felt like a more profound frustration: what Jesus's followers believed was life, was not. I’m sure they questioned God’s work in Jesus: Where was the Christ? Instead of the hope and promise of Jesus’s ministry, there was death and fear. It is on this day that Jesus’s body is in a cave instead of with us or with God.

Tomorrow, the sun will rise and we will celebrate the empty tomb. But today is about the “not yet” of life. It is about waiting for the day when there is no more fear, sadness, or coronavirus. Today is about waiting, patience, and the cool darkness of a cave. God is here with us, working, silently in the dark. But we cannot see, and we wait in this not yet. God is here- Easter is coming. Thanks be to God. Challenge: Where are you waiting for God? Where does it feel like God isn’t working? Journal about that today and reflect on it in the light of Easter tomorrow. If you’re extra brave, get up before the sun and reflect on it as the light slowly dawns in Easter morning, as a light would dawn in a cave. Know that God is at work, even when we cannot see.

Sunday- Empty Tomb “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.” - John 20:1 “The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” - Luke 24:5 How do you begin your Easter morning?

Christ the Lord is Risen Today is one of my favorite hymns. It is also my favorite way to start Easter. Yet today we start Easter in our homes with just our families, practicing “social distancing.” This is certainly not what any clergy person imagined at the beginning of 2020 in planning for Easter, and I’m sure not what you imagined, either!

Yet here we are. And Jesus is not in the cave of the tomb any longer- he is risen, just as he promised! We hear with promise that this message to Mary is given in the dark, while the sun was

still dawning on this fateful morning. How did she feel about this news? Can you imagine hearing the news of the resurrection for the first time? It certainly changed everything, promising joy and salvation to her and the whole world.

Today also begins “Eastertide.” Easter continues! It is not just one moment, but a whole season, reminding us that God’s resurrection reverberates out into our world in joy and new life. While you celebrate Easter in your home, know that God has defeated the death that surrounds us. Know that God is with us and God is with you, in the new life that each of us are promised on this Easter morning. Challenge: Today, lean into the resurrection. Celebrate, laugh, eat candy, and dance. “While it is still yet dark,” in our world, Jesus has defeated death, and we have much to celebrate. He is risen, indeed!