Constructive Play, or Why I Like Holy Week

This is my first Holy Week as a pastor and, to be honest, I'm probably inappropriately excited about it. Holy Week is something to be "observed", not really "celebrated", at least not until Easter Sunday. It's about penitence and suffering and being aware of Christ's actions for us. For pastors, it's probably the busiest week of the year. For, while Advent and the Christmas services are big and involved, it doesn't involve the sheer number of services that Holy Week does. And yet, despite the stress and the general tenor of the season, I'm excited.

You see, Holy Week gives an opportunity for creating lots of creative liturgy. While most other major observances in the church calendar have a relatively set structure, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services can be done in lots of different ways. In fact, it's very much encouraged to look for creative ways of bringing the meaning of the passion narrative to life for people living two thousand years later. We can do powerful things that engage multiple senses, we can write prayers and litanies that capture the season in fascinating ways... the possibilities are nearly endless. It gives me a chance to be creative.

When I was growing up, I thought that I was the most uncreative child ever. I was always the kid who couldn't really draw or create anything new in art class, who would simply re-create the teacher's example or the ideas of the people sitting around me. I could never come up with brilliant ideas for class presentations or writing prompts. Instead, I was the kid who would think about the practical ways of carrying out other people's brilliant, original ideas.

But when in college and seminary I started putting things together to plan worship, something clicked. All of a sudden, I had ideas; I was no longer utterly bereft of creativity! When the professor teaching my Writing Liturgical Texts class invited us to write collects, I fell in love with shaping words for prayer. I had always loved writing, but had struggled with subject matter and structure--liturgy provided both. And when my worship class and practicum class gave me the opportunity to design worship services, I fell in love. Getting to weave themes through the parts of worship and selecting elements of worship to further the themes and help people find meaning in the stories and ideas became a beloved challenge.

For me, it's like Spirit-guided playtime. I love to think about and play with words and images. I really enjoy trying to find new ways to help people engage with the sacred stories that make the ancient come to life for us living today. It's drama and poetry and tradition and theology, all blended together. I adore it.

Holy Week, and the preparations for it, allow even more of this playtime than usual. We get to wade into these rich texts and the wealth of the theological tradition that surrounds them. We get to tell the stories in powerful ways. We used drama and participating for our Palm Sunday worship services today. On Thursday we're bringing in the contemplative tradition of Taize. On Friday we're combining technology and the Catholic tradition of the veneration of the cross to bring the passion narrative into stark relief. Our Easter Vigil on Friday will involve some drama, some participation, and a lot of elements from Catholic tradition, woven together with the hope of making high church traditions more approachable. And I'm excited for this. I feel honored to get to be a part of this, and I have loved getting to work in the creative, collaborative process with the other members of our worship teams.

When I started as a pastor and began working on worship planning, I knew it would be a lot of work. But I didn't realize how much fun it would be. I hope that this planning will continue to remind me that this is what I'm called to do.