As I sat on the cold, hard floor of the elementary school conference room, mindful to keep my adult head below the windowsill, a flurry of thoughts went through my mind.
I had stopped by the school to have conversation with the Principal on a couple of subjects and found that I had shown up at the right place at the wrong time. The school was about to conduct a lock-down drill and I was now to be part of it.
I was shuffled into the conference room with another parent, a staff member and a young student. We were to remain quiet, out of view from the windows that stretched across the room’s back wall.
I knew this was only a drill. However, my mind went immediately to the reality that in this same building two of our sons were also hiding their heads, trying to stay quiet, maybe not even understanding what it is that was happening.
It’s a drill. It’s a drill. I kept saying to myself.
Yet it’s a drill that comes about after numerous, deadly attacks at schools across our nation…a drill that becomes “the norm” for our children just as the fire drill and tornado drill did when I was their age.
Just days later, I heard of the shooting in a San Bernardino Elementary School where a man killed his estranged wife and an eight year old child in the process.
This is the twelfth time since the beginning of this year, that a shooting has taken place in a school in our nation. Hundreds…no, thousands of lives are being traumatized by these senseless events. And in turn, these children and staff who survive will now be re-traumatized when called to participate in the inevitable future lock-down drills.
And school shootings are just one example of the violence that we are witness to.
As we navigate the days between Palm Sunday and Easter this year, the violent images of our world are stark reminders for us of the world into which Jesus appeared. Religious tensions, abuses of power, a deepening divide between those that have and those in need..the violence leading up to Jesus’ death seems to be just as commonplace today as it was back then.
As we approach the Holy Week scriptures year after year, I fear that they, too can be treated as if it were just another drill. I mean, why wouldn’t we? Each time we read about Jesus’ betrayal, his arrest and crucifixion, we read it with an image of the empty tomb in our mind. No worries… it’s just a drill. We know how it ends.
Has the Passion Narrative become “the norm” for us?
Have we become numb to exactly what it is that Jesus endured in those final days?
I hope not. Because if we have, Easter tends to lose its power. What does an empty tomb signify for us if we skip over the part where Jesus’ lifeless body occupied it? How will the resurrection experiences resonate with us if we neglect to see Jesus as crucified, dead and burried?
As we re-read the scriptures for this week… Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday… we are reminded that the one we claim to follow is about to endure the worst. He's about to be killed for speaking the truth to power…that which we are also called to be about.
And we need not rush through it.
Beginning on Maundy Thursday, we will again be sending out email reflections for each of the holy days leading up to Easter. We are invited to re-read the stories present in our scriptures. Reflect on the overall scope of Jesus’ story. Grieve with his family and friends. And then, but only then, after having experienced those low moments of Holy Week…may we gather on Sunday to celebrate together the message of the empty tomb.
These stories are not easy, just as reading of another shooting in our schools is difficult to digest. Yet it is necessary. If we are unaware of the violence in our nation, how can we work to end it? If we are absent the memories of Jesus’ suffering, how can we celebrate the gift of resurrection?
Walk gently these days. May God open the story to you in new ways. And may your faith be strengthened as you go.
Blessings,
Pastor Timoth
