Another Holy Week/Spring Break

Wow, it’s quiet around here this early.  
Very quiet. It’s a quiet week. 
And that’s totally cool with me.
 
Most of you know, I keep my office hours early in the mornings during the week. I don’t think Haytown is on Spring Break, but so far there’s a skeleton crew here this morning. Later the place is teeming with kids and WOW! It’s awesome. Life in the Community House. 
 
The confirmation class is on hiatus right now for their Spring Breaks. We have 3 families represented and all three families live in different school districts with staggered Spring Breaks. 3 separate and consecutive weeks. So, the class isn’t meeting for a month. We’ll resume next week after Easter. 
 
We are not doing a Maundy Thursday service this year, so it’s the quietest Holy Week and Spring Break for me ever. I feel it in my bones, in my flesh. To be honest, it’s a little weird. Just sayin…
 
So, I read Richard Rohr almost every day and it reminds me that a few years ago during Holy Week I think, he was focused on the physicality of our spirituality. Most often mainline church people tend to shy away from the “flesh.” Like, we get too hung up on “the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” from Jesus’ short little soliloquy from the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26.
 
You remember the first Maundy Thursday scene. Jesus has gone to the garden to pray knowing that time is growing short. Judas has gone to summon the authorities, the soldiers are on their way, and the kiss of betrayal is moments away. Jesus expects the disciples to wait with him. They are tired from the wine at dinner, and they nap—until the cops show up.  
 
Anyway, this is probably why we fall into this “dualism” between body and Spirit. We here in mainline Christianity don’t do a very good job of connecting body and Spirit—when in fact it’s all connected. Like, it’s not either/or, but both/and. Always in all ways. 
 
Don’t ever forget that Jesus is fully human and fully God. It’s both/and. Not either/or.
 
And like it or not, I’m getting old. I’ve been paying a lot closer attention to my body these days. Losing weight. Working out. Self-care. Stress relief. Trying to stay loose. That’s my “happy place.” Connected body and Spirit. 
 
All this to get to Spring Break and Holy Week. 
 
I hope you can tune into your body, too. Not just your heart and soul. Not just your Spirit. Both/And. Tune into the flesh and the Spirit. 
 
I hope and pray that you are in a space where you are both Spiritually and physically at peace. That you’re in your happy place. I hope that you feel it in your heart and soul, of course. And I hope you feel it in your bones. Always, in all ways.
 
So, maybe this isn’t just another Holy Week/Spring Break. 
 
Maybe this is the one that gets into the marrow. 
 
Grace & Peace,
Scott