Haiti and Holy Week

Last night (Friday, March 27) Trinity Church was honored to host a marvelously eclectic concert of music to benefit long-term care of orphans in Haiti. Organized by David Slade of the SladeChild Foundation, a great collection of local jazz, blues and worship musicians donated their time, and the appreciative audience donated approximately $1500, 100% of which will go to Haitian orphan care.

I think this was a tremendous way to lead into Holy Week. But the way many people approach the week before Easter, they might miss the connection entirely.

Holy Week, sometimes called Easter Week, starts and ends with celebrations. Palm Sunday, a week before Easter, recalls the cheering of the crowds as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people knew that Jesus was the Messiah, the deliverer promised by God. They cheered, sang, and made a carpet of palm branches and their own coats to keep the road dust down as the donkey carried Jesus.

At Trinity, we will celebrate that tomorrow (March 28) with the premier presentation of “Majesty on a Donkey,” an original cantata for praise band (we call it a Praisata), written by our own George Lewis, at the 9:00am and 11:00am Sunday services.

Holy Week ends with Easter, which celebrates the fact that Jesus rose from the dead as a guarantee that all who put their faith in him will also rise from physical death to eternal life. Trinity, like churches everywhere, will be bursting with music, praise and joy.

But there’s a third name for Holy Week or Easter Week: Passion Week. The passion of the Christ, as many people know from the movie by that name, was a horrible episode of betrayal and sadistic torture that Jesus endured in between those Sundays. When the formerly-cheering crowds discovered that Jesus had come to deliver them from spiritual bondage, not from the Roman army that occupied their country, they turned on him. He was beaten, whipped, and nailed to a cross to die. And in so doing, he paid the price for all the sins of all the people of the world.

That’s why we celebrate. And that’s why I think it is so appropriate to lead into Holy Week by doing something to help Haitian children orphaned by a massive earthquake. Because the children in Haiti are suffering. And if you take away the Sundays, Holy Week is all about suffering. Jesus knows what those children are going through, and Jesus cares.

Some people might wonder about jazz and blues music in church, especially leading into Holy Week. But the Bible says, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress, and refusing to let the world corrupt you” (James 1:27). I think a concert that raises money to help orphans is the purest form of religion.

So have a wonderful Holy Week. Celebrate Palm Sunday! Celebrate Easter! But find a church service on Maundy (Holy) Thursday or Good Friday to remember what the celebration is all about. If you live near Annapolis, we'd love to see you at our service at Trinity on 7:30pm Thursday. Many people say it is one of the most moving services of the year. Or join the 24-hour prayer vigil starting at 8:00am Friday, organized by our youth.

And remember: in Haiti the ground has stopped shaking, but the work has just begun.