Dear Friends,

This Sunday, as we begin Holy Week, my thoughts will go to what the writer, Barbara Johnson, once said: “We are Easter people living in a Good Friday world.”

Barbara, known affectionately as “the Geranium Lady,” guided many people through times of despair. Some of her books include such titles as, Stick a Geranium in Your Hat and Be Happy, Living Somewhere Between Estrogen and Death, and Splashes Of Joy In The Cesspools Of Life. A strong Christian woman who relied on her faith in God and her sense of humor to persevere through many devastating experiences, her life was plagued by a string of tragedies that would have devastated many, if not most, of us. Indeed, her personal world was a “Good Friday world.”

I don’t know about you, but for me every year the world seems more of a Good Friday world. It’s agonizing to be part of, whether it’s Gaza, or Ukraine, or recent events in this country where qualities like compassion and empathy seem to have been forgotten by those who lead us.

Whether it’s your own friends or their children who are sick, or one of the tragedies that play out night after night on the evening news, these and other heartbreaks make no sense when one believes in a loving God. Although Holy Week doesn’t provide easy answers about why there’s suffering in the world, the stories of Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem give us glimpses of the nature of God: that God loves us, that God suffers with us, and, finally, that God somehow takes the worst humanity can do and redeems it.

For us as Christians, no week is more significant than Holy Week. Please consider attending as many of the services being offered here at St. Paul’s as you can. At the very least, make plans to be present on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. I promise that your life will be transformed by worshiping with your siblings in Christ, and your discipleship deepened.

And, most importantly, you will be strengthened to live as an Easter person in our Good Friday world!

Blessings,

Stephen Applegate