This week has to happen inside you.

We have to practice.  Hosannah!  Hip hip hooray!  Way to go!   Two, four, six, eight--who do we appreciate?   Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  O.K., good.  That’s perfect for the beginning of the week. 

Now, we should practice for later, for the end of the week:  Run away! Hide! Deny! Abandon! Betray!  Maybe we don’t have to practice that, maybe we know how to do it all too well.

Listen to me: it has to happen inside you, what happens this week has to happen inside of you. 

Are you comfortable, secure, content, satisfied, assured?  Is your life fulfilled, are you completely gratified?  Do you have everything you want, are you totally happy?  If you are, then... forget it, don't bother, pay no attention to this week at all.  Go about your business, do your own thing, forget about it.  Binge watch on Netflix,  go shopping till you drop, treat yourself to a six course feast on Friday night.  Keep yourself happy on the outside, keep the outside happy for yourself.

This is a week for the rest of us, for the ones who are still hoping, who are at times fearful, for those of us who are suffering, for the doubters, the scaredy-cats, the losers, the broken ones, the nice guys, the guys who spill coffee down the front of their shirts, the ones who have missed the bus, or the boat, this is the week for the poor and the wounded and the imprisoned; for the starving and the thirsty ones, the homeless amongst us, the unloved, the castoffs, the trash, the lowlifes. 

Yeah, this is our week, this week that was, the week that is, the week that will be.  You see, we can identify with this week. 

This is the stuff of our lives: the crap, the pain, the disappointment, the boredom, the rejection--we can relate, baby.  And it is also the dream of our lives, the hope of our lives, the promise of our lives: this triumph, this happy ending, this miraculous, cataclysmic, universe-blowing finale---we can relate, oh man can we relate, or else our hearts will burst apart, implode from the weights and stresses of life's burdens.  

This is our week, you see, as much as it was and is, His week---a week of tragedy and triumph, dying and rising, despair and hope, fear and faith.  It has to happen inside of you, He's gotten to happen this week inside of you.  You understand?

Now, wave your palms.  Watch with your eyes as the little man passes by on an ass, sweat on his brow, legs and bare feet tucked around the soft belly of the beast; hear with your ears the cries and shouts of people like us, losers, wildly hopeful but hopelessly ignorant of who this man really is;  smell with your nose the scent of animal and human, the sweetness and the sour, perfume and dung; taste with your tongue the dust of the road, the salt from your moist lips; touch the soft green branches of palm, stir the warm invisible air with hope as he goes by.  Look out, there He goes by, the little man on an ass, your greatest dream, your profoundest hope, your true life.    

Now, follow Him, follow him now down that dusty road, do it woman, do it man, go after Him, this whole week, be with him.  Follow the sight, the sound, the smell, the taste, the touch of holiness, because you know and I know that it is holiness that you are really dreaming about and hoping for, and it is holiness that will keep your heart from self-destructing, from blowing apart.  To be holy is the reason to live, the only real reason for your life, God love you, holiness is your food and your drink and your shelter and your sex and your garments and your transportation, but more importantly it is your freedom and your happiness. And holiness is him, they call him Jesus, holiness is Jesus. 

He is holiness, and this week is His holy week, and down the road He's traveling there is more than enough of everything for you losers, for us losers.  Down the road, later in the week, is the source of his holiness, and yours.  There are awful things to come: betrayals, abandonment, ridicule, bloody torture, suffocation, and death.   We can relate. 

And then: mind-blowing miracle, universe-shattering triumph, heart-healing happiness, the good life forever and ever and ever and ever and evermore.

Our hearts can relate.

It has to happen inside of you, He has to happen inside of you this week.  Are you ready?  Are you really ready?   Then what are you waiting for?