Wrapping Up The Passion

Today marked the end of the Passion Week.

The festivities begin with the glorious Palm Sunday where pastors and preachers proclaim the "Triumphal Entry" of Jesus into Jerusalem. This serves as part one of the two week drama/tragedy.

I've never understood why it was called a "triumphal entry" since the same crowd that welcomed Jesus [according to the narratives] was the same one that crucified him. That doesn't sound like much of a triumph but rather a "crawfish" as they used to say back in the old west. [that's where you agree to one thing and then go back on your word....for all y'all that don't speak old west]

Next in the procession is Maundy Thursday. This is the day that is commemorated as the day that the Last Supper [or last Passover] was held with Jesus and his followers. It also remembers the prayer in the Garden of Gethsamane before Jesus was arrested and handed over to the Elders and Judas Priest.

Good Friday then follows with the remembrance of the awful torture and crucifixion of Christ. The problem with this day of remembrance though is that if you follow a real calender of events you'll find that in order for Jesus to rise from the dead after 3 days and still have it come out on a Sunday....then he would have had to have been crucified on a Wednesday before he had his Last Supper.....but I'm no math expert.

Saturday is then all quiet so that we can catch all of the basketball games on TV.

Sunday is then the main event. The day that you get up earlier than normal so that you can scoot off to church in time to catch the sunrise breakfast and all that follow. If the kids are lucky then the Jesus Bunny would have left them jolly chocolates in either various places around the house or in a nice wicker basket on the dining room table.

What I observed today at our church was a strange mix of all that made me feel weird. I saw many people who normally just wear jeans and t-shirts show up on dresses and suits. What's the difference? Why dress up more today than any other day? I really started wondering if maybe there was a funeral following the service or something.

Our pastor's sermon seemed to lack the luster that you'd typically imagine for such a day. He can always deliver a good message but for some reason today just seemed a bit out of touch for his normal presentation. To top all of that I just felt kind of bad that I generally just wanted to stay in bed all day.

We had company this weekend. We went to bed at a somewhat reasonable time last night. Well, we usually find the sack somewhere between 11pm-2am. This morning though we needed to be in the van and off to church by 7:30am in order to be there with our food for breakfast at the time that they told us.....we needed to be there by 8:00am. What time did we get there? 8:20. Nobody seemed to make a big deal out of it though so that was OK.

It was hard enough to get up, let alone get up and get 3 adults and 5 children ready to go in a short amount of time. We got there though and had our breakfast. When breakfast was done it was then Sunday School hour- something that we are never really there for. So the wife and her friend decide that would be a good time to head over to Wal-Fart and pick up some goods while I hang out in the adult Sunday School class and listen to them brainstorm about better ways to try and get good with folks before they try and sell them Jesus. I stayed around until they broke up into small groups and then that's when I found a comfy chair.

I normally get upset with people who don't have the common courtesy to pay attention to speakers in public but today during the service I lost it several times. What would otherwise pass for my deep meditation on the themes of transcendent nature ended up only being me dozing off by accident. The first time was during the offering. The other 3 or 4 times were during the sermon. Man did I feel bushed.

So much to do and keep up with today that my afternoon nap just couldn't come soon enough. I feel refreshed a bit now and I feel even better about finally spending some more time with my kids today. I haven't had a whole lot of time with them lately. I need more of it though.

Another Easter in the books. Did I miss anything?

Another Wednesday Night Post

I just want to let the record state that the dude on the left is not me.

OK, now that we've got that out of the way we've come to another Wednesday night post. You all know what that means- [in case you don't] not anything more than the rest of my posts.

it is Wednesday night and I'm sitting here watching To Catch A Predator on NBC. What a sick world that we live in that they can have a show like this that has as many episodes. Each episode is pretty much the same as the last; they lure people in and then snag them when they have them.

So let's recap the last week or so. Since last Wednesday I've been working on this horrific spreadsheet at work. The long and the short of it is that we are getting ready to be audited. I am convinced that auditors only have their jobs because someone who had too much time on their hands created the position for them. People who don't work in your department come through and survey everything that you do and whether or not you have everything documented. Then they tell you whether you pass or fail, but they don't tell you in advance what they are looking for to begin with. So after Thursday and Friday I needed to blow off some steam. I didn't really get the chance though so I waited until last night.

Last night I had some time to kill so I decided to stop by the old diggs where I grew up. I stopped by the old shopping mall that I used to frequent just to see where it was headed. It had been a few years since I had gone there for anything and it looked like it was turning into a ghost town. There didn't seem to be many shops left in business. Well last night I saw that it is starting to turn back around.

I walked in the doors by Target. After I took about 10 steps inside I heard an old song playing over the mall speaker system- Wanna Be Startin' Something by Michael Jackson. I had to chuckle to myself. As I think about it now it seems even funnier because Michael Jackson's Thriller was the very first record that I ever bought.

As I walked around I did some several familiar places. The Shoe Carnival, The Cookie Company, Sears, JC Penny, Yonkers, are all still there. I was also somewhat surprised to see that there appeared to be 2 different churches that had their offices set up there right next to each other. Talk about a possible manifestation of competition. Then as I walked further down the stretch I saw a mini-golf place that was really dark. As I walked up closer I saw that all of the lights were black lights and all of the courses were lit up in florescent neon colours. It I had been high it would have been really trippy...but I wasn't and I kept walking.

I admit that I was also on the lookout. I don't really consider myself to be a popular person, but I have had a history of running into at least 1 person that I know wherever I go. Tuesday was no exception; I ran into my High School Spanish teacher. We chatted for a few moments and I told him how his class had served a good role in my life and how it helped later develop me in my career and personal life. He is no longer teaching though. He said that the parents had just gotten too cooky for him. They were getting mad at him for calling on their kids in class. Wow, the educational system seems to have reached into interesting realms.

Tomorrow I am meeting up with an old college friend of mine who is currently attending seminary. I think he's been in seminary for about 8 years now...well, it's probably been more like 4 or 5 but now he's back to being a full time student so maybe that [and good behaviour] will cut some time off his sentence.

My wife and I are looking forward to the release of The Bourne Ultimatum next Friday night. I loved the first 2 in the series and I'm sure that this one will be just as good.

Speaking of movies, I should go see what's playing up in my room. In case you didn't get that- I'm tired and need to go to bed.