Seems like there’s plenty of reasons to get the blues these days:
A dozen years of war have not made us feel safe from terror
The returning soldiers injured in ways we did not foresee
Families wrent by stresses not before known
The post in post-traumatic stress is from here to eternity
No end for the victims
War changes participants’ lives forever.

Seems like there’s plenty of reasons to get the blues these days:
Partisan divides debilitating legislative assemblies
Seasoned statesmen arguing like two-year-olds
Even fiscal cliffs are irresistible for lemmings
We long for some sign of courage from those we elected
No independence detected
The votes follow dollars and not sense.

Seems like there’s plenty of reasons to get the blues these days:
1 in 5 live in poverty in our own town
The poorest of the poor are the youngest
Raise more funds, fill more backpacks, cook more mission meals
And the line just keeps on getting longer and longer
Empty belly breakfast
In the land of teenage obesity.

Seems like there’s plenty of reasons to get the blues these days:
Racist words ring out from city chambers
Jim Crow moved from cafes into prison
Minority become majority inside jail cells
Better have cash if you want gas for a rez car
Courts philosophize about equality
The Tiospaye ponders survival.

Seems like there’s plenty of reasons to get the blues these days:
Stock markets set new records piling money on money
Recession’s a dip if you don’t sell
You’ve got money, there’s ways to make more
New taxes are dead on arrival
Top’s a lonely spot, the more that you’ve got
The smaller your circle of peers.

Seems like there’s plenty of reasons to get the blues these days:
Mideast tempers flare lit by real rockets
The innocents end up the victims
My side’s right and we’ll fight
Our god hates your kind of people
Ambassadors dine, politicians whine
Widows’ tears soak the ground like rivers.

Seems like there’s plenty of reasons to get the blues these days.

We have been through Holy Week before. The path of the journey is not unknown to us. We knew that we’d be tired by the middle of the week with more events planned, more intensity coming, more emotional energy required. It is nothing compared to the journey of Jesus and his disciples in that Holy Week in Jerusalem so long ago. It is nothing like the journeys of grief that lie ahead as we face the loss of ones we love side by side with our own mortality. But it is intense.

When we lead camps, we talk with the staff about the Wednesday phenomenon. If tempers are going to flare, it’s likely to come mid-week. If homesickness rears, it’s likely to be most intense at mid-week. If behaviors get out of line, they’re most likely to show up in the middle. I promise counselors Thursday feels better than Wednesday and I’m usually. The kid you feel like strangling today will bring you tears at his departure.

Holy week is like camp in many ways. It is a carefully crafted series of experiences developed for practicing the serious business of real life. It is about developing relationships that carry us forward as a community with relationships that are tested and true. Sometimes the memories when the week is over are stronger than the events in the midst of the experience. And it is worth doing over and over again.

So tonight we have planned a concert. Not a worship service. Not a program. Not an attempt to draw new members to strengthen our institution. We won’t be taking an offering or making a speech. We won’t be offering solutions or solving problems. We’re just going to sit with the blues, listen to the tunes, and express the emotions.

And, since we’re a church, we’ll be doing it together.

There will be time to get the candles in order and carry out the rituals of Maundy Thursday. There will be time for the somberness of Good Friday. There will be time for the pomp and pageantry of the Great Vigil and the sunrise service and the Easter breakfast and the Resurrection celebration. But this isn’t that time.

Tonight is a night for the blues.

Music soothes when we are at a loss for words.

It’s been years since my blog’s ended with a word count this short. There’ll be plenty of words in the days to come.

Copyright © 2013 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.