03/29/2026
Assist us mercifully with your help, O Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts whereby you have given us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. -Collect for Palm Sunday, Prayer Book page 270
Dear Friends in Christ,
Standing in my driveway in middle school, with an atrocious bowl haircut and braces, but an intent face and careful listening, I received my Dad's teaching on the mechanics of a proper basketball shot... Feet squared up to the basket, knees bent, elbow in, wrists loose, follow through. I can clearly hear his instructional voice in my memory.
Then I tried to turn all those verbal instructions into a physical basketball shot. My scoring percentage in games attests to the difference between head-learning and getting something into your actual body! It is truly embodied practice which "makes perfect".
Holy Week, which we begin this Sunday, is this beautiful moment in the church year which embraces the wisdom of learning a story bodily. We will read about Jesus' procession into Jerusalem, and then we'll process!, waving palms with our hands and singing hosanna with our voices...in public! We'll read about Jesus eating dinner and washing our feet, while we eat dinner together and wash each others hands! We'll read about Jesus' crucifixion, even as we look upon a large wooden cross, have the opportunity to touch it with our own hands, or kneel before it our very selves. We'll come towards the recitation of the resurrection with the lighting and carrying of fires, with a procession through the darkness, and splashing water.
An ancestors hadn't read any books on "learning styles" or "pedagogical design" when they created these forms of worship for Holy Week. But they did listen to Jesus when he said, "do this" in remembrance of me. They discovered that walking the way of the cross very much helps us practice toward the perfection Christ invites us to.
..My Dad's teaching grew out of being, himself, a careful student. He read books by old Celtics coaches and by players. He took shots all by himself, from all parts of the court, both lefty and righty. What did that get him? Having the "story" of basketball carefully ingrained into his body?
Well, even when his knee cartilage abandoned him, and he court speed took a hit, my Dad was able remain competitive in UNH pickup games (with people in their 20s and 30s also on the court!) well into his 60s.
This week, we come bearing our own "funny haircuts" and other quirky personal equivalents, and listen intently to Jesus, and then practice with our very bodies, so that we might grown a similar kind of endurance, for life. So that when some of the worldly advantages like bodily health, or money, or family ties or whatever else, abandon us, our spirits will still "be able to hang"; still be close to the love of God, and capable of sharing love of Neighbor.
I'll be listening this year for the sweetness of Jesus' familiar instructional voice.
Love,
Reed
