Monday, April 06, 2020

Holy Monday Reflection: The Option to Discard Old Ways


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On the first three weekdays of Holy Week when the Chapel is not holding online services, Chapel ministers are writing one reflection for each day. Reflections will be posted by 7:00 p.m. each day. The reflection for today, Monday, April 6, is from the Rev. Joshua Lazard, the Chapel's C. Eric Lincoln Minister for Student Engagement.

I was on a spring break trip with students when it was apparent that life in America was going to change drastically and I was not able to go to the grocery store like so many others. This particularly meant that I missed the rush on the essential home good of toilet paper. Upon leaving a big box store the same day as I returned, I lamented my own neglect for not having purchased any before I left—I was down to three rolls remaining anyway. Even in normal times, I should have never let my supply dwindle so low. As the three rolls turned into two, I put out a plea on Facebook that I may be reaching out to people should I not be able to find a store that had any in stock.

"With Christians encountering empty sanctuaries and gathering spaces as we celebrate our high holy days, Jesus’s sacrifice ought to be a reminder that we have an option to discard many of our old ways of doing things."

As fate would have it, on a re-supply run to Target, on a lark, I peaked around to the paper goods aisle and miraculously, I saw a six-pack of mega rolls! But, it wasn’t the brand name I was most familiar with. So, there I stood in front of the mostly empty shelves contemplating whether to purchase a brand I wasn’t used to, select the God-awful single-ply generic brand, or leave empty handed. Wisely, I believe, I picked the six-pack mega roll. It wasn’t the brand I prefer, but it’s certainly the brand I need.

While choosing a toilet paper brand is a relatively minor dilemma, it brings to mind the words of the writer of the Book of Hebrews in chapter nine, embarking on Holy Week, reminding us of Jesus’s blood sacrifice in the temple compared to the previous sacrifices of the blood of goats and calves. Those sacrifices were the familiar ones, the traditional ones. Jesus, as a peasant social prophet who processed into Jerusalem, became the Christ by offering his life on the Cross. With Christians encountering empty sanctuaries and gathering spaces as we celebrate our high holy days, Jesus’s sacrifice ought to be a reminder that we have an option to discard many of our old ways of doing things. In times of crisis and difficulty, let us make the wise choice to disavow the false logic that leaves us tied to tradition, a particular brand preference if you will, and follow Jesus, the one who offers exactly what we need.