Why We Want to Skip Holy Week

Lutheran Pastor Lee Ann Pomrenke from St. Paul Minnesota muses about why so few of us go to church between Palm Sunday and Easter - She attributes it to us not wanting to face the truth about ourselves - our own capacity to betray,  to turn away from suffering, our instinct for self-preservation.  Here is an excerpt.  Read her whole post here.  Do you agree with her assessment ? Why or why not?  

Sadness over the suffering of Jesus, the tragedy and injustice of it all, is not really the problem. Instead, I find myself trying to avoid taking in what his “followers” are doing, as the creeping feeling of familiarity touches the corners of my memory.

The betrayal of Judas is the most blatant sin, such that we rarely identify with him. I’m much more often in the camp of everybody else around the Maundy Thursday table wondering if or arguing that it couldn’t possibly be me who will betray Jesus (knowing full well that any one of us is indeed capable of it). It is that constant, low-level denial of how low I might actually sink, when my neglect to stop injustice could turn into a death sentence itself. I do not want to think about it. But that does not mean it isn’t there.

Somewhere between my joyful hosannas at God’s presence among us and the empty tomb there is also my significant potential to betray — not only to not prevent death of God’s beloved, but to let it happen by underestimating the impact of my actions or inaction. I know I deny my own power to prevent or impact climate change, mass incarceration, inhumane immigration policies and so many more injustices. But as long as I am not Judas initiating the betrayal, I’m good, right?

I identify with the napping disciples, the ones so weary that they physically shut down and go to sleep while Jesus is praying for his life in the Garden of Gethsemane. I do not want to examine all the times I have shut down from compassion fatigue. What impending violence — to the earth or humankind — have I ignored in order to be able to sleep at night? About whom have I told myself: Their problems are not mine, so I cannot do anything about it?