"I Dare You!  I Double-Dog Dare you!"

Many years ago when I lived in Atlanta before I was ordained, I was a youth director at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church. My best friend was and is a guy named Mitch Hutchinson. Well, Mitch was not a churchgoer and had grown up Southern Baptist. But he only attended the Baptist Church  because they had the best softball team in Sugar Valley, Georgia. And the rule was, "if you want to play you have to pray."  And so he did.

Well, back to Atlanta in the mid 1980s - Mitch was giving me a hard time about the Episcopal Church and how ridiculous all the marching around in dresses was in his mind. I tried to explain the ancient roots of liturgical worship and how liturgical worship engages all the senses of the body and therefore connects all that we are to God in the act of worship.  I might just as well have been speaking Portuguese to a penguin. Fortunately, Mitch's head was not as soft as the ball used in his favorite game. So I appealed to his more basic nature by proclaiming a challenge: "Mitch, I challenge you to attend all the Holy Week worship services with me.  If by the end of the week you think it is all a bunch of nonsense, I will never bring it up again."  He stared into my eyes. Then I upped the ante, "I dare you!"  His stare became a glare. I blurted out "I double-dog dare you!" There, it was I said it.  Mitch put out his hand and we shook on it.

To Mitch's credit, he attended every service in Holy Week that year. Mitch is now a Roman Catholic. When he got married a couple years ago, he and his wife flew to Rome for their honeymoon wearing their wedding dress and tuxedo.  They got a special audience with Pope John Paul and had their marriage blessed by the Pope.  Mitch credits that Holy Week 20 years ago for starting into motion the transformation of his heart, his faith and his life.  For it was in the liturgical worship of Holy Week that God touched his heart and began to stir up a hunger and thirst to know and love the living God.

So, when was the last time you blocked out the time and attended all of the Holy Week services - from Palm Sunday to Wednesday night Stations of the Cross, to Maundy Thursday service with the foot washing and the vigil in the chapel kept all night long, until 1 p.m. on Good Friday when we venerate the cross and feel the weight of Jesus suffering and betrayal, to the triumphant celebration of his resurrection on Easter Morning.  When was the last time you opened yourself up to God in such a tangible and powerful way as to walk with him on his journey to the cross and resurrection.  The liturgies of Holy Week have been a transformative journey of faith for Christians for thousands of years. Why don't you check it out this year and see what God might do to your heart and your life. I dare you!  I double-dog dare you!