Tonight is the second half of teach week. My small group (and I think every small group in the church I attend) has been going through the last events in Jesus’ life culminating in the resurrection. Week one was the Last Supper, week two was the Trial, this week is the crucifixion, next week is the resurrection.

I was a bit bummed that we didn’t have a Palm Sunday sermon. I grew up with the tradition of Easter being a big honking deal. There were seders all over, watching the sun rise over the ocean on Easter morning, and many other things. My dad is really big on Lent, but I never figured out why. Palm Sunday was ‘the buildup’ and I miss it in a way. (The Buildup while I was growing up wasn’t hype or any kind of hyperthermodynamathayes. It was more or less an exultation of the Christ. Various ministers I have known really tried to infuse a sense of the excitement of the Triumphal Entry.)

But I digress…

Covering the Crucifixion is a bit of a big deal to me. The way I used to teach about it involved all kinds of dramatic presentation. It was pretty shamelessly theatric. Folks said that they enjoyed it and that it really moved them. I used to say that everyone I led the Cross study with got baptized. There’s a time and place for dramatic presentation (think Mel’s movie), but I was downright manipulative. I hope a lot of that doesn’t come back.

As far as Sunday, it went well. The big point that I hoped to make was that unbelief is not so much a lack of understanding as much as a lack of trust. That seemed to open folks up to share about various things. As far as the weird handbook, it was pretty conservative on this chapter as well. One thing about the Handbook: it is not broken up into chapters. It takes some effort to find things that pertain only to a given chapter. The Greater than Angels concept from Hebrews 1 seemed to get a lot of ink, but Greater than Moses was just casually mentioned. Oh well.

For those that were not there, I used all four of the previous columns. Neckties, brakes, all kinds of things. I enjoyed it, I think some others did as well.

That’s all for now, I’m off to switch drivers of the car with my wife.