"IMPERIAL TEMPTATIONS TO EASTER INVITATION"
A PEACE MEDITATION FOR THE HOLY WEEK

This short peace meditation is created to be a Passion Week reading for United Methodist Women. It is written during the time when our nation is engaged in war with Iraq. The meditation possesses elements which have far more implications for our missional thinking beyond the current context of armed conflict, as we strive to seek freedom, and to experience it as whole persons in Jesus Christ at all times.

The current situation may be one of the defining moments for Christian mission spirituality. War is, and has always been, such a time for practitioners of Christian faith. Nonetheless, the kind of Christian faith we practice during uncertain times molds us where we live and what we desire to witness.

The United Methodist Women is a community of faith as well as a community of struggle. There are no easy answers to all our questions and struggles, especially in times such as this. But one should be able to ask the right questions. This meditation is an effort to enable us to ask questions, presumably the right ones, as we enter into the Passion Week, the week of suffering as well as triumph for Jesus, as he acted out his own call to mission as Redeemer. It is a call which models  "servant leadership" for his "beloved community." My prayer during these troubled times is that the Prince of Peace may lead us all into deeper understandings of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus far beyond the scope of this Holy Week meditation.

Glory E. Dharmaraj, author

April 2003

I.  Prologue: A Triumphalist Christianity Versus Suffering Christianity

II.  Battle in the Desert: Jesus' Style

III. Palm Sunday: A Colt Ride Toward International Discipleship

IV. The Lord's Supper: Remembering the Innocent Dying

V. Radical Love: Passionate Lover

VI. The Cross: "Cheap Grace?"

VII. A Resurrection People

VII. Epilogue

IX. Appendix

X. Bibliography