Lake Orion, USA - Amid this Holy Week, as Christians across Metro Detroit hear the gospel story of Jesus Christ washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, some will know that they have used their lives to personify what they believe he was teaching.
"The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to live his life as a ransom for many," Christ said, as he knelt to wash, in one of the seminal gospel stories of Holy Week.
For some, the story of the Christ's passion and resurrection, observed this week, is not merely something about which someone reads. It is a way of life. And as Holy Week unfolds, there is abundant evidence that in a world in which suffering is common -- and amid an economy in Michigan that enters new bad times without emerging from the old ones -- many people give amply of their service and their savings to alleviate suffering and realize the resurrection that they believe Christ promised.
Suffering and resurrection are traditional themes of Holy Week, and people like Maggie Williams of Oxford will recall especially during their devotion this week that even amid cynical, secular times, many personify Christ's message.
"My husband and I, in about 1999, really decided that we wanted to change the direction of our lives," said Williams, a member of Christ the Redeemer Church, where the sacrifice of tithing climaxes with final collections on Holy Thursday and through Easter, which is Sunday.
"We said we are going to try to get out of sort of the business as usual and try to do something different with our lives, and we came up with the idea of tithing ourselves."
What followed for Williams was nearly a decade full of service to others, which included multiple trips to African countries and ministering to those dying of AIDS. Williams has lain next to a dying victim of the disease, acceding to his request that she, or someone, be near him as he drew his last breaths.
"And the only comfort I could give to him was just putting a little Vaseline on his lips, because they were so sore," Williams said. "When we come back at those times, the only thing I could think of on Good Friday is the suffering. For me, one of the big tie-ins to Holy Week has always been the suffering. The rest of the world suffers so much. And we are all waiting for Easter. I never feel as good as after I have done some of this work -- to me, there is no better feeling."
Don Danko, of Lake Orion, says a focal point of his life of service, which also has included working trips to Africa in his retirement years, is the Holy Thursday Eucharist at which some Christians re-enact the washing of the feet. At Christ the Redeemer, parishioners also present their contributions to Operation Rice Bowl, a Lenten function of Catholic Relief Services that helps feed the hungry.
"The word that always hits me is service, and Holy Thursday has always been the most powerful Mass of the year for me, because of the washing of the feet," Danko said. "That has always made me want to serve."
For the Rev. Joe Dailey, the pastor at Christ the Redeemer, the sensibility of Holy Week is something believers can carry with them, through their renewed lives.
"It gets on your radar," Dailey said. "If you live this experience through Lent and Holy Week, people begin to realize that you don't have to stop at Easter -- that with Easter we can begin to live in a new way."
While that symbolism and Christ's words often affect Christians during Holy Week, some say it seems especially so amid difficult times. Around Metro Detroit, more than a few members of the clergy say they are noticing a greater willingness on the part of their congregation to give. While people may have less, there is a sense that it motivates them to give more, in what is traditionally among the most generous metropolitan areas in the country, according to officials involved in philanthropy.
"All I can say is that people in our congregation have been amazingly generous, given the tough economic times," said the Rev. Sondra Willobee of the First United Methodist Church of South Lyon.
This year, at Willobee's church, 140 people sat for a potluck dinner and then auctioned off goods and services donated by the congregation. It raised $7,000 for missions, including an annual trip by teens from the church to Appalachia.
"And this happened in a time of economic uncertainty," Willobee said.
The efforts can be seen as a realization of the suffering and resurrection of Christ, Christians say.
"Christians follow that example of Christ and the washing of the feet, and that gives us great joy. To be able to contribute out of our abundance for the needs of others is just very satisfying."