They Laid Jesus Christ in his grave – Luke 23.50-56

Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.

The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments.

On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

Hymn:  By Night (Taize)

By night we hasten in darkness
To seek for the living water
Only our thirst lights us onward
Only our thirst lights us onward

Meditation: Staying in Holy Saturday (Deb Whalen)

If you have lost a loved one quickly or unexpectedly,
you know deeply the dull ache of the day after.
There is a gaping new hole in your life.

That’s the bleak Holy Saturday feeling.
And it is widespread during this time of pandemic.
How is the world so suddenly inside out?  And what do we do?

Do not spiritually bypass this moment.

This is awful. You’re allowed to think it, and you’re allowed to feel it.

We all know that tomorrow is Easter, but it’s not tomorrow yet.
The dazzling light of Easter morning doesn’t mean anything
if we don’t acknowledge the darkness we’re in first.

Resurrection is nothing but a cheap trick without death.

We are in a Holy Saturday moment, and there is no “going back to normal”.
There is only forward.  We just don’t know what that looks like yet.

I have found that the key to moving forward
is to focus on the next right thing.
And when you have completed that thing,
you will find another right thing to focus on. 

For Joseph of Arimathea, a man expectantly awaiting the kingdom,
the next right thing was to get his beloved teacher’s body
down from where it didn’t belong, and bury him.

Perhaps for you, the next right thing
is to see if someone needs more groceries. 
Maybe you need to bake some bread. 
Or get those seedlings planted.

But sometimes the next right thing might be to do nothing.
To sit in the confusion, experience deeply the loss.

That is also a discipline of Holy Saturday.

When it is this dark, it is natural to feel powerless.
But remember: this is not the end. 

If God created all things by flooding the darkness with light,
then we can expect that same God to bring that same light
to our current darkness.

Just not today.

A Prayer for Right Now

O God of this moment,
Unstick us from both the future and the past
Help us to pick up all the pieces of ourselves
And help us to hold them
Until we are ready to be put back together

There is so much we don’t know
So much we can’t see
Because it is dark
And we are begging you not to leave us here

But …  you hear us, don’t you?
We speak, knowing that our words land somewhere
Our words reach your heart
And if they echo, perhaps it’s because you are nearer than we think

Give us the discipline to be hopeful in these dark moments
Ease our disorientation
Help us to accept stillness and simplicity as a way of life
For however long your will keeps us here.

Amen

Reflection Song: In the Dark (Josh Ritter)

We started looking for you
In the darker caves
We had a lot of love
We thought would light the way
We saw the wrecks of buildings
And ships that sank in starlight
We saw the ghosts of angels
That spoke of falls from tremendous heights
Don’t you leave us in the dark …

We saw your old flames
And some were burning yet
It made us smile to see
Just how well tended each was kept
But other fires were burning too
And I saw the battlefields
The dying Light Brigade
Stretched out upon the wheel
Don’t you leave us in the dark …

Every heart is much the same
We tell ourselves down here
The same chambers fed by veins
The same maze of love and fear
We thought you were a saint
But the halo is a lie
It’s hard to see how there could be
So much dark inside the light
Don’t you leave us in the dark …