WAITING OVER BEING BUSY

HOLY SATURDAY LENT 2015

Today we read Mark 15:42—47. In our modern day and in the church this is a hard day to replicate for at least three reasons. By replicate I mean create the sense of what this day was for those first followers before that first Easter Day…and I will get to that in a moment. The three distractions have to do first with our world. It is Saturday, and it is finally getting warm. People are just busy; we are surrounded by busyness. Next, we know that Christ did rise; there is not the deep ache we feel when tragedy strikes and we know not what lay ahead. Finally there is the need in the church to “get ready” for Easter Day. When I was in a smaller place it seemed that we could keep that compact, but now, now it just takes more.

To cite the above three items as “distractions” begs the question, distractions from what?” I would say sitting, thinking, praying…from waiting. I am sure you have gone through a tragedy or two in your life. You somehow fall asleep after that long day, and then you wake up—numb. That is what the first Holy Saturday must have been like. All they hoped for, all they dreamed—dashed, crushed by a cross.

I want to suggest for Easter to take hold, that we need to use the space Holy Saturday provides. We need to spend some time in the barrenness of a world where we know not what lay ahead, where we ponder what it would be like to live without hope; without Jesus. We need to wait in the barrenness.

Why? you might ask. I want to suggest to create space in us; in our hearts and minds and souls. I can remember numbness after the loss of both my parents. There was a void. Holy Saturday can clear away from our hearts and minds and souls all that has filled our lives and pushed God out. Holy Saturday can be the last "bit" of Lent, so that Easter Joy can flood every fiber of our being tomorrow. 

As I write these words it is early. For whatever reason I could not sleep. We live on a busy street, but for a few moments there was quiet, broken only by a lone bird chirping. It gave time and space for my thoughts…it gave some time to wait.

You and I cannot escape those three distractions I noted above. We cannot pretend Jesus did not rise (praise God for that knowledge). We can however take just a few minutes and sit and wait.