Holy Saturday: Waiting, Watching and Praying

Today's Scripture Readings

John 19:38-42 (NRSV)

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Blog Reflection

Instead of my writing about the events of Holy Saturday on my own, I am going to defer to a short meditations.   The words of this meditation come from the members of the Companions of St. Luke/Order of St. Benedict.

It’s over.  The Man many called “Messiah” has breathed His last.  He did not “save himself” as some witnesses taunted, nor did the Heavenly Host come to rescue Him. Instead, for three agonizing hours, Jesus of Nazareth hung on a cross, suffering a slow and very agonizing and especially disgraceful death.  But, the Sabbath approaches and observant Jews must tend to their rituals—and… 

“…Hey, Nick!  We can’t hang around here too long, you know.  After all, the Sanhedrin condemned this Man, this so-called Pretender and Rabble-Rouser to death…why, if we’re caught here or accused of supporting this…this…blasphemer, why—who knows what will happen to us???  Wasn’t it enough that at least we didn’t vote in the Sanhedrin to condemn this Jesus?”

“After all the precautions we took, Joe, to distance ourselves, to make sure we didn’t follow “too closely” behind, obscuring our faces as we listened to this Man preach.  We sought Him out under the cover of darkness, or from high above in a tree, to hide our insecurities, our inner longings, and our fear while we trying to maintain our standing within the community.  We’ve got a lot to lose, don’t we my friend, among the movers and shakers if we are ‘found out’.”

“And after all our careful maneuverings, now you are concerned about this dead body?  That the Romans would leave it exposed?  Do you think they even would let us have it, after all, He was accused of treason as well as blasphemy??  Are you mad?  Moreover, by touching this body as the Sabbath draws near, we ourselves could be considered ritually unclean!”

“But, wasn’t it Jesus who said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath?  And…whom would Jesus exclude from His table?  Certainly not tax collectors or adulterers, so why should we be made unclean simply for ensuring He gets a decent burial…Okay, let’s go and claim the body and do the best we can…”

In this darkest of days when all hope seems lost, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimethea, secret followers of the Christ,  go to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus, to bury Him according to Jewish custom, as an observant Jew, not as a thief or criminal.  They had nothing to gain and everything to lose.  As members of the Sanhedrin and the privileged class, they did this at great cost to their position in society and even their well-being. 

 

But at that moment when Jesus cried “It is finished”---it was only just beginning.  For Nicodemus and Joseph had found their courage to proclaim themselves openly as followers, if not yet of Christ risen, still of Christ crucified.  For them Jesus has become their Paschal feast, the fulfillment of God’s saving grace.

 

What, my friend, holds you back from boldly proclaiming, in word and deed, God’s triumph of love over death?

Prayers

O God, Creator of heaven and earth:  Grant that, as the
crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and
rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the
coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life;
who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (Book of Common Prayer, p.221).

Merciful God, whose servant Joseph of Arimathaea with reverence 

and godly fear prepared the body of our Lord and Savior for burial, 

and laid it in his own tomb: Grant to us, your faithful people, grace

and courage to love and serve Jesus with sincere devotion all the days

of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with

you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.  (Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints, p.499). 

    

Holy Saturday: We Await the Rest of the Story

Scriptural Basis

Matthew 27:57-66 (NRSV)

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, "Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, `After three days I will rise again.' Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, `He has been raised from the dead,' and the last deception would be worse than the first." Pilate said to them, "You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can." So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.

Blog Reflection

The last event to take place during the funeral of someone is the burial.  During the prayers for the dead at the place where she/he will be laid to rest is the one place where relatives and those who loved the individual just cannot hold back their tears. Why?  Because at the burial point everything seems so final.

There are many images of the dead being buried from many of the great movies.

The scene of the undertakers dumping the body of Mozart in the movie Amadeus into a grave of bodies for those who could not afford their own cemetery plot is chilling.

In the movie Fried Green Tomatoes there are two burial moments that are so moving.  One was for Buddy and the other for Ruth.  There was even a burial moment for Buddy Jr's arm.

Death with it sense of finality in this world leaves us with a sense of powerlessness.

How many people have died from HIV/AIDS, cancer, heart disease and many other illnesses?  The deaths of those we love or knew well strike at our core.   They remind us of our mortality.  Life is really very brief.

The reading from Lamentations so well speaks of the emotions that so many of us feel

Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24 (NRSV)

I am one who has seen affliction

under the rod of God's wrath;

he has driven and brought me

into darkness without any light;

against me alone he turns his hand,

again and again, all day long.

He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,

and broken my bones;

he has besieged and enveloped me

with bitterness and tribulation;

he has made me sit in darkness

like the dead of long ago.

He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

he has put heavy chains on me;

though I call and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer;

he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,

he has made my paths crooked.

The thought of my affliction and my homelessness

is wormwood and gall!

My soul continually thinks of it

and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,

"therefore I will hope in him."

The death of Jesus though, has a whole different meaning for those of us who wait for Easter.  The story does not end here at the sealed tomb.

One of my favorite readings to date about Holy Saturday, comes from the Roman Office.  An ancient Homily on Holy Saturday.

Something strange is happening--there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness.  The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.  The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and has raised up all who have slept since the world began.  God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

God has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep.  Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, God has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, Jesus who is both God and son of Eve.  The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory.  At the sight of Jesus Adam, the first man God had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: "My Lord be with you all."  Christ answered him: "And with your spirit."  Jesus took Adam by the hand and raised him up, saying: "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light." (Liturgy of the Hours, Volume II Lent and Easter Seasons, pages 496, 497)

We do not know who is the author of this great homily.  But it is beautiful in it's descriptive language.

As I reflect on Holy Saturday, as we await Easter Day I have to stop just for a bit and ask us to reflect on the reality that just as there was hope for the first parents Adam and Eve, there is hope for all who have died.  Jesus Christ is the hope of all who live and all who die.   Among the many things Jesus did was to put a face on those who have died.  In Jesus death and the burial is not where the story ends.

Therefore, I must plead with our faithful conservative friends.  Please remember that Jesus Christ, not you, nor your literal interpretations of the Bible have the final say over the souls of LGBTQ people and many others.  It is the death and resurrection of Jesus that we await to celebrate tomorrow that ultimately brings salvation to all people, because of God's unconditional and all inclusive love.  May we all put away the rhetoric that is so destructive to those different from ourselves.  May we all put far from us any and all thoughts of violence and oppression that would make some privileged while others are to be targeted and destroyed.

In Jesus, God has forgiven all our sins and made us all worthy to share in the eternal life prepared for all God's people.  It is because of Jesus that every person has the hope to await our own resurrection on the last day.

Let us end our need to scapegoat.  Let us end the anti-Judaism that suggests that the Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus, and therefore violence and prejudice towards God's holy people in the Jewish faith is justified.  Let the culture war against Muslims stop.  May Muslims be recognized as among God's children who must be respected, loved and admired for their devotion. May the ill favored behavior towards LGBTQ people, women and people of different colors, races etc end because Jesus Christ died and rose for all.  Not to be scapegoated or changed at the core of who we all are. But, because God has loved us all and gives us every reason to love one another as Christ has loved each of us.

Prayer

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Holy Saturday, Book of Common Prayer, page 283).

Holy Saturday: Not the End of the Pilgrimage, But A Point of Transformation

Today's Scripture Reading

 John 19:38-42 (NRSV)

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Blog Reflection

There is usually a feeling of quiet associated with Holy Saturday.  It is a silence that is different than all other times of the year.  A kind of hush with that inner expectation awaiting the resurrection.  What exactly will happen?  How will we respond to it?

Lent officially ended with the beginning of the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Maundy Thursday.  We washed feet, we celebrated the Eucharist for the last time until the Great Vigil of Easter.  Some of us spent time watching before the Reserved Sacrament.

On Good Friday, we recalled the events of the passion and death of Jesus.  We fasted either from food or something else to give ourselves a day of making even more room for God as we meditated on how God showed how much we are loved in the death of Christ on the Cross.  We went to the Good Friday Liturgy where we heard the Passion according to John, we prayed the Solemn Collects, venerated the Cross and received Holy Communion from the Reserved Sacrament that was consecrated on Maundy Thursday.

Today, on Holy Saturday, we spend this time with some fasting as we await that moment when Jesus rose from the dead.  We will hear those wonderful anthems praising God for the victory of Christ over death, with new life.  We will hear from Romans 6 of how our Baptism is a sharing in the death and resurrection of Christ as we are raised with Him to new and unending life.

It is important to keep in mind that the purpose of the Easter Triduum is not to leave what we would have learned and done during Lent behind as if it has not changed us.  The death of Jesus and his three days in the tomb, are not a license to begin all of those old habits once again on Easter Monday.  As we begin Easter in only a few hours, we are reminded by the resurrection that this is the Season of new life, with a renewed focus on the power of God to save us by the Cross and resurrection. Our human eyes that will not be able to find Jesus in the empty tomb, will challenge us to go forward renewed in our faith, that what God has done on our behalf, has actually changed us from the inside out.

As we await the resurrection, perhaps we might think about what old habits and behaviors we truly want to be buried with Christ today.   Could we actually see the end of prejudice and violence so that LGBT people are no longer bullied by Christianists?   Would it be possible that a country like Uganda would not hunt down LGBT people to expose them as people to shame?   Might it happen that we recognize that women can make their own choices with regards to their reproductive health care?  Might we recognize that using male privilege to legislate health care for women is not the way to go? Could we actually bury the need of governments to seek out war and military action when they cannot sit down and settle differences by talking and negotiation.  Could our private and public monies actually be used to benefit all people, including the poor, the lonely, the discouraged and those who are disabled or our elderly?  If we could only bury with Jesus the need to use race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression, language, health status, wealth status, challenge, employment status, immigration status, political party affiliation, as a reason to exclude others because of our own biases, Easter Day will truly be a great day of celebration for everyone.

May today be not the end of our pilgrimage with Christ, but a point of transition by which hearts and minds are actually changed, because God loved us all to the point of giving up God's Son for every one of us.


Prayer

O God, Creator of heaven and earth:  Grant that, as the
crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and
rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the
coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life;
who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (Collect for Holy Saturday, Book of Common Prayer, p. 221).

Holy Saturday: The Story Does Not End Here

Scriptural Basis

Matthew 27:57-66 (NRSV)

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, "Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, `After three days I will rise again.' Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, `He has been raised from the dead,' and the last deception would be worse than the first." Pilate said to them, "You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can." So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.

Blog Reflection

The last event to take place during the funeral of someone is the burial.  During the prayers for the dead at the place where she/he will be laid to rest is the one place where relatives and those who loved the individual just cannot hold back their tears. Why?  Because at the burial point everything seems so final.

There are many images of the dead being buried from many of the great movies. 

The scene of the undertakers dumping the body of Mozart in the movie Amadeus into a grave of bodies for those who could not afford their own cemetery plot is chilling. 

In the movie Fried Green Tomatoes there are two burial moments that are so moving.  One was for Buddy and the other for Ruth.  There was even a burial moment for Buddy Jr's arm. 

Death with it sense of finality in this world leaves us with a sense of powerlessness. 

How many people have died from HIV/AIDS, cancer, heart disease and many other illnesses?  The deaths of those we love or knew well strike at our core.   They remind us of our mortality.  Life is really very brief.

The reading from Lamentations so well speaks of the emotions that so many of us feel

Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24 (NRSV)

I am one who has seen affliction

under the rod of God's wrath;

he has driven and brought me

into darkness without any light;

against me alone he turns his hand,

again and again, all day long.

He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,

and broken my bones;

he has besieged and enveloped me

with bitterness and tribulation;

he has made me sit in darkness

like the dead of long ago.

He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

he has put heavy chains on me;

though I call and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer;

he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,

he has made my paths crooked.

The thought of my affliction and my homelessness

is wormwood and gall!

My soul continually thinks of it

and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,

"therefore I will hope in him."

The death of Jesus though, has a whole different meaning for those of us who wait for Easter.  The story does not end here at the sealed tomb.  

One of my favorite readings to date about Holy Saturday, comes from the Roman Office.  An ancient Homily on Holy Saturday.

Something strange is happening--there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness.  The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.  The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and has raised up all who have slept since the world began.  God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

God has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep.  Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, God has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, Jesus who is both God and son of Eve.  The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory.  At the sight of Jesus Adam, the first man God had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: "My Lord be with you all."  Christ answered him: "And with your spirit."  Jesus took Adam by the hand and raised him up, saying: "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light." (Liturgy of the Hours, Volume II Lent and Easter Seasons, pages 496, 497)

We do not know who is the author of this great homily.  But it is beautiful in it's descriptive language.

As I reflect on Holy Saturday, as we await Easter Day I have to stop just for a bit and ask us to reflect on the reality that just as there was hope for the first parents Adam and Eve, there is hope for all who have died.  Jesus Christ is the hope of all who live and all who die.   Among the many things Jesus did was to put a face on those who have died.  In Jesus death and the burial is not where the story ends.

Therefore, I must plead with our faithful conservative friends.  Please remember that Jesus Christ, not you, nor your literal interpretations of the Bible have the final say over the souls of LGBTQ people and many others.  It is the death and resurrection of Jesus that we await to celebrate tomorrow that ultimately brings salvation to all people, because of God's unconditional and all inclusive love.  May we all put away the rhetoric that is so destructive to those different from ourselves.  May we all put far from us any and all thoughts of violence and oppression that would make some privileged while others are to be targeted and destroyed.  

In Jesus, God has forgiven all our sins and made us all worthy to share in the eternal life prepared for all God's people.  It is because of Jesus that every person has the hope to await our own resurrection on the last day. 

Let us end our need to scapegoat.  Let us end the anti-Judaism that suggests that the Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus, and therefore violence and prejudice towards God's holy people in the Jewish faith is justified.  Let the culture war against Muslims stop.  May Muslims be recognized as among God's children who must be respected, loved and admired for their devotion. May the ill favored behavior towards LGBTQ people, women and people of different colors, races etc end because Jesus Christ died and rose for all.  Not to be scapegoated or changed at the core of who we all are. But, because God has loved us all and gives us every reason to love one another as Christ has loved each of us.

Prayer

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Holy Saturday, Book of Common Prayer, page 283).

Holy Saturday: Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday

I remember the first time I really celebrated Holy Week.  I had attended Good Friday services, went to sleep that night and woke up on Holy Saturday.  I looked outside in my hometown and noticed how unusually quiet it seemed.  I spent the day before remembering and meditating on something that happened that was just awful.  Jesus had been crucified.  But now, today on Holy Saturday it was quiet.  It was as if the whole world was hushed waiting for something wonderful to happen.  The feeling is very much like waiting for the best part of the movie to begin.  Indeed, the best is yet to come.

Today feels like the day after a terrible experience.  Our ears may be hurting from the noise of the crowds or all the phone calls that were filled with bad news.  For many people going through difficult times this kind of day is for us.  It is the day when everything that happened yesterday just stunk.  Tomorrow has not happened yet.  We remember how our pay check didn't come in yesterday and now we are wondering how the rent will get paid, or the children will get fed.  We called and argued out of our anxiety and worries, but things just did not happen the way we had hoped.  We need someone to lift us up and give us back some sense of happiness. 

As lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people we get so tired of all the anti-gay rhetoric that plagues our community.  Every conservative religious junkie has to insert their opinions into our business and keep us from gaining our equal rights.  The religious right uses the events of Holy Week to justify how they cause separation within families over the issue of sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression.   Those same individuals also like to use the events of this week to justify anti-Judaism.  The religious right suggests to LGBT people that the only way to be saved is to change from being LGBT.   The same religious right likes to suggest that the only way the Jewish people can be saved is to become Christians. Such rhetoric is full of Spiritual violence that is also crowded with self-justification for those who think they are doing so for a noble cause.  We get so tired of people using the death and resurrection of Jesus as their excuse for prejudice, violence and reckless behavior.

Today, Jesus' body laid in the tomb.  It seemed like the end of all that people had hoped for over the years.  All that healing, preaching, feeding, had appeared to have gone to waste, was how many were feeling.  Was it really the end? Was there anything more that God could do?  Tomorrow on Easter Day, God will answer that question.  Tomorrow is another day.  God is not finished with us today.  There is still something else totally unknown to us that God can still yet do tomorrow.  As we wait today, can we wait in silence for God to bring about a great finale?  Can we believe that God has yet to do God's greatest work?  Today, can we set aside the violence that comes from prejudice and malice to await what God is going to do on Easter? 

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Holy Saturday, Book of Common Prayer, Page 283).