Devotional 3-30-13

On my charge this year, I am leading Adam Hamilton’s “24 Hours That Changed the World” Lenten study. This is the second time I’ve used this resource. The first was two years ago in Fairmont. As always, I am struck by how much differently God speaks to me from one time in life to the next. I think that is true of familiar Scriptures, ones we have heard many times, like the Scriptures that describe the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. There is perennially something new. This year as I work with this study, I wonder which group of people who were involved in the last days of Jesus’ life I would fit it with. I invite you to think where you would be.

Would it have been with the Scribes and Pharisees who were so threatened by a theology which was different from theirs that they wanted to destroy the Theologian? Was this even a spiritual, doctrinal question for them, or did they just know that Jesus was more popular than they? Would we be a part of the Roman army, who were so secure in their worldly positions and possessions, and had so much faith in their place in the world, that they did not recognize God among them? In fact, they mocked Him at every opportunity. Confronted by Jesus, would we be like Pilate: on the fence, waffling, refusing to take responsibility for anything, lukewarm in our faith today? The disciples, most of whom had run when their Lord needed them most, going back to the way things had been, because following Jesus didn’t turn out to be as easy as they hoped? Would we be like those who stayed until the very end?

I think that we are all of those people from time to time. We are faithful one minute and not the next. I do not know what any of those people were doing on the Sabbath between Good Friday and Easter morning. Maybe they rested. Surely they were moved by the events of the last week. Perhaps Holy Saturday is not a day many of us think too much about. We may spend the day buying new Easter outfits, hunting for Easter eggs, and getting a jump-start on the big Easter dinner. I know I certainly love to do those things. But this year, I am going to try and do something more. I want to take this quiet in-between day to think about where I would have been in that time and in that place. I want to look at where I am now.
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Instead of a prayer, I submit this poem for your reflection. It is from “Faces at the Cross: A Lent and Easter Collection of Poetry and Prose”.

Holy SaturdayJ Barrie Shepherd

The echoes of this intervening day
tremble between bloodshed and birth.
Full Friday’s passion now is laid away.
These hours are for the proving of its worth.
In darkness will it ripen to a gay
garden scene of festival and mirth,
or in the deadly juices of decay
dissolve into the daily dust of earth?

Rev. Dorcas L. ConradWest Liberty Charge, West Liberty, W.Va.