But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!
Silence...What do we do with silence? The world in which we live doesn't handle that well. We think we need to fill it, be the first to speak, be the first to resolve its discomfort, the first to solve its discontent. Why is that? Why do we need to fill every space, every moment, with "stuff"? This is the day of silence. It is our tomb-watch. We cannot DO anything...we must sit...just sit. And wait.
Yesterday, we lost the ultimate of control--control of ourselves, of our humanity, of our humaneness. Yesterday, all that was good and decent and life-giving in our life died, hung on a cross and buried in a tomb. This wasn't the way we MEANT for it to happen. Like Judas, we have our regrets, perhaps even struggle to live with what we've done.
But this day is not about what we've done. We need to get out of ourselves. We need to get over it, because, let me tell you, it is not about me, it is not about any of us. We need to stop wallowing in the self-serving aura of guilt. What's done is done. Humanity, I think, committed the ultimate sin. Humanity's greed, humanity's self-preservation, and humanity's ego tried to rid itself of God, of something beyond oneself, beyond one's control. But God is God and we are not. Thanks be to God! And in God's unfailing and unswerving love for what God has created, God forgives. Not only does God forgive, God recreates what we have uncreated and makes it better than before. The cross is God's greatest act of Creation yet. That is tomorrow's promise. That is tomorrow's hope. That is tomorrow.
And so this day, we wait. We cannot do what will be done. This is the day of silence, the day that God, behind the scenes, sets the stage, gathering all that God knows, all that God has created in the past, all heaven and hell alike, and begins to put everything into place, staging it for what it will someday be. This day is not ours. This day is God's. Tomorrow is another day, a new chapter to the story of which we are a part. Tomorrow will come. That is the promise. But, for now, we just have to wait, hold vigil, sit by the tomb where we have buried what we were. Because God has other things in mind. The Light of Life is about to dawn.
This is the day of silence. It is our tomb-watch. We cannot DO anything...we must sit...just sit. And wait.
The Saturday shadows fight the sun
Surely it’s all a dream.
We grieve our loss and quietly nurse our pain
While the world goes on in steam
Who then really is to blame?
Who’s fault do we imply?
Does it really matter now?
When innocence has died?
The world has lost all innocence
And yet no one need be judged to death
For hell this day has lost its place
Vanquished by God’s forgiving breath
This day is not for us to know
What happens in God's stead
This day we wait in silent vigil
While God moves on ahead.
On this day, this silent Saturday, just wait...there is nothing for you to do, there is nothing you HAVE to do...just wait...
Grace and Peace,
Shelli
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