Holy Saturday BCP 283
The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse
St. Philip’s In The Hills, Tucson, AZ
Lamentations
3:1-9, 19-24, Psalm 33: 1-5
1
Peter 4:1-8, Matthew 27:57-66
In the name of the Holy One. Amen.
Waiting.
It’s not something that we do, as a society, very well.
Waiting.
It means to “do nothing, expecting something to happen.”
Waiting.
In the French language, the word is “attendre”
or “to attend to.”
In
other words, it is an active verb. But
in our society, we don’t see it that way.
Waiting
feels like a waste of time, and we sure are insistent that we use our time
effectively.
Waiting.
Our collect of the day invites us, “… to await with him the coming of the third
day…”
Yesterday,
Good Friday, Jesus was crucified and died. Joseph, at least, had the decency to
ask for Jesus’ body, which he took, and wrapped in linen cloth and laid in his
own new tomb. Then after he placed the body in the tomb, he rolled a great
stone to the door and went away.
Joseph
went away.
Joseph’s
careful and caring actions
to
Jesus’ body
are
seen as pious acts, reverent and kind.
Then
he went away.
I
wonder what about us, what do we do, this day?
Yesterday,
Good Friday, Jesus was crucified and died.
·
We
saw him hanging there through the 148 students killed in Kenya for being
Christian
·
We
saw him hanging there, being mocked by Boko Haram who claim the hashtag did
nothing to #BringBackOurGirls
·
We
saw him hanging there, crying out for justice with those who continue to be denied
equal rights.
We
took his body off the cross, gently, reverently,
·
and
wrapped it in prayers for peace between nations, between tribes, between
families and in our hearts
·
and
wrapped it compassion in place of resentment for those “evil doers”
·
and
wrapped it linen cloth of hope, woven for just this day, as the soft flesh of
his corpse draped over our serving arms
We
experienced Good Friday and laid Jesus in our own new tomb.
So
now do we just go away?
God,
Jesus’ heavenly Father, waited.
God
“attended to” Jesus in the “fullness of time” – that phrase which Jesus kept
repeating
– to hear God’s will for him and in the
fullness of time to make all things new.
God
waited for Jesus. And God waits for
us.
God
attended to Jesus And God attends to us.
God
rested in this Sabbath with Jesus.
God
rests with us, in our in-between lives,
in
our indecisions,
in
our half-hearted prayers,
in
our doubting affirmations.
Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary
sat
opposite the tomb.
They
did not go away. They waited.
They
did nothing. Elles attendant.
They
attended to.
Welsh
poet RS Thomas
offers
this poem, appropriate for today:[1]
Kneeling
Moments
of great calm,
Kneeling
before an altar
Of
wood in a stone church
In
summer, waiting for the God
To
speak; the air a staircase
For
silence; the sun’s light
Ringing
me, as though I acted
A
great role. And the audiences
Still;
all that close throng
Of
spirits waiting, as I,
For
the message.
Prompt me, God;
But
not yet. When I speak,
Though
it be you who speak
Through
me, something is lost.
The
meaning is in the waiting.
The
meaning is in the waiting
Jesus is placed in a new tomb.
A
great stone is placed to the door.
We
do not go away.
We
await the fullness of time.
We.
Can. Not. Look. Away.
On attend.
We
wait.
We
wait.
We
wait.
Amen.
