A "difference that makes a difference"

Easter Saturday Meditations 4

Evening Prayer, Saturday

Psalm 46:1-3 

  God is our refuge and strength,
       an ever-present help in trouble.

  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
       and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

  though its waters roar and foam
       and the mountains quake with their surging.

Isaiah 58:6ff 

  "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
       to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
       to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

  Is it not to share your food with the hungry
       and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter -
       when you see the naked, to clothe him,
       and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Romans 8: 19-21

All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his children. For…there was the hope that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Reflection

Jamie Owens wrote:

“all creation’s straining on tiptoe just to see
the sons of God come into their own”

Do you think, if the world could see it,

if we could make it so obvious,

That the world would stand on tiptoe,

in excitement,

To see the difference that we,

          The children of God,
                   the channels of His peace,
                             God’s hands and feat,
the difference that we could make to this world?

“We are living in a world of Easter Saturday

Somewhere between the death

          Of what we thought we could trust

And the birth of new hope”

Can we live a resurrection for our world?

A new glory?

Morning Prayer, Saturday

Psalm 23:4

 Even though I walk

       through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,

       for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

 

Haggai 2:1-9

    'Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?  But now be strong … Be strong, all you people of the land,' declares the LORD, 'and work. For I am with you,' declares the LORD Almighty… And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear…. and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty. … 'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty.

Revelation 21:1-5a

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the

Holy

City

, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them … I am making everything new!"

Reflection

“We are living in a world of Easter Saturday:

Somewhere between the death

            Of what we thought we could trust

And the birth of new hope”

 

Easter Saturday: the moment when doubt appeared complete;

“If only… why couldn’t he? Why did they?”

Haggai’s friends, re-building the temple,

started to lose hope

“It’ll never be the same” they grieved.

 

It’s Easter Saturday; can we see any hope?

Or are we blinded by credit crunch, recession,

         the end of churchgoing,

                 the ruins of an abbey or

                           a way of doing church?

 

“It’ll never be the same…”

No, maybe not,

but what will the present glory,

the New Jerusalem, look like?

What will we, new builders, make of it?

The second of my four Easter Workshop meditations on Easter Saturday

Evening Prayer, Good Friday

Psalm 22:1-2 

 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 
       Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?

Isaiah 42:1-4 

 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
       my chosen one in whom I delight;
      … A bruised reed he will not break,
       and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.

Matthew 27:50-51

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.

Reflection

“We are living in a world of Easter Saturday:

Somewhere between the death

            Of what we thought we could trust

And the birth of new hope”

 

We are at the start of the Jewish Sabbath that Jesus would have known. It is Easter Saturday, the day after Jesus died, the awful day before Easter morning.
Today, we know that something huge has happened, but at that moment it was invisible to the world. Today we know that resurrection is just around the corner, but at that moment all hope had been destroyed.

So, now we are abandoned, left for a day.

The world around us crumbles,
the security we thought we had evaporates.

What have we to offer? So few, so scorned, so invisible;
what have we to offer an Easter Saturday world?

Here, on Easter Saturday,
a bruised reed – thrown away by the musician;
a smouldering wick – giving no light,
is all that our Lord needs
to do a wonderful, invisible work.

 

 

A thought for Good Friday morning:

 

Psalm 22:6-8

But I am … scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.

 

Isaiah 53:5

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

 

Mark 15:21-32 

They brought Jesus to the place called

Golgotha

... and they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get...They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So, You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!"

 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

 

Reflection

This morning we start our journey through Good Friday towards Easter by spending some time at the cross of Jesus. Particularly, we will spend some time in the hopelessness of his first disciples.

 

“We are living in a world of Easter Saturday

Somewhere between the death

          Of what we thought we could trust

And the birth of new hope”

This morning, spend a moment with one of those gathered around the cross, maybe

•  Simon, carrying his cross,

•  Mary, watching her son die

•  or John His beloved disciple, given a new responsibility at a moment of huge loss

•  or the Roman centurion, his callous duty interrupted by a sense that something bigger was going on here.

Don’t try to understand or explain – just spend a moment of your day with them

Easter Saturday World

We are living in a world of Easter Saturday
somewhere between the death
        of what we thought we could trust
and the birth of new hope

Jon Birch is threatening to link to this blog, so I had better write something just in case someone is foolish enough to visit... I wrote a series of meditations for the Northumbria Community Easter workshop on the theme of Easter Saturday, so I shall post these over the next day or so.

I had never noticed Easter Saturday, until Maggi Dawn blogged about it a few years ago... now, I suspect that it is powerful image of the world we are currently travelling through