What Will You Do With Your Holy Saturday?
Good Morning Friends,
Holy Week is a moveable holiday and this year it is celebrated earlier than some years. And in Florida we tend to like it later so the tourists stay longer. Easter can be as early as March 22 and as late as April 25 using the western calendar. This year it occurs on March 27. The significance of today in the liturgical year reminds us of that day after Jesus died on the cross. But today is not that day. Still we observe it as if Jesus died right in this place where we live. The formula for Easter is: ‘the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox,” But the West uses a fixed date for the equinox (March 21) and the Eastern Church an astronomical one. In addition we follow different calendars. So in 2011 we celebrated together but this year, the Eastern Orthodox Easter is May 1. Then we have the Jewish Passover which last year coincided with Easter week. But this year it links up more closely with the Eastern Church with the eight day Passover beginning on April 22.This is a full five weeks away that people all across the globe will reenact the events of that day Jesus died. He dies twice and is thankfully resurrected twice. People will pray, give to the poor and fast. Some, as many did yesterday, will contemplate the Stations of the Cross or the seven last words of Christ. But regardless of when we observe Holy Week it nevertheless shows us how far God will go to save us. It demonstrates, in retrospect, the amazing extent of the love of God and how a man Jesus finished well and for that we indeed need to be thankful. What Will You Do With Your Holy Saturday?
Scripture: God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (NIV)
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Know that the LORD is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100 (NRSV)
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God. You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme. But they will have to give an accounting to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does. The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:1-11 (NRSV)
Message: There is a saying that it always rains on Good Friday and indeed yesterday where I live it did rain, but it did not rain everywhere, though more than a few tears will be shed and shared. I think we should really be more joyous about today than we are for it is really a beautiful spring day this Saturday after Good Friday. Last night the Irish won at basketball going into the elite eight and the Rolling Stones performed in Havana. History rolls on too. Perhaps it is not a day for celebrations just yet but it is one for joy…for contemplation whether we observe Holy Saturday or not. For me today is a time of prayer, and so I turn to the lectionary. And today it brings us Peter’s helpful and encouraging teaching on the subject of suffering. Here in the reading and in the backwash of events we are to join us with Christ in death so we might better rejoice in the hope that is to come. This Lent and Holy Week we have been learning to hope and trust in our Lord, even in unjust suffering. The reality is that hope keeps us faithful and growing during suffering….the little deaths. Here we have the hope that ultimate victory lies just ahead so we continue to trust in Jesus Christ. We have the confidence that all things work together in our lives for good if we are trusting in Christ Jesus. And we know that if we trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not upon our own understanding, but instead, if we acknowledge the Lord in all our ways, He has promised to direct our steps. So here on this Holy Saturday we might just realize that sometimes our Lord allows suffering to come into our lives, but if we keep on walking with Jesus even the suffering can be used for good. Here we are helped to grow in grace. Here in the darkness Jesus lights the light of love in our hearts.
Pray today in stillness as we await, as the whole world awaits the resurrection. Pray we experience the harmony of the seven last words of Christ. Pray in the experience of forgiveness, salvation, relationship, abandonment, distress, triumph and reunion. Pray we experience the harmony of Jesus even though we do not have harmony. Pray that we not be satisfied with living in the tension of the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Pray we meet others in the pain of the crucifixion and share in the mystery that when we increase our heart knowledge of Jesus we grow in the love of His presence. Pray in this day before Easter Sunday that we realize that in order to turn from sin, we must turn to Christ. Pray we receive Jesus as Savior and then follow Him as Lord. Pray we follow Him and allow Him to live in and through us by the person of the Holy Spirit. Pray we produce the fruit of the Spirit, and the Lord enables us to do something good. Pray we realize that when we live lives that are good, and when we do good things for others, we will sometimes suffer for that good behavior. Pray we realize that part of that suffering comes from the fact that the world and worldly friends don’t understand us. Pray that despite the challenges of the world that we continue to live with faith and hope in God and that we will receive an eternal reward but not just in the sweet bye and bye but even now. Pray we keep growing in grace even through our suffering. Pray we keep doing good even when all seems lost. Pray we are joined this day with Christ in death. Pray we stand by Jesus sharing in the suffering. Pray that like a seed buried in the ground we become dead to sin and alive to God’s harvest of eternal life for us. Pray that like the new Adam we learn the love of our hidden spiritual life. Pray that we remember our baptism and that through it we remember that we have been buried with Jesus so that we may also rise with Jesus.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 