Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday

Quiet

The night waits

In silence.

Mournful

The stars weep

In darkness.

Sadness

The tomb groans

In fullness.

Waiting

The angel stands

In readiness.

For the Sunrise.

Lightening Up

 Yesterday, I ate only vegetables and fruit. Today, I ate only vegetables and fruit. Tomorrow, I intend to eat only vegetables and fruit. And the day after that, vegetables and fruit. Until Easter, vegetables and fruit. I wanted to try it because sometimes I feel too heavy. Not like I weigh too much, but weighted with heavy foods. For Lent, I refrained from refined sugar and felt lighter. But resorting to veggies and fruit feels even lighter, like dumping weights that pull one down. It is like the letting go of things that prevent the rising up. And with Easter coming, I want to rise up. I want to be lighter than I was before Easter. For some reason, it feels dark and heavy just before Resurrection Day. So I guess what I am doing is preparing, trying to ditch the dark and the heavy in a physical way so that I can leap on Sunday and really celebrate with lightness.

The Resurrected Shepherd

This is the fourth Sunday in the Easter season. It continues the celebration begun Easter morning. It is a spirited season, a joyful season, a season that knows something wonderful has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen. It is a season that is happy about the past, enjoys the present, yet longs for the future.

It is a season of white and gold, pink flowers, and alleluia banners. It is a season to sing Up From the Grave and read from Revelation 7. It is a season to reflect on the Good Shepherd and what it means to follow the leading. It is a good season to be a follower, a follower of Jesus, a follower of the Resurrected One.

I say this because in the following, I learn what it means to be a resurrected person. In the following, I learn the significance of death and the power of new life. In the following, I learn the meaning of burial and the walking out of the tomb. In the following of a resurrected Shepherd, I learn to trust a leading over spacious fields, through running waters, into dark caves, through open gates, and onto untrod pathways.

I may not know where I am going, but I nibble and drink along the way. I rest and gaze. Kick up my heels or stumble. Run or walk. But always following, following and trusting. The Resurrected Shepherd leads along the good way, and there I am learning to be resurrected too.

The Restlessness of Dying

Some hospice patients tend to be restless. They say that they want to go somewhere. They want to be in a different place. They want to move. It is as though the spirit knows that she is on her way to another place and wants the body to take her there. It seems to be a way to prepare for going.

We think of death as leaving. The spirit leaves the body. The dead person leaves others behind her. But the restlessness seems to describe death as going. The dying process is a "going" journey. With the nearness of death, the spirit seems to remember that there is another place. It is that place from which she came and is now anxious to return.

It is as though the spirit is trying to loosen herself from the body so that she can go, so that she can move into another place. She has been resting in the body and now that the body is failing, she becomes restless for that other home. She wants to go back, back to the One who gave her the temporary home in this physical world.

She wants to continue living. And so, it is this restlessness that signals movement. It is the going from a corrupted home to living with the One who will give her a new home in the resurrection. The restlessness of dying is the going, going toward another resting place, a restful and resurrected home.

Life Follows Death

The Light follows Darkness,

Singing follows Silence,

Healing follows Brokenness,

Life follows Death.

Resurrection Day at Last