When Saturday Was Silent

I love to write and share, but it’s not always read, nor followed. Equally, I enjoy chatting with family, friends, even strangers, but the words are not always heard, understood, or followed.

Someone said I talk too much. Another person said I write too much. I don’t care. You don’t have to listen, nor read.

That’s my bottom line. I ‘is who I ‘is! Or, in the Popeye vernacular, “I ‘yam what I ‘yam!” Take it. Leave it. I’m not sure I care.

I woke this morning thinking about this Easter weekend and what it would be like on Sunday when families must stay home (COVID-19), and the church sanctuary is silenced. This is where we are.

Do we think God is also quiet?

Jesus said it repeatedly, John the Revelator echoed the sentiment, if you have ears to hear, then listen. God is speaking. The word is chattering. The angels are crying, Holy, Holy, Holy!

The only time I “hear” Jesus is being silent is when the woman is cast at his feet to face his judgement. Yes. I was waiting for him to speak and give his opinion, but he simply wrote in the sand. Is not writing a version of speaking?!

Then, when he stood in the face of the authorities and they judged him. Was that only yesterday? He was mostly silent. No attempt to defend himself, or share his viewpoint, or try to get back at those meanies who put him here.

Today is Saturday

In the chronology of events, today is Saturday. It is a holy day for Jewish people everywhere. Worldwide. Not all celebrate equally, but their national heritage lays out their routine from the Word of God.

I imagine today, 2,000 years ago. The silence from the tomb is deafening. No one can visit, nor pay their respect. It is the day of memories – where we came from as a nation, what the sacrificial lamb meant, and how protected we are with the blood painted on the door posts and lintel.

Maybe we chatter, nervously. After all, it’s hard for vocal chords to not utter sound. If we were any other Saturday than today, our routine would be different. Today is our holy day. Today, we remember the Passover!

But Jesus is not with us. He was taken from the cross Friday evening, and put into the tomb just before sunset, the beginning of Passover. A final job of preparing and anointing his body for burial must still be completed. The earliest that it can be done will be Sunday.

Today. Weeping replaces chatter. Tears replace our smiles. Today, we comfort each other, too choked to chat about the weather, or much of anything else. Disbelief rattles our psyche. Are we next? Will this day embolden those who doubted Jesus? Fear mounts, I’m sure.

A Day of Remembrance

If ever there was a day of silence, it is today. Mourning. Trying to make sense of yesterday. Hell may be rejoicing, but for his followers, it is surely a day of silent weeping.

In the midst of storm, remember, he stood and spoke to the weather. “Peace, be still!” Oh, we need some peace right now!

Remember that blind man he put mud made from spittle into his eye? Go. Wash. Tell no one! Oh, we need some clarity from our blindness.

Remember he touched so many thousands, they were healed. He vocalized so many trues, and we learned so much about how better to live and be.

I hear him praying. Teaching us how to pray. Let’s pray now.

Oh, he thundered through the outer courts of the temple, chasing away the money changers! Den of thieves! This is a house of prayer!

Remember his voice! His words!

Remember how we are told about binding the Shema on our wrists, posting on our doors, telling our children… Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One… Let’s recite the stories of Jesus so that they will be remembered for generations and millennium…

When Heaven Is Silent

Perhaps the key to this day is to understand that, though we think heaven is silent, it is simply storing up it’s energy for a day of celebration! Yesterday was Friday. The agony, suffering and the cross. Today is silence while we wait for tomorrow.

Sunday is coming!

The past, as equal to the present, is never a surprise for God. He sees the past equal to the present, and just as tomorrow may be a mystery, he already knows its outcome.

Sunday is coming!

Tomorrow is yet to show on our horizon, and though we dread it’s coming today, for God, he already knows the results!

Sunday is coming!

Recall the history of Jesus, remember and recite his words and lesson, but know this. Sunday is coming and hell will be silenced!

A Psalm of David at the Dedication of his house.

“A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David.
I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.
O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.
O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life:
weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.
LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong:
thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.
I cried to thee, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication.
What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?
Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?
Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me:
LORD, be thou my helper.

Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing:
thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.”  
Psalms 30:1-12 (KJV)

Appropriate, yes?!!!