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Submitted by admin on September 30, 2011 - 11:39pm
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Reflections on Columbus Day inspired by a reading of Joshua 3:7-17
The lectionary text for October 2 is from Exodus, and it's the ten commandments. How do we orient ourselves to these ancient rules in 21st-century life? Once upon a time, no one swore in front of women or children; now many women swear as casually as they say "good morning." And is it taking the Lord's name in vain to write OMG on a Facebook page? Especially when LOL is in the same sentence? Some of the commandments were no-brainers then and they are no-brainers now. Don't lie, don't steal, don't kill.
Holy Saturday is a weird, in-between time, usually neglected in the Protestant tradition. But it, like Good Friday, is integral to Easter. In the early church, it was the day that Jesus “descended into hell” to bring out the souls of the righteous. But Holy Saturday is for us the time of waiting, of uncertainty, of anxiety. One door has closed, the other has not yet opened. What is this strange hallway between them? Is it really, as noted humorously in an earlier reflection, hell? It sure can feel like it. But psychologists and anthropologists have another name for it.
Everything within us strains for the end of suffering, the restoration of wholeness and health, the liberation from hardship and injustice, but this one, long day—Good Friday—we are asked to resist the rush to closure. We’re invited to identify with Jesus’ suffering—not so that we can be martyrs—but so that we can take that next crucial step with him, the step where we acknowledge our fear but nevertheless choose to put our trust in God. That is the essential bridge between Good Friday and Easter.
At some point Jesus had to make a choice: continue on his present, increasingly dangerous course, or cut and run. The gospel accounts put that ultimate decision in the Garden of Gethsemane. There he confronted his impending death, and in a wrenchingly human moment, confessed: ”O Lord, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”
