HOLY SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 2012--HOLY WEEK--EVENING MEDITATION

In the Darkness

Scripture:  Job 14: 5-7

Today is one of the darkest and saddest days on earth-- the day we sit by the tomb and wait.  If we are looking for companions in our waiting, Job is a good place to start. As a righteous man who has lived a God-fearing life, the book of Job tells us of what happens when "bad things happen to good people."   Job loses everything: his wife, his children, his home, his livelihood and later even his health. And, he has a choice in his personal state of darkness. Will he curse God and die? Or, will he keep hope alive? 

Job chooses to wait on the Lord, but does so not in a "holier than thou" fashion of singing praise songs and collecting roses for bouquets to give to the homeless. No, he tells God to leave him alone. He thinks about how nice it would be to feel cut down like a tree. He really wants the pain of his losses to stop.

As we wait with Jesus on this dark day, as many of us are surrounded by situations in our own lives which are full of suffering, sickness and injustice -- we wait with a God who can take whatever it is that we have to say to him. We can be honest. We can speak our minds and know that even as the darkness looms and the light seems far away, we serve a God who hears us no matter what. Nothing can separate us from God's love. Not even death!

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

You can pray with all your might

 Till your knuckles all turn white

 You can look the other way

 Hope it’s gone with each new day

You can do your best to hide

 You can hold it all inside

 You can curse and shake your fist

 You can ask why God why this

There is peace somewhere I’m told

 There’s a fire out in the cold

 There are wonders to behold

 In the dark night of the soul

You can give in to your doubts

 Try to figure it all out

 You can fight the fight alone

 Do your best to drink it gone

There is peace somewhere I’m told

 There’s a fire out in the cold

 There are wonders to behold

 In the dark night of the soul

Trust your spirit to be your guide

 You’ll come out on the other side

In the absence of the light

 Let the shadows hold you tight

 You can let your fear and pain

 Wash over you like rain

There is peace somewhere I’m told

 There’s a fire out in the cold

 There are wonders to behold

 In the dark night of the soul

In the dark night of the soul

By Kate Campbell & Walt Aldridge

 © Large River Music (BMI)

 Cross Key Publishing Co. Inc./Waltz Time Music Inc. (ASCAP)

Prayer:  God, we are overwhelmed by the sadness of this day and of what has been done to you, Jesus. We fall beside the tomb this night in grief, in despair and in solidarity with all those around our world who are living in darkness as we speak: those who do not know you as Lord of all. Hold us tight, O God, in the dark as we wait. Remind us somehow, someway that you are with us and have not left us to face our perils alone.  AMEN.

 The Reverend Elizabeth Hagan