Saturday Holy Week

Saturday Holy Week

Light candle.

Normally we wouldn't behaving a service on a Saturday night, but these aren't normal times.

The reason we don't have a service on a Saturday night is because it is a waiting time.

Good Friday has the cross and the hope of forgiveness.

Easter Sunday has the resurrection and the hope of new beginnings.

But Saturday...Saturday is the time between.

So what can we learn from this time of waiting, this time of uncertainty....

Well the first thing is that this isn’t a new experience.

We forget that no one expected Easter Sunday;

not the disciples, not Herod, not Caiaphas the high priest, not any of the Mary's' no one expected Jesus to rise from the dead.

The disciples didn't sit in the upper room and believe that all they had to do was hang in there and it would be all right in the end.

They were in the darkness and they didn't expect the light to shine.

That is exactly where some of us are just now.

Many of us are in a dark place and we don't know when it will end, we don't even know IF it will end.

And that darkness takes many forms;

relationships breaking up,

financial struggles,

problems with addiction ,

uncertainties with our jobs,

grief and illness,

worries within our families,

the list goes on and on.

And when we are in the midst of that darkness it can be frightening.

The disciples know what that is like because they have been there,

they did not expected the darkness to finish.

But we also forget something else.

On Sunday morning Jesus was already out the tomb.

Mary arrived first thing and the stone was already away from the tomb entrance, Jesus was already out the tomb.

So when God did his thing, he did it in the darkness.

God didn't raise Jesus in the light, the light just showed the work God had already done.

God did his work when it was needed most, God did his work in the dark.

So next time you are in a dark place, or if you are there just now.

Take this hope with you.

You are not alone, God is with you, and he always does his best work in the dark.

Let us pray

May the peace of God, which is beyond our needs, touch our hearts tonight.

May the love of God, which is beyond our understanding, touch our hearts tonight.

May the strength and generosity of God, which is beyond our hopes, touch our hearts tonight.

Amen