Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we are saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Reinhold Niebuhr<\/em><\/p>\n This is my favorite day in Holy Week, this Saturday, this unrestful Sabbath, my favorite day in the whole of the liturgical calendar.<\/p>\n Well, actually, \u201cfavorite\u201d is the wrong word. It\u2019s not that I\u00a0like<\/em>\u00a0this day so much as that I understand it. It\u2019s recognizable, familiar, lived-in.<\/p>\n This day, the Saturday that can\u2019t know if there will ever be a Sunday, is the day we live in, you and I, today and every day for the whole of our lives. This is all we are given to know.<\/p>\n Easter Sunday? That\u2019s tomorrow, the day\u00a0after<\/em>\u00a0today. We\u2019ll never get there in time. We can\u00a0believe<\/em>\u00a0in Easter Sunday, but we can\u2019t be sure. We can\u2019t\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0for sure. We can\u2019t know until we\u2019re out of time.<\/p>\n Here, in time, there\u2019s just\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0day, this dreadful Saturday of not knowing.<\/p>\n There are some things we can know on this Saturday. Jesus is dead, to begin with, dead and buried. He said the world was upside-down and needed a revolution to turn it right-way-round and so he was executed for disturbing the peace. He came and said love was greater than power, and so power killed him.<\/p>\n And now it\u2019s Saturday and Jesus is dead and we\u2019re all going to die and everything I\u2019ve told you about him turns out to be in vain and everything I\u2019ve staked my life on turns out to be in vain. Our faith is futile and we\u2019re still hopeless in our sins. Jesus is dead and we are of all people most to be pitied.<\/p>\n That last paragraph is a paraphrase from St. Paul. What he actually says there, in his letter to the Christians in Corinth, is \u201cif<\/em>\u00a0\u2026\u201d What he says, specifically, is:<\/p>\n If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. \u2026 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.<\/p>\n But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But that\u2019s Sunday language and Sunday certainty and it doesn\u2019t make much sense here on Saturday. Here on Saturday, we can\u00a0hope<\/em>\u00a0it\u2019s true and we may even try to\u00a0believe<\/em>\u00a0it\u2019s true, but we can\u2019t\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0\u201cin fact\u201d one way or another. Not now. Not on Saturday.<\/p>\n And to be honest, it doesn\u2019t seem terribly likely, because Saturday, this Saturday, is all we\u2019ve ever known. Yesterday was this same Saturday, and so was the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that.<\/p>\n Why should we expect that tomorrow will be any different?<\/p>\n Seriously, just look around. Does it\u00a0look<\/em>\u00a0like the meek are inheriting the earth? Does it look like those who hunger and thirst for justice are being filled? Does it look like the merciful are being shown mercy?<\/p>\n Jesus was meek and merciful and hungry for justice and look where that got\u00a0him.<\/em>\u00a0They killed him. We killed him. Power won.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what this everyday Saturday shows us \u2014 power\u00a0always<\/em>\u00a0wins. \u201cIf you want a picture of the future,\u201d George Orwell wrote, \u201cimagine a boot stomping on a human face \u2014 forever.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut in fact,\u201d St. Paul says, everything changes on Sunday. Come Sunday\u00a0power loses.<\/em>\u00a0Come Sunday, love wins, the meek shall inherit, the merciful will receive mercy and no one will ever go hungry for justice again. Come Sunday, everything changes.<\/p>\n If there ever is a Sunday.<\/p>\n And but so, this is why we hope for Sunday and why we live for the hope of Sunday. Even though we can\u2019t know for sure that Sunday will ever come and even if Saturday is all we ever get to see.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seriously, just look around. Does it look like those who hunger and thirst for justice are being filled?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":63249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2023\/04\/Lorraine.jpg\")
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