Matthew 27:57-66
"Holy Saturday" - Years A, B, C
No matter how we seek security, there is none.
A rich grave is no more secure than a poor one. Neither can capture a life.
Vigilance is not a source of security. Lives cannot be put on hold to watch.
Suspicion gives no sense of security. No matter how many contingencies are prepared for the future cares not a whit for the limits of our imagination and keeps coming around every defense we plan for.
Security attempts to get us back from they mystery of emptiness where “nothing” can become not only “something” but “anything”. Security is our attempt to control outcomes. Security needs so much propping up that it, itself, becomes insecure.
Blessings to Arimathea Joe and Magdala Mary and Perplexing Pilate. [Note: In the Eastern Church Pilate was canonize for his proclamation of Jesus’ innocence (Feast Day, June 25); in the Western Church Pilate is seen as the enemy of Christ and delight taken in devising ingenious and gruesome ends for him.] Blessings to you still standing without any guarantees, just a sense of belovedness.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/03/matthew-2757-66.html
Can you imagine going to President Bush or Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and asking for the bodies of the dead Iraqis killed by military action these past two years (not to mention the first time around).
How would you honor their death?
On the off-chance that Bush or Rumsfeld accidentally gave permission the first time, it is not too far afield to imagine them subsequently clamping down on such action - sealing the tombs - camouflaging them so no one would know they were there.
But back to the first question. Innocent blood has been shed and not acknowledged. What will you do?
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Joseph (Reader)
I would acknowledge the shedding of the blood of the innocent of Iraq along with the shedding of the blood of the innocents of September 11th. Innocent blood is innocent blood whomever acknowledges it.
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Wesley (Author)
Amen. And how long it seemed to take for our administration to hear the cry of the families of these "innocents" for action that such might not happen again. Whether here or there, innocents are massacred and Rachels are heard wherever there is a Ramah experience.
Still there is an angst that the innocents continue to die and the question of whether I am asking for their bodies to bring peace or for an accounting to bring justice.
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Joseph (Reader)
maybe along with the questions you pose, we should add a time and a space to sit with the grieving and permission to allow them (and ourselves)to ask why especially in cases like of the nine dead in a school shoouting in Minnesota.
Sometimes only with the questions do we begin to move toward peace and justice.
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Wesley (Author)
Again, Amen. I must admit to being over extended this week - trying to catch up from a brief vacation, two subsequent weeks of crud, a major Kairos CoMotion event, participating in an interview group for a Conference position, and all the backlog of that as I try to prepare for these next days and care for myself along the way.
Your comment is a good reminder why I need an extended family to derail my tendency toward steaming full speed ahead when it, again, turns out that fastest way is the long way around. (That's reminiscent of an Edward Albee line that I can't quite pull back.) Ah, yes, time to get back to what I know and espouse -- wait with and question. Those are appropriate Holy Saturday behaviors. Thanks, Joseph.
Now to see how it goes with the the next comment drafted in the dead of night.
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Evie (Reader)
I'm not so sure that any innocent blood exists, unless it's the blood of infants. Otherwise, our lives are so intertwined, whether we know and acknowledge it or not. Unfortunately, my blood isn't innocent; I know too much.
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Wesley (Author)
The conversation about innocence is intriguing.
Looking at the word beyond our usual associations with it we find from Webster's this information:
"Innocent" - from Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin innocent-, innocens, from in- + nocent-, nocens wicked, from present participle of nocEre to harm -- more at NOXIOUS
"Noxious" - from Middle English noxius, from Latin, from noxa harm; akin to Latin nocEre to harm, nec-, nex violent death, Greek nekros dead body
In given situations there are those who are wickedly harming and those whose actions end in violent death. In those same situations there are the ones so acted upon.
A part of the trick here is that we don't measure any person by simply looking at one particular situation. There are times when I am not innocent. By extension it can be said that I am therefore born in sin and never truly innocent. There are likewise times when I am innocent, either actively or passively, and can, again, extend that into a basic innocence that doesn't always get lived out.
I expect that I err on the side of starting with innocence. I'm not sure where I'm taking this for myself or as a model whereby to see others (I'm not doing so well, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt; they are not doing so well, but I'll give myself the benefit of the doubt; neither of us can claim ultimate well doing; both of us can be given the benefit of the doubt). I am thankful for the opportunity to reflect on this and hope we'll keep pushing on this, now and then, when we are up to it, as it probably affects us more than we know.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html
Nicodemus comes bearing the Magi gift of Myrrh. Bringing more than can be used, a prodigal amount. This is our last encounter with Nicodemus. He has questioned Jesus and stood up for Jesus' judicial rights. Now he comes as a disciple to care for his body.
When was this latest switch made? It wasn't a post-resurrectional experience. How close to the cross did it come? Did he hear the affirmation of the centurion? Did he see Jesus bind Mary and a disciple together as new family?
This is a day of reflecting on what we have come to. What do you come up with regarding your own life? Is it time to huddle in fear, to run away, to chop off more ears, to address what needs addressing so health will flourish as long a possible?
Hopefully this day of waiting will bring with it a particular action that will demonstrate our discipleship in the most difficult of situations - while bereft.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing, a live thing out of a dead thing? Certainly not a magician. Certainly not positive thinking or prosperity theology. Certainly not an acculturated church. Certainly not individual faith.
It is important at some point to give up hope, to have dead be dead. This day we don't even wait. We go through motions. We become the walking dead.
Yesterday was bad enough. Today is badder yet. Tomorrow will be worser than anything. The end of all things is near. I wouldn't believe a proclamation of good news if it were yelled in my face.
Peter with his "disciplined prayers" and "constant love covering a multitude of sins" can go hang himself with Judas. If there is a next generation, they might listen to that but, today, it's most unreal.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
As usual with two accounts, there are similarities and differences between the tellings. The major difference is the Matthean addition about guarding the tomb for fear that the disciples would be as duplicitous as were the Chief Priest and paid-for mob. Knowing the power of lies they were concerned that a big one could counter their big one and people would remember only the last lie they heard (“the last deception would be worse [for us] than the first”).
The only thing the fearful ones forgot was that you can roll lies over truth for a while, but “at the length truth will out”. The only alternative is to keep building the lie bigger and bigger over time. Even here it will eventually fall of its own weight.
A second difference is that Nicodemus, who only appears in John, in John reappears with an affirmation of Jesus with a boat-load of expensive spices instead of questions or a voice of reason/moderation.
The similarity is testimony that Jesus is dead. Dead and gone. Gone as far as effectively being in Sheol or Hades or Hell. There will be no Nicodemus-like reprise. Jesus is erased from this world. The guards of Matthew and our experience will both confirm that dead is dead.
The loss of Friday is shock. The loss of Saturday is resignation, not awe.
Though it is day, it is as dark as a sealed tomb where not even hope tiptoes.
Spoiler alert—Note well that without resignation there is no resurrection. This makes it very difficult for us today to experience Mary Magdalene and another Mary simply sitting across from the tomb. If they are too numb to do anything but sit and sense movement across the way and we are not numb about the crucifixions going on in our own context with trafficking, intentional denial of health care to the poorest, continued discrimination of LGBTQ people and immigrants without papers, increased gap of purchasing power, blocked decision-making, increased weather events, and so much more, we won’t be able to finally return to life to witness to changes necessary for our common life to rebound and flourish. Eventually Mary will come back to life and be a source of life for many. May we know how bad it is, there is no rescue on the horizon, we are alone.
Only when this Saturday is real will we take our part. Blessings on those who have lost all, who have nothing left to lose, for they are free to change and bring change.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/04/matthew-2757-66-or-john-1938-42-saturday.html