Wait For It

Author: kj
April 19, 2025
On this Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, theologically speaking (liturgically calendaring?), we are being asked to "wait for it." Scriptures tell us that Jesus died and then it was the sabbath, so there was a day of doing nothing, before the women came to prepare the body in the tomb.

Our culture doesn't exactly prepare a space for us to "wait for it." Capitalism has long been trying to make these high Holy days the "spring Black Friday" (as I heard it called in an ad earlier this week). School districts also line up their spring breaks around these days. Hard to take some space to "wait for it" when this is also the only chance to get away for a few days.

Some traditions mark this time with an Easter vigil. The vigil can include a fire outside (where the palms are burned for next year's Ash Wednesday ashes), candles burning, and readings from the Old Testament throughout the day and the night. I like the idea of the vigil, but it is also a way to keep us fidgeting with "busy work" rather than sitting in the tension of the season.

Yesterday was Good Friday and the tone of that day and that service seems to match the challenges of the times we're living in. Easter morning with all of its flowers and bright colors and trumpets seems like a vibe we'll never fully attain. As Christians we acknowledge that it is Friday, and hold onto the hope that Sunday is coming (Rev. S.M. Lockridge).

In the in-between time we are called to reflect God's love and light out into the world as best we can; following the last commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples, "to love one another." This world is far from perfect, but as Christians we know that one day it will be... we just have to wait for it.
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