Holy Week Musings

Weekend musings ...

I've never understood why this day is called "Good Friday" ... it should be called "Dark Day" ... or "Hell's Victory," or "When We Killed Jesus because We Didn't Like What He Said or Did."

Everything that goes wrong in our time, went wrong in the last week of Jesus' life ... using imagery from "Something Wicked This Way Comes," the Carnival won ... or from "Ready Player One," the corporate machine won ... in both of these provocative stories, it's the children who are at risk.

I suppose we'd rather not be confronted with all of this, so we dress it up a wee bit, make it a little more palatable ... we call it "Good Friday," and hurry over it, and hurry through Waiting Saturday, the time in between (when no one was certain of anything), to get to the bunnies and bonnets. Whoopee Ding Dang, ain't it grand!

We don't have to live in a state of constant apology for being snotty, snooty, and selfish, but we do need to spend some time pondering how clever we are with avoiding the truth ... so that we can keep on being snotty, snooty and selfish and not feel so bad.

We need to stand at the foot of the cross, with some realization of the the dark materials in our times, and in our lives, and say, "Yup, I did this, too. I waved my palm branches on parade day, but, in the end, Barabas seemed the better deal when I weighed it all up."

Tomorrow, Holy Saturday, we wait ... because we're simply not sure what God will do with all the junk.

As for Sunday, well, God willing, we'll see ya' there ... but let's remember, it was the Resurrection that turned a whole lot of the world upside down, and folks weren't too happy about that, either, and when we see the Stone rolled away, the Stone of political power, the Stone of religious stubbornness, the Stone of wealth, the Stone of the status quo, the Stone of pride and bigotry, the Stone I use to control things and keep things in hand, manageable and tame ... my Stone, your Stone, and should God mess with our Stone, we all get a little nervous.

The challenge for us is to be mindful ... serious when needed (much of the time) and playful, too (when elements of joy and hope and peace seem so real, so close at hand, we can touch them) ... we keep on keepin' on, because what else should we do?

I believe, but LORD help my unbelief ... on this Dark Day, and with Tomorrow's uneasy waiting, and the Light of a Tomb that holds the energy of both death and life, life anew, and God said, "Let there be light."

And so it goes ... in this world of cabbages and kings ...