The Choice of Rest

I do not rest well in this season of waiting and healing. I have not spend hours in contemplation and prayer. I find writing and reading difficult and tiring.  I waste time looking for my misplaced reading glasses so I can see what's on my phone or computer or plate. I put drops in dry eyes and cry when I can't distinguish the clothes in my closet. I'm nervous of the prognosis of my long term vision.  If this is a test, I'm failing.

But this week has been a quiet respite from my agitation. Last weekend I met with a small group and read the Scriptures, sat in silence, walked with them, did some art. It was a pause, a holy Saturday.

All these years of observing the Easter season, Saturday was just a throw away day. We attended dozens of churches in our mobile life. We occasionally had a Maundy Thursday service, once or twice with public foot washing. Another humbling practice and I've often wondered why we seem to ignore that example of Christ's or pull it out once a year.   Most churches had some sort of Good Friday observance. Clearly we were of the "low" churches crowd.  But in all, Easter Sunday was the big celebration.  Some churches had egg hunts, some had productions- one with life animals.  But Saturday? That was my day to figure how if the boys' pants and my Easter dress from last year still fit and if Abby had clean white shoes.



But the Scripture tells us that after the exhaustion of pain and confusion and anguish on Friday,  Jesus...well, it turns out we Christians disagree on what exactly He did on the Saturday.  But we know His disciples observed their Sabbath and rested.

“In honor of Creation and at God’s express command, 

the Jewish people observed the Sabbath as a day of complete rest.

 But its most profound meaning is contained in this particular Sabbath in which,

 having laid down his life for the human family, Jesus, the Son of God, rested.

   Out of respect for the death of the Redeemer, there is no liturgical celebration on Holy Saturday.  In honor of Jesus’ body resting in tomb, the church also rests. 

There is nothing more to be said, nothing more to be done. 

On this day everything rests.”

Thomas Keating

The Mystery of Christ

I like that. It's not an empty day. It's not merely a waiting day.  It's a resting day. A day to sink into the pain of Friday and to anticipate the joy of Sunday.  But clearly it's also a day of it's own activity. It is a day to rest, to breathe, to pause. 

 

"Praying around the Cross"
Trinity Lutheran Church
 Rapid City, SD

So I am remembering my own small pain and looking forward to whatever is ahead for my vision, and I am choosing to rest in the middle.  Are you in an in-between place as well? Not yet there but in a time that may feel useless or  unproductive or wasted?  We all have moments and seasons that can feel this way. Perhaps this Holy Week, we too can choose to rest.  To know, at some level, in all things...

There is nothing more to be said, nothing more to be done. 

On this day everything rests.”