The divine course continues ...
The seven sets of readings for Holy Saturday selected by the authors of the Lectionary summarize the coming of Jesus. Few, if any, of us will get to a Holy Saturday service this year. My reflection offers a smidgeon of that holy liturgy.
Holy Saturday concatenated. Here's a short ride on the divine course set forth since the beginning of time.
A scrunched version of Holy Saturday
By John Pearring
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041120.cfm
The seven sets of readings for Holy Saturday selected by the authors of the Lectionary summarize the coming of Jesus. Few of us attended a Holy Saturday service this year. My reflection offers a smidgeon, a small portion of that holy liturgy, with a few comments on what each reading means to me.
1. God positions himself as both creator and inhabitor of creation in the Book of Genesis. This is his creation for us. God intends that creation will return as it was in the beginning -- with him.
"See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth
and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;
and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air,
and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground,
I give all the green plants for food."
And so it happened.
God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
Evening came, and morning followed—the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.
The joyful bit here in this excerpt from the first readings is that, originally, plants provided all that creation’s animals needed for sustenance. The conundrum of death brought about our common survival by animals eating each other. Even some plant life attempts to eat us! A major redemption will be necessary to return creation to the first purpose.
2. The second reading is also from Genesis. Like all of my summaries, I have selected only a few verses here. God’s messenger, an angel, halts Isaac’s sacrifice. We weaken at the pain the Father sees ahead for his only begotten son. Abraham innately knows what is the divine mission to answer for sin, but does not yet know God will be that sacrifice.
But the LORD's messenger called to him from heaven,
"Abraham, Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he answered.
"Do not lay your hand on the boy," said the messenger.
"Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."
These scriptures inform us through later revelations that God will become one of us, incarnated. The incredible, cosmic, eternal consequences that God becomes human to draw us closer to him is almost beyond comprehension.
3. Abject evil, insistent upon divine control of all creation is memorialized in the Egyptian’s lack of submission to God. As the book of Exodus explains, pandemic trial after horrifying trial only hardens the Egyptian king. At the same time, the tightly packed nation of Israel, formed already through hundreds of years of trial, with thousands more to come, embark on becoming the people from where Jesus will come.
Thus the LORD saved Israel on that day
from the power of the Egyptians.
When Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore
and beheld the great power that the LORD
had shown against the Egyptians,
they feared the LORD and believed in him and in his servant Moses.
Not lost on readers of the Old Testament is God’s fairness in dismissing evil in stark, final terms. Many times the progeny of Israel also fails to heed the Lord and fall into pit after pit of suffering. It’s not so much God’s search for a perfect nation, but his inestimable decision to build one despite human frailty and propensity for sin.
4. Continuing the epic tale of God with us, Isaiah captures God’s worlds of historic intent.
For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with great tenderness I will take you back.
In an outburst of wrath, for a moment
I hid my face from you;
but with enduring love I take pity on you,
says the LORD, your redeemer.
Isaiah plays a particular pivot point for preparing the world for Jesus. Scripture after scripture coin coming Jesus phrases and project his inevitable redemption of creation.
5. Isaiah again gets to position God’s revelations for all time. Hearkening to Genesis, and speaking forward to the book of Revelation, Isaiah packages God’s plan for creation. He will not fail.
For just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.
The water analogies in scripture are so beautiful. “All you who are thirsty, come to the water!” Jesus picked up the echo in the temple when he said the same thing, identifying himself as the purveyor of water.
6. The brilliance of the lectionary authors, obviously inspired by God himself, is revealed in their choice of the Book of Baruch for Holy Saturday’s litany of the Old Testament. Baruch offers bits of Wisdom writings and Jeremiah’s probable notes to portray the trauma of a waiting nation for the Messiah following their dispersion to Babylon.
You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom!
Had you walked in the way of God,
you would have dwelt in enduring peace.
Learn where prudence is,
where strength, where understanding;
that you may know also
where are length of days, and life,
where light of the eyes, and peace.
Who has found the place of wisdom,
who has entered into her treasuries?
Baruch's several warnings against idols, false gods, have a rare notion beyond just idolatry. The idols are not to be feared. It is God only who should be feared.
7. Ezekiel’s treatise of preparing Israel for their future, full restoration, hints at the character of God’s ultimate infiltration into creation. God will not only be successful, but so will creation. It will willingly submit to God for both his love for them and the truth of who he is.
For I will take you away from among the nations,
gather you from all the foreign lands,
and bring you back to your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you
to cleanse you from all your impurities,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you,
taking from your bodies your stony hearts
and giving you natural hearts.
We often remind ourselves that God has his hand in everything. Seldom, though, do we revel so well in the fact that we will be a part of that restoration. Life has always been a tragic series of sufferings. Yearning, however, must include the knowledge that God is our constant and careful creator. We have that new Spirit already.
Ezekiel ends the litany of seven readings with the reality of Jesus’ risen body today. Jesus left for the Comforter to come to us.
I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes,
careful to observe my decrees.
You shall live in the land I gave your fathers;
you shall be my people, and I will be your God.