Saturday 23 April 2011

Background

Holy Saturday. The day when God is silent.

In his book, God on Mute, Pete Greig writes,

"No-one really talks about Holy Saturday, yet if we stop and thinkabout it, it's where most of us live our lives. Holy Saturday isthe no man's land between questions and answers, prayers utteredand miracles to come. It's where we wait - with a peculiar mixtureof faith and despair - whenever God is silent or life doesn't makesense." (Eastbourne, Kingsway Survivor, 2007)

We meet with the despair of God's absence in this passage fromLamentations. The people of God are exiled and afraid. The writerpowerfully describes the depths of human distress and despair. Aswe read this passage, we can hear the violence, misery, lonelinessand abuses suffered by the people of God.

Even the writer uses their own experience as a symbol of thesuffering of the nation. This is an image of utter helplessness andhopelessness. God is 'on mute', silent to the cries of God's ownchosen people.

The passage goes into great poetic detail about the sufferings andabuses inflicted on the writer and on the nation. There are imagesof broken bones and arthritically crippled joints. There are massesof broken hearts. We find descriptions of the pits of depression,and the isolation and claustrophobia of psychological frailty. Thebitter taste of gall rises to our throats, just as it does to thewriter.

In the midst of this horrifically honest series of emotions andevents, there is one thing that gives peace and hope in thispassage. In verses 23-24 the writer offers one shard of grace inthe mix of pain and suffering.

The writer calls on the people to remember. To call to mind. Tothink about the things of the past and to recall that God showedthat God is known through love, compassion, justice, mercy andpeace. The people are told to remember that each day, Goddemonstrates God's care for creation. Every morning offers newblessings. For great is God's faithfulness - shown time and againto God's people.

To Ponder

When have you experienced the silence/absence ofGod?

How do you identify with the writer of thispassage?

Write a lament based on your currentexperiences.