Dark Saturday Today is a day of darkness - a forgotten day in the Christian calendar. It's that time when those of us who "know the story" tend to be looking ahead. We have the advantage of knowing that this is not the end of it all.

All those who truly had to live through it would see it very differently. They were simply awash in a sea of dark, cold, numbness. They had nothing to look forward to - only backwards.

Back at what was. At what might have been. At what in their now forever disappeared ideal, at what "should" have been.

For them, and for all those who even today are lost in the depths of grief and bereavement today is the day when Psalm 88 says it all.

O Lord, the God who saves me,
day and night I cry out before you.
May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.
For my soul is full of trouble
and my life draws near the grave.
I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am like a man without strength.
I am set apart with the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave,
whom you remember no more,
who are cut off from your care.
You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.
Your wrath lies heavily upon me;
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.

Selah

You have taken from me my closest friends
and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;
my eyes are dim with grief.
I call to you, O Lord, every day;
I spread out my hands to you.
Do you show your wonders to the dead?
Do those who are dead rise up and praise you?

Selah

Is your love declared in the grave,
your faithfulness in Destruction?
Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,
or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?
But I cry to you for help, O Lord;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Why, O Lord, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?
From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death;
I have suffered your terrors and am in despair.
Your wrath has swept over me;
your terrors have destroyed me.
All day long they surround me like a flood;
they have completely engulfed me.
You have taken my companions and loved ones from me;
the darkness is my closest friend.
(NIV)

Whatever you and I are doing today - enjoying the day off, the shopping, the presence of family and friends, even working hard in preparation for the joys of tomorrow; whatever you are doing, spare a thought and a prayer for those who are simply lost in grief and darkness.


  ¶ 10:24 am 1 comments

  Taking the Towel (Out of Order, but here's one of David's for Maundy Thursday)

If you want a god who lives in palaces,
pushing buttons
and summoning servants
to fulfil his every whim
at every hour of the day or night,
don’t choose Jesus.


If you want a god who will make you
prosperous, successful, and
up there with the high flyers
who have paid into their destiny,
don’t choose Jesus.


If you want God, who shows the way
by stripping naked and taking the towel
and embarrassing you into imitation of Him,
there is no other choice but Jesus.

(C) David Grieve 2005  ¶ 5:59 pm 0 comments

  Settling Scores (A poem from my former personal tutor from theological college. Far more eloquent than I could manage for Good Friday)

It was a day

for getting things back

on an even keel.

An incompetent impostor hauled

on to the naked shame and torture

of a pagan cross,

his body racked into incontinence,

utterly debased

in the breaking away of his life’s blood and waste.

How wrong they had been,

the palm waving crowd,

to award such premature Hosannas

to a fool on a foal!

How good it must feel

to gain sweet revenge,

to manipulate Rome

into doing their dirty work for them!

Yet who was the greater fool that day,

Jesus, Pilate, Caiaphas, the crowd

or even smug Satan?

Love’s ambitions, fulfilled.

Love outpoured, not outwitted.

Life itself destroyed, not defeated.

Scores settled, things back on an even keel.

(C) David Grieve 2005  ¶ 4:29 pm 0 comments

  Which the Stranger?   ¶ 10:02 am 0 comments

  A Christian Nation?   ¶ 10:00 am 2 comments

  'Good' Friday?   ¶ 9:53 am 1 comments