Not over yet…

 Lamentation 3:19-24

The thought of my affliction and my homelessness

is wormwood and gall!

My soul continually thinks of it

and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in him.”

In the silence of this day

when the crowd baying for blood

have gone home satisfied

to cherish their moment of victory

God does not rest from justice

Already hell is being harrowed - 

that work of pulling from the depths

those condemned and rejected is underway

There are those who imagine the fight is over

While God continues to work underground

Recovering and restoring the depth and vibrancy and colour

of all the long forgotten hues

that the creator endorsed

at the beginning of time

whispering to each:

The divine spark lives in you

You are beloved - and 

Resurrection is coming

May it be so.

(Liz Crumlish, Holy Saturday 2025)

The Harrowing

 

He descended into hell…

The longer I stick with faith

the more I need the harrowing of hell

to be true

I need the veracity of the Christ

fresh out of the grave

a bit dazed

scabbed over wounds leaking with the exertion

to stride purposefully into hell

as though he owned it

And go straight to his friend Judas

To take him by the hand,

give him a man hug

and get him the feck out of there

no passing go

no parting with £200

If that ain’t true

then what’s the point of any of it?

(Liz Crumlish Holy Saturday 2024)

Making the tomb time count

 

Luke 23:54-56

It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments.

On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

The cross is empty

The tomb is filled

And the women 

knowing that their world has changed

try to busy themselves 

Preparing spices

Observing sabbath

Bearing their grief together

Waiting - for what?

Their future looks as bleak as ours

who keep vigil today

on this Saturday that we call Holy

As we witness our world becoming all the more dangerous

for all who have been othered.

When government announcements seem incredible

in their blindness

and in their coldness

and in their bone-shaking cruelty

When we can’t see a way 

of moving from the despair that grips us

When we fear that we have no agency for change

what are the spices 

and the ointments

that we might prepare

to subvert the forces of evil?

How will we use this tomb time?

In fear and hiding?

Or in resting while gathering resolve?

The evil that confronts us

will not be defeated by force and by noise and chatter

not even by well meaning pronouncements

but by small, seemingly insignificant, acts of resistance

Acts of love and compassion

of inclusion and embrace

Radical hospitality practiced fiercely and relentlessly

promoted subversively 

until dawn emerges from the darkness

and light transforms the world.

So, gathering all our reserves

to vanquish darkness today

let us make this tomb time count.