The Challenge of Easter


This has been a challenging Eastertide and I am not used to seeing the word “Challenge” in the vicinity of “Easter”! And yet my reading yesterday led me back to a phrase from John Mogabgab which reminded me not only of the paradox of faith but also of this particular challenging Eastertide!
In considering the famous resurrection line from Isaiah: Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (43:19) Mogabgab says “These words contain the promise of Good Friday and the challenge of Easter. Between them rests Holy Saturday, the terrain in which we wait, watch, and prepare as best we can to be astonished.” 
When I first read these words years ago I remember thinking this is an editorial error! Promise of Good Friday? Challenge of Easter? must be reversed. But spending a little more time with them then and now allows the very paradox and upheaval of the Resurrection to sink in to that space where our faith holds this tension and reminds us that subversion is the very tilling process which reveals the new creation. 
So perhaps in this time of COVID19 when the promise of Good Friday feels tenuous and the challenge of Easter insurmountable, we might return to the holiness, and I use that word more intentionally than ever, holiness of that Saturday which has become all our days! 
We are Easter people for whom challenge is never separated from opportunity and waiting and watching and preparing are the tools of our faith. 
We are Easter people who recognize the promise of Good Friday especially when we hold it gently up to God’s time and space.
Holy Saturday is where we reside and remember that moment just before the promise and the challenge redefined, Holy Saturday is when we hold the hope of eternal life abundant and the harsh reality of painful death together. Holy Saturday is the day which teaches us about holding vigil or keeping vigil, by a mighty flame.That is what we do when we await suffering and death and remember that even there we do not suspend hope. Expect to be astonished! 

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