"God did not abolish darkness at creation. God added light. But for many, darkness symbolizes all that is negative, harmful, evil and fearful. God gave equal importance and prominence to darkness and light, and all life, including human life, begins and develops in the dark."

Ken Cadette/ African American Baptist Minister

Today is Holy Saturday. A time to reflect on this liminal space between Good Friday and Easter Sunday in the Church Calendar. This "day of darkness" is not just a day to "get through" or see shellacked under Easter egg hunts and family feasts. It is central to the Easter Story.
And whatever happened on this day - this night - happened in the dark.

Author Barbara Brown Taylor writes, " ... new life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark."

And it is in the dark - in the night - where we find rest. In fact, some Christian traditions recognize Holy Saturday, the seventh day of Holy Week, as the day on which Jesus "rested" from His work of providing salvation. As Jesus died, He called out, "It is finished!"
And it is here we wait. We hold vigil. We hope. Holy Saturday. Sacred rest. Where darkness is as light and we know that the power of resurrection will raise us up again to face a new day.
As NT Wright observes, "Holy Saturday: Rest well, indeed. For tomorrow there is work to be done and a grave to be conquered."

Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?

to be out of your sight?

If I climb to the sky, you're there!

If I go underground, you're there!

If I flew on morning's wings

to the far western horizon,

You'd find me in a minute—

you're already there waiting!

Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark!

At night I'm immersed in the light!"

It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you;

night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;

you formed me in my mother's womb.

I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!

Body and soul, I am marvelously made!

I worship in adoration—what a creation!

You know me inside and out,

you know every bone in my body;

You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,

how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;

all the stages of my life were spread out before you,

The days of my life all prepared

before I'd even lived one day.

Psalms 139:7-16  The Message

We need not fear the inbetween. It is a holy space, this dark. Even more, it is here that often we can find the deep rest we need to take the next step.

This is the last day of Lent in the Church Calendar in the West.  We've observed Good Friday and today is what is known as Sabbatum Sanctum (Holy Saturday) or Black Saturday, the culmination of Holy Week. Tomorrow is Easter, the first day of Eastertide.

This is a song originally written for an International Justice Mission Europe project some years ago, "Shadows." The original intent of this material was to give a voice for the marginalized, particualrly sex slaves.

Some years ago as I was reflecting throughout Holy Week, it came back to mind. It hit me in a way I'd never thought of before. I was struck with the realization of how much the feel and lyric of this song could also describe some of what Jesus was feeling in his last days here. Marginalized. Alone. Betrayed. Drinking deep of the cup before him. Learning obedience through suffering.

I saw this moment as a creative space for me to link an artistic interpretation of the Stations of the Cross that I deeply love, to this musical piece. This is a pretty raw, stripped down, just piano and vocal version, but Sarah Brendel and I really lean into this demo.

Huge thanks to Scott Erikson for his extraordinary art and interpretation of the Stations of the Cross which accompany the song. His material is used with permission.

Let this combination of art and song create space for you to reflect today. To remember.