This is the hardest time to pray:
after the drama and catastrophe,
before the angels and the big reveal.
The passion, the agony, the desperate grief
have given way to numbness
and absence
in this time in between.

God seems to be offstage,
preparing for the final scene,
taking care of ancient souls in other worlds
or clothing the hidden, broken body
in resurrection glory.

So let our prayer this day be plain
and to the point:

May God be with us in the waiting,
and may we wait with hope,
today
and every time in between.

Amen.

 

Kerry Greenhill, Methodist Deacon and Minister

 

____________________________

 

 

As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, 

    who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 

Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 

    and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. 

He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.