Holy Saturday.

       It was in the news again just the other day. A politician who barricaded himself behind a wall of homophobia, hatred and anti-LGBT rantings was found to be have his hand down another mans pants at a gay bar. A closeted gay man. Not just a gay man, but an amoral man. The worst. Imagine that?

          There is a similar scenario in politics right now with our President. He spews and tweets all sorts of accusations and lies all of which more accurately describe his own actions.

       While most of the faithful are content to wait and live good and decent lives, letting their actions be their witness of salvation, there are a whole other group who spend their time plotting and trying to deflect the fact that they are not actually waiting but acting out, lying, cheating and worse. Their actions are mere deflections of their own guilt.   They should spend more time living good and decent lives, being more concerned with their own action than the actions of others and judging them. The conniving of the Pharisees is seen in this passage today of Holy Saturday. A day of waiting. It is a day of simply living and witnessing.  To others who do not want to wait, they act out a perverted gospel and accuse others to make themselves look not only better, but the best.  It really speaks to a fundamental lack of faith in God. It speaks of not really understanding the message at all. It speaks to fake Christianity. 

       While we wait today, let us act in the best of ways, consistent with good scripture scholarship and the love that Jesus lived long before any written word was transcribed or translated. Let our actions be our own Gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray.

   

Matthew 27:57-66

 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, “After three days I will rise again.” Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, “He has been raised from the dead”, and the last deception would be worse than the first.’ Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.’ So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.