Sue Agnew

Dear friends,

I try to make a point of attending the Holy Saturday Morning Prayer service. Holy Week is an emotional time, getting darker and more exhausting as the week progresses, and it’s easy on Saturday to think “whew, made it through” and start focusing on Easter preparations. However, for us to fully appreciate Easter, it’s important to remember that Jesus’s disciples and those who loved him did not know what was coming next. They were devastated and crushed and no doubt fearful for their own safety. 

And then, miraculously, they got their Jesus back! Even though he had the uncanny habit of appearing and disappearing, of masking his identity, and of saying incomprehensible things to them—still, it was reassuring. He showed up here and there over the next forty days, breaking bread with them and teaching. Then “whoosh!” up to heaven he went, lifted out of their sight.

According to Luke, “… they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” I sort of doubt that. Awe perhaps. Also perplexity—and grief, because bottom line, they had lost their Jesus again!

Today we commemorate the Eve of Pentecost. For Jesus’s followers, it had been nine days since he had been taken up to heaven, and they of course did not know what was coming. Connect again with how they were probably feeling—grieving, maybe now even more so, and facing a future that seemed incomprehensible.

It is difficult to be in the midst of grievous times and not know how, or even if, things will play out. During those “wee hour worry sessions” I often sing hymns to myself. One favorite is a text by John Henry Newman.

Lead, Kindly Light, amidst the encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me. 

Yours in Christ,

—Sue