He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.
Psalm 104:19
Driving home on Sunday night I was struck by the beauty of the crescent moon hanging low in the western sky. I remembered that this new moon heralded the beginning of Ramadan. When this same moon is full it will call Jews to celebrate Passover and Christians to celebrate Easter.
The dates of Ramadan, Passover and Easter are all determined by the moon - and this year these great prayer events will fall within the same lunar cycle. We often lament that our secular world has got separated from the natural cycles of the earth and sky, but actually the movement of the heavenly bodies still call us to prayer, just as they have always done. The lunar cycle is roughly broken up into 4 sets of 7 days, each of those sets marked by one day specially dedicated to God. The daily cycle of sunrise and sunset, and the sun’s progress across the sky, give each single day times that are prompts for prayer.
But God can also say: “Your New Moons and Sabbaths… my soul hates”! (Isaiah 1:13) Religion and religious practice can go badly, horribly wrong. Without justice, mercy and truth any religion can become a parody of what it is intended to be. Jesus challenged religious practice that had got its priorities wrong. Religious leaders reacted by scheming to get him condemned to a terrible form of execution – collaborating with a corrupt political power. Tragically, for the next two thousand years the Church failed to stop itself falling into a repulsive blame game, failed to have the insight or courage to confront antisemitism, with the result that countless innocent Jews suffered the prejudice, persecution and pogroms that culminated in the mass graves, death camps and gas chambers of the holocaust.
Today Orthodox Christians are faced with the horrible spectacle of one of its leaders blessing the invasion of Ukraine. The world is watching. We are appalled.
As we go forward into the religious festivals of this month there is something of a quality of silence in our approach to them. When one is stunned, it is difficult to talk.
These psalm verses from Psalm 46 seem particularly helpful: Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. (v 6), and He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth (v 9). And then the famous verse from this psalm: “Be still, and know that I am God; (v 10).
Christians know that Christ’s terrible death was followed by his resurrection – not a resuscitation, but a breakthrough of God’s eternal power, love and, yes, justice. It was a gift of life, true and eternal life. May we all, in the silence of our hearts, know the real power of God’s ultimately victorious love.
Mother Sarah
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