Even if not, we will still serve the Lord . . .

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.”   Daniel 3:16-18, NRSV

This is the faith of Holy Saturday, waiting in the darkness for what God might be doing.  (In our case, at the Great Vigil.)   Waiting by the graveside in fear, but in trust.  If our God is able to deliver us from what causes us pain, from what life has laid before us, let God do it.  But even if not, we will not serve another.  We trust in the God in whose hands we are, the God who (let it be said) we know has raised Jesus, even though we walk now in Holy Saturday's shadow.

This is how we wait - in trust and hope.  For the God who raised Jesus will raise us.  Though we walk through water, and through fire, they will not overwhelm us.  Though sometimes the darkness seems so deep we cannot breathe.

Even so, we will wait for the Lord.  And serve no other.

For the dawn is coming . . .