The Sacredness of the In-Between

Saturday, April 4, 2026 - Holy Saturday

Jordan Morrow

LGBTQIA+ Person of Faith

Quote

Holy Saturday is the only time I know for sure that Jesus is near in suffering.

As a gay man, I know what it’s like to be crucified by people you love and sit in the tomb with the aftermath.

Devotion

Holy Saturday is the one day that the Church routinely turns it’s face away from. It’s the day that God goes quiet. Jesus was hung on the cross and placed in the tomb. The world just crucified the Messiah.

It’s strange that we call today holy. There is nothing but silence from the heavens. This seems to be the one space that LGBTQIA+ people seem to know well. A space of hurting, death, and waiting to see if the God of life is going to deliver on the promise of resurrection. A place where we think that death has the final say.

And still... it is where God dwells.

This is a day that sits between death and new life. It is what I like to call the sacred in-between. It is a space where everything is unfinished, yet it is where holiness is found in its totality. It is where God is ultimately still in the process of becoming. Holy Saturday shows us that holiness is less about perfection, and more about presence and the refusal to leave.

This is where I see a God that sits in the dark with the pain of the crucifixion by Their people. A God that is not fixing anything, not rushing to resurrection, and not demanding praise. A God that is just existing amidst the pain of the world. A place where God recognizes the heaviness, and yet still wants to embrace it for our sake.

LGBTQIA+ folks are acquainted with this God. The God who met us in our pain when we came out to families and were disowned. A God who saw our tears and sat there with us in our pain instead of wiping the tears away. The God whose hands and feet were nailed to the cross and hung there to suffer and die. King of Kings? More like the Suffering God. The God whom we take comfort in when we are in our own sacred in-between spaces.

The God that sits in the darkness of the tomb finds us in our tomb – the closet. Jesus, who sat in his hiddenness, emerges from the tomb and walks into the closet to find us. To sit with us. To breathe with us. It is here that Jesus, the Beloved, says, “Child, let us find rest in the Lover who calls us Beloved because the Love is here.”

This is the Jesus who is still here after trauma nailed him to the cross. This is the Jesus who sits in the tomb and in the stillness of death itself. Holy Saturday is the only time I know for sure that Jesus is near in suffering. As a gay man, I know what it’s like to be crucified by the ones you love and sit in the tomb with the aftermath. This liminal space is where Jesus sits and knows our grief.

Most of us know what it is like to be crucified by our own people before we even come out. By the Church, by family, by systems that could not hold us. For us, Holy Saturday is our home. We’ve sat in the tomb and wondered if there is anyone that loves us enough to come back and pull us from it. However, we get the weight and beauty of finding the Jesus freshly crucified and knowing that in the tomb Emmanuel, God with us, is still as true on Holy Saturday as it is on Christmas Day.

If Holy Saturday leads to the resurrection and new life, the closet, our tomb, leads to coming out then coming out is new life. It happens slowly. Gently. It happens with the God who rises, and comes out, with us. The God who rose from the dead and still bore the marks of the event from three days prior. The God who walks into our tomb and calls it love. The sacredness of the in-between is sacred because we find the God who calls us Beloved and who comes out of the closet into new life with us.

Reflection

1.    What does the “sacred in-between” look like in your own story right now?

2.    How does seeing Jesus as the One who sits with us rather than rescues us reshape your understanding of God’s love?

3.    Where do you sense the possibility of new life quietly forming even if you’re not ready to name it resurrection yet?

4.    In what ways might you be called to mirror God’s presence by remaining with others in their waiting?

Action

Take a moment to be still.

Let silence be your companion rather than something to fill.

Breathe slowly and notice that you are not alone — that the same Love who lingered in the tomb lingers with you now.

When you feel ready, whisper these words:

“You stayed. That’s enough.”

Carry that truth with you throughout the day.

If someone crosses your mind who might also be waiting for resurrection, hold them in prayer or send them a word of kindness.

You don’t have to fix or rescue them — presence itself is holy.

Remember: the sacredness of Holy Saturday is not found in noise or motion,but in Love’s quiet decision to remain.

The Blessing of Discomfort

Friday, April 3, 2026 - Good Friday

The Rev. Brian Steele

Allied Person of Faith

LOVEboldly Board Member

Quote

“God loves you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

The Rev. Brian Steele

Devotion

About 13 years ago I was sitting in a room with LOVEboldly folks, and it hit me: I am the only straight white male in this room. “Well,” I thought, “this is weird.” Truthfully, as I sat there, I realized what I was experiencing was actually discomfort. For the first time in my existence, my identity was the numerical minority in a space. Then the Holy gave me an even greater gift and I came to this revelation: “So, this is what it feels like.”

Truthfully, I still don’t know what it feels like to be a sexual, racial, or gender minority in any space. But that moment with our organization gave me a glimpse, and it was a gift. For anybody seeking to be an ally of a marginalized or oppressed group, if we never experience discomfort in our work, then we are not leaning into the work as much as we should.

Discomfort for privileged folk is a gift from the Holy. When we embrace that discomfort, we are growing in our capacity to know what it means to follow the living Christ. It expands our empathy and love of neighbor. I understand that I will never fully understand. I am a straight, white, cis-gender male. I’m never going to fully get what it means to be anything other than that. But embracing experiences that give us even the slightest glimpse of what it is like to be a minority is how we grow. Personally, experiences like these that have led me to Queer, Black, Feminist, and other theologies and has made me an even more passionate follower of Christ. They have made me want to take my faith out into the world even more. They have made me love Jesus even more.

Not any one sect of Christianity gets it fully “right” (whatever that means), but by embracing other understandings, we can at the very least get closer together. And that makes Jesus more beautiful in my view.

Allies, let’s get uncomfortable, and let’s embrace it as a gift. Amen.

Reflection

1.    When have you been blessed by an uncomfortable situation?

2.    How has discomfort caused you to grow in your faith?

Action

If you are a person of any privilege, go into a space where you are the minority and just sit and listen.

Without Love

Thursday, April 2, 2026 - Maundy Thursday

The Rev. Morgan Annable

Allied Person of Faith

Quote

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews so now, I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:31-35 (NRSVUE)

Reflection

Like many who might be reading this devotion, I am a huge theater nerd. One of the defining movies of my childhood was the film adaptation of Hairspray. There’s a song in the musical called “Without Love.” The lyrics say, 

“Cause without love, life is like the seasons with no summer. 

Without love, life is rock ‘n’ roll without a drummer….

Like a week that’s only Mondays

Only ice cream, never sundaes

Like a circle with no center

Like a door marked “Do not enter!”

Darlin’, I’ll be yours forever

‘Cause I never wanna be

Without love.”

Maundy Thursday is Jesus’s “Without Love” moment. 

Gathered with his friends the night before his death, Jesus tells the disciples (over four whole chapters) all the last things he wants them to know, including the new commandment he gives them: love. That’s all that’s really required of you: to love. Because without love, the rest doesn’t matter. 

A person I see embodying this kind of love in our world today is Alok Vaid-Menon (they/them). Alok is an activist, author, comedian, and poet, who often gets hate comments on their social media accounts. Alok finds ways to respond to those harmful comments with truth and love, often stating “you clearly have the need for my love!” and “hatred is love that has lost its way.” 

As an ally, such comments amaze and move me, seeing the ways that someone who has been the recipient of so much hate still expresses love in return. I am continually inspired by the acts of love I witness from the LGBTQ+ community, their resilience, and the ways such love changes our world. What a beautiful reflection of Christ among us. 

As we look toward the cross and the tomb, and eventually to Easter and the resurrection, we are reminded that love is really all that matters to Jesus. Even to the end, even in the face of those who wish him harm, somehow, Jesus continued to show love. Because it is love that transforms the world’s hatred, and it is love that changes our world for the better.

Reflection

1. What does the quote “hatred is love that has lost its way” (Alok Vaid-Menon) mean to you? How have you experienced this to be true in your own life?

2. How can you cultivate love for yourself today?

3. What boundaries do you need (for yourself and with others) for healthy love to thrive in your life?

Action

Practice a Loving Kindness meditation to cultivate love for yourself and those in your life. You can find a written guide to the meditation at A Baltimore Therapist’s Complete Guide to Lovingkindness Meditation (https://www.elliemillertherapy.com/blog-/a-complete-guide-to-lovingkindness-meditation). You can also search for a Loving Kindness meditation guide on YouTube or Spotify.