Silence Saturday with Tyler Sollie

Purposely your life, God’s purpose. Listen at onpurposely.com. In His Steps, a Holy Week journey.

Mark Holland:

And once again, we are journeying in his steps. Our Holy Week series, looking at the life of Christ, the journey toward Easter and another pastor with us once again, we’re into day number seven, the day when the guards were watching the tomb and something that’s called Silent Saturday. Before we get into that subject though, we want to introduce our pastor. We have Pastor Tyler Sollie of Life Center in Tacoma. Tyler good to have you. Well, I guess it’s on the phone now. We tried some other newfangled technology that didn’t work. It’s kind of a Zoom thing or whatever. I guess you didn’t want to come up to our studios here in Shoreline from Tacoma.

Tyler Sollie:

Oh man. I wanted to be there. Unfortunately, my schedule didn’t allow it, but thankful to be able to connect with you via phone.

Mark Holland:

Yeah, you pastors are a busy, busy lot, but so we’re glad to get you on anyway, so many people have come forward to be a part of this. Excited about Easter Life Center in Tacoma. I was, last time I was there, I think I was in Youth with a Mission based in Tacoma. So I’d go to Life Center quite a bit. I see your Christmas, Christmas events there, your singing Christmas tree. I and our previous conversation, you said you still do the Christmas tree or this last year was your last one, is that right?

Tyler Sollie:

Yeah, so on year 60 we did what we called the grand finale of the singing Christmas tree. It was an incredible time, nearly 13,000 people through the doors in the month of December, and it was a great way to send off an incredible tradition. But we’re not giving up. We’re going to continue to do something special every year at the Christmas season.

Mark Holland:

Well, you have quite an outreach to the community in long, long time in the community. In fact, you said, we were talking about how you were doing after the pandemic. You said that Life Center was actually founded during the last pandemic back in the early part of the 20th Century.

Tyler Sollie:

Life Center was founded in 1918, right here in Tacoma. And that was at the height of the Spanish flu pandemic. And so when Covid hit a couple years ago, it was an opportunity to stand in front of our church and just remind them, listen, this is already in our DNA. When we started this church, when our founders started this church, there was a pandemic and we survived that. And by God’s grace, we’re going to make it through this one. And that’s the truth. God has been good to us and the church is doing well. The ministries are doing well. Yeah, we’re thankful.

Mark Holland:

Vital ministry in Tacoma Life Center. Tyler Sollie. And tell us a little bit about yourself. You are a pastor there for how long you’ve been the pastor?

Tyler Sollie:

So I’ve been at Life Center since 2015 on staff, but I actually grew up, I was born and raised in this church. In fact, my parents met at this church in the 1970s. And so this is all I knew until I went to college and served different areas in Washington State over the years. But then in 2015, came back, joined the staff and was elected as senior pastor in 2018.

Mark Holland:

Well, congratulations. I remember when Fulton Buntaine. He there for a long time?

Tyler Sollie:

Yes, long, long time, that was my senior pastor growing up.

Mark Holland:

There ysou go. So long history. Well, we’re looking at the history of the Easter season Holy week. This is speaking of the pandemic. I think this ties in kind of interestingly with your subject today, day number seven in his steps. And it’s something that’s been come to be known as Silent Saturday, that kind of day in between the crucifixion and Easter Sunday. And you’ve put together some great thoughts about the Silent Saturday. Why don’t you tell us some of your takeaways from this?

Tyler Sollie:

Yeah, absolutely. The disciples, they’ve spent three years journeying with Jesus. They heard his teaching, they saw the miracles, and now they’ve seen the crucifixion take place. And it feels like to them, all of their hopes are gone. I think a lot of times as modern readers, as modern listeners, we kind of skip over Saturday because in our perspective, well Good Friday happens, we often say this, but Sunday’s coming, right. But there’s a very real moment, a very real period that the disciples experience where it feels like not only is hope gone, but it feels like God’s silent. Where did all of this lead to now? Because if Jesus is dead, then the hope of our Messiah is dead with him. And that that’s kind of the reality that they’re sitting in. And what’s interesting, Jesus had already warned them, Hey, I’m going to suffer. I’m going to die.

We see that throughout the gospels and the gospel writers remind us, the disciples, they didn’t get what Jesus was referring to. And we know how the story ends, but at times, instead of just fast forwarding to how the story ends, I think it helps us to slow down and consider Silent Saturday because here’s what I know, all of us, we experience what I would call those middle moments, those moments between where we felt maybe like God promised something or we were full of hope. But then we find ourselves in these places much like silent Saturday where, okay God, where are you at? What are you doing? How is this going to turn out? And the good news is Saturday’s not the end of the story.

Mark Holland:

It is not. And we won’t get into too much of some of the theological discussions around what was going on Saturday besides in our own hearts as disciples and those early disciples. But where was Jesus? It talks about in the Bible, Jesus went to and preached to the souls in hell during this time. What do you think about that? People have heard maybe that story.

Tyler Sollie:

Yeah, the scripture says that he descended, but then he also ascended. Obviously there’s a lot, been a lot of pages written, a aalot of biblical scholarship people way smarter than me have filled volumes. But we do know that even though Jesus is dead, he’s not done. He’s active. And he was the one who is ultimately our victory and our hope. And so what I love about this reminder, even as we stop and we consider today Silent Saturday, even when it feels like God is silent, it doesn’t mean that he’s not active. We know that God was at work even in the midst of Silent Saturday,

Mark Holland:

I think too, these poor guards who were assigned to watch the body, that was one of the, as we’ve talked to other pastors on different days, they were really worried that somebody was going to try and steal Jesus’ body. And those guards, there were actually people, these guards were there guarding the tomb, which was not just, they were guarding it, but it was also sealed completely.

Tyler Sollie:

And that’s interesting as we read about that in Matthew chapter 27, the chief priest, the Pharisees, they show up, they ask Pilate, Hey, even though he’s dead, we remember and they call Jesus a deceiver. They said, even when he was alive, this deceiver said, after three days, I’m going to rise again. And so the Pharisees and the chief priest, they, they’re begging pilot, would you give orders that the tomb is secured until the third day? Because if not, what happens if the disciples show up and steal the body, then that deception’s going to be worse than even the first. And so Pilate gives those orders, go make it secure as you can. But what’s interesting, they’re trying to secure it from the outside, not thinking that there’s any possibility that something from the inside is going to disrupt their plan. And that’s the beautiful miracle that waits for us on Sunday.

Mark Holland:

Yeah, God, like you say, he was still working behind the scenes to bring about his purposes. So that middle moment was going on here with Silent Saturday, but it wasn’t the final moment. And obviously, yeah. Tell us what you mean by that.

Tyler Sollie:

Yeah. Well, I think one of the questions that we need to ask ourselves, if we’re going to lean into that idea of Saturday almost being like a middle moment. It’s that middle moment between the incredible work that Jesus did on our behalf on the cross on Friday. And then what he accomplishes for us is he defeats death and the grave and sin and hell on Sunday is what do we do with these middle moments? As modern readers, again, we know how this story turns out and often we fast forward to Sunday, but sometimes it’s good to slow down and consider the silence of Saturday. And I think the reason why that’s helpful for us is how should we respond when it feels like God is silent? How do we hang on to hope when it feels like all hope is lost? And I think we need to remember that this moment on Saturday, it looks like death has won.

And my guess is there’s probably some listeners today, they maybe find themselves in a similar situation. Much like the disciples, all hope is gone. They’re asking themselves, is it all over? Is it all over in my marriage? Is it all over in my career? Is it all over in my health? The first disciples, they felt this weight of the middle moment. But even though we follow Jesus, the reality is I know in myself in my own life, I’ve had moments where it feels like a middle moment. I’m sure you can identify and there’s some tension that comes with those middle moments because silent moments feel really long don’t they. SS`ilent moments can create confusion. They can cloud our eyes of faith. Silent moments can seem like a departure from what should be or what could be. No doubt the disciples that they felt this. And some of us today, even though Sunday is just around the corner Easter Sunday where we celebrate, some of us might be feeling the same thing right now.

God, where are you at? What’s going on? I know you’re alive. I know you’re working. I know you’re active, but what do I do in this moment? And I think the key for us is to remember the middle moment wasn’t the final moment. And I think that same truth applies to us today. Your middle moment isn’t your final moment. Yeah. Here, here’s a few things that I think we need to remember on SS`ilent Saturday, even as we navigate our own middle moments. The first is this, God’s silence is not a sign of his absence. We talked earlier that even though it doesn’t appear on that Saturday, like much is going on, we know that God is at work. Jesus is working on our behalf, and he is bringing us victory even though the disciples that can’t see it right there. And I think secondly, we need to remember where you find yourself currently is not the end of the story.

I think so often we feel like the moment that we’re in is going to be forever, but just like Sunday was just around the corner, I think we all need to, as people of faith continue to live with that lens of faith that where I’m at right now is not the end of the story. But then finally, I would encourage each and every one of us to remember this, that our hope is rooted in something bigger than our current circumstances. For the disciples, they saw their rabbi, their teacher, their master, Jesus die on the cross, buried in the tomb, and that was their current reality. And some of us listening today, there might be some very stark challenging things in our current reality, but know this, if our hope is in Jesus, our hope is rooted in something bigger than our current circumstance. And I think that’s what we learn from Silent Saturday. I think that’s what we learn about these middle moments. Again, your middle moment isn’t your final moment,

Mark Holland:

And you’ve been listening to the Purposely Equipped series called In His Steps, a Holy Week Journey today featuring Pastor Tyler Sollie of Life Center in Tacoma. For more details about the church, visit them online at lifecenter.com. Please leave us a review of this message so more people can discover this podcast and find more episodes of Purposely Equipped at onpurposely.com.