Good Friday – Miscellany

A long tradition of shared worship continues as we mark Good Friday. Thank you to the Rev. Dr. Lance Odland for sharing in the preparation of this service and reflecting on the Good News of Jesus Christ through Romans 6.5-7. Many thanks to Taye and Jenny for special music.

PRELUDE

OPENING PRAYER:

Holy One, speak to us again
as we hear of the suffering and death of Jesus.
May we hear your Word
above the shouts of the crowd,
and hearing,
may we follow faithfully,
even to the cross.
We pray in the name of Jesus,
who died for us. Amen.

HYMN: Jesus keep me near the cross

Jesus, keep me near the cross;
there a precious fountain,
free to all, a healing stream,
flows from Calvary’s mountain.
In the cross, in the cross,
be my glory ever,
till my raptured soul shall find
rest beyond the river.

Near the cross, a trembling soul,
love and mercy found me;
there the bright and morning star
sheds its beams around me. R

Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
bring its scenes before me;
help me walk from day to day
with its shadow o’er me. R

Near the cross I’ll watch and wait,
hoping, trusting ever,
till I reach the golden strand
just beyond the river. R

PRAYER OF CONFESSION:

And this is the judgment:
that the truth has come into the world,
and we loved our illusions,
rather than reality.
God is true:
in God there is no falseness at all.
For God was in Jesus,
not to condemn the world,
but to restore the world.
Everyone who does evil hates the truth
and does not live in the spirit of love.
But all who do what is true,
live in the Spirit. Amen.

SILENT REFLECTION AND SUNG RESPONSE:

Christ, you lead and we shall follow,
stumbling though our steps may be,
one with you in joy and sorrow,
we the river, you the sea,
we the river, you the sea.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

God will give us what we need:
strength for today,
hope for tomorrow,
and forgiveness
for all that is past.
Amen.

FIRST READING: Psalm 22.1-18

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me,
from the cry of my distress?
O my God, I cry out in the daytime, but you do not answer;
at night also, but I get no relief.
But you are the Holy One,
enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
They called to you, and you rescued them.
In you they put their trust,
and you did not disappoint them.
But I am a worm, less than human,
an object of derision, an outcast of the people.
All those who see me laugh me to scorn,
they curl their lips and toss their heads, saying:
‘You trusted in God for deliverance.
If God cares for you, let God rescue you!’
But you are the One who took me out of the womb.
You kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
On you have I depended from my birth.
Even from my mother’s womb,
you have been my God.
Do not be far from me, for trouble is close at hand,
and there is no one to help me.
Many bulls encircle me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me.
They open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravenous, roaring lion.
My life pours out like water;
all my bones are out of joint;
my heart has melted like wax within my breast;
my mouth is parched as dry clay;
my tongue clings to my palate.
I lie in the dust of death.
Dogs surround me;
the wicked hem me in on every side.
They bind my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones,
while they stand staring, gloating over me.
They divide my garments among themselves;
they cast lots for my clothing.

SECOND READING: Romans 6.5-7

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

REFLECTION:

For most of the year we celebrate the new life given to us through Jesus Christ, rejoicing in God’s grace and walking in the Spirit. On Good Friday, however, the cross of Christ looms before us. In a world where the Easter bunny is an “essential service” and chocolate eggs fly off the shelves as fast as toilet paper, where many at this time of year think mainly about family feasts, we hold forth Christ’s crucifixion as what has saved human beings from utter destruction. Jesus was executed in our place. On our behalf he was put to death; for our sake he died and was buried. His death was “once for all,” serving to restore relationship with God, however mysteriously, for all who in and through and with him come to know God as Father.

Death, assuredly, has a gravitas which we cannot dismiss since everything living comes to an end. While many consider this to be simply the order of nature, the circle of life, the dead passing away, or as some say, passing, death is revealed in Scripture to be both a physical and a spiritual reality, the consequence of sin, the inescapable end-point of living apart from God. Since every human being has at some point spurned God and been consigned to disobedience by the holy One (see Romans 11:32), every human being suffers death of body and soul.

Indeed, the New Testament does not shy from the truth that even the living are as good as dead, our self-directed lives judged as missing the mark of God’s holiness. Apart from Christ, we are without hope; apart from Christ, everything and everyone perishes. Yet Christ died to put an end to our death-dealing ways, laying down his life for us. Now, if we have been united with Jesus Christ in baptism, then we have been crucified with him and are to think of ourselves as dead to sin, our old sin-ruined selves put to death and buried.

But death has lost its sting! We have been given a living hope since Christ has been raised to God’s right hand in order to lead us into eternal and abundant life. While united with Christ in his death, we now live united with him in his resurrection, granted new life apart from sin through the gift of the Spirit. This God-centered life is Christ-given, a life in communion with Jesus, a life of service and sacrifice, wherein God’s will is done and not our own; and there is joy, eternal joy!

So, even on Good Friday we are able to rejoice, singing songs of love for the one who died on the cross. Now we truly know that the love of God in Christ never passes away.

SPECIAL MUSIC

THIRD READING: Galatians 2.19-20

19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

REFLECTION:

I’m sure you’ve met someone who is best described as animated. When we say someone is animated, they are generally “full of life” or uniquely spirited, maybe they seem excited or particularly energetic. And then there is the other meaning of animated: when a character is “brought to life” through animation—more commonly called cartoons.

And it is this second meaning—brought to life—that gets to the heart of Paul’s massage. When Paul says “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” he is talking about being animated by the presence of Christ within him. Crucified with Christ, the old Paul (Saul) is gone, and the new Paul lives—by faith—with the Son of God within him. He is a new person.

In many ways, the letters of Paul represent working out the meaning. Paul is writing to others, but you get the sense that he is also writing to himself. On the road to Damascus, he was crucified with Christ: learning that his life was no longer his own, and that the one who loves him, lives in him. Paul is desperate to help people understand that what happened to him can happen to others—in the cross.

Good Friday is overwhelming. When we enter the story, we are never bystanders. We feel the pain and the shame, the tension and the terror, and we are changed. Peter Abelard said that just hearing the story can turn hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. Whoever has “ears to hear” (as Jesus loved to say) will be transformed by the telling, and can become a new person.

So we are animated, transformed, and renewed. And like Paul, we respond to this gift by sharing it with others. We become witnesses to the saving power of God, and take on the task of “liberating others from whatever prevents them from fulfilling themselves as human beings and as daughters and sons of God.” (Gutierrez) The result is a world made new.

May the God of self-giving transform us once more, ever alive in Christ. Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

This prayer, from the Church of England, allows us to pray through the details of Christ’s passion.

Let us pray to God
who loved the world so much that he sent his only Son
to give us life.

Simon from Cyrene was forced to carry the cross for your Son.
Give us grace to lift heavy loads from those we meet
and to stand with those condemned to die.