Good Friday Liturgy April 10, 2020
Picton United Church
Statement of Purpose and Invitation to Worship
We gather this morning, on this Good Friday, (one of the holiest days in our Christian calendar), to remember the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.
We gather to remember Jesus passion – the energy, enthusiasm, and courage of Jesus who spent his life in seeking to overturn systems of domination and to replace them with God’s reign of compassion. Jesus refused to turn back from his purpose to resist evil, even though it meant his arrest, trial, torture and execution at the hands of the Roman imperial state.
As a symbol of Jesus passionate commitment to compassion; we are using today the liturgical colour red – rather than the traditional black for this day.
Red is the colour of life. Red is the colour of the Spirit.
We recognize as we worship today that in Jesus, God was at work to bring life out of death – which gives us and the world the hope that God’s reign will one day be fully realized – one day the powers of death and evil will be forever broken.
God help us also today to live with courage, energy and enthusiasm we seek to follow Jesus in the Way of compassion.
Introit: VU#148 “Jesus Remember Me” (Please remain seated.)
“Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom; Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.” X2
Words of Introduction
Too often Good Friday services have been a time when God’s People have been blamed for the violent death of Jesus. This morning we want to say firmly and clearly: “It is not your fault.” (In case you didn’t hear that, we repeat it, “It is not your fault.”) In this Good Friday Service, we remember Jesus as we seek anew to respond to his call to be faithful disciples. We remember that Jesus called his first community, and calls us also, to follow him and to love the world in his name.
We are a people of incarnation. We believe that in Jesus, God became one of us, taking upon God’s-self the brokenness and suffering of our world, in order to redeem it and to restore the whole creation to original blessedness.
We do not observe Good Friday without the knowledge that the death and suffering of Good Friday led to the joy and victory of Easter Day! As we reflect today on our own experience of suffering and brokenness, we do so aware that even in our darkness, God is at work to bring light and life to all. Thanks be to God!
We live our lives in the ‘not yet’ of God’s reign. We live in the hope and longing for Easter.
Opening Hymn VU#614 “In Suffering Love”
In suffering love the thread of life is woven through our care, for God is with us, not alone our pain and toil we bear.
There is a rock, a place secure within the storm’s cold blast, concealed within the suffering night God’s covenant stands fast.
In love’s deep womb our fears are held, there God’s rich tears are sown and bring to birth, in hope new born, the strength to journey on.
Now to our hearts your joy commit, into our hands your pain, to send us out to touch the world with blessings in your name.
In suffering love our God comes now, hope’s vision born in gloom, with tears and laughter shared and blessed the desert yet will bloom.
Litany for Good Friday
Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love, as we bring our hearts together in prayer, may we find ourselves at the foot of the cross on Golgotha’s Hill.
With hearts broken open, we remember how Jesus was scorned and ridiculed – we can hardly imagine the depth of his suffering – but we feel and acknowledge the depth of our own.
We hear Jesus’ cry, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Our arms yearn to hold and to console him, for we know him to be innocent. We also suffer pain, both physical and emotional.
Not one of us escapes their own time of trial
With Jesus we cry out, “Where are you God?”, and “Why do I feel so alone?”
Yet even unto death, and in the midst of suffering, we remember how Jesus revealed his compassionate heart. As he hung dying on the cross he prayed:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.”
And so, Loving Spirit, we pray for the compassionate heart of Jesus to be within each of us:
We ask that the compassion that we feel for Jesus’ suffering and pain, might fill our hearts that we might feel compassion for all who suffer the agony and pain of loss.
Free us today, Gracious Companion,
From our quick judgements, our anger, our jealousy, and other ego-bound beliefs that put limits on our compassion and on our empathy for others and for our true selves. May it be so. Amen.
Bible Reading: Matthew 27.31b – 51 (Paraphrased)
men also reviled Jesus – as did many who stood around watching. “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days – come down from the cross now, and we will believe in you.”
About three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out, quoting Psalm 22, “Eli, Eli, lama, sabacthanni?” – which means ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some of those who stood by said, “He is calling for Elijah!” One of the soldiers soaked a sponge in sour wine and gave it to Jesus to drink. Others said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to rescue him.”
And then Jesus cried out with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.”
Introduction to The Meditation
Hear now these words of poetry from Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, translated and versified by our former Moderator, The Right Rev. Walter Farquharson. (Pastor Bonhoeffer was martyred by the Nazi Regime in Germany in 1945, just days before the end of World War II)
“We go to God when we are sorely placed, pray him for succour, for his peace, for bread, for mercy for us, sinning, sick or dead. We all do so in faith or unbelief.
We go to God when God is sorely placed, find him poor, scorned, unsheltered, without bread, whelmed under weight of evil, weak, or dead. Christians stand by God in his hour of grief.”
The meditation this morning takes the form of four questions, with a few moments of silent reflection interspersed.
You are invited to reflect on how these questions touch your heart and your life. After each question is read aloud, there will be a period of silence for personal thought and prayer. Each time of silent reflection will conclude as the Choir sings a verse of Voices United Hymn #182 “Stay with Us through the Night”. You are welcome to join with the choir in singing, or to remain silent, as you wish.
Meditative Question & Silent Reflection
According to the gospel records, Jesus, even at the height of his suffering, forgave those who persecuted and subsequently executed him. Can you make the choice to forgive those whom you think have done you wrong? Can you choose to forgive yourself?
Two minutes of silence for personal reflection.
Choir – “Stay with us through the Night” – verse one:
- Stay with us through the night. Stay with us through the pain, stay with us, Blessed Stranger, till the morning breaks again.
Meditative Question & Silent Reflection
Jesus’ passion was compassion. The true meaning of compassion is to identify with the suffering of another. Jesus’ response to suffering – physical, emotional, spiritual, social – was to open his heart to the suffering one. Jesus used personal power to alleviate suffering whenever it was possible. Sometimes that was as simple as taking time to listen.
Is there a situation in your life that would benefit from true compassion?
Two minutes of silence for personal reflection.
Choir – “Stay with us through the night.” – verse two
- Stay with us through the night. stay with us through the grief.
Stay with us, Blessed Stranger, till the morning brings relief.
Meditative Question & Silent Reflection
What limits my compassion?
Two minutes of Silence for Personal Reflection.
Choir: “Stay with us through the night.” – verse three
Stay with us through the night. Stay with us through the dread.
Stay with us, Blessed Stranger, till the morning breaks new bread.
Meditative Question and Silent Reflection
How can I best love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength – and love my neighbour as myself?
Two Minutes of Silence for Personal Reflection
Choir: Stay with us through the night – verse one
- Stay with us through the night. Stay with us through the pain.
Stay with us, Blessed Stranger, till the morning breaks again.
Prayer
Gracious God, whose very name is Love, these reflections are the offerings of our hearts.
May they be a source of transformation for our spirits and our lives. May this work of our hearts become the work of our hands. May our soul-searching issue from the depths of our love for you, Our Sustaining Presence.
May our reflections creation for us a connection with you.
And with those whom we love and have loved. May we experience healing within ourselves today. Help us to see the bright hope of Easter Day. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Opportunity to Remember
We recall Jesus passion for compassion – the energy, enthusiasm, and courage with which Jesus lived and died. As we do so we recognize that not even the worst that the systems of domination could do was able to defeat the good that Jesus embodied. Even the darkness of death by execution on a Roman cross was not able to extinguish God’s light within him. (The power of God’s unfailing love gives us hope in the ultimate victory of good over evil.) We commit ourselves anew today to let our own light shine as we follow Jesus in the way of compassion.
Litany for Good Friday
Lord Jesus, we gather at the foot of the cross, long to understand.
Open us to the mystery and the saving power of the cross.
We see in the cross the agony of humankind and the cruel injustice of the world’s systems of domination.
At times we are tempted to despair at human inhumanity.
We know that human systems still perpetuate such cruelty, sometimes deliberately, more often simply knowing not what we do.
At times we are tempted to cynicism, without hope for ourselves or our world.
Yet we call this day good, for the cross that lays bare the sin of the world, reveals also your incredible steadfast love.
Through unbelievable, we believe.
We bring to the foot of the cross the pain of the world:
- Those afflicted by COVID-19 throughout the world – those who are ill, those who have died, the grieving families, those who live in anxiety and fear;
- Refugees by the millions throughout the world;
- Families and communities devastated by HIV/AIDS in Africa – all for the want to drugs readily available here in Canada;
- Hunger and homelessness here in our community, province and country;
- Missing and murdered indigenous women and girls;
Enable and empower us today to take up our crosses, as disciples, knowing that by grace we can, we must, make a difference.
We bring to the foot of the cross our pain, and the pain of those we love.
We turn over to your suffering love the experiences of life that would defeat us, that overwhelm us.
In your cross, the powers of sin and death are defeated; in your cross our hope, our joy, our reason for being.
So, we call this day good.
At the foot of the cross we are lost in wonder, love and praise.
Parting Hymn VU#586 “We Shall Go Out with Hope of Resurrection”
We shall go out with hope of resurrection, we shall go out, from strength to strength go on, we shall go out and tell our stories boldly, tales of a love that will not let us go.
We’ll sing our songs of wrongs that can be righted, we’ll dream our dreams of hurts that can be healed, we’ll weave a cloth of all the world united within the vision of new life in Christ.
We’ll give a voice to those who have not spoken, we’ll find the words for those whose lips are sealed, we’ll make the tunes for those who sing no longer, expressive love alive in every heart. We’ll share our joy with those who still are weeping, raise hymns of strength for hearts that break in grief, we’ll leap and dance the resurrection story, including all in circles of our love.
Dismissal & Blessing
Sung Response: “In Suffering Love” (Reprise, VU#614 v.3 & 5)
In love’s deep womb our fears are held, there God’s rich tears are sown
And bring to birth, in hope newborn,
the strength to journey on.
In suffering love our God comes now,
hope’s vision born in gloom;
with tears and laughter shared and blessed,
the desert yet will bloom.
Postlude
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