Good Friday , April 18, 2014 (full size gallery)
The bulletin is here. The description of Holy Friday with the Bible readings and commentaries is here.
This service continued our worship through the Triduum, the last three days of Holy Week. It was the day of the execution of Jesus . This service begins and ends in silence. Tonight we continued the worship that we began last night at the Maundy Thursday service. Since the fourth century, Christians have commemorated the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior on this day. Our liturgy tonight consisted of The Liturgy of the Word, The Solemn Collects, and the Veneration of the Cross.
We had 30 people on an overcast day with still a chill in the air. There was a "Good Friday" type of mood in the air – somewhat introspective thinking about what happened. Somewhat forboding looking outside.
Certain images come to mind after tonight’s service. First the wonderful music. Marilyn played her best on" Domino", an introspective but biting melody that could be easily remembered as Marilyn went through variations. A very moving rendition to say the least. The music swirled around the church
Brad took Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist ("We pray now to the Holy Spirit") by Buxtehude, a contemporary of Bach and adapted it to our smaller organ. A different sort of mood, brighter. This has been adapted by composers since the 1400’s. We heard Brad had been working two years on this piece.
After the sermon was the veneration of the cross, the dramatic entrance of the cross. Then a chance for prayer and to put a taper in the sand in the front. By the end there were 18 candles and many prayers said. We had a moment after the service to reflect on the scene and extinguish the candles slowly, watching the glow and smoke until that one candle was left. This is the second of the images to carry away.
The last image was the sermon which took references to our last hymn "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross" written by Fanny Crosby with its verse "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." The cross is not just a sign of our redemption, a sign of our forgiveness in the future but one that provides the motivation to improve our world here and now.
Snippets from the sermon include the following in this regard
1. "As Christians, we are called to point toward God’s glory present here and now in the world. "
2. "We do that in the ways we proclaim the good news of the kingdom to those around us."
3. "Our response to that need as Christians– if we follow the example of Jesus– is loving service, not just for the needs of our friends and families, but for needs wherever they are found. "
4. "As Christians, following Jesus, we want to seek peace and pursue it, and work for reconciliation, rather than simply responding with more violence."
That was blended into a look at former Archibishop Oscar Romero of Salvador, gunned down by the sandinistas. As he said "I do not believe in death without resurrection," he said. "If they kill me, I will be resurrected in the Salvadoran people." She spoke of a mural in El Salvador showing a wound in his heart and hands."
What if we had such a mural at St. Peter’s ? "I hope that the cross would be in the middle, and I hope that all of us would be there. I hope that people would see the wound marks to our hearts broken open because we’ve chosen to look injustice and violence in the face."
Here is the sermon
There are moments of bright light in the Good Friday story as Justin Taylor and Andreas Kostenberger point out – "A bright irony on this darkest of days is that the men who step forward to claim the corpse of the Christ for burial are not family members or disciples. They are members of the Sanhedrin: Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. It is one more unexpected thread of grace woven into this tapestry of redemption. They quickly wrap Jesus’s body in a sheet and lay it in a nearby tomb. Evening is falling and they don’t have time to fully dress it with spices."
Another bright light is the role of the women on Good Friday. While the disciples disappeared, the women kept the watch and anointed Jesus body on Saturday. You can watch Canon Gina Campbell of the National Cathedral reflect on the women at this midday Good Friday service here.