Good Friday 2011
Some Things Must Die
Prelude:
silence; words on the screen inviting quiet preparation and referring to a prayer for each to pray and meditate on included in handout (tbd); sign on the door requesting people enter in silence.
10:05am:
From Palms to the Cross video (http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/index.php?ct=store.details&pid=V00024 )
10:07am:
Song: Show Me The Way Of The Cross (as below)
Sparsely; as Jesus’ words.
Show me the way of the
cross once again
Denying myself for the
love that I have
(instrumental only during “Everything’s you now…”)
Yes, I resolve to give it all
Some things must die-
(some things must live) – leave out??
Not ‘what can I gain’-
but ‘what can I give’
If much is required
when much is received
Then You can have my whole life
Father, have it all
10:09am: Invitation to the cross, an ironic place – Steve
I invite you to come to the cross this morning. The cross is an ironic place, it was a simple yet horrendous Roman instrument of torture, a deterrent to crime incredibly vicious and ugly. Yet now it hangs in virtually every Christian church, some people have it tattooed on their bodies and others wear it in gold around their necks. What once was a symbol of death has been transformed into a symbol of life, a place of despair has been transformed to a place of hope, cries of pain and grief are transformed into shouts of victory, a place where hate is transformed by love. The cross is an ironic place:
- a place where meekness overcomes wrath
- a place that must shock us in its violence then console us in our grief
- a place where we must fall on our knees in humility and then be raised up again
- a place where we bring all our burdens, then leave them there
- a place of defeat and death that becomes a place of victory and life
This morning I invite you to come to the cross, and to consider how it might transform you. Oh, you might think you are managing ok, but there is something here for you. God wants to meet you this morning, remind you of how deep the love of God is for you, and transform you.
We will first pray a prayer of confession which ties together some of Jesus’ words to the religious people of His day during His last week of life, with some of Jesus’ words spoken at the very beginning of His ministry called “the beatitudes.” Then we will hear the story again from Scripture, reflect on our part in it, contemplate what sin in us needs to die and write that on a piece of paper, and then I’ll invite you to come and leave it at the cross – put it behind you and allow the love of God to transform you. At the close of our service, please exit the sanctuary in quiet and visit in the foyer so that anyone who wishes to stay and pray may do so in peace.
Our prayer of confession, to which we now turn, is modeled after two different sets of Jesus’ words. During His last week of life, Jesus was very confrontational with the sin of some of those in His day who felt they had it all together, these are known as the “woes” and are recorded in Matt 23. Those will be placed beside another of Jesus’ teachings, called the “beatitudes”, which are found in Matt. 5.
10:??:
Leader: Father, what sorrow awaits us if we do not admit our need for you and instead trust in our own strength.
All: Father, break our hearts of stone. Jesus, take our self-sufficiency and let it die with you on the cross.
Leader: Jesus, what sorrow awaits us if we are only careful about the details of our worship but neglect the more important issues of mercy, justice, and faithfulness.
All: Lord, break our hearts of stone. Jesus, take our empty religion and let it die with you on the cross.
Leader: Holy Spirit, what sorrow awaits us if we do not mourn our sin and turn from our unrighteous ways.
All: Holy Spirit, break our hearts of stone. Jesus, take our sin and let it die with you on the cross.
Leader: Father, what sorrow awaits us if we are clean on the outside but remain filthy and full of greed and self-indulgence on the inside.
All: Father, break our hearts of stone. Jesus, take our greed and let it die with you on the cross.
Leader: Jesus, what sorrow awaits us if we exalt ourselves and refuse to serve one another.
All: Lord, break our hearts of stone. Jesus, take our pride and let it die with you on the cross.
Leader: Holy Spirit, what sorrow awaits us if we do not hunger and thirst for righteousness.
All: Holy Spirit, break our hearts of stone. Jesus, take our apathy and let it die with you on the cross.
Leader: Father, what sorrow awaits us if we cannot see you because our eyes are full of lust and covetousness.
All: Father, break our hearts of stone. Jesus, take our impurity and let it die with you on the cross.
Leader: Jesus, what sorrow awaits us if we consume more than we need at the expense of others instead of doing what is right.
All: Lord, break our hearts of stone. Jesus, take our selfishness and let it die with you on the cross.
Leader: Holy Spirit, what sorrow awaits us if we are beautiful on the outside but full of dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity, lawlessness, and hypocrisy on the inside.
All: Holy Spirit, break our hearts of stone. Jesus, take the death inside of us and let it die with you on the cross.
(based on Matthew 5:3-10 and 23:11-28)
10:15am: Matt 27:27-56
27 Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. 29 They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. 31 When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.
32 Along the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. 33 And they went out to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). 34 The soldiers gave him wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it.
35 After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. 36 Then they sat around and kept guard as he hung there. 37 A sign was fastened to the cross above Jesus’ head, announcing the charge against him. It read: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” 38 Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.
39 The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. 40 “Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!”
41 The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. 42 “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him! 43 He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 Even the revolutionaries who were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way.
45 At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. 46 At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
47 Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. 48 One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. 49 But the rest said, “Wait! Let’s see whether Elijah comes to save him.”
50 Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, 52 and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. 53 They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.
54 The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, “This man truly was the Son of God!”
55 And many women who had come from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James and Joseph), and the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee.
10:18am
Song: Were you there?
I Will Never Be the Same
10:21am
Some Things Must Die
Good Friday, 2011 (Apr 22)
Intro:
We’ve invited you to come to the cross. We’ve heard the story from Scripture, and the songs we just sang invite us to reflect on our part in the crucifixion of Jesus, “were you there when they crucified my Lord?”, and how God can transform us because of the love of God for us which we see in the eyes of Jesus, “I will never be the same now that I have seen the cross”.
Now I want to pause. And ask a few questions, and lead us to deeply contemplate and discover what this really means and what it might mean for us. After each question I will leave space in quiet for you to answer the question for yourself.
Question #1:
The first question was put to us in the first song, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Well, of course the simple answer is “no”, none of us were alive 2000 years ago so of course we weren’t there. But there is a much deeper meaning in the song, and in the question, which we grasp when we accept one simple truth: Jesus died on the cross to take care of the sin problem which afflicts every single human being ever born. Including you and me. Christians believe that as Jesus hung on that cross on that first Good Friday, all the sin of every person was placed on His shoulders, and He paid the penalty for it, so that we could be free from the devastation of sin. So of course we were not there, in person, at the cross. But Jesus took my sin, and He took your sin, upon His shoulders, and paid the penalty for my sin, and your sin, when He died.
So yes, I was there: not in person, but my sin was there. My destructive actions and attitudes of pride, lust, greed, gluttony, exalting myself, and of wrath; my times of inaction when I was responsible to meet the needs of others, to speak truth instead of staying silent, of using my time to serve those in need instead of selfishly pursuing my own comfort and pleasure. Those things that I have done which are wrong, and those things that I have failed to do which are right and just, were there, were placed on Jesus, so that I could be free.
silence
Question #2:
My second question might sound kind of harsh: “do you care”? We live in a callous world, where we are bombarded with images and stories and where we are forced to choose what we will pay attention to, and most often we only really pay attention when somehow it impacts us in a personal way. That is why we need to personalize the cross. Not in the sense that “Jesus went through all that just for me…”, as if I am an isolated individual, but rather in the sense that as we stand among the crowd of humanity who today are creating space in their lives to reflect on Jesus death, it is our voices calling for Jesus’ crucifixion, and it is our sin which requires this sacrifice. Jesus died for us. It is personal.
We need to be reminded of the horror of Jesus’ death, and that it was caused by the sin of humanity – mine and yours included, not so that we feel guilt and shame and condemnation, but so that we might again be caused to care. I asked, “do you care”?, because I really believe that if we pause long enough on this day to really understand what Jesus went through, as best as we are able, and as we believe that our sin was the underlying cause, we will be moved.
silence
Question #3:
My third question is this: “why”?. Most of us know the answer, but we need to hear it again. And if we are genuinely moved by the death of Jesus for us, and if we feel the injustice of an innocent man dying for the wrong in our lives, we should ask “why”?
The answer is here: “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Rom 5:8), and here: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son”. This is part of the irony of the cross: a most brutal act (crucifixion) initiated by a most noble motivation (love).
We need to let this really sink in. The words are familiar and easy, but the impact of them is transformational. Jesus felt the crack of the whip, Jesus endured the humiliation of the crown of thorns, Jesus accepted the nails through His hands and feet, Jesus hung there dying, because of how deep His love for you and me. As badly as we may feel by our sin being the cause, this truth must sink deeper – God’s love for us is so deep and wide and high and long that it made the cross worth it.
silence
Question #4:
My last question is this: “what are we going to do about it”? As a church we have spent the weeks of preparation for Easter studying the life Jesus offers in the beatitudes contrasted with 7 deadly sins which ancient Christians have identified as particularly toxic to our souls, and particularly effective in keeping us away from the love of God for us. At the root of them, they are easy, poor substitutes for the real, powerful, life God wants us to live.
So today as we stand at the cross, recognizing that “we were there”, allowing ourselves to care, being reminded that the “why” is because of love, I call us to reject the old way of sin and embrace the life of God, and I do so with the words of Col 3:1-11.
1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. 7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
In your bulletin there are some small slips of paper, with the question “what do you need to bring to the cross” written at the top. Colossians lists several possible sins, you know which ones are present in your life, and so you are invited to write those on the paper and after a prayer I’ll invite you to bring those forward and place them on the cross.
What do you need to bring to the cross? Colossians invites us to “put to death” all those things that keep us from knowing the love of God for us and that keep us from living the life God intends for us. Maybe there is some sin you keep committing, even though you know it is wrong – Paul lists sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, dirty language, and lies.
I’m going to add some other things that keep us from God, which you might need to bring to the cross. How about fear – maybe that emotion has a grip on your life and you need to bring it to the cross and have it transformed by Jesus’ love into hope and eternal security. How about anxiety – maybe you are trying to be in control of life and there are things outside of your control and those leave you with anxious thoughts and a restless heart: bring those to the cross and have them transformed by Jesus’ love for you. What about apathy – maybe I asked that question, “do you care”, and you thought “no, at least not as much as I want to” – then bring that to the cross. How about regret – things you wish were different but are a reality of the past: bring that to the cross and leave it there. How about that deep desire to have the approval of others instead of the love of God? Or loneliness. Or grief. Or whatever else you have in your life that keeps you from God. Write it down, and then after the prayer I’ll invite you to come.
silence
10:40am
space for writing, contemplation
fill with assorted appropriate music (maybe only songs we have already done, instrumentally here)
10:45am
Prayer:
Lamb of God, you shed for me
Your life upon a blood stained tree,
Your life for mine, love re-defined
An offering, a ransom, release
You gave so much, O Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
The doubts I have, the pain I feel
When at your feet I humbly kneel
You take it all, both great and small
Give freedom, forgiveness and peace
I have the choice, O Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
Lamb of God, I hear your voice,
And hearing now I have a choice
To make a start, within my heart
A willingness, to journey by faith
You ask no more, O Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
By waters still, through fire and storm
Your love continues to transform
And with that call, you welcome all
No barriers now, no limits, just grace
No more excuses Lamb of God
ALL: Just as I am, I come
Read more at: http://www.faithandworship.com/prayers_Easter.htm#ixzz1IxD4Oyqx
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
10:50am
- invitation to bring forward that which has been written and lay it on the cross.
10:53am
Friday
by Calvin Miller
On with Friday’s grisly business!
Let the broad arm raise the sledge!
Let the hammer ring out upon the nails.
I must not flinch with the crimson flows-
He’s only a carpenter – a craftsman who claimed too much.
“I need a black nail, soldier.”
Give me your hand, carpenter. What a strange man you are!
You stretch forth your hand too eagerly – too willingly, as though I was going to shake it, not nail it to a tree.
Steady, man. The first stroke of the hammer is easiest for me and hardest for you.
For me the first blow meets only the resistance of soft flesh.
The hardwood beneath drives much slower.
For you the first blow is the worse.
It brings the ripping pain and the bright gore.
The wood beneath your wrist does not feel and bleed as you do.
10:55am
the papers which have been brought forward are nailed to the cross with huge spikes and an old, noisy hammer (note, we will not have told people this in advance). On the screen will be 2 Cor 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
dismissal in silence
