I’ve marked Good Friday this year in three very different acts of worship. The first was my service at Allhallowgate where we read the passion in St Matthew’s Gospel. I made the point that if we don’t do the cross in church we do nothing at all and that it proves in Jesus God is Immanuel - with us, always.
In “Night” Elie Weisel, tells of a boy hanged in a concentration camp during the Second World War. The boy took a long time to die while other prisoners were forced to watch. Looking at this agonising, unbearable scene, one prisoner said to another in despair, ‘where is God’?
His neighbour replied, ‘he is right there, hanging on those gallows’
Jesus suffers with us and for us and while we can’t make Friday feel better we know death isn’t the last word.
A Roman Catholic brother writes this: “On a winter evening a few years ago, we brothers were visited by a Montessori Middle School class who had been studying different faith traditions. Before Compline we met in the chapel to give the students the opportunity to ask questions. One young man raised his hands and asked, “Why are all the depictions of Jesus in this church images of him on the cross, dying? I do not see a ‘living’ Jesus anywhere.” I froze in fear for a moment, not expecting that question and I scrambled for an answer. I said that the depiction of Jesus on the cross is an image that assures us of God Emmanuel, which means “God with us,” even in the midst of suffering, bearing all that we cannot handle. The answer seemed to satisfy his curiosity, but it did make me wonder also since I had not noticed what he had observed before.
The next morning as we brothers were praying Morning Prayer, the sun began to rise and illumine the stained glass. At that moment I had an epiphany! The risen Jesus was everywhere in the glass: in St. John’s chapel, in the lancet windows of the Lady Chapel, and most especially in the great Rose window. How could I have missed the resurrected and ascended Jesus in our Church windows all this time? I was then reminded of the line from the Psalms: “Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning.”
We then gathered in the market ground with other churches. We were challenged to take up our cross and follow. Then we shared in the VERY high church liturgy of Good Friday in the cathedral. VERY high indeed! The service included veneration of the cross. In the queue to kneel by it I found myself finding peace. I have given out so much this week it’s hard to hear the message of redemption and solidarity of the divine for me not just for the people I’ve shared with since last Sunday. As we contemplated the cross we heard the reproaches sung. These are the words of Jesus to us. Very moving. The words also make us look at our behaviour and our commitment.
O my people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you?
Holy God, holy and awesome, holy and intimate,
Have mercy on us.
First Reproach
I brooded over the abyss,
with my words I called forth creation:
but you have brooded on destruction,
and manufactured the means of chaos.
O my people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you?
Holy God, holy and awesome, holy and intimate,
Have mercy on us.
Second Reproach
I breathed life into your bodies,
and carried you tenderly in my arms:
but you have armed yourselves for war,
breathing out threats of violence.
O my people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you?
Holy God, holy and awesome, holy and intimate,
Have mercy on us.
Third Reproach
I made the desert bloom before you,
I fed you with an open hand:
but you have grasped the children’s food,
and laid waste to fertile lands.
O my people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you?
Holy God, holy and awesome, holy and intimate,
Have mercy on us.
Fourth Reproach
I abandoned my power like a garment,
choosing to dwell within your unprotected flesh:
but you have robed yourselves in privilege,
and chose to despise the abandoned.
O my people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you?
Holy God, holy and awesome, holy and intimate,
Have mercy on us.
Fifth Reproach
I would have gathered you to me as a lover and shown you the ways of peace;
but you desired security,
and you would not surrender yourself.
O my people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you?
Holy God, holy and awesome, holy and intimate,
Have mercy on us.
Sixth Reproach
I have torn the veil of my glory,
transfiguring the earth:
but you have disfigured my beauty,
and turned away your face.
O my people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you?
Holy God, holy and awesome, holy and intimate,
Have mercy on us.
Seventh Reproach
I have laboured to deliver you,
and delighted to give you life:
but you have delighted in bloodshed,
and laboured to bereave the world.
O my people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you?
Holy God, holy and awesome, holy and intimate,
Have mercy on us.
Eighth Reproach
I have followed you with the power of my spirit,
to seek truth and heal the oppressed:
but you have been following a lie,
and returned to your own comfort.
O my people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you?
Holy God, holy and awesome, holy and intimate,
Have mercy on us.
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, kyrie eleison.
Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
As well as knowing God has the last word we also need to know he shows us mercy when we decide to crucify over and over again today.
I love this picture below. It’s from my Holy Island collection. Maybe Good Friday is about us having time to stop, kneel, remember. The rest of the city had a Friday in the spring sunshine. We need a day to remind ourselves of the awesome fact God in Jesus suffers and like us one day is placed in a tomb. And now we wait. As Deborah-Lynn at our ecumenical service said “spoiler alert, there is a part two to the story.”
The Dean greeted me after the cathedral service. I’d forgotten not only in this service do we process to do a bit of veneration, we then process to take communion and then we process again to go down into the crypt of St Wilfrid where a cross can be seen with candles on each side of it. “A Methodist kneeling at the cross!” he chuckled. To which I replied “I can do high church sometimes!”
Good Friday? Yes, it has been. Because after leading or sharing in ten services this week with three more to come on Sunday, I’ve heard the story for myself. Surprisingly most powerfully in a bit of veneration and reproaches! God speaks in a mysterious way :)
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