Good Friday Service in 2013 - prayers, sermon & EVALUATION

Good Friday Service 2013

Call to Worship

Welcome to the Good Friday service. Let us prepare ourselves for the worship, being reminded of a sacred story you will hear from our readings today.

When Jesus was handed over to the chief priests … and to Pilate, then sentenced and led away to the hill called Skull, a crowd of people were following him. Many were taunting him, mocking him for his failures and foolishness, crying out in loud voices “look what happens to one who comes in God’s name.” … (while the very stones grew silent…) Others were following him, with deep sighs, lamenting… Among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. 

Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”

Opening Prayer

O God, we believe that this is a not a day for mourning, but for awe,

wonder, love and gratitude,

the radical gratitude for what you have given to us, 

life,

the love we have received through your Son and returned,

and for a daring hope we have set off to the heaven,

yearning that true peace, justice and love rule your world,

the hope which is still burning in our hearts.

O God, let us all bow in reverence, praising Lord, your Son, Jesus.

Let us, daughters and sons of faith,

glorify Him and stand in awe before Him. Amen.

Prayer of Commitment

Jesus, Christ, as we reflect on what you have shown and given to us,

let us not forget your children in your world

who suffer from violence, oppression

and brokenness of all kinds.

Let us be a voice for those who strive to find the dignity in their life.

Let us be a true companion to those who seek a sanctuary for their soul, in their life’s pilgrimage,

We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Sermon: Stripped Bare

(inspired by the Richard Lischer's reflection: Stripped Bare: Holy Week and the Art of Losing in Christian Centuries.)

Undressing another person, or another person’s body, is slow and exquisite work. Whether it’s for a feeble parent who can’t manage the buttons, a child for its bath or an expectant lover, undressing can be an act of love.

When a Jewish person dies, a small group prepares the body for burial. First, the body is reverently undressed, and any wounds on it are carefully cleansed. Rings, bracelets and all jewelry are removed. The body is bathed and purified by water, then wrapped in a white sheet and a prayer cloth and tied with a sacred symbol. Now the dead are ready to meet the living God.

At the end of this service, we will carefully remove the cross and the linen from the altar. We will remove even the glass on it, stripping the altar to bare wood. When everything is removed, what is left is nude and vulnerable, not as imposing as one might expect. Simple, humble wood. Until I see it this way, I’ve been thinking that our altar is relatively large, strong and sturdy. But it does disclose its age and vulnerability through the scuffs and dents that it has endured. When we finish undressing it, we will cover it with black cloth. We will also cover the Lenten Garden, the candles on each candle station and the Christ candle in black, after we blow out them. Then one of us will turn out the electric lights, and we will depart in silence.  

When I was a university student, I was invited to stay overnight at a convent, in one of their bedrooms, and to be there as one of their friends at the Good Friday service. At the end of the service, everything which symbolized Divine glory and love’s radiance was removed and covered in black; the chapel was stripped bare and smothered in black. It was around noon, but the inside was in deepest blackness. It was a great shock to me; to see and experience firsthand for the first time in my life that everything can be turned into nothing, into darkness, within a few minutes, like the darkness in a cave. A cave is not like a tunnel with a light at the far end, and hope of escape; in a cave there is no exit at the opposite side. That Good Friday service in the convent was the first time I experienced a dead end without exit or escape. I felt claustrophobic.

Richard Lischer shares his reflection; “Every time I participate in such a service, I think of Jesus, who on the night of his betrayal laid aside his woven tunic and tied a towel around his waist. He stripped for service. Another Gospel tells us that later ‘they stripped him’ for mockery and death. The altar stands for Jesus, who in Holy Week enters the last stages of his ritual purification. The altar also stands for those from whom something or someone is being taken away. It stands for us. A sentence from one of Bonhoeffer’s prison letters come to mind: ‘I think that even in this place we ought to live as if we had no wishes and no future, and just to be our true selves.”

Last Wednesday afternoon, I went to Duncan, to see Fran. What a journey you can make in only 28 kilometres... Just before I started my car, I thought about what I should say to Fran. Then my thoughts extended to theology: what shall I say to Christ at the foot of the cross? When we truly see the full humanity of another person, when humanity encounters the Divine in the sanctuary of silence, in the place of our innermost heart, I wonder what we shall say, I wonder what our communication would reveal about our truest, most essential selves?

Then I thought about what I shall say to you… When I meet you, without any artifice, soul to soul in the purest essence of spirit, what words shall we say to one another? What would you like to whisper to the person next to you? What shall we say to the living God, our saviour, our Creator when we are ready to meet Him?

When Christ is stripped bare for you, when the vulnerability of love stands for you, and you stand, simply yourself before Christ, what purity will inhabit you, and what true words will transform you?

When I met Fran, last Wednesday afternoon, her voice was greatly weakened, but still beautiful. She was lying on the chair and looked at me in the eyes so dearly, with such pure grace. I thought that kind of grace is what only a person who is in the last stage of her life can show, or the way Christ would see us. She was so pure, clean, ready. By the way how she was preset, in the moment, (every moment is now, really God-given), was witnessing that dying can be, and is really living. She witnessed by her presence, words, such grace she showed, that the most pure form of human’s heart, what remains to the end, and shines at the end is love. The God’s image is love. She was doing an art of love. Letting go and receiving.

We leave the naked altar, stark and vulnerable, in the dark. Let us leave this place with our pretensions stripped bare, vulnerable and aching for communion, knowing that God sees our true selves, even in the darkest places.

A note from a congregant on the Good Friday service in 2013.

I was absolutely moved to silence by today's service.In all my 66 years on this earth that was the finest Good Friday service I have ever experienced.

Ha Na: your choice of words in message and prayer show so much depth and sensitivity. Every service we see  more and more  the purity and clarity of your faith. We see also your perception and compassion. You have many gifts as a minister and you are going to bless many people over the years .Right now you are really speaking to our hearts, to our pain, to our need for comfort and reassurance of hope. You have pored yourself into your messages to us last Sunday, Maundy Thurs and today. Bless you for that.

Dawn-Marie: the music was so perfect in every way today. The choices were brilliant and fit seamlessly with the spoken word. Your tender playing spoke a lot about how you express your spirituality. We are so blessed by your gifts and commitment.

Helen- what a tenderly crafted service!  What a team you and Ha Na and Dawn-Marie make. Very powerful and spirit led. It also made such a difference to have you and Jamie as readers. You are both blessed with strong, clear voices but as well you read the words from your hearts.

Words are really not enough to express the full range of feelings I had and have about this service. It is the most significant service of the year and you all elevated it to such a high spiritual level. It touched us deeply in our souls.

Thanks you seems inadequate but here is my humble thanks anyway.

Love