Good Friday: Our tears in the face of evil

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem he followed a sacred road of prophesy and law, as the Dharawal people continue to walk along their ancient song lines celebrating creation and law, so we gather this day acknowledging their elders past and present. Together may our songs this day bring forth reconciliation and justice making.

LENTEN CANDLE LIGHTING

Today, darkness is overwhelming. The disciples flee, today they believe that evil is stronger than their hopes & dreams. Only the women remain. Jesus meets Pilate & Herod. We light our Lenten candle.

CALL TO WORSHIP

People of God, today journey with me with open hearts. Our journey through the Scriptures is troubling, but we must hear it again. Come, let us draw closer together in spirit & heart as we listen to the Word.

BIBLE READING – Paul 1^st Word

1^st Word: Luke 22: 7 – 12 When came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked. He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

HYMN – TIS 536 vs 1 modified (sing twice) Played on piano – Judy H

An upper room did our Lord prepare

For those he loved until the end

A lasting gift Jesus gave his own

To share his bread, his loving cup.

BIBLE READING – Janene 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th & 5^th Words

2^nd Word: Luke 22: 24 – 26 A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.

HYMN – TIS 650 vs 1 & 3 (repeat) Played on piano

Brother, sister, let me serve you

Let me be as Christ to you

Pray that I may have the grace to

Let you be my servant too.

I will hold the Christ-light for you

In the night-time of your fear

I will hold my hand out to you

Speak the peace you long to hear.

CCLI Song # 72673 Richard Gillard © Words & Music: 1977 Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publishing (Admin. by SHOUT! Music Publishing Australia) For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951

3^rd Word: Luke 22: 39 – 42, 45 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.

SONG ‘Watch & Pray’ (Taize) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCr2tn4yYKY

Stay here and keep watch with me.

Watch and pray.

Watch and pray. Repeats many times

4^th Word: Luke 22: 54 – 60, 62 Then seizing Jesus, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed…and Peter (remembering Jesus words) wept bitterly.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Let us Pray,

Lord Jesus, if Peter falls away when you needed him most, what hope do we have in following you?

Not once, not twice but three times. Lord have mercy and strengthen us in your service.

Lord Jesus, we too like the disciples, are exhausted from sorrow, within our own lives or from what the past two years has contained, help us to stay awake, to see and to be your presence in the world.

Lord Jesus, we too argue in our own ways about who is greater, about who is better than another.

Forgive us from putting ourselves in the centre and for arguing about who is more faithful.

Lord Jesus, forgive us if we have followed the crowd, or the loudest voice at any time this past year instead of viewing all of life through the prism of your transforming love; and

Lord Jesus, there are so many things I need to share with you, help me to know the need of it and the courage to speak of it. Even though I stumble and fall, you are my Saviour, Friend & LORD. Amen

5^th Word: Luke 23: 13 – 25 Pilate then called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion.

I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.” But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.) Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.” But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

HYMN – TIS 341 vs 1, 2, 3, 5 & 7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaR4DSjBLO4

My song is love unknown
My Saviour’s love to me
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be.
O who am I
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh and die.

He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow
But men made strange and none
The longed-for Christ would know.
But O my Friend!
My Friend indeed
Who at my need
His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way
And His sweet praises sing
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King.
Then ‘Crucify’!
Is all their breath
And for His death
They thirst and cry.

They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away
A murderer they save
The Prince of Life they slay.
Yet cheerful he
To suffering goes
That He His foes
From thence might free.

Here might I stay and sing
No story so divine
Never was love dear King
Never was grief like thine.
This is my Friend
In whose sweet praise
I all my days
Could gladly spend.

BIBLE READING – Paul 6^th & 7^th Words

6^th Word: Luke 23: 26 – 43 As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

SILENCE, as we remember all who have died on and since our last Good Friday: 85,000 in Yemen; 2Million from COVID, over 20,000 in Ukraine; those we know and love & the 3 on that 1^st Good Friday.

7^th Word: Luke 23: 44 – 46 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. In this we hear God’s Word of truth and grace. Amen

LENTEN CANDLE EXTINGUISHED

SERMON: Rev Paul Bartlett.

We usually provide a recording of the sermon only, but here is a video recording of the whole service. You can find the sermon starting at 26.17

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Rev Paul

Today Lord Jesus, we discover the sacred outside the Temple where God is supposed to reside and be at work, on a cross outside the city walls of King David’s beloved Jerusalem. Today we have discovered that God can be found outside these walls and this city in the places where ordinary folks live and work, are born and die. God with us – help us to deeply understand what that means for our lives. We remember those who live outside these church walls and those who are not here today whom we miss.

Today Lord Jesus, our inhumanity towards each other continues to be felt in the words we speak, in the actions we take or don’t take and in the places of brutal war, denuded forests, acidic seas, squatter settlements and wherever injustice is found – where ever a single person is devalued or discarded.

Today Lord Jesus, you confront such anger, hatred, indifference, greed and cruelty taking it all into your own body, arms outstretched embracing all of creation which you created and love.

Today Lord Jesus, our words, any words are inadequate. Receive our prayers and those of our world….

HYMN ‘Jesus went out to a garden’ Tune: BLAENWERN TIS 590 On piano

Jesus went out to a garden to a quiet place to pray.
In the night, a crowd came round him, led by Judas on their way.
They seized Jesus to arrest him; someone near then drew a sword.
Soon a slave was injured, suffering there beside our suffering Lord.

Jesus spoke to stop the violence: “put your sword back in its place.”
Then he touched the slave and healed him in a moment filled with grace.
For as violence leads to violence causing more distress and pain —
So compassion in abundance is a witness to God’s reign.

God of love, we pause and wonder: did that slave give quiet praise?
Yet the story marches onward with the pain that it portrays.
For the One who brought such healing soon was broken, on a cross
To our sinful world revealing violence has an awful cost.

God, the gospels bear a witness: your Son’s death was not the end.
By your grace, you raised up Jesus; sin and violence did not win.
May we work to end all suffering; lead us in Christ’s peaceful way.
May his peace become an offering that we share throughout each day.

Text: Copyright © 2012 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved. Email permission obtained.BENEDICTION – go quietly into the rest of this day, may our crucified Lord’s arms never let us go.

Good Friday: Our tears in the face of evil

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