Good Friday

You can watch the bible readings and sermon here, or scroll down to read the rest of the Sunday prayers and content, and watch this video at the point it occurs during worship.

WELCOME & CALL TO WORSHIP

On this day of all days when we are surrounded by brutality and fear, political and religious expediency, we remember the One in whose name we gather of whom the Psalmist proclaims: ‘Remember, Lord, your great mercy & love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; but according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.

So, we come, each one of us, with tentative steps into your presence Lord, the One who is good. We believe that your love, seen supremely in Jesus’ life, welcomes and loves each one of us.

Let us Pray: There is a man in the garden. They come for him now, with swords & with lanterns.

They say this Nazarene is a problem – let us seize the man. This garden, like one long ago becomes a place of violence and betrayal. Could anything good come from Nazareth? Could anything good come from this? What makes, this day, good? Come, let us discover the mystery of Good Friday.

HYMN

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

O sometimes it cause me to tremble, tremble, tremble

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

O sometimes it cause me to tremble, tremble, tremble

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

Were you there when they pierced him in the side?

O sometimes it cause me to tremble, tremble, tremble

Were you there when they pierced him in the side?

Were you there when the sun refused to shine?…

O sometimes it cause me to tremble, tremble, tremble

Were you there when the sun refused to shine?

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?…

O sometimes it cause me to tremble, tremble, tremble

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?

By permission Oxford University Press based on an African – American spiritual CCLI # Licence 31951

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

We are afraid Lord – poured out like water, bones out of joint, hearts like wax, mouths dried up, laid in the dust, encircled by fear, blades and bulls, dogs and lions. We don’t understand you and your ways, we clutch at our swords, we swing with our fear. You say, ‘I’m the one. Let these others go.’ You say, ‘Lay down your swords.’ And you drink the cup, the cup we can’t, the cup we won’t, the cup you’ve been given. God, we are scared. We too run away. Lord, receive us & our prayers.

WORDS OF ASSURANCE

Though we can’t possibly understand it – not now, not here, not yet – somehow, we know it is true: all who sleep in the earth shall bow down to him; we will all live in him. All who come after him will serve him and praise him for he has done it – he has forgiven. He has delivered us with saving love, and all the ends of the earth shall remember him and turn to him. All of this is bound up in the mystery of God’s love and the gift of new beginnings. Brothers, sisters, we are forgiven.

JOHN Chapters 18 vs 1 – 19 vs 16a A bell rings for 15 – 20 sec after each line is read

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoQ07k8I5p8

‘Exterior: Ringing Single Church Bell with Rope Bells’

Betrayal & Arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane
Peter Denies Jesus
Jesus before the High Priest Annas and Caiaphas
Jesus before Pilate
Jesus sentenced to death
Jesus handed over to the soldiers is stripped and flogged

JOHN 19: 16b – 30

So the soldiers took Jesus, and carrying the cross by himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill what the scripture says, “They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.” And that is what the soldiers did.

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. This is the Friday called Good.

Stay here and keep watch with me – Taize – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tGF-absmaQ

Emmaus Music (3 min 50 sec)

As the music is played we come forward and place potted plants around the cross…

MESSAGE

HYMN Jesus Went Out to a Garden

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.

PRAYERS FOR OURSELVES & OTHERS

From within a garden of violence and betrayal – in Ukraine, Gaza, Israel & Russia