Good Friday 2021
Karen Sloan
Please feel free to use and adapt this liturgy. I have a powerpoint that has relevant pictures that go with each reflection. Some of them are here. I thank all those who have given me inspiration for this liturgy over the years. The prayers come from the original service this one is based on, developed by the American Christians for the Abolition of Torture, but have been adapted. The reflections have also been adapted and new ones added.
Slide - Music - Benedictus - Two Cellos
Welcome to all. I hope you will enter into the Jesus story, which starts in the light but by the end of today is in the dark.
Slide - Light the Christ Candle and the community candle
In hope, in longing
We come together in solidarity with those who struggle.
We come together in resistance to those who dominate
We come together to stand with all who act with courage.
We come together in memory of a man, a God infused man, who lived with compassion and for justice.
We come together around the cross, to remember, and to re-orientate our lives to the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
Amen
Let’s stand and sing Hymn 445 - The Cross
Slide - Introduction
Jesus was a non-violent revolutionary who practiced non-violent resistance to the powers of injustice unto death. So says Dominic Crossan. Or as Bill Loader describes him, a revolutionary without a gun. A man of God who brought God’s creative and life giving message into a world of power and injustice.
He was killed not because of what God wanted, but what men wanted. They wanted to be rid of someone who challenged them and their ways. Who would risk death for all he believed and lived out. Who stood at the cross and said “Yes” to love and non-violence, and “no’ to hate. Jesus died not for our sins but because of the sins of those in his world, who loved the dark rather than the light. Who loved hate rather than love. As Bill clearly states, the Romans killed Jesus because he threatened their very existence.
The problem is, today his message is still being killed off by those who love the dark rather than the light. Both inside and outside the church.
So this is a different type of Good Friday service. Very different since we can’t be together, but we know we are together in spirit and in love.
This service of worship is based on one developed by American Christians for the Abolition of Torture. It has been designed to assist faith communities relive the crucifixion journey and remember that the sufferings of Jesus continue through the plight of the poor, the oppressed, and the persecuted throughout the world. It was originally made up of a series of reflections based on the final seven words or statements of Jesus found in the gospels. However, in keeping with the ideas of Marcus Borg, Dominic Crossan, Bill Loader and many others, I have replaced the seven statements with passages that reflect the passion that animated his life.
And what was the passion of Jesus? It was the Kingdom of God, found not in some heavenly realm, but here on earth and here and now. It was a new world order, where the hungry are feed, where wars are no more and the persecuted and oppressed find freedom and justice. Where the love and life of God would be seen in all people and be for all people. As Borg and many others suggest, it is this passion that got Jesus killed.
When we view Good Friday in this light, we are asking ourselves some important questions, questions we have already started to face from our Palm Sunday service. It’s about the choices we make. Do we really follow Jesus in our daily lives, are we really committed to his vision of the kingdom, contributing in whatever way we can, or is the cost too high? Ouch!
Do we find ourselves with the marginalized and the outcast, with the disciples, or with the crowd doing the crucifying? Double ouch!
Things to seriously reflect on as we enter the service. Because the answers will affect life now, both for us and for our brothers and sisters. And for the planet. Particularly at this time when the world seems a different place, and we have the opportunity to change our direction.
There is a format to follow.
We will read a section of scripture from Mark 15, verses 15-46. Then there will be one of the seven words or phrases of Jesus I have selected to read. Then there will be a reflection and a prayer we will say together. There will be some hymns along the way, but I will get you to remain seated for them. We opened with one from George Stuart and now we will sing Hymn No 345, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord”. A hymn commonly used to reflect on this day.
Slide - Hymn Number 345, “Were you there when they crucified my lord”
Slide - First scripture passage – Mark 15:15-20
Slide - Words from Jesus, Words of Compassion – Luke 6:36
Slide - Reflection - The plight of those experiencing persecution
Oh what a world this is! Oh what a country this is. Beautiful and inclusive, maybe, sometimes!
Yet we still judge people based on colour, race, religion and gender or sexual orientation. Skin deep hatred, a language that defines our worse and breeds fear into the hearts of many is still alive in our community. Just ask an aboriginal person or someone wearing a burka. Or a woman in the corridors of government.
We still judge people on their ability to have a job, a car, and a home. We avoid and exclude those with mental illness, physical disability, who are gay or lesbian or who suffer ill health and cannot contribute in ways we expect. What about those lacking education and life experience. No, they cannot not be given special treatment. We must be fair, which means those with opportunity get more and those with limited opportunities get less.
Compassion, the words of Jesus. Compassion for those who are marginalized, who are subjected to racism, discrimination and poverty because of their circumstances. To those who are different and don’t fit in let us open the door of our hearts.
Slide – Prayer
Spirit of the Universe and of Us,
We remember the plight of those marginalized in our society, particularly our indigenous brothers and sisters particularly our indigenous brothers and sisters and those discriminated because of race, religion gender of sexuality. Hear our cry, O God. Break down the barriers in people's hearts that divide. Make us open to one another regardless of our differences. Help us to remember your compassion for all, so as to reshape the face of humanity.
Amen
Pause
Slide - Second scripture passage – Mark 15:21
Slide - Words of Forgiveness – Matt 18:21-22
Slide - Reflection - The plight of those in overcrowded prisons and on death row
The Prison
Don't close the door.
Don't turn the key
on this poor cell today.
I am your flesh, can you not see
we are the same - yes, you and me.
Four walls - that is my destiny,
and here I'll stay or die.
I too have dreams,
a faith, and love.
I am not less for all my crimes.
There are those who grieve with me
who share my shame, and pity me.
Four walls - not made of stone,
but mind and memory defined.
Remember me,
not for my crime,
lest common decency be lost,
for many fill such cells as mine,
and innocence their only crime.
Four walls - a prison cell to bind
a longing heart confined.
Slide - Prayer
Spirit of the Universe and of Us,
Let us be aware of those who wait for the state to decide their fate. You too, Jesus, were imprisoned by righteous persons. Help us to have compassion and forgiveness in our judgment so as to reshape the face of humanity.
Amen
Pause
Slide - Third scripture passage – Mark 15:22-24
Slide - Words of Love, for God and Neighbour - Matt 22:37- 40
Slide – Reflection - Plight of the refugees
Refugees, they have fallen off the media radar, of course as we have grappled with a pandemic. But have they gone, no, have they been looked after, no! Are they still suffering , yes! Look at the Rohingya people and the people of Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, who are now looking after millions of people who have had to flee.
Maybe Tim Winton who continually speaks up for refugees, is right, perhaps we are afraid. Afraid of what we may lose, instead of seeing what we would gain. For as Jesus also said, what is the point of gaining the whole world but lose your life in the process.
What drives men, women and children, to escape one last time, to look for a better home, for freedom to risk drowning or worse still years and years in detention?
A gun here; a storm there; a famine or a plague; perhaps their skin or religion does not fit. It matters little - all they know is they cannot stay, their very lives depend on their going!
"How many," you ask? The last estimate was more than 55 million - 25 million in foreign lands and 30 million displaced but still in their own lands. Many of these people are being interned and blamed for being present in another country. You might be amazed and horrified at how many people, seeking help and safety away from their homelands, are in detention camps. Worldwide approximately 7 million of the world’s estimated 17 million refugees are warehoused under conditions of confinement in some of the richest countries, Australia, USA and the UK. The problem for many of these people is that they are detained not just for months but for years, and then because the process is so slow, many are forced to go back, mostly into dangerous situations that have not changed, even though they have been deemed a refugee. We know because many who we met in the detention centre in Northam have been forced to go back. And my friend Nazar, who has been here over 5 years, and still cannot work, is weighing up that option. Although it isn’t really an option.
Each one, just like you and me. They, too, have careers to pursue, or things to learn, or families to love. Their lives are just as precious as yours or mine. Now they bear the scars of knowing, as you and I can only imagine, just how fragile life and home and love can be.
They ask for bread and we give them a stone.
Slide - Prayer
Spirit of the Universe and of Us
We remember the millions of refugees of this world, but particularly the Rohingya people. Help us receive these words of love, to be aware of our neighbour. Stir us to action for the sake of the powerless so as to reshape the face of humanity.
Amen
Pause
Please stand and sing our next hymn
Slide – Hymn no 629 “When I needed a neighbour were you there, were you there”.
Slide - Fourth scripture passage – Mark 15:25-32
Slide - Words of Non Violence and Peace – Matt 5:9
Slide - Reflection - Plight of the suffering through violence
A picture here on the screen says it all, it’s a sculpture of a revolver with a knotted barrel that is pointing upwards, by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd.
Reuterswärd created it after his friend, the singer and peace activist John Lennon, who was shot dead in 1980. and Yoko Ono asked him to commemorate Lennon.
Initially, the sculpture was placed in the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park, New York, across the street from where Lennon and Yoko lived. In 1988, the Government of Luxembourg donated the bronze sculpture to the United Nations. It was placed outside the United Nations headquarters in New York and Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General and Nobel Peace Laureate, said:
“The sculpture Non-Violence has not only endowed the United Nations with a cherished work of art; it has enriched the consciousness of humanity with a powerful symbol that encapsulates, in a few simple curves, the greatest prayer of men and women; that which asks not for victory, but for peace.”
There are 30 copies of this non violence sculpture around the world. Including in Beijing.
Yet we never learn. War and violence is still seen as the way to peace.
And the cost to so many people is endless suffering.
Slide – Prayer
Spirit of the Universe and of Us
We place before you the suffering of many people of the world - especially our brothers and sisters in Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar and the totally destroyed Syria. We remember those who long for justice. Help us to feel the pain and work for peace, so as to reshape the face of humanity. Amen
Pause
Slide - Peace Train – Cat Stevens (video)
Slide - Fifth scripture passage – Mark 15:33-39
Slide - Words of Support for the Poor and Oppressed – Luke 4:18
Slide – Reflection -The Plight of the Poor
Art has a way of inspiring us, speaking to us in a way that no words can do. We saw the sculpture of the tied up gun and now here is another sculpture that says so much more than mere words can.
Here on the screen is one called the homeless Jesus. It was Inspired by the gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, some of the words we have just heard sung. The artist calls us to see Jesus in the here and now, with the most marginalized in our society, disguising him as a homeless man on a bench, not recognizable except for the holes in his feet. There is room on the bench for others to sit, next to Jesus, the powerless Jesus, the Jesus of the poor. Sharing his bench with all those seeking comfort and company.
This is Jesus, this is the kingdom of God. A stunning representation, a stunning truth.
So what about the poor in the 21st century. For many around the world shelter is a cardboard box, and income is by selling either one’s own organs or ones children. According to some sources there are 40,000 hunger related deaths every day and 500 million children do not get enough food to fully develop mentally and physically. There is no idea of leisure or a playground for the kids, who are working in terrible conditions at a young age to help feed their families. This is poverty and food is scarce. We find it in all countries, even ones supposedly rich and western. Like our own.
And women are particularly affected. Women make up 66% of the worlds illiterate adults, they earn a small percentage of the income of men, own very little land and are over represented as refugees and fatalities in war. In addition gender based violence kills many women worldwide. They have no money and no control over their lives.
Yet as an old Chinese proverb says, “women hold up half the sky”.
And now as we grapple with a worldwide disease we see how the poor really suffer. No chance for them to separate or self-isolate, to not work, to hibernate for 6 months. What about the homeless in our own cities and towns, where are they to go!
As we ponder the words of Jesus imagine that this sculpture too has been placed in different places, and is now in 50 cities, in parks and town centres. It is a reminder that Jesus came for the powerless not the powerful and is a symbol of what a transformed world can be like.
Art can make a difference.
Slide - Prayer
Spirit of the Universe and of Us
We pray for the poor in our world, in our cities and town, men, women and children, whose lives are clouded by the lack of food or shelter or the basic necessities of life. We pray that through our efforts the poor may be released, and given the freedom to grow, mature, laugh and engage in the world. Let us hear the words of Jesus for the poor, so as to reshape the face of humanity.
Amen
Pause
Slide - Sixth scripture passage – Mark 15:40-41
Slide - Words of Jesus – Give up Your Possessions and Come Follow Me - Matt 19:20-22
Slide - Reflection - Climate Change and the Poor
A poem by Mary Oliver called “The Sun”
Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone--
and how it Slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance--
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love--
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed--
or have you too
turned from this world--
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?
In our world of today justice also involves care of the environment, for without that care our future is uncertain. As Thomas Berry has pointed out, we are living through an age of a great extinction, as many of the species that sustains life disappear. And we are the cause. The chemistry, geosystems and the biosystems of the planet are changing on a scale not seen in the past sixty five million years. And we are the cause.
Environmental erosion, climate change, deforestation, ocean degradation and air pollution all affect the poor and vulnerable countries and people the most, ones who have contributed to them the least and are the least equipped to adapt. They face floods and droughts, and a loss of land and livelihood because of them. Is this justice?
We cry out for justice for our planet and for the poor, dispossessed and exploited but we are unable or unwilling to give up our comforts, our gadgets, our way of life to achieve it. We need to see that we are connected to each other and to the world, and that what affects one affects all. How we have seen it now, in 2020 and 21!
Slide - Prayer
Spirit of the Universe and of Us
We behold with horror the pollution of earth, air, sea and we are humbled by our failure to control the damage we have done. We beg forgiveness for our crazy desire for more of everything, and pray for those who have been betrayed by our greed and thoughtlessness. We commit ourselves to learn and change, to become one with all people and one with the earth. So we can shape the face of humanity.
Amen
Pause
Slide - Seventh scripture passage – Mark 15:42-46
Slide - Words of Jesus, Jesus Greatest Commandment – John 13:34-35
Slide - Final Reflection
In our world of individualism, materialism, commercialism, racism and discrimination, the words are simple but profound. To bring the kingdom of God into our world entails love, expressed as compassion, justice and nonviolence. As Borg says “Compassion or love is utterly central to the message and life of Jesus, and justice is the social form of compassion. To put the same thought in different language, love is the soul of justice and justice is the body, the flesh of love.
A recent quote by Jonathan Sacks says it all.
“We are here to make a difference, to mend the fractures of the world, a day at a time, an act at a time, for as long as it takes to make it a place of justice and compassion where the lonely are not alone, the poor are not without help, where the cry of the vulnerable is heeded and those who are wronged are heard….The choice is not between faith and deeds, for it is by our deeds that we express our faith and make it real in the life of others and the world”
Jesus is Lord and the powers which drive our world are not. This is what we remember in the dark days of Good Friday.
Slide - Prayer
Spirit of the Universe and Us
Let us be your hands and feet in this world, let the light shine from us, even in the darkest of times.
Amen
Pause
Slide – Let us take a few minutes in silence
Slide - Sending Out
We know Jesus was crucified, an ugly and cruel death, but we know his light, and the light of God shines through us. The question is, are we willing and able to walk with Christ in this world, in this day and time.
As you go from this place go in peace and faith. May we be people of love, compassion and justice, even when there is darkness and despair.
Amen
Slide - We will overcome (video)– join in if you would like.
Slide - Please leave quietly when the song finishes.