Year 2002 Contributions:
Date: 16 Mar 2002
Time: 13:51:57
"It is finished!" Jesus testifies that His mission is done. It's over but the best part is yet to come! The glory of this Good Friday is in the fact that Jesus suffered and died and rose for us. This is a day of victory not defeat; this is a day of hope not of sadness! Our preaching needs to reflect the hope of glory of this day. It is finished sums that up for me. It is over just as the Father wanted it be. It is over and my death is your hope. It is finished but life is just beginning for you! Good preaching...Ed
Date: 22 March 2002
Time: 12:57:01
19:39 Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.
So what does this verse mean? Nicodemus comes forth into the light only to assist with the anointing of the crucified Jesus ... does he stil live in the darkness ... or has he moved toward a deeper faith?
tom in ga
Date: 24 March 2002
Time: 17:06:54
Tom, check out John 7:50 where Nicodemus stands up to the other "rulers and Pharisees" in Jesus' defense. He may have been on his way into the light before chapter 19. The reference in 19 makes a good sermon about not waiting until it's too late to do something you know you should do.
Mike in SD,TN
Date: 26 March 2002
Time: 14:06:41
I'm a former catholic, now a presbyterian pastor, and want to introduce the stations of the cross to my congregation on Friday. I don't plan to use them all, but I do plan to put black/white graphics of the stations on power point, and show them on the sanctuary screen, while reading scripture, allowing for silent meditation, using some (live) oboe music, and hymns. Does anyone know of a liturgy that isn't "too catholic" (won't send the frozen chosen scurrying from the sanctuary) that I might incorporate into the service? Thanks. LL in L
Date: 26 March 2002
Time: 19:17:34
LL in L asked -- Does anyone know of a [Stations of the Cross] liturgy that isn't "too catholic" (won't send the frozen chosen scurrying from the sanctuary) that I might incorporate into the service?
My Episcopal congregation likes Clarence Enzler's "Everyone's Way of the Cross" -- it IS Roman Catholic, but modern (only one station is excessively Marion to upset anyone and most people don't even notice). An alternative is the version in the Episcopal "Book of Occasional Services" -- it's made up of verses of Scripture -- don't think anyone can object to that!
Blessings, Eric in KS
Date: 27 March 2002
Time: 17:50:59
Greetings, I think we need to be allowed to hang in the profound moment of death. For it is into the dath of Jesus that we are all baptized. The journey through Lent is inward and reflective, a dying of sorts to the pettiness, a dying to destructive attitudes. I'm preaching on Good Friday that "Today is a Good Day to Die" We can't have the resurrection without the cross. It's tempting to rush too quickly to the empty tomb. At the cross we are humbled to see what humanity does to each other in the name of righteousness. And it is a grisly sight. Lord, have mercy. JS in SW
Date: 29 March 2002
Time: 07:05:47
I'm with JS in SW, Good Friday is about death, not life. Yes, we know the rest of the story, we know the resurrection, but we must first go through death or there is no resurrection.
Good Friday is not about victory. It is a day of death. Yes, a death done freely, but a death done only when all other options had run out and it became the only way. Good Friday is about Jesus giving up his life for us, dying a terrible painful death, for us. Good Friday is about sacrifice.
I will not be preaching victory or hope, I will be preaching someone who gave his life for me, suffering greatly in the process. I will be dwelling in that moment. The victory, the hope comes on Easter Sunday a day when not even the loudest band could declare the resurrection loud enough.
Mark in WI
Date: 29 March 2002
Time: 09:31:59
My sermon, entitled "What is Truth?" is on the web.
You can find it at http://www.stfrancis-ks.org/subpages/asermons/gdfri-rcl-a-2002.htm
Blessings, Eric in KS
Year 2000 Contributions:
Date: 10 Apr 2000
Time: 16:17:15
"I Was There"
I was there when they crucified your Lord. It was long ago, but I recall that day as if it was just yesterday. The sights, sounds, smells, feelings and even particular tastes of that day are still vivid to me. It all began as I heard shouts from afar crying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." It caught my attention, so I ran right over to see what was happening. I got there just in time to see the soldiers shove a pointed, painful looking crown of thorns deeply into a man’s scalp. The man cried out, as blood ran down the sides of His face, and trickled into the corner of His mouth. I remember thinking how the taste was probably foul, but not nearly as bad as the excruciating pain of His tender scalp. I flinched in sympathy.
I began to hear the crowd chant humiliating things about the man, like "Hail, King of the Jews!" Then they spat in His face. Next, they stripped off His clothes and tied His arms up high on a post, where they lashed Him with a barbed whip. It tore His flesh wide open, like a sharp knife. I couldn’t even sleep that night because of the mutilated, pulverized mess it made out of His poor back. The bright red blood flowed, and a drop of blood even flew onto my arm as the cruel whip flailed wildly. I could now feel the crowd rudely pushing against me. They began to lead the man off to the smelly garbage dump, where they crucified people. I’ll never get the memory of that dump’s stench out of my nostrils. As people pushed and jostled me, I fell down flat on my face, just as the cross was dragged past me. It was dragging on the ground, making a low, monotonous clunking sound, as the post hit stones on the path.
At the garbage hill, I watched them pound nails into His hands, just above the palms. I couldn’t imagine the pain, as I watched the blood flow from the wounds. Then I heard the clang of a third nail pounded into His poor feet. What torture. It would have been better to simply kill the man outright than to subject Him to this cruelty. I couldn’t help but be ashamed of how inhuman the crowd was acting. It embarrassed me terribly. This was a man. What had He done to deserve this inhuman treatment?
Next, I heard a thud as the cross fell into the hole dug to hold it upright. "No, stop!" my heart cried out inside. I became sick to my stomach from the whole revolting episode. This was too much. Next, they tried to give the man some wine, and I could tell from the strong smell there was something mixed in with it. He took a sip of the vinegar-like solution, and refused more. I couldn’t blame him, my nose was hurting just from the wretched smell, and imagining the taste was even worse. As the man hung for many hours in excruciating pain, He pushed up on the nail in His feet to breath in the smelly air. He said a few words I did not really understand. Some He said to His poor mother, who watched in tears, helplessly. But one thing I heard Him say clearly. He said, "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Can you imagine that? Forgiving those people who are doing that to Him? He also forgave one of the thieves, who had been mocking Him earlier. That was unbelievable. This was a special kind of man. Eventually, I heard Him look up and scream. He was giving up His spirit. His head drooped, breathing stopped, and I was sure He was dead.
Suddenly the ground began to rumble. Earthquake! Earthquake! I could feel and hear the rumble all around me. Everyone was running, screaming, crying and yelling. The terror I felt was incredible. Later, I saw a soldier thrust a spear into the crucified man’s side right up under His ribs. I saw both rich red blood and clear water run out of His side. After this, there was an awesome silence. A deadly silence. Finally, I walked up to a Roman Centurion with tears in his eyes. After he stared awhile longer at the crucified man, I heard the Centurion say, "Surely He was the Son of God!" And I have never seen a person die in such a terrible way. Yet, He died full of such love and forgiveness.
Yes, I was there when they crucified your Lord. No, on second thought, let me correct that. Yes, I was there when they crucified your Lord. But I was there at the same time, when they crucified MY Lord. Yes, surely, He WAS the Son of God. Author: Leo V. Smith
Date: 19 Apr 2000
Time: 07:25:58
Where are all you wonderful guys this Good Friday? Gosh how I miss you. John in Oz
Date: 19 Apr 2000
Time: 13:15:45
I'm here, John, and like you, feeling lonely. I was hoping for some diversion from my own mixed feelings over this coming Good Friday, some others' opinions to agree or disagree with to take my mind from the knot in my stomach. Jesus' death and my complicity in it are more real to me this year than Holy Weeks past. I am wondering about His words "I thirst", if it was physical thirst or a "hunger and thirst for righteousness", and how thirsty is He still in light of the world today. I want to quench his thirst but all I have to offer is my damp sponge of sour wine, my best attemps to be righteous on my own. I must hold to His promise that those who hunger and thirst as He does will be satisfied. God hasten the day! tom in TN(USA)
Date: 19 Apr 2000
Time: 14:20:03
There is always so much more that is expected of us to do during Holy Week and yet it's the one week in the year when I feel least like doing any of it. Gethsemane and Golgotha loom just too largely for me. Still, I work through the feelings without putting them aside because maybe it is there that a message for Good Friday may come. I am leaning to a look at the words "It is finished" to proclaim what was truly finished on that day we somehow call 'good.'
R.G. in Ontario
Date: 19 Apr 2000
Time: 20:53:58
It might be Good News to remind our congregations this Good Friday that the Jews didn't kill Jesus. In this era of apologies, one most recently made by the Pope,we try to work on the legacy of anti-semitism in the church not to be politically correct. We point this out on Good Friday to be theologically correct - because Christ redeems all of us who fail.
Date: 20 Apr 2000
Time: 14:24:40
Rather than try to preach on Good Friday, we do a "stripping of the sanctuary", and let the scripture speak for itself. It's very moving. The pattern is scripture reading, responsive sentences, verse of hymn ("Ah, Holy Jesus" or "What Wondrous Love is This?" or "He Never Said a Mumbalin' Word", etc.), then remove one object, or a pair of objects, from the sanctuary (paraments, flowers, candles, etc.), then scripture, response, 2nd verse, strip, etc. Also, as we move through the service, we gradually turn off lights. Usually we leave the Christ candle for last; this year I intend to leave our lighted cross for last, with a large crown of thorns on it. Ending with a choir anthem can be most powerful and effective, as the service ends with silence, or with the choir exiting silently--we vary from year to year. I can recommend "Where Are the Angels?" or "I Only Looked Away". One year, I carried the lighted Christ candle out of the sanctuary at the end (it was the only light left). Everything ends Friday night, empty, sad and dark--and what a contrast on Easter Sunday morning, full of light, flowers, colors, etc. Our choir wears white robes. A couple of years, we had the choir "strip off" their robes, revealing everyone dressed in black or dark colors, and the robes were also carried out of the sanctuary. The story of the crucifixion speaks so powerfully for itself, and the progressive verses of the hymn and the gradual emptying of the sanctuary affect more of the senses--hear the word, see the light dim, lose the scent of extinguished candles, etc. We've only started having a Good Friday service about 3-4 years ago, and more and more people are coming. For the curious, we're presbyterian (PCUSA). LL in L
Date: 20 Apr 2000
Time: 14:25:49
Rather than try to preach on Good Friday, we do a "stripping of the sanctuary", and let the scripture speak for itself. It's very moving. The pattern is scripture reading, responsive sentences, verse of hymn ("Ah, Holy Jesus" or "What Wondrous Love is This?" or "He Never Said a Mumbalin' Word", etc.), then remove one object, or a pair of objects, from the sanctuary (paraments, flowers, candles, etc.), then scripture, response, 2nd verse, strip, etc. Also, as we move through the service, we gradually turn off lights. Usually we leave the Christ candle for last; this year I intend to leave our lighted cross for last, with a large crown of thorns on it. Ending with a choir anthem can be most powerful and effective, as the service ends with silence, or with the choir exiting silently--we vary from year to year. I can recommend "Where Are the Angels?" or "I Only Looked Away". One year, I carried the lighted Christ candle out of the sanctuary at the end (it was the only light left). Everything ends Friday night, empty, sad and dark--and what a contrast on Easter Sunday morning, full of light, flowers, colors, etc. Our choir wears white robes. A couple of years, we had the choir "strip off" their robes, revealing everyone dressed in black or dark colors, and the robes were also carried out of the sanctuary. The story of the crucifixion speaks so powerfully for itself, and the progressive verses of the hymn and the gradual emptying of the sanctuary affect more of the senses--hear the word, see the light dim, lose the scent of extinguished candles, etc. We've only started having a Good Friday service about 3-4 years ago, and more and more people are coming. For the curious, we're presbyterian (PCUSA). LL in L
Date: 20 Apr 2000
Time: 14:43:06
It is a little late for this post - but I am wondering. Our fundamental brethern talk about "being born again" -- truly this is what Good Friday is all about. Through the death of Christ we have been given life.
Yet those of us in the mainline churches, including pastors, have a hard time embracing this intimacy with God in Christ -- how do we proclaim the atonement in order that it will open the hearers to new life (as well as ourselves)?
tom in ga
Date: 20 Apr 2000
Time: 15:04:15
This year I'll be looking at loss on Good Friday. With the closure of the mines in this area last September many people are out of work and many businesses are floundering. Friends and workmates have moved away. Churches have lost member, and in some cases key members. People feel a sense of loss here anyway because they are so far away from where most have come from, and that's where family and friends are. This year their sense of loss is much stronger. I think then the identification of the many losses of Good Friday (Judas lost his self-respect and his life, peter lost his self respect, his closest friend, his future as he had come to see it, the disciple lost their leader, their hopes, their perceived future for themselves and their nation, the Jews lost so much in subsequent history with the rise of anti-Semitism largely fueled by the events of Good Friday, jesus lost his life, God lost his only perfect son, etc). An article by Walter Bruggermann (on the textweek site too, I think). Has propelled me with this thinking. Then on Sunday, as we celebrate Holy Communion, we will look at the remembering and the redemption of that loss as we hear the news again and remember that jesus is risen.
Outback Aussie
Date: 20 Apr 2000
Time: 20:44:16
JG in WI to Tom in GA
I am one of those more "fundamental" brethren you speak of (and in such good terms too, thank you). I would add, your summary of Good Friday couldn't be better said. By His death, we have life.
Throughout the Old Testament (as well as the New) we see a God crying out for relationship with His people. If you used the OT reading in Jeremiah not too long ago, this was clear. God seeks relationship. That relationship reached its climax when He became a man. He identified with man perfectly by dying for man's sin. It is through this death that our barrier of sin is removed and we can have relationship with the God Who made us.
However one wants to describe the "new birth" (or being "born again"), it is clearly a beginning and it is clearly a relationship. I trust you'll proclaim this relationship on Friday ... and always.
Peace, friend. JG
Date: 21 Apr 2000
Time: 23:04:02
The Fundamentalists are not the only ones who have taught the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. For example, Martin Luther writes in his Galatians Commentary: "faith takes hold of Christ…it takes hold of Christ in such a way that Christ is the object of faith, or rather not the object but, so to speak, the One who is present in the faith itself (in ipsa fide Christus adest) …Therefore faith justifies because it takes hold of and possesses this treasure, the present Christ…There the Christ who is grasped by faith and who lives in the heart is the true Christian righteousness, on account of which God counts us righteous and grants us eternal life." (LW 26:129-130)
"J" in California
1999 Discussion:
In 1965 (a couple of millenia too late, I might add) the bishops of the Roman Church said: "True, authorities of the Jews and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ, still, what happened in His passion cannot be blamed on all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today." (Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions.") This being so, one cannot say that we Christians put Jesus to death either..even if by this we are referring to our sins. So I do not encourage people participating in the reading of the passion of Christ to cry out "Crucify him" even though this is sometimes suggested in arrangements of the Passion narrative. Better to have them chant the Taize version of "Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom." --Joe from Maine
Interesting! I do wonder, though, whether there can be any meaning to the crucifixion unless we are complicit in it. Yes! we should identify ourselves with those who are crucified alongside Jesus, but I also see that Jesus' act of forgiveness was directed primarily at those who crucified him; 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do.' Moltmann sees Jesus on the cross as identified essentially with all victims. The crucifixion, therefore, is an act of solidarity, amongst other things. Part of repentance, therefore, is acvknowledging our part amongst the persecutors. I have failed to love as I should have done. I don't think that the Gospel allows for us to sit on the fence in these things. If, for example, we as a nation, had refused to make some sort of statement on behalf those people suffering from ethnic cleansing and displacement by the Bosnian Serbs, then, by our innactivity, we are complicit in the persecution.
John UK
Even in his greatest agony, Jesus enters into our relationships. This, for me, is profound. Even when betrayed by the world (and how often we betray him, even unto today), he cares for those he loves. No, even more, he provides for those he loves: "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."
A powerful mesage that God is with us, even when we deny him. A message, too, of our call into relationships.
HW in HI
And yet, isn't this just another manifestation of our own brokenness, our own fear, our own lonlieness, which put Jesus on the cross?
Let's remember that the people who did the accusing were "RIGHT," they KNEW they were "RIGHT," and had to get RID of this smart-alec (sp?) from nowhere who kept saying all of those dangerous things which called into question the fact that they were "RIGHT."
If there is anything that this day should teach us, it's that Jesus was the one who was right, and the rest of us were/are wrong. Even if our theology is "RIGHT," we are still wrong. Hence the continuing need for grace, even for (maybe ESPECIALLY for) Christians!
For too long, we have clung to our correct theology (backed up with appropriate bible verses, of course) to save us.
The good news of this day is that our correct theology, our "RIGHT-ness," and our philosophical constructions about being "RIGHT," do not save us. Jesus saves us. But in order to do that, he needed to die to our "RIGHT-ness," at the hands of those who were/are "RIGHT."
And he was willing to do that.
Talk about miracle...
Rick in Canada, eh?
Martin Luther King not long before his murder gave a sermon on death. In the midst of his own life threatening situation he had this to say.
“I say to you this morning that if you have never found something so precious that you will die for it then you aren’t fit to live. You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be , and one day a great opportunity calls on you to stand up for some great principle, And you refuse because you are afriad ... because you will lose your job... because you will be critised... because you want to live longer... because somebody will shoot at you. Well you may go on and live until you are 90 because you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. You died when refused to stand up for the right.”
He doesn’t speak about heavely reward for this standing up for the right he just says that we are the living dead when we refuse to take up our cross and follow Jesus not to heaven but to death.
Perhaps we need to really experience these couple of days as the time when Jesus is dead. As the time when Jesus did what God had called him to without guaranttes. And now he is dead with no church dead with no after life dead with no happy ending. Dead beacuse he did what God called him to do. I don’t want to walk that road. I don’t like daeth. Whether that be the death of comfortable habits or the death of my ego or the death of my style of being a christian. But Jesus is dead. And all those things didn’t count when it came down to what was important in his life.
Great dialogue! I think the thing which really affects me every Holy Week is the reality that it is God upon the cross: not juts a nice guy or a wise prophet or a social revolutionary, but God in the ultimate act of Divine sacrifice. After God has walked among us, cried, laughed, and loved and then died, can our relationship with God and God's understanding of us not then be so much more incredibly deep/real/awesome? JFHUCC--Rhode Island
Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him,so he stepped forward and asked them, "Who is it your looking for?" "Jesus of Nazareth," they answered.
The men came in to the church by noon. He has been in the 7-eleven since 5:00 o'clock hoping someone will offer him a job. He was optimistic, the day was sunny, and there where not many workers, only a few dozens. As the hours passed he realized there will be no job for him. That is when he began to drink. HE drank to forget the pain of been poor, the pain of going back home without money for food, the pain of looking to his children and try to explain that again there will be no dinner tonight... He was walking back to his home when he saw the church and remembered that his friend got some food there one day. "Maybe" he thought, "just maybe..." He got in looking for a familiar face. He found a woman, a Latino woman that spoke spanish, just like him and with a smile welcomed him in. She gave him food and words of hope. She also prayed for him and his family. He felt his eyes feel with tears, someone care about him and his two children. Fighting his intoxication he triyed to make sense of what was happening. He smile at her and said, " I did not have any other place to go and I do not like to steal but I needed the food so much..." The woman took his hand and offer him a ride. She drove him home in her car. They never saw each other again but that afternoon he found the one he was looking for withouth even knowing it, Jesus of Nazareth.
Latina