Good Friday

Opening

By some measures today is the most solemn day of the year for a Christian. I didn’t really know that growing up. I didn’t learn it until seminary. The way it comes up there is that it illustrates a basic principle of the development of worship and prayer patterns. Namely that the most ancient practices are preserved in the highest holy days.

2 examples from this day’s liturgy are the abrupt opening without special introductions or music. The other which I choose to do is the style of kneeling that you saw me do. Prostration. On this most penitential day the most ancient style of kneeling has been preserved. The other place that it is observed is at the ordination of a priest.

We have just heard the account of Jesus’ Passion as it appears in the 4th gospel, John. There are important differences between it and the 1st 3 gospels, known as the “synoptic gospels”. Among the differences is that in the synoptic gospels Jesus speaks from the cross the opening words of Psalm 22.

“Eloi eloi lama sabachthani?”

i.e. psalm 22 “why have you forsaken me?” As a part of bringing last night’s liturgy to a close we read together Psalm 22. As a way of linking last night with today, “Good Friday,” my modest homily is structured around the NIV Readers version of Psalm 22.

Daddy, Why do they call this day Good when it’s the day that Jesus died?

Sweetheart, It’s the day that Jesus died – and that’s the bad part but that was a good day because it is God’s work on that day that saved us all. Good Friday brings salvation to all the people.

It’s good. But it’s bad, too. It’s a basic part of the Good News that we call Gospel. But it’s a time when all the pain that we can muster up is gathered together in one place so that the Son of God can mop it up. It’s a paradoxical day.

It’s a day filled with the voice of despair and pain. It’s a day when all the unfuilfilled hopes of humanity are gathered and concentrated and focused on one thing. The suffering and death of Jesus. But the story’s not over.

It’s Friday. But Sunday’s coming.

There is terror about, danger and much to be anxious over

Psalm 22

For the director of music. A psalm of David to the tune of ‘The Doe of the Morning.’

1 My God, my God, why have you deserted me?

Why do you seem so far away when I need you to save me? Why do you seem so far away that you can’t hear my groans?

So often I feel like I’m all alone. That there is no one who really understands. The ones I turn to for understanding just look the other way. They’re embarrassed by what they see

It’s Friday and times are hard.

2 My God, I cry out in the daytime. But you don’t answer.

I cry out at night. But you don’t let me sleep.

Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I feel like screaming. Mostly I just bury it inside. The world is spiraling downward. What will stop it? There is nothing.

But Sunday’s Comin’

3 But you rule from your throne as the Holy One.

You are the God Israel praises. 4 Our people of long ago put their trust in you. They trusted in you, and you saved them. 5 They cried out to you and were saved. They trusted in you, and you didn’t let them down.

Then there are times like today. When I return to the ancient stories. When somehow the words, the large wooden cross, the knowing look of fellow pilgrims, they all bring God back into focus for me.

When I look at my personal heroes I find the courage and the stamina to go on. Dorothy Day looked at the filthiest person off the street and she saw Jesus. My friend who worked with Mother Teresa saw the awesome power of love as she held the dying babies of Calcutta in her arms.

But then I remember it’s Friday.

6 Everyone treats me like a worm and not a man.

They hate me and look down on me. 7 All those who see me laugh at me. They shout at me and make fun of me. They shake their heads at me. 8 They say, “He trusts in the Lord. Let the Lord help him. If the Lord is pleased with him, let him save him.”

How often have I slipped into worrying about how others see me. I worry about my looks. I worry about how others perceive me. Will they like me? My best friend who is a Down’s Syndrome child was made fun of by the most important person in the land. Sometimes it seems too much.

Then I remember, Sunday’s comin’ and hope around the bend.

9 But you brought me out of my mother’s body.

You made me trust in you even when I was at my mother’s breast. 10 From the time I was born, you took good care of me. Ever since I came out of my mother’s body, you have been my God. 11 Don’t be far away from me. Trouble is near, and there is no one to help me.

But then, Friday is still here.

12 Many enemies are all around me.

They are like strong bulls from the land of Bashan. 13 They are like roaring lions that tear to pieces what they kill. They open their mouths wide to attack me. 14 My strength is like water that is poured out on the ground. I feel as if my bones aren’t connected. My heart has turned to wax. ~~It has melted away inside me. 15 My mouth is dried up like a piece of broken pottery. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You bring me down to the edge of the grave. 16 A group of sinful people has closed in on me. They are all around me like a pack of dogs. They have pierced my hands and my feet. 17 Everyone can see all my bones right through my skin. People stare at me. They laugh when I suffer. 18 They divide up my clothes among them. They cast lots for what I am wearing~~.

But what keep’s me going is that Sunday’s comin and You, Lord, will lift me up

19 Lord, don’t be so far away from me.

You give me strength. Come quickly to help me. 20 Save me from being killed by the sword. Save the only life I have. Save me from the power of those dogs. 21 Save me from the mouths of those lions. Save me from the horns of those wild oxen.

If we can find the place within us to call for help, to admit that we can’t save ourselves, that is the place where help arrives. For God is in the saving business. Not the condemning business.

I am sure that Sunday’s coming – that’s Good News people.

22 I will announce your name to my people.

I will praise you among those who are gathered to worship you. 23 You who have respect for the Lord, praise him! ~~All you people of Jacob, honor him! All you people of Israel, worship him! 24 He has not forgotten the one who is hurting. He has not turned away from his suffering. He has not turned his face away from him. He has listened to his cry for help~~.

Perhaps the single greatest and most important truth I ever heard came to me unbidden. I wasn’t expecting it. Someone, somehow, at some time, said to me that God suffers with those who suffer – and at that moment I knew that I had heard the voice of God. It was simple good news.

It’s still Friday but I’m still here to keep the story going. The story that starts so long ago and dips to that sorrowful place on Golgotha but doesn’t stop til the women discover the empty tomb. Sunday’s coming.

25 Because of what you have done,

I will praise you in the whole community of those who worship you. In front of those who respect you, I will keep my promises. 26 Those who are poor will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek the Lord will praise him. May their hearts be filled with new hope! 27 People from one end of the earth to the other will remember and turn to the Lord. The people of all the nations will bow down in front of him. 28 The Lord is King. He rules over the nations.

Kneel down in awe and wonder my friends. We are in sacred territory. The land of the living and of the dead. “All people that on earth do dwell …”

29 All rich people of the earth will feast and worship God.

All who go down to the grave will kneel in front of him. Those who cannot keep themselves alive will kneel. 30 Those who are not yet born will serve him. Those who are born later will be told about the Lord. 31 And they will tell people who have not yet been born, “The Lord has done what is right!”

Good Friday like no other day teaches us in paradox. It is the most ancient of liturgies. It speaks to the world that we live in today. It is most profoundly honored by submission before the symbol of the cross. Silence speaks as loud as any words. Friday is filled with sorrow and death. Friday comes with the promise of Sunday.

The paradox of our lives is that it’s Friday. But Sunday’s Comin’.

Paradox of Francis’ Prayer

No other combination of words speaks that paradox to me better than these: the so-called St. Francis Prayer.

Lord make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy
O divine master grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console
to be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it’s in dying that we are born to eternal life
Amen.

May the power of this paradoxical day we call Good rest with you and yours this day and all the days of your life. Amen.