Good Friday Service

Good Friday

 (Shared with kind permission of Reverend Roger Wood)

Links for hymns

Immortal Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMLvVYFxCT0

Meekness and majesty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tK1hQpacs8

For the healing of the nations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw-ndOdhjgQ

Lord for the years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw-ndOdhjgQ

Introduction:

Our vigil this year will be a very simple one.

There will be a reading.

There will be commentary.

There will be prayers.

In the course of it, guided by St. John, we will watch as one born to be king deliberately takes the lowest place and by doing so points the way to a kingdom shaped not by power but by love.

Hymn: Immortal love                                                                   243

Reading:

John  Chapters 18 and 19

Hymn: 
Meekness and majesty                                                        335

Commentary:

Throughout St. John’s account of the passion, Jesus presents a kingly figure. At every stage it is he who is in control. 

(The top figure on the picture is of a golden head symbolising kingship)

He is in control at the moment of his arrest. He goes out to confront those sent to seize him.

Jesus, knowing all that was coming upon him went out to meet them and asked, ‘Who is it you want?’

‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ they answered.

 Jesus said, ‘I am he.’ …
When he said, ‘I am he,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.

He secures the safety of his followers.

          ‘If I am the one you want, let these others go.’

He orders Peter to ‘sheathe your sword.’

He is in control in his time before the High Priest. He refuses to be interrogated:

          I have spoken openly to all the world; I have always taught in the synagogue and in the Temple, where all Jews congregate

          I have said nothing in secret. Why question me?

Ask my hearers what I told them; they know what I
said.

As for the officer who strikes him, he is firmly put in his place:

          If I spoke amiss, state it as evidence. If I spoke well, why strike me?

Jesus is in control at his arrest. He is in control in his confrontation with the High Priest. He remains in control when he is brought before Pilate. He declines to accept Pilate’s authority:

          My kingdom does not belong to this world. If it did, my followers would be fighting to save me from arrest by the Jews. My kingly authority comes from
elsewhere.

He refuses to be intimidated by Pilate’s power:

          ‘Do you refuse to speak to me?’ said Pilate. ‘Surely you  know I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you?’

‘You would have no authority over me at all,’ Jesus replied, ‘if it had not
been granted to you from above.’

Even on the cross, Jesus remains in command quietly making provision for the care of his mother.

          Jesus saw his mother with the disciple he loved standing beside her. He said to her, ‘Mother, there is your son’: and to the disciple, ’There is your mother.’

Throughout the passion Jesus preserves his kingly bearing but his direction of travel is that of one intent on taking the lowest place.

At the time of his arrest, Peter offers resistance. He drew the sword he was wearing and struck the High Priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear.

Jesus, however, will have none of it:

          ‘Sheathe your sword. This is the cup the Father has given me.

          Shall I not drink it?’

In the course of his journey he endures, uncomplaining, the physical pain of scourging and the psychological hurts inflicted by the betrayal of Judas, the desertion of the disciples, and the denial of Peter. He bears the cruel irony of the
accusation that he claimed to be king of the Jews, an ambition he had always
repudiated. He makes no response to the hostility of the crowd that prefers to
save Barabbas and cries out for him to be crucified.

The journey of an earthly king leads to the highest place. He is seated on a golden throne and crowned with a crown of gold. The journey of Jesus, by contrast, leads to the lowest place. His throne is a cross. His crown is a crown of thorns. 

(The image of the crown of thorns and the cross )

He takes his place not at the apex of a pyramid of power but at the base of an upturned pyramid of service. It is the coronation of the Servant King. 

(The arrow image in the picture symbolises this change)

Jesus final words in St. John’s account of the passion are, ‘It is accomplished.’ The King has taken the lowest place and by doing so has proclaimed his intention to rule over a kingdom not shaped by power flowing down from above but by love welling up from below. There remains, however, the task of establishing that kingdom. The signs are not good. If Jesus died in the hope that ‘When I am lifted up then I will draw all men to myself,’ then there is precious little evidence of it actually happening. The disciples have deserted. The existing power structures, both religious and political remain intact. Popular support has turned to hostility. To begin the process of establishing a new kingdom will require further divine intervention. To that we shall turn on Easter Day.

Hymn: 
For the healing of the nations                                              139

Prayers:

Lord, we have watched the coronation of the Servant King. We have watched you deliberately take not the highest place but the lowest. By taking that place
you have signalled your intention to turn the world upside down by establishing a kingdom not shaped by power but by love.

We, Lord, are your subjects, pledged to carry on the work of building this new kingdom. Help us to fulfil that commitment.

Help us to make our church a model of your kingdom:

a place in which bishops see themselves as the servants of the servants of the servants of God

a place in which clergy and church officers see their first responsibility as being the wellbeing and unity of the congregation they serve

a place in which congregations actively seek to serve the parishes, the society, and the world in which they are set.

Help us to make our society a model of your kingdom: a society that makes it its priority to bring comfort and strength, help and hope to all who are in trouble.

Help us to make the world a model of your kingdom: a world in which people honour one another and seek the common good so that peace and justice prevail.

Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve;

to give and not to count the cost;

to fight and not to heed the wound;

to toil and not to seek for rest;

to labour and not to ask for any reward;

till your kingdom comes and your will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

The Lord’s Prayer:

Hymn: 
Lord for the years                                                          310

Blessing:

Christ our King make you faithful and strong to do his will.

May he give light to guide you, courage to support you, and love to unite you.

And may the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit rest upon you and all your work and worship done in his name, now and always. Amen

To end the service the choir had planned to sing ‘Just as I am’ from Olivet to Calvary.’