From: Preacher
<preacher@kozmail.com>
Each year I've started good
Friday with a set of readings and music reflecting on the theme of the day.
Each year there are various elements that are "rearranged" while some
are added and some are placed on the shelf for another year. Although what
follows cannot convey the music or the "sense" of being present,
perhaps the sequence of readings can be meaningful to some of you this Good
Friday. Mark Henderson
----------------------------------------------------
Visit our website:
http://www.sandwichnh.com/SandwichFederated/
Reach me by Yahoo!
Messenger...my screen name is: sandwichnh or,
Reach me by AOL Instant
Messenger...my AOL IM screen name is: SandwichNH
----------------------------------------------------
Good Friday Morning Prayer
and Meditation
Federated Church of
Sandwich
April 9, 2004
Ave verum Corpus natum de
Maria Virgine:
Vere passum immolatum in
cruce pro homine:
Cujus latus perforatum
fluxit aqua et sanquine:
Esto nobis praegustatum
mortis in examine.
O Jesu dulcis! O Jesu pie!
O Jesu fili Mariae.
Hail, true Body, born of
the Virgin Mary:
truly offered on the cross
for humanity:
out of whose pierced side
flowed water and blood:
taste death for us in
advance of our own test.
O sweet Jesus! O faithful
Jesus! O Jesus Son of Mary!
-Ascribed to Innocent VI,
died 1362 - performed by The King's Singers
The sound of shattering
glass is heard --
For all my foes I am an
object of reproach,
a laughingstock to my
neighbors,
and a dread to my friends;
they who see me abroad flee
from me.
I am forgotten like the
unremembered dead;
I am like a dish that is
broken (Psalm 31:12-13 NAB)
John 18: 33-38, 19:1-4
Pilate entered the
headquarters. . ., summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the
Jews?" {34} Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did
others tell you about me?" {35} Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am
I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have
you done?" {36} Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world.
If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me
from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from
here." {37} Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus
answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I
came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth
listens to my voice." {38} Pilate asked him, "What is truth?"
(John 19:1-4) Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. {2} And the soldiers
wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple
robe. {3} They kept coming up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the
Jews!" and striking him on the face.
According to the
Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 255, No. 11)
Flogging was a legal
preliminary to every Roman execution. . .The usual instrument was a short whip
with several single or braided leather thongs of variable lengths, in which
small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones were tied at intervals. . .the
iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones
would cut into tissues. The, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would
tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of
bleeding flesh.
Isaiah 53:7
The servant was oppressed,
and was afflicted, and yet did not say a word; life a lamb led to the
slaughter, and like a ewe that before her shearers is dumb, the servant did not
say a word.
Let us pray. . .
Anima Christi (Soul of
Christ)
Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate
me
Water from the side of
Christ,
wash me
Passion of Christ,
strengthen me
O Good Jesus, hear me
Within thy wounds, hide me
Permit me not to be
separated
from Thee
From the wicked foe defend
me
At the hour of my death
call me
And bid me to come to Thee
That with Thy saints I may
praise Thee
For ever and ever. Amen. -
Ignatius of Loyola
Matthew 27:31
After mocking him, they
stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away
to crucify him.
According to the Journal of
the American Medical Association (Vol. 255, No.
11)
Crucifixion probably first
began among the Persians. Alexander the Great introduced the practice to Egypt
and Carthage, and the Romans appear to have learned it from the Carthaginians.
Although the Romans did not invent crucifixion, they perfected it as a form of
torture and capital punishment that was designed to produce a slow death with
maximum pain and suffering.
Matthew 27:32
As they went out, they came
upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross.
According to the Journal of
the American Medical Association (Vol. 255, No. 11)
It was customary for the
condemned man to carry his own cross from the flogging post to the site of
crucifixion outside the city walls. He was usually naked. . .Usually, the
outstretched arms then were tied to the crossbar.
Matthew 27:33-34
And when they came to a
place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), {34} they offered him
wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it.
According to the
Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 255, No. 11)
At the site of execution,
by law, the victim was given a bitter drink of wine mixed with myrrh (gall) as
a mild analgesic. . .The criminal was then thrown to the ground on his back. .
.The hands could be nailed or tied to the crossbar, but nailing apparently was
preferred by the Romans. The archaeological remains of a crucified body. .
indicate that the nails were tapered iron spikes approx 5 to 7 inches long with
a square shaft. . .the nails commonly were driven through the wrists rather
than the palms. . .the feet. . .usually were nailed directly to the front of
the stikes. To accomplish this, flexion of the knees may have been quite
prominent, and the bent legs may have been rotated laterally. . .length of
survival generally ranged from three or four hours to three or four days.
Matthew 27:33-44
{35} And when they had
crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots[2];
{36} then they sat down there and kept watch over him. {37} Over his head they
put the charge against him, which read, "This is Jesus, the King of the
Jews." {38} Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and
one on his left. {39} Those who passed by derided[3] him, shaking their heads
{40} and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and build it in three
days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."
{41} In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders,
were mocking him, saying, {42} "He saved others; he cannot save
himself[4]. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and
we will believe in him. {43} He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he
wants to; for he said, 'I am God's Son.'" {44} The bandits who were
crucified with him also taunted him in the same way.
Isaiah 53:1-9
Who has believed what we
have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? {2} For he grew
up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no
form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we
should desire him. {3} He was despised and rejected by others; a man of
suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their
faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. {4} Surely he has borne
our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck
down by God, and afflicted. {5} But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and
by his bruises we are healed. {6} All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
{7} He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like
a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers
is silent, so he did not open his mouth. {8} By a perversion of justice he was
taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the
land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. {9} They made
his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no
violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
According to the
Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 255, No. 11)
The major pathophysiologic
effect of crucifixion, beyond the excruciating pain, was a marked interference
with normal respiration, particularly exhalation. . .Adequate exhalation
required lifting the body by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows
and abducting the shoulders. However, this maneuver would place the entire
weight of the body on the tarsals and would produce searing pain. Furthermore,
flexion of the elbows would cause rotation of the wrists around the iron nails
and cause fiery pain along the damaged median nerves. . .each respiratory
effort would become agonizing and tiring and lead eventually to asphyxia.
Psalm 22:1-8
My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my
groaning? {2} O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but
find no rest. {3} Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. {4} In
you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. {5} To you
they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame. {6}
But I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people.
{7} All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
{8} "Commit your cause to the LORD; let him deliver-- let him rescue the
one in whom he delights!"
No. 54 CHORALE
O sacred head sore wounded,
Defiled and put to scorn!
O Kingly Head surrounded
With mocking crown of
thorn!
What sorrow mars Thy
grandeur?
Can death Thy bloom
deflower?
O countenance whose
spendour
the hosts in heaven adore.
Thy beauty long desired,
Hath vanished from our
sight.
Thy power is all expired,
And quenched the Light of
Light.
Ah, me! For whom Thou
diest,
Hide not so far Thy grace;
Show me, O Love most
highest,
The brightness of Thy face.
- from J.S.Bach - St.
Matthew Passion - John Eliot Gardiner
In Incomprehensible Gift of
Identification
The enfleshing of the Word
which spoke the galaxies made the death of that Word inevitable. All flesh is
mortal, and the flesh assumed by the Word was no exception in mortal terms. So
the birth of the Creator in human flesh and human time was an event as
shattering and terrible as the eschaton. If I accept this birth I must accept
God's love, and this is pain as well as joy because God's love, as I am coming
to understand it, is not like man's love.
What one of us can
understand a love so great that we would willingly limit our unlimitedness, put
the flesh of mortality over our immortality, accept all the pain and grief of
humanity, submit to betrayal by that humanity, be killed by it, and die a total
failure (in human terms) on a common cross between two thieves? - Madeleine
L'Engle, "Glimpses of Grace"
Prayer
Gracious God, on this day
we gather to remember the love and tears the suffering and death of Jesus of
Nazareth. We believe that this despised and rejected man of sorrows has borne
our griefs and has been wounded for our transgressions. We come to this day in
deep repentance for our individual sins and in recommitment of our lives to end
suffering, pain, and death in all times and all places. Amen.
John 19:26-30
{26} When Jesus saw his
mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his
mother, "Woman, here is your son." {27} Then he said to the disciple,
"Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into
his own home. {28} After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he
said (in order to fulfill the scripture), "I am thirsty." {29} 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. {30} Then Jesus had received the
wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up
his spirit.
According to the
Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 255, No. 11)
The actual cause of death
by crucifixion was multifactorial and varied somewhat with each case, but the
two most prominent causes probably were hypovolemic shock and exhaustion
asphyxia. . .Death by crucifixion was, in every sense of the word, excruciating
(Latin, excruciatus, or "out of the cross).
"God so loved
the world," John writes, "that he gave his only son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." That is to say
that God so loved the world that he gave his only son even to this obscene
horror; so loved the world that in some ultimately indescribable way and at
some ultimately immeasurable cost he gave the world himself. Out of this
terrible death, John says, came eternal life not just in the sense of
resurrection to life after death but in the sense of life so precious even this
side of death that to live it is to stand with one foot already in eternity. To
participate in the sacrificial life and death of Jesus Christ is to live
already in his kingdom. This is the essence of the Christian message, the heart
of the Good News, and it is why the cross has become the chief Christian
symbol. A cross of all things - a guillotine, a gallows - but the cross at the
same time as the crossroads of eternity and time, as the place where such a
mighty heart was broken that the healing power of God himself could flow
through it into a sick and broken world. It was for this reason that of all the
possible words they could have used to describe this day of death, the word
they settled on was "good." Good Friday. - Frederick Buechner,
"Listening to Your Life"
The sound of shattering
glass is heard --
Jesus, your brokenness was
real.
All the joy of being alive
all the beauty you saw in earthen things all the people you knew and loved all
the satisfaction of healing all the blessedness of your teachings all the love
you knew and shared all of this - shattered on that hillside. You were torn
apart, broken, smashed. All of life's joy seemingly destroyed, terrible pain
stretching out your agony. Only a handful beneath your cross to remind you of
your wholeness, and even this handful of loved ones could not take your
brokenness away. You were a broken piece of pottery, dashed against the stones
of life, a thing to be thrown away, your flesh a ghastly thing to see, your
aching spirit a painful knowing. On the cross that Calvary day the sacred unity
seemed torn apart. Like a broken dish, like a broken dish, you went to your
grave. - Praying Through Our Goodbyes, Joyce Rupp
John 19:38-42
{38} After these things,
Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because
of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus.
Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. {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. {40} They took the body of Jesus
and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom
of the Jews. {41} Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified,
and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. {42}
And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby,
they laid Jesus there.
Crosses
Almost all the crosses I
have ever seen seem much the same despite their differing size, shape, texture
- some are empty others bear cosmetic Christs but few if any present the
crosses of our world crosses of plants and animals under threat of extinction,
crosses of people suffering unjust imprisonment, starvation, torture, personal
and institutional violence.
Sometimes I wish I could
place real bodies upon these crosses bodies of dead whales dead native birds
and trees bodies of dead, dying, emaciated and mutilated people; for at the
intersection of the horizontal and vertical elements of life there is always a
body and in the body of Christ I see all the bodies of this world. - Bill
Wallace, Aotearoa/New Zealand
He was numbered with the
transgressors, crucified between the thieves. We will not find him in our
hearts except in the same company. For each Good Friday to be good the Spirit
must take us by the hand and re-establish our contact with that inmost core of
recalcitrant evil, enmity and impotence where we are sisters and brothers of
the most depraved and lost. That is where Christ is, clasping with his pierced
hands. - Martin L. Smith, "Season of the Spirit"
Let us Pray...
O dear Lord, what can I say
to you on this holy [day]? Is there any words that could come from my mouth,
any thought, any sentence? You died for me, you gave all for my sins, you not
only became man for me but also suffered the must cruel death for me. Is there
any response? I wish that I could find a fitting response, but in contemplating
your Holy Passion and Death I can only confess humbly to you that the immensity
of your divine love makes any response seem totally inadequate.
Let me just stand and look
at you. Your body is broken. Your head is wounded, your hands and feet are
split open by nails, your side is pierced. Your dead body now rests in the arms
of your Mother. It is all over now.
It is finished. It is
fulfilled. It is accomplished.
Sweet Lord, gracious Lord,
generous Lord, forgiving Lord, I adore you, I praise you, I thank you. You have
made all things new through your passion and death. Your cross has been planted
in this world as the new sign of hope.
Let me always live under
your cross, O Lord, and proclaim the hope of your cross unceasingly. Amen -
Henri Nouwen
No. 68 CHORUS
In tears of grief, dear
Lord, we leave Thee.
Hearts cry to Thee, O
Saviour dear.
Lie Thou softly, softly
here.
Rest Thy worn and bruised
body.
At Thy grave, O Jesus
blest,
May the sinner, worn with
weeping,
Comfort find in Thy dear
keeping,
And the weary soul find
rest.
Sleep in peace, sleep Thou
in the Father's breast.
- from J.S.Bach - St.
Matthew Passion - John Eliot Gardiner