GOOD FRIDAY

John 18:1 to 19:42... (Sermon 2: “Not a Pretty Sight.”)

Hebrews 10-16-25

or Hebrews 4: 14-16 & 5:7-9....

Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12... (Sermon 1: “The Buck Stops Here”)

Psalm 22

GATHERING OUR THOUGHTS

Today is a day for the utmost humility.

The highest state of human life is not grasped by self assertion

but flows from self giving.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said:

“The son of man came not to be served but to serve,

and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The apostle John wrote:

“So the soldiers took Jesus and he went out bearing his cross

to the place called Golgotha. There they crucified him.”

O come, let us worship and bow down, let us come before the awesome God

who is our Saviour.

“So the soldiers took Jesus and he went out bearing his cross

to the place called Golgotha.

There they crucified him.”

Behold, says God, my servant shall succeed,

he shall be lifted up, lifted up very high.

Many shall be shocked by him,

his appearance so bloodied,

almost unrecognisable as human.

Yet he shall shake the people of many nations,

and kings shall fall silent in his presence.

That which no one could explain,

they shall see with their own eyes,

That which the ears have never heard,

they shall hear and understand.

PRAYERFULLY APPROACHING THE CROSS

Most remarkable God, your love is astounding! As we gather at the foot of the Cross today, give us renewed trust and love.

Teach us that the darkest human hour is the brightest Divine moment, that where human disgrace sinks to its nadir, divine glory reaches its zenith.

Teach us again that there is no limit to your love, and no exclusion zone to your salvation. Through Christ Jesus your holy Son.

Amen!

REPENTANCE AND HEALING

The cross is for sinners like us.

Let us pray.

Divine Friend, Saviour of the world,

Forgive us that in spite of the cross, we have somehow managed to turn Christianity into a bland, easygoing way of life.

Kyrie eleison (Sung, Taize 1)

Forgive us that our preference runs to Easter bunnies, buttered buns, and massive amounts of sweet chocolate, rather than Golgotha with its rough wood and cruel nails.

Kyrie eleison

Forgive us that even on the most poignant, holy days we are more inclined to be religious than we are to be redeemed.

Kyrie eleison

Loving God, by your Holy Spirit bypass our stock responses and shock us again with the raw, painful glory of your Cross.

Grant that we may never be casual before that awesome love which has overtaxed the skills of even our finest poets and musicians, and left all preachers floundering.

Make us, saving God, reachable and teachable, more responsive to your saving grace and willing captives of the love which grants perfect liberty.

By your cross deliver us from every sin which corrupts us, every weight which pulls us down, and set our face towards the light which comes not to condemn but to save Through this same Christ Jesus our brother and Saviour.

Amen!

FORGIVENESS

My sisters and brothers in the faith, take your courage from this holy Cross. Here is real love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and gave the Son to be the means of cleansing us from all sin. Through him we are forgiven and renewed.

Thanks be to God.

The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be always with you.

And also with you.

PRAYER FOR CHILDREN

Thanks, God, for the cross,

for all you did on Good Friday.

What we savage earthlings

did to your true Son is awful.

But what you did there for us

is mega awesome.

Your love is amazing, God!

Your love rescues us!

Your love heals us!

Your love inspires us!

“Thanks” is too small a word

to say what is in our hearts today.

But it’s the best we can do.

So please bless us as we say it.

AMEN!

PSALM 22

[Two versions. Some selected verses only used here]

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why don’t you save me from this agony?

This day I beg for help but you are silent,

alone I cry out in the darkness

My God, my God! Why have you deserted me?

Why won’t you rescue me from this torture?

I beg for you but you don’t seem to hear

as I cry alone in the darkness.

Aren’t you that most holy One

wrapped in the praises of the faithful?

Our grandfathers trusted in you

and you brought them through.

Our grandmothers cried to you

and they were not let down.

Aren’t you supposed to be a loving God

surrounded by the praise of good people?

Our grandfathers believed in you

and said you got them through.

Our grandmothers prayed to you

and told us their prayers were answered.

But my life is bleeding away,

every bone is torn out of joint.

My heart is hardly beating,

it has melted like candle wax.

My tongue sticks to my mouth,

dry with the dust of death.

But here I am bleeding to death,

every bone in my body feels racked.

My heartbeat is ragged and weak,

flickering like a failing candle.

My tongue sticks to my mouth,

already I taste the dust of death.

You can’t be so absent as you seem!

God-Friend, come quickly and help me!

Deliver me from this torture,

from the cruelty of mongrels.

From the lion’s jaws save me,

and from the horns of wild bulls.

Are you really so far away as you seem?

Why won’t you come and help me, God?

Rescue me from this terrible death,

save me from all these circling dingoes.

Deliver me from the jaws of these crocodiles

and from the fierce horns of scrub bulls.

No matter what happens, I will yet speak your name,

and praise you in the congregation.

All you who love God, sing praises!

All you children of faith, sing of God’s glory!

Though all seems hopeless, I will still speak your name!

I will sing to you as if I am in a great congregation!

Come all who love God, sing with me!

All believers, sing as you never have before!

Ó B D Prewer 2001 & 2002

(A more comprehensive text is found in “More Australian Psalms” Ó B D Prewer Open Book Publishers)

AT GOLGOTHA

Today

I dared to step much closer

to the man on Skull Hill

than ever before.

I elbowed

past the curious crowd,

beyond the high priest’s mob,

and stood near Mary and John.

The soldiers

leered at me and one said:

“Take a good look mate,

it may be you tomorrow.”

Determined

I went and stood about five

paces from that central cross

and looked up.

Hideous scene;

smell of blood, sweat and urine.

I wanted to throw up;

the soldiers chuckled.

Then I braced myself

and took a long searching look

at the crucified son of Mary

in his agony.

O his eyes!

They turned this way and that

wildly searching for something

that never came.

An undertaker

once told me that employees

who take too much notice

don’t last long at the job.

Here things are different;

today I took a lot of notice

and saw the eyes of God

searching for God.

I’ll love him forever;

by the sheer grace of this Lord

who was forsaken that we

might never be so.

Ó B D Prewer 2002

GOD SO LOVED

So they took him, and he went out

bearing his cross

and the ballast of shame and doubt

which we transferred

upon his shoulders.

They climbed up to a killing place

known as Skull Hill;

a windswept site devoid of grace

until he came

among its boulders.

Up there they then crucified him

between two thieves.

Stray dogs howled as the sun grew dim

and donkeys brayed

and fought their holders.

His jeering foes stood all around

as blood and water

soaked and stained that desolate ground;

and John led Mary away

his arm around her shoulders.

At last it finished for the Son,

who writhed no more;

nothing more could ever be done;

leaving us stunned

among the beholders.

Ó B D Prewer 2002

COLLECT

Loving God, please continue to have mercy on your human family, for whom Christ Jesus accepted the ignominy of betrayal, trial, abuse and crucifixion.

May we who love him a little, and would hope to love him more, confess our undying faith in him, and before his holy cross renew our promises to him.

Then by his grace, and in the power of your holy Spirit, may we worship and serve you, the One true God and unfailing Friend, now and forever.

Amen!

SERMON 1: THE BUCK STOPS HERE (long version)

Isaiah 53: 5-6

He was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities,

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with the whip stripes, we are made whole.

All we like sheep have gone astray,

we have turned, every one, to our own way,

and the Lord God has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

During this week, as I read again these words from Isaiah, I heard my inner soul exclaiming: “God help us.”

And a deeper Voice within me immediately declared: “I have! My child, I have.”

God has taken the most drastic and costly action to save us from the evil which permeates every face in our human community. God took the initiative.

As the missionary St Paul was to write: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” The God we have in the crucifixion is a loving God totally involved in the agony

and shame that was taking place.” God was not a distant observer; not even a sad though distant observer. God was present with Jesus, even in that bleakest of bleak moments, when the crucified man in agony wailed aloud to the silent heavens his fear of being forsaken.

Whenever I, or some other needy soul, goes to Golgotha and cries out in shame at what evil human nature is capable of, saying “God help us!” The answer is there from God: “I have.”

AT-ONE-MENT

From the very earliest days of Christianity, believers saw that somehow the cross reconciled God and humanity. Living in an empire where there were numerous gods were worshipped and feared, and where animal sacrifices were a common method whereby people tried to be reconciled with a god, many of those early Christian men and women saw the death of Jesus in similar terms. He was seen as the sacrificial lamb provided by God.

How did this sacrificial thing work? That was left to theologians in the centuries which followed that first glorious dawn of Christianity. Various theories arose during the following centuries, each attempting to explain how the cross of Jesus saves us. Some of these old theories still survive today. We call them “theories of the atonement.” The word atonement breaking down of course into “at-one-ment.”

For myself, I find those atonement theories brave in trying to access the mystery of the cross. But I find none of them satisfying. The big fault in most of them is that they drive a wedge between God and Jesus. Putting it crudely, they sound as if a ruthless God had to be bought off by the sacrificial death of Jesus. As if God stood aside and let his true Son make all the running, and pay the full price, in the task of reconciling humanity. That offends my spirit. Any wedge between God and Jesus does not help me.

So what am I left with? I am left with Jesus on the Cross. I am left with a man in whom God was fully present, dying as a result of our shared human evil and the feral ways that flow from alienation. At the cross, I know that God fully present in Jesus Christ to the bitter end. A God who experiences not only physical agony but spiritual desolation.

I am left with a God who will die for us. A God who in loving us will bridge the gulf of alienation at all cost. After many decades of faith, and times of arduous study, I still do not understand the “mechanics” of God “reconciling the world unto himself”. I have no neat theory to replace the old ones. At he cross I am forced to live with a wonder I cannot explain.

Remember that old hymn “There is a green hill far away? Although the particular atonement theory present in some of that sacred song does not help me, nevertheless I do sing a verse of it with all my heart and mind and soul:

“We may not know, we cannot tell,

what pains he had to bear,

but I believe it was for us

he hung and suffered there.

It was for us. A gulf was bridged, a world was saved. I comprehend that much.

SOME SIMPLE TRUTHS

To what do I turn then to satisfy my need to understand?

I keep it simple, these days. Very simple.

Firstly, I treasure Isaiah 53. As long as I put aside the implication in some of the verses that God was outside the suffering, I find the words of Isaiah 53 most helpful.

He was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities,

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with the whip stripes, we are made whole.

All we like sheep have gone astray,

we have turned, every one, to our own way,

and the Lord God has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

At the time they were written, centuries before Jesus was born, these words were a break-through. Isaiah seems to have been among the first of the Jews to come to see that suffering could be redemptive; that by one love-driven person willingly bearing the shame of others, that person can reclaim what seems a lost situation. When Isaiah sang his “servant songs” (as the Bible scholars call these passages in Isaiah) he did so with a new understanding of the way God works through people.

Suffering love can be a redeeming power. Maybe it was the only power capable of redemption. Isaiah keeps me pondering this truth, humbly and prayerfully.

A second theme which evolves from this is that of the cross acting as a kind of circuit breaker. On Good Friday, Jesus was saying “Let the buck stop here.

Very different from our arrogant ways. Judging others, yet excusing ourselves, is one of the curses that afflicts humankind.

In the book of Genesis, we read the powerful parable of the fall of humanity from grace. Man and woman disobey God. After that fall into sin, both man and woman try to pass the buck. Having eaten the apple and being confronted by a saddened God, Adam hastily claims: “It’s the woman’s fault, this woman you put into my life, she gave the forbidden fruit to me.” Then Eve has her excuse ready: “But the serpent (that you created, God) beguiled me.” Buck passing was invented a long time ago.

This is pride disease that contaminates every level of the community, the nation, and the family of nations. We are too proud to accept responsibility. When things turn sour, our knee jerk reaction is to blame someone else for wrong doing. The population of the entire world is like many closed circles with everyone passing on the parcel of blame to the next person in line. So the blame goes around and around, ad infinitum! This is the most self destructive among all vicious circles. Worse than a malignant disease. We need a circuit breaker.

At Golgotha God says: “I am not too proud. Let the buck stop here. Once and for all, I will break this vicious circle. Once and for all, I now take upon my shoulders your blame, your evil, your alienation from each other and from me. Once and for all, I step in and break the evil circuit. Let the buck rest here.”

And it did. With all the ferocity and depravity of diseased human nature, the weight of our evil and shame was loaded on the shoulders of the most loving person the world has seen. In Jesus, the very love of God bears the sins of the world. And sublimely we are healed.

He was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities,

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with the whip stripes on him, we are made whole.

All we like sheep have gone astray,

we have turned, every one, to our own way,

and the Lord God has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Good Friday is both a time of the deepest darkness and of the brightest light. It heralds the judgment of human evil yet also the liberation of humanity. Of course, that liberation must be accepted. Those who are too wrapped up in their tatty pride to accept this new liberty, remain under the burden of their sins and go on trying to pass the buck. On the other hand, all who let go of their tatty pride and trust this Holy Cross, have no more need to perpetuate buck passing. God has taken it all, bearing its shame on the shoulders of Jesus.

All we like sheep have gone astray,

we have turned, every one, to our own way,

and the Lord God has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Look at the cross, dear earthlings. Look at the cross and wonder, for the buck stops here.

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Young Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

ONE ANALOGY THAT MAY HELP US

Just as I lack an adequate theory to explain the atonement, I also have difficulty in finding adequate illustrations or allegories. In spite of by best efforts, I cannot frame analogies to do justice to of that salvation event when Christ died for us, the just for the unjust, the godly for the ungodly.

Yet there is one story which comes to mind. It comes to me from across the years. I don't think I have retold the story for at least three decades. I hope I can remember the details correctly. It went something like this-

In earlier centuries, on the island of Formosa, human sacrifice was practised. It had been so from ancient days. The island inhabitants were a fear-ridden and superstitious people. Once a year their gods had to be appeased, atonement had to be made. Only a human blood was effective. Any human life would do. Each spring an unfortunate victim was chosen by the elders. They chose a life they considered was not as valuable as others. So the victim would be a person accused of being a trouble maker, or maybe a prostitute, or a mentally handicapped person, or often a prisoner taken in a conflict with neighbouring enemies.

On the day of sacrifice the poor creature, judged to be worthy of death, would be dragged to the altar in a sacred grove, tied to a stake, and a hood placed over the head .At the appointed hour a spear would be plunged through the victim’s heart. The sacrifice would be made, the gods appeased. At sunset the body would be buried under the stone altar. So for centuries the bloody practice continued.

There arose on the island a holy man. A teacher and a healer whose life and deeds and words were like light in the darkness. A person of generous love and wisdom. The island people came to dearly treasure this man. He was by far the most precious soul in their community.

However, as the years went by he became more and more distressed at this practice of human sacrifice. He saw it as an evil superstition. He claimed their judgments about who was worthy of death were made in ignorance. He protested against the ritual, argued against its supposed justification, pleaded that it stop forever. But on this score, his people would not listen to their loving and wise holy man. They were too terrified of what the gods might do if they stopped. Fear outweighed both compassion and rational argument. They were obdurate, set in their evil practice.

One year, as the time for the sacrifice approached, the holy man called the people together and made one last effort to persuade them to cease this yearly atrocity. But their minds were set. Their fears utterly ruled them. They would not hear him.

So in desperation the loving holy man exacted one concession from them. This year, would the elders not choose the victim but permit the holy man to do so. If they respected him as they claimed, then they would allow him to pick a victim truly worthy of death. He would select wisely. That condemned person would be ready. At the right time the hooded victims would be by the altar in the sacred grove, ready for sacrifice.

It went ahead as agreed. The people gathered, chanting and dancing. The elders chose a spearman. A great cry went up as the victim’s heart was pierced through. The people were satisfied. The gods were appeased for another year.

That evening, when they uncovered the body to inter it under the altar in the grove,

they discovered the truth. The sacrificial victim was their beloved holy man.

The vicious circle of fear and supposed appeasement was broken. From that day forward, no human sacrifice was again offered on that island. What their beloved holy man could not achieve with his teaching, he did achieve with his self sacrifice.

GOD HAS HELPED US

I look a round at human evil and cry, “God help us!”

God has helped us. And does help us. And will continue to help us.

That story from Formosa, no matter how inadequate, at least touches the fringes of the supreme wonder of the redemptive love of God, who “was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.”

He was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities,

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with the whip stripes on him, we are made whole.

Today we solemnly yet thankfully stand near the cross of Jesus. The buck stops here.

O dearly, dearly has he loved,

and we must love him too,

and trust in his redeeming love

and try his works to do.

SERMON 1: THE BUCK STOPS HERE (shorter version)

Isaiah 53: 5-6

He was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities,

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with the whip stripes, we are made whole.

All we like sheep have gone astray,

we have turned, every one, to our own way,

and the Lord God has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

During this week, as I read again these words from Isaiah, I heard my inner soul exclaiming: “God help us.”

And a deeper Voice within me immediately declared: “I have! My child, I have.”

God has taken the most drastic and costly action to save us from the evil which permeates every face in our human community. God took the initiative.

As the missionary St Paul was to write: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” The God we have in the crucifixion is a loving God totally involved in the agony and shame that was taking place. God was not a distant observer. God was present with Jesus, even in that bleakest of bleak moments, when the crucified man in agony wailed aloud to the silent heavens his fear of being forsaken.

Whenever I, or some other needy soul, goes to Golgotha and cries out in shame at what evil human nature is capable of, saying “God help us!” The answer is there from God: “I have.”

AT-ONE-MENT

So what am I left with?

I am left with Jesus on the Cross. I am left with a man in whom God was fully present, dying as a result of our shared human evil and the feral ways that flow from alienation. A God who experiences not only physical agony but spiritual desolation.

“We may not know, we cannot tell,

what pains he had to bear,

but I believe it was for us

he hung and suffered there.

It was for us. A gulf was bridged, a world was saved. I comprehend that much.

SOME SIMPLE TRUTHS

To what do I turn then to satisfy my need to understand?

I keep it simple, these days. Very simple.

Firstly, I treasure Isaiah 53. As long as I put aside the implication in some of the verses that God was outside the suffering, I find the words of Isaiah 53 most helpful.

He was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities,

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with the whip stripes, we are made whole.

All we like sheep have gone astray,

we have turned, every one, to our own way,

and the Lord God has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Suffering love can be a redeeming power. Maybe it was the only power capable of redemption. Isaiah keeps me pondering this truth, humbly and prayerfully.

A second theme which evolves from this is that of the cross acting as a kind of circuit breaker. On Good Friday, Jesus was saying “Let the buck stop here.

This is a disease that contaminates every level of the community, the nation, and the family of nations. We are too proud to accept responsibility. When things turn sour, our knee jerk reaction is to blame someone else for wrong doing. The population of the entire world is like many closed circles with everyone passing on the parcel of blame to the next person in line. So the blame goes around and around, ad infinitum! This is the most self destructive among all vicious circles. Worse than a malignant disease. We need a circuit breaker.

And it did.

He was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities,

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with the whip stripes on him, we are made whole.

All we like sheep have gone astray,

we have turned, every one, to our own way,

and the Lord God has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Look at the cross, dear earthlings. Look at the cross and wonder, for the buck stops here.

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Young Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

ONE ANALOGY THAT MAY HELP US

That evening, when they uncovered the body to inter it under the altar in the grove,

they discovered the truth. The sacrificial victim was their beloved holy man.

GOD HAS HELPED US

I look a round at human evil and cry, “God help us!”

God has helped us. And does help us. And will continue to help us.

He was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities,

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with the whip stripes on him, we are made whole.

SERMON 2: NOT A PRETTY SIGHT

John 19: 17-18

So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the site called “the place of the skull,” which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side and Jesus between them John 19:17-18

I’ve seen many pretty crosses in my time. Many shining brass ones, some gold, some studded with jewels. But a real crucifixion was not a pretty sight. The cross was a device of utmost cruelty, designed to exact maximum humiliation and the ultimate suffering. It was a sight from which even the strongest men turned their eyes. Yet here today, on this Good Friday, we deliberately turn our eyes toward the cross of Jesus.

The Australian poet Andrew Lansdown has a poem bluntly called “Golgotha.”

Finally, one arrives at the place

Of the skull because there is nowhere

Else to go. And there before the face

` Of bone one pauses in despair.

The culmination of evil

Is displayed before one’s eyes:

Man’s heart conspired with the devil

And cared little for disguise.

SUFFERING CAN LEAD TO DESPAIR

One pauses in despair? Despair? The crucifixion can indeed lead some to despair. The needless suffering of our fellows is the most likely thing to lead a troubled soul to despair. No suffering more so than the butchery of the most lovely human being who has ever graced this planet. Such suffering as Christ endured, can lead some to assert that life is ultimately bereft of any purpose.

I freely admit that human suffering is the one thing above all others that at times undermines my spiritual confidence and makes me tremble. Evil seems to go on inflicting misery with no redress. Where is the loving God in those situations? Human distress and agony, especially the suffering of the innocent, gets at me and shakes the foundations of my faith.

How do you cope? Look around you in the community and across the world, so much pointless, suffering. The Middle East, Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, South East Asia, the Pacific and Australasia. So much human misery.

There are times when our doubts change their tone from whispers to shouts and they say with the writer of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken us? Why are you so far from helping us, fro the sounds of our groaning? O my God, we cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.”

At some such times, if we go to Golgotha, the cross can appear to be the last word in the futility of human suffering, as the poet says:

Finally, one arrives at the place

Of the skull because there is nowhere

Else to go. And there before the face

` Of bone one pauses in despair.

THE PARADOX

Yet here is a stunning paradox: that same cross can sustain faith. In some cases it may create faith.

Again I speak from personal experience: In my darkest moments, when the apparent futile pain of the world shakes my foundations, the cross gives me hope. It saves me from becoming a complete doubter. It redeems me from becoming yet another member of the common herd of bitter cynics. This same cross of Christ Jesus, the device of abject humiliation and agony that claims the best-ever human being, is the place of ultimate love and hope. I do not end up like those who fall into despair, but find a renewal of faith.

It defies cold, steely reason, but it happens. God is in Christ, bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows, and reconciling the world unto himself.

The God of the Gospel is not a lofty, unfeeling God, who sits cosily and safely in some pretty heaven while we suffer. The God of the Gospel is the God who is with Christ to the very end. The One who knows our pain from personal experience. The God of the cross is Emmanuel: God-with-us. The full meaning of that word Emmanuel, which we use in our Christmas carols, is spelt out in blood at the place called Golgotha.

HOPE FOR ALL SUFFERERS

This God of Good Friday is the God of all the sufferers in the world, whether they know it or not. God is the God of victims because God is also the victim. I turn again to the words of poet from another generation, Edward Shillito:

The other gods were strong;

but thou wast weak;

They rode but thou didst stumble to a throne.

But to our wounds only God’s wounds

can speak.

And not a god has wounds but thou alone.

Do we hear that? But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak? Into the maw of all the doubts that assail us, in the bloodiness of all the wounds that dismay us, the crucified Jesus paradoxically proclaims a loving God. Today is Good Friday. Not Black Friday. Love outweighs the evil. Purpose outstrips the futility.

Please do not think for one moment that I understand it all. I don’t, and never will in this life. I cannot understand why God has left the door open for evil, or why God permits so much suffering to continue. I try to comprehend but end up baffled by it all.

One thing I do know: God was in Christ. God not only sympathised with the victims of cruelty, God became a victim, and is, I believe still identifying with every victim around the world. Where some find despair, we find amazing grace.

This costly love of God is the thing that can save us from futility and cynicism. In the cross of Christ I glory standing o’er the wrecks of time.

I BELIEVE

I believe in the suffering God, the wounded Friend,

who is the source and sustenance of all things,

who refuses to be put off by human stupidity and sin,

and will never surrender us to the corruption of evil.

I believe in Christ Jesus, child of Mary, Child of God,

who came among us with grace, mercy and peace,

who for the glory of God and the healing of humanity

went to the cross like a lamb to the slaughter,

bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows,

and became the everliving source of salvation.

I believe in the Holy Spirit of God, the companion of Christ’s light and love,

who creates the church in the name of Jesus and sustains it against all odds,

who counsels us, teaches us, inspires and inflames us with love.

I believe in the one universal church,

into which we are baptised by water and the Spirit,

the friends of Christ linking life and beyond-life

in one unbroken fellowship of love, service and praise.

Amen!

SHARING GOD’S CONCERN

We seek your saving grace, God of Christ Jesus, for all those who on this Good Friday are lost among their doubts, sins, griefs or fears.