April 6 – Good Friday
Isaiah 52:13—53:12
The servant is despised, acquainted with grief.
Psalm 22 (VU pp.
743–746)
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Hebrews 10:16–25
Let us approach God with a true heart.
or Hebrews 4:14–16;
5:7–9
Jesus the High Priest.
John 18:1—19:42
The betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion of Jesus.
Spark
Following the theme suggested for Ash Wednesday (Isaiah 58:12), today is the day the breach is most ragged, most raw, most final. As the text from John is read, leave silences and in the silence have the symbols of covenant, placed on Palm Sunday, removed one by one. If they are on a banner, remove the banner at the end. The banner will have said “Repairer of the breach.” Good Friday is best honoured with simplicity and by telling the story well, perhaps with different voices coming from different places in the sanctuary.
Theme Engagement Question
What are the breaches in your relationship with God, now or in the past?
With Children
Do not plan a separate children’s time; have the children assist with stripping the sanctuary, which can be done as the Passion narrative is read.
Sermon Starter
Building on the image from Isaiah 58:12, the reading on Ash Wednesday, focus on the breach: the brokenness, the gap, the chasm. Breaches are everywhere in this narrative: broken relationships among Jesus’ followers, between Jesus and his followers, between the religious establishment and the Spirit at work in Jesus, and within the people involved.
Hymns
VU 133 “Go to dark Gethsemane”
VU 134 “Shadows gather, deep and cold”
VU 137 “The Love that clothes itself in light”
VU 149 “When I survey the wondrous cross”
VU 153 “When the son of God was dying”
VU 278 “In the quiet curve of evening”
VU 595 “We are pilgrims”
VU 611 “Out of the depths”
MV 7 “Gather us in”
MV 73 “O God, why are you silent?”
MV 94 “Love knocks and waits”
MV 162 “Christ, within us hidden”
MV 189 “Jesus, we are here/Jesu tawa pano”