Homily for Good Friday 2017

Photo by CP

Homily for Good Friday
(Scriptures for today's liturgy)

Audio for homily

Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Well, does it?

Does the thought of Jesus suffering and dying for my sins,
sometimes cause me to “tremble, tremble, tremble?”

How do we understand the story we have all just heard?

Is it just a story, even if a true story?

Is it simply a moving account
of one man’s extraordinary sacrifice and goodness?

Have I only heard the story -- second-hand,
or, was I there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they crucified the Lord?

I was there...

And though you may not remember: you were there, too.

At least our sins were there:
- every failure of yours and mine to love God
and to love our neighbor as ourselves;
- every failure of yours and mine
to live according to the Lord’s word;
- every failure of yours and mine to do what is just
and to make peace, beginning in our own families

and extending in ripples all around us;
all of this, which is part of all-of-us,
was there -when they crucified our Lord.

And we were there together, as a church,

a community of faith with all its warts and wrinkles,

its shame and chagrin,

its selfishness and self-protection.

You and I, and all of us together through the ages:
we were there when they crucified the Lord…

We were there when Jesus, the Christ, our Passover Lamb,
took upon his innocent shoulders:
- the sins of all the times we have settled for anything less
than what is true, right, just and good;
- the sins of all the times we have settled for anything less
than what is real, pure, chaste and beautiful,
- the sins of all the times we have settled for anything less
than what is life-giving, nurturing and loving;
- the sins of all the times we put ourselves and our desires                   

ahead of others and their needs:
marginalizing and excluding others

and forgetting the poor
while we ourselves have more than we need…

I was there and you were there,
the church was there and the world was there
when they crucified the Lord
because he took on his shoulders all our sins:
the sins we remember; the sins we’ve forgotten;
the sins we’ve confessed and the sins we’ve hidden;
and even the sins we have not yet committed

-- but surely will.

Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

(point to Crucifix over the altar)

Look!
There is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world!

Oh, God!

Oh, God of love and mercy:
you are always ready to forgive.
Time and time again we broke your covenant
but you did not abandon us.
Instead, through your Son, Jesus,
you bound yourself even more closely to the human family
by a bond that can never be broken.
When we were lost and could not find the way to you,
you loved us more than ever.
Jesus, innocent and without sin,
gave himself into our hands
and was nailed to a cross for our sins...*

For our sins:
for yours and for mine,
for the sins of the church and of the whole world -
Jesus suffered and died…

Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

We don’t recall these things tonight to make us feel
guilty, or sad, or uncomfortable.
Rather, we remember these things so that sometimes,
at least tonight, we might tremble, tremble, tremble,
as we ponder the weight of our sins
on our Jesus’ innocent shoulders
and then come to glory in the cross of Jesus
who is our life and our resurrection,
who is the One in whom we are forgiven,

saved and delivered.

For if we do not see the love
with which Jesus shouldered our sins
and laid down his life for us, his unfaithful friends,
how shall we ever know the victory of his Cross,
the exquisite, bitter-sweet gift of his Cross
which makes of us his redeemed friends?

Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

O Jesus: You are our Passover, our lasting peace.
You are the lamb,
slain for us that the angel of death,
finding us washed in your blood,
might spare us and save us for everlasting life.

What, then, shall we render to you, Lord,
what shall offer in return for such undeserved mercy?

We will give you glory, Jesus -
our innocent brother who suffered for us all…

We will give you glory, Jesus. merciful Lord,

Lamb of God, who takes away our sins and the sins of the world…

We will give you glory, Jesus,
Savior and Redeemer, humbled for our sakes,

Savor and Redeemer, risen Lord,
we give you glory, even now, this very night,

as we remember your suffering and death,

the gift of your life, given that we might have life and have it to the full.

Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble…
Were you there when they crucified my Lord…

 

     
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