Good Friday 4 6 2007
Announcements
*Welcome to the CCU English Good Friday Service. Following the service, there will be a reception upstairs on the 4th floor accessible by the elevator or by the stairs, thanks to members of the choir who brought goodies to share
*On Easter Sunday morning, there will be a CCU Sunrise Service, 7:00 AM at the Chinese Congregational Church with Rev. David Kao preaching; the church is serving jook afterward; Joe Chan will also be serving Easter breakfast at FCBC too
*Easter Services on Sunday!
Pastoral Prayer
O God, on this Good Friday day, in the cross of Jesus, we see starkly revealed the truth about who we are. We are, despite our best intentions, a violent, very bloody people who trust the sword and its power more than you. Yet, Jesus commands us, in the strongest of terms, to put away our swords and to rely upon your grace to care for us. Dear Lord, on this bloody day, Jesus is doing upon the cross that which we cannot do for ourselves—to save us from our violent and destructive ways.
Lord, as we come to the foot of your cross, we confess that we don’t always touch the grieving that is always waiting within ourselves and in our world. We remember those things done and left undone, times when we have used violence to push away evil forces rather than to use the harder ways toward truth and justice. We confess for the times when we had a chance to take a stand and hold the ground for good, but our courage or resolve failed us. We remember days when we could have walked beside you on a pathway to integrity and daring dreams, but we turned away and let you go alone. Look down upon us from your cross of faithfulness and grant us your forgiveness and peace, dear God.
We pray, O God for you to visit us now. Grant that our longings be lifted up toward the love that you bear for us and that we will come; carrying in our hands a greater love for the world than we have had before. Guide our eyes down from the heights where your life hangs in loving sacrifice until we see where the wood touches the earth and connects forever with our own life’s journeys. Then lift our eyes again, O God, to see the crown of thorns that touch the brow of Christ and that join your life with our pain in ways so deep and real that our cries are linked with your heart forever.
Come, Holy God, and visit us now. Come, brave Jesus, and stay with the world that you so love, that we may plant your cross in every place that waits for new life. In the name of Jesus Christ who walked ahead of us in brave and sacrificial love and who taught us to pray together, saying, “Our Father…”
Benediction
Go in quiet faith, awed by the love of Jesus Christ, for us and all who live.
And may violence never be our solution for conflicts,
may death never be the last word,
may grief merely be our way to prepare for eternal life.
And may God in Jesus Christ be with us in these three days of meditation
before the Day of Resurrection. Amen.