Homily for Good Friday 2018
(Scriptures for today's liturgy)
Audio for homily
(There are musical elements in my homily involving the
whole assembly but you won't experience these by just
reading the text so I suggest you listen to the audio.)
The suffering and death of the
crucified Jesus
stare
us in the face.
What are we to do with this?
What are we to do with the suffering of
Jesus?
the
death of Jesus?
What are we to do with the love of Christ
who
laid down his pure and innocent life for us,
the
sinful and guilty?
What are we to do with the death of
Jesus?
We hold the death of the Lord deep in
our hearts.
Living, now we remain with Jesus the
Christ.
After supper with his friends on the
night before he died
Jesus went into the garden to pray -
and his betrayer was there.
Judas was there, and I was there, and
you were there,
all
of us were there –
• betraying
his perfect love for us - with our selfishness and sins,
• betraying
the innocent one with our transgressions –
• betraying
him unto death.
And what are we to do with the death of
Jesus?
We hold the death of the Lord deep in
our hearts.
Living, now we remain with Jesus the
Christ.
And later in the courtyard,
Peter, just hours before filled with
faith and bravado -
Peter denied that he even knew Jesus.
• And we were
in that same courtyard,
denying,
many more than three times,
denying
our faith in Jesus.
• We were
in that courtyard denying him
with
our fear of being known as believers,
with
our reluctance to name Jesus the Lord of our lives,
with
our desire to protect our sophisticated selves
and
enhance how others perceive us…
•We were there in the courtyard,
denying
by word and deed that we even know Jesus,
denying
him unto death.
And what are we to do with the death of
Jesus?
We hold the death of the Lord deep in
our hearts.
Living, now we remain with Jesus the
Christ.
• With the
chief priests we handed Jesus over to death,
hiding
behind the law to shield our unjust deeds.
• With Pilate in the praetorium
we condemned Jesus to
death by our playing with the truth.
• With the
crowds we called for Jesus’ death
by going along with
what everyone’s saying,
what
everyone’s doing.
We conspired, by our selfishness and
sin
to condemn Jesus.
And what are we to do with the death of
Jesus?
We hold the death of the Lord deep in
our hearts.
Living, now we remain with Jesus the
Christ.
• We hold the
death of the Lord deep in our hearts
because
by the mercy and grace of Jesus
his
death is the forgiveness of our selfishness and sin.
• We hold the
death of the Lord deep in our hearts
because
in the offering of his heart and life
our
hearts our healed, and our lives redeemed.
• We hold the
death of the Lord deep in our hearts
because
our hearts can know no greater love
than
the love of One
who
lays down his life for ours.
Such is the mystery of our redemption
in the suffering and
death of Jesus.
In the face of it, we have nothing to
offer in return
and
so, this is what we do:
We hold the death of the Lord deep in
our hearts.
Living, now we remain with Jesus the
Christ.
We hold the death of the Lord deep in
our hearts
because
his dying is our living
-- and so we
remain with Jesus the Christ.
It is Good Friday
and
the suffering and death of the crucified Jesus
stare
us in the face.
What are we to do with this?
What are we to do
with
the love of Christ in his suffering for us?
What are we to do with the love of Christ
in his dying for us?
What are we to do
with
him who laid down his pure and innocent life for us
- the sinful
and guilty?
What are we to do with the suffering
and death of Jesus?
We hold the death of the Lord deep in
our hearts.
Living, now we remain with Jesus the
Christ.
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