Good Friday homily from 9 years ago...

Photo by CP

 

Homily for Good Friday 

 

I don't have a preaching assignment today so I thought I'd share a homily I preached 9 years ago, under the Cross (see above) in the darkened church of Holy Family Parish in Concord.  The sung components of this homily can be heard on the audio.

Audio for homily

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

Does it?

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

How do we understand the story we've 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 our 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 - was there;
- every failure of yours and mine
    to live according to the Lord’s word - was there;
- 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 - was there;
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, 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?

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:
    your sins, my sins, our sins;

        the sins of the church, 

            the sins 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 tonight 

    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 find God's mercy,

        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 the 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 return to you, Lord,
    what shall offer  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,

        Savior 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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