Updated. Some reflections on Good Friday.
This is Good Friday meditation on Thinking Anglicans in their series based on the Station of the Cross.
the Centurion
“I was the Centurion. My job was to supervise the whole execution and see it through until the three men were dead, and keep the crowds under control too. As the occupying power in a troubled territory we were used to executing rebels. But I remember this one. Of course it was at Passover, and the crowds were large and worrying. The Governor had us put a sign over him — that he was king of the Jews, and this is how any king of the Jews would end up. And it went so dark that day, you’d think it was the middle of the night. But the way he died was different too. He didn’t curse, he didn’t incite his friends to rebellion, he seemed to be saying his prayers and talking to his mother and a few friends. Through all the pain, through all the indignity and humiliation, he seemed to know what he was doing. Everything about him proclaimed his innocence.”Prayer
Lord Jesus, you died on the cross
and entered the bleakest of all circumstances:
give courage to those who die at the hands of others.
In death you entered into the darkest place of all:
illumine our darkness with your glorious presence.
To you, Jesus, your lifeless body hanging on the tree of shame,
be honour and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
now and for ever.
Amen.illustration: from a wood-engraving by Eric Gill, 1917
Canon Anne Kitch thinks about “the why.”
And what about the why?
Not
Have you forsaken me?
Will you forsake me?
Please, do not forsake me!But
Why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far away?
Why do you not answer?Already forsaken
already abandoned
already broken and torn and spent.
It’s a done deal.Except the why
is but the opening note of a lament
flung out across the abyss
whose feeble strains are gathered by other voices
and woven into the song of hope
that will not be quenched.It is finished.
God is not.
The Rev. Kittredge Cherry blogs on Believe Out Loud:
During Holy Week many LGBT Christians and their allies find inspiration in “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision,” a controversial series of paintings that are newly available as a book.
The images show Jesus as a gay man of today in a modern city.
He is persecuted, killed and rises again in the 24 paintings by New York artist Doug Blanchard. A surprisingly diverse group of friends join the gay Jesus on a journey from suffering to freedom.
One pastor says that they “depict the Holy Week that is in my heart.” I felt the same way, so I wrote the reflections and prayers that appear in the book.
Posted by Andrew Gerns