4-18-14
Many Good Friday thoughts and memories today:
I’ve been fasting on Good Friday since I was 16 years old,
2/3 of my life. In recent practice I fast for 40 hours on Good Friday and Ash
Wednesday, and one 24-hour day during the weeks of Lent in between. I also used to not do my hair or make-up, but
one of my college profs (whose class, and exam, I had requested to skip in
observance of the Holy Day) called me on that, saying, “Isn’t is supposed to be
that no one knows you’re fasting?” (Mt 6:16-18) [I did get permission, from
that Roman Catholic prof, to take the test a different day.]
Good Friday, 1988 I hosted a small group of people at my
home for a Good Friday worship service, at which we read some scripture,
prayed, and sang “O Sacred Head”. Our presence was required at a work-related dinner,
and none of us wanted to miss observing the day.
When we lived on Long Island, Phil participated in a Via
Crucis among the Latino community with whom he served as pastor there. One of
my favorite pix of him is from that event.
Shortly after moving to Texas, all four of us walked in the
Via Crucis in San Antonio—what a powerful and culturally interesting event!
Good Friday Hill Country Stations of the Cross hosted by
First Christian (Disciples) and St. Mark’s Episcopal Churches in San
Marcos—beautiful and striking setting for contemplating this day.
Maundy Thursday and Good Friday observed on Wednesday in
Holy Week at TLU; a combined service telling the bulk of the story.
Tre Ore service at First English in Austin; Craig Sommer and
Lou Flessner preached before and after me, in turn.
Trying to black out windows in a sanctuary with a
100-foot-long aisle (big sanctuary!) in Janesville, WI, for a noontime tenebrae
service
Acquiring my first cassock to be appropriately attired for
the evening tenebrae service at Epiphany, Hempstead, NY
A young Lucas observing, “Mom and Jason can’t eat supper
with us because they’re starving”. He
may have been onto something, several hours into our fast!
==
As I walked this morning, I saw a flag at half-mast, and
wondered about who was charged to come to a public school that was off for the
holiday to raise the flag. I then thought about how many reasons the flag may
be at half-mast: recent shooting at Ft. Hood, ferry accident killing students
in South Korea, school girls abducted in Nigeria, Jesus dying on a cross. Good Friday happens all around us, all the
time—senseless, unjustifiable killing of God’s beloved people and creation. And
that is why this Friday is Good Friday (or “God’s Friday”, I saw posted
earlier): for all the evil and heartbreak we continue to perpetrate, God still
looks at this creation and proclaims us “good”, and when we can’t live into
that divine description, God still works to make us so—reclaiming, redeeming,
restoring, re-creating, reimagining us. This Friday is not good for God; it
isn’t good for us who wish we could be different, who love Jesus and don’t mean
to hurt him. But it’s good work that God does in Christ, showing us holy love
that knows no limits.
Please remember we are in the midst of Triduum—THREE days.
They are not about death, they are about depth, the depth of God’s love for
creation, which, finally, is not shown on the cross, but in resurrection.
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