Wednesday, April 12, 2017

What love is this? a reprise of a good friday poem/prayer



In about 2003 I wrote this reflection for a Good Friday Service. I've dragged it out and used a few times over the years. But it needed a bit of a re-write.  the refrain what love is this has been cut and I've rewritten the last stanza thingy without reference to the Stuart Townsend hymn "How deep the fathers love". What love is this is a favourite line from a worship song 'Glory' from the band 'Form' which starts off as a normal praise and worship clique  song, but then its as if the songwriter is surprised by the reality of the presence and love of God... his only response is to sing 'glory'.

Unlooked for

Undeserved

Freely Given

You O God reached down into our humanity

Even into the darkness of our inhumanity

With the light of your great Love





Not clutching divine nature

Become a servant

Humble and meek

Obedient even to death

Jesus, who befriended the outcast

Healed the blind, the lame and cared for the poor

Taught and showed what our heavenly father is like




Betrayed

Innocent yet condemned

Beaten and tortured

The sovereign king receives a crown of thorns

The welcoming outstretched hands nailed to a cross

Hope mocked and spat upon





Gasping for breath

Excruciating pain

Dying

We thought him stricken by God, cursed

Yet it was our iniquity, our wrong that he carried

In his death we have freedom and life






Side pieced

Buried in a tomb

Stone sealed

Beyond our ability to understand you have done it

Paid the price for us and invited us in,

What love is this can any grave hold it down?





What love is this?

Stone rolled away

Hope rekindled

Alive again, risen for the grave

Clean slate, new life and wholeness

Thank you O God for a love like this

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