Immanuel, God with Us: A Prayer of Thanksgiving and confession based on Immanuel, God with us

This year I've been looking at Easter from the perspective of Matthew's Gospel. In putting a message together for Good Friday and Easter Sunday I became aware of the way in which Matthew book end's his gospel (to quote Mark Woodly) with the immanence of God, God with us. In Matthew 1:23 the angel speaks to Joseph and says that the child born to his fiancee will be the very child mentioned in the book of Isaiah, Immanuel, God with us. Then at the end of his gospel when the risen Jesus meets his disciples on the hill in Galilee, he finishes his great commissioning with the promise... and low I am with you till the end of the age. The truth of this has stayed with me this week and so I've used the 'Immanuel, God with us' as the basis of a prayer of thanksgiving and confession for Sunday.

the line "On mountain top and lowly road' comes from Matthew's Gospel where Jesus meets his disciples on mountain tops... (the Sermon on the Mount, the Transfiguration, the Olivette discourse, Calvary, the mountain in Galilee) and Luke's wonderful story of Jesus meeting two disciples on the road to Emmaus. God is with us in the high lofty mountain moments and in the slow trudging steps along life's journey.

Yes, I've tried to present it as poetry.Yes, it does follow a formula three stanzas of praise (declaring the goodness of God) a prayer of confession, the words of assurance of forgiveness and asking for the Holy Spirit to continue to fill us and enable us in our christian life and witness.

Feel free to use it.

Immanuel God With us

We hear it every Christmas

In Jesus you became one of us

Dwelt amongst us

Shared our sorrow and pain

Entered into our joys and life

Proclaimed Good News to the poor

Healed the sick, set the captive free

Broke bread with outcasts and sinners

Immanuel, God with us

We remember every Easter

In Christ you bore our sin

You paid the price

You died in our place

We know what love is because of the cross

You died and were buried

On the Third day you rose again

You are alive and with us to the end of the age

Immanuel, God with us

It is our present reality and future hope

Risen Lord Jesus, you dwell with us

On mountain top and lowly road

You fill us with your Spirit

Lead us into all truth

Comfort and guide

Empower us in love to serve and proclaim

Show us your mercy, new every day

Immanuel, God with us

We respond to you today

We thank you for your presence

Give you praise for who you are and all you have done

We acknowledge our sin and ask forgiveness

We have done what we should not

We leave undone the good you call us to do

Thank you that you are faithful and just  

Thank you that you forgive and wipe the slate clean

Immanuel, God with us

We ask for your blessing today

Fill us afresh with your spirit

May we always be aware that you are near

Help us to love and to care as you do

To walk humbly and love justice

Aid us to proclaim your kingdom come

To boldly speak out and live it out

To the glory of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

An Emmaus Road Blessing... based on Luke 24:12-31

In my email this week came an invitation from Amazon to buy the new "Voice" tranlation of the Bible. It was pitched as a new book from Leonard Sweet, which of course grabbed my attention. I went to the website for the Bible and came across a couple of video presentations of "The Voice" on which was apt for the Easter season was of Luke 24:13-31 the Emmaus road encounter. While I was sad that it finished at verse 31 and did not include the wonderful ending to the narrative that the two disciples went back to Jerusalem to shar ethe great news that Christ is risen, I did like the way it told the story... Both the words which made me want to read more of this version and also the video itself. 

In particular I liked the narrator being a women. Often we see sciurpture in a male voice, but Luke in particular tells woemens stories and the ressrection story ios one which is told by the women... first.

Any way here is the video clip (which I will be using on Sunday)

 and the blessing that it and the passage inspired me to write for Sunday. Once again please feel free to use anything I write... blessings.

May the risen Christ meet you on the road,

Lead you into all truth,

Guide you on your path.

May the risen Christ feed and sustain you,

Fill you with his presence,

Equip you by his Spirit.

May the Risen Christ go with you today,

Be with you through this week,

May you dwell with Christ forever

A Bird Bath Outside My Office Window... Matthew 6:25-34

I've struggled to put posts on my blog recently that are not either sermons I've written or prayers for services. I guess in leaving and grieving for my Church plant at Auckland University and moving to a new ministry situation I've found myself exhausted and simply doing what needs to be done to survive.

Praise God I think things are doing all right here at St Peter's Ellerslie/ Mt Wellington. I've been here for four Sundays now including Easter and the services have gone well, I'm slowly getting to know people and it's been great to have new people along most services.

One of the things that has made me feel at home and aware of God's presence is the Bird Barth outside the window of my office. While New Zealand is a land of birds with many species unique to our island home, being in suburbia the birds who come here to the bath in the little garden, in the asphalt expanse of our car park are common garden variety sparrows. Yet each time I see them come and bath and drink from the bath I am reminded of God's goodness and provision. (typically I couldn't get them to pose for the photo I took).

Also one of the women of the church gave me a welcoming present of a peace Lilly for my office. I haven't managed to kill it from neglect yet. She's watered it once and my kids make sure they water it on Sundays. But it also is a reminder of God's goodness and provision. God provides and cares for his people so why worry... rather put first the kingdom of God and his righteousness... and in the Howard Carter translation... "your heavenly Father got the rest sorted mate." (fortunately, the peace Lilly was more obliging)

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34



He is not here... He is Risen Just as He Said He Would... Go Tell: The ressurection in three scenes in Matthew 28

I always remember a comic book I bought when I was a young fellow. It was from the tales of the crypt or some such macabre series.  I think I bought it as part of a pile at a school fair somewhere, it wasn’t my normal taste in graphic novels (to use the new grown up term).

It was the story of a prison break from a harsh and brutal prison on some desperate island. The only way that people got out of this place was in a wooden box and then the trip wasn’t far it was to the graveyard on the mainland. A prisoner in the comic hatched a cunning plan. He worked in the woodshed making coffins and he built up a friendship with the man whose job it was to come and bury the prisoners on the mainland and together they hatched a plan. When the next poor soul died the prisoner would hide in the coffin with the body be transported over to the cemetery, he’d have to be buried as the coffins were always accompanied by guards,  and then his friend would dig him back up and he would escape.

The day came and a someone died and was wrapped up in a shroud and the prisoner snuck into the wood shop at night and hid in the coffin with the body. The next day he was transported over to the mainland and buried in the ground. He waited and waited for his friend to come and dig him up. He had some matches with him and a pocket watch and from time to time would strike a match check the time. Hours went past, his friend didn’t come, the prisoner was aware that his air was running out. He found himself struggling to breath, he began to panic. Scratch at the coffin lid till he was exhausted.  He was down to his last match and when he lit it he used the light to check whose body it was in the coffin with him. You guessed it was his friend. The comic books last panel was a scream echoing round an empty graveyard. There was no escape. I had night mares for months after that.

If the gospel ended at Matthew 27 with two women weeping at a tomb, their hopes of new life and salvation dashed, as they had watched the one who offered them that hope die in pain and agony on a Roman torture machine, it would be as stark and horrific as that comic book. There is no escape, there is no new life. Death and the powers of this world would have won.AS Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 “if that were the case then we are to be pitied amongst all people’ We have a false hope.  But the story does not end there, does it. As Mark Woodley says in his commentary on Matthew’s gospel, one word, one little word changes the world. The greek word ergerthe, which we translate “he is risen” changes everything. Jesus the only one to come into our broken world and leave it and come back again is able to say…

“There is life beyond these prison walls of sin, evil and death. All things can be restored. All broken lives can be healed. All sad tales can become untrue. I know the way out. I’ve blazed a trail to freedom. But you have to trust me; you have to follow me.” –Mark Woodley

Matthew’s account of Jesus resurrection unfolds in three scenes, at the empty tomb, back in Jerusalem with the religious authorities and finally on a mountain in Galilee. Each invite us to reflect on the fact that Jesus is risen and how we respond to the amazing truth that he is not here he is risen.

Matthew’s account of the events at the tomb on the Easter Sunday are the most spectacular, they are like the block buster special effects version of the story: Earthquakes, an Angel whose appearance is like lightning, and hardened soldiers fainting dead away.  The other gospels tend to down play this, maybe deliberately not recording any of these details so that the central amazing event is not detracted from, that the tomb is empty and he is risen. But this is not a regular occurrence this is the profound power of God at work.  And whatever the differences in how the story is told this is the indisputable, central message that all the gospels conclude with. He is not here he is risen Go tell. Nt Wright says that just like with many people who can remember where they were when JFK was shot or how they heard of the attack on the twin towers on September 11^th that the account of these first few moments go back to genuine personal memory told again and again to incredulous friends and neighbours, in the tone of a voice of someone saying ‘I Know-I almost couldn’t believe it myself. It seems so totally amazing. But this is how it is.”

It’s a profound truth and so Jesus that Mary Magdalene, and this other Mary were the first to be told of Jesus resurrection and to meet Jesus risen to life.  Mary Magdalene is introduced to us in Luke’s gospel as ‘one from whom seven demons were driven out of’ she was as we’ve been looking at over the past few Sundays one who would easily fit into the beatitudes, aware of her own spiritual poverty, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, aware of the sickness of sin in the world and aware of Jesus offer of healing and wholeness. She would have had her hope shattered by the crucifixion and is left mourning at a tomb side wondering if she is still imprisoned in her spiritual poverty.  The other Mary so anonymous to us she is simply known as the other Mary. It is to these women, that Jesus appears first, who are given the honour of being the first to go tell the wonderful news that Jesus is alive. Jesus meets them with the hope of new life,  that the grave cannot conquer and a new start, and his renewed presence with them. The prison of sin and the death does not win but rather they have been broken open. He meets them with the truth that those who mourn will be comforted, that the kingdom of God is for the spiritually poor and broken, because Jesus continuing presence is with us. Not just a few spiritual superstars, but for all of us.  It’s the hope of the resurrection as NT Wright says “While we cannot meet Jesus in the way the women did that morning. Of course it is a vital part of Christian belief and experience that we can and should meet Jesus in spirit, and get to know him as we worship him and learn from him.” Jesus is alive and knowable…to all. If we are open to believe.

The second scene, takes us back again to the temple courts, the guards equally have a story to tell, they know the tomb is empty, they know what they have seen and so they go back to the religious authorities and tell them. These are people who should know and understand what has happened they should recognise signs of theophany, the presence of God in power, but they choose to keep it quite. They bribe the soldiers to say that Jesus disciples had come and stolen the body and they tell the soldiers that they will square it away the Roman authorities. If soldiers had fallen asleep on duty and had the object of their mission stolen by a group of disciples whom the gospel is very honest about deserted Jesus they would have been subject to death, so they needed to be protected.

Some might say of course Matthew would say that, of course he’d say that the authorities had to make up a story.  They had to explain the empty tomb; all they needed to do to stop all the rumours was go and talk with Joseph of Aramethia and check his tomb out.  But they had the most to lose they had the most invested in the old order, the old way of doing things. Sadly people like  Copernicus were confronted by the same thing from the religious people of his day. Who had so much invested in a different understanding of the universe that they would not accept his ideas that the earth and the other planets revolved round the sun. To do so was to change to give up the power to form people’s thoughts.  

 It’s not a new thing to doubt or disbelieve in the resurrection.  It’s not a new thing a scientific worldview to say that resurrection of the dead is impossible. The people of Jesus day knew that, people don’t come back from the dead. It’s impossible; it is not a natural phenomenon, its God at work. We can look for other reasons to explain it; down through history people have done this. This by the way is not a message on the proof of the resurrection, I believe it is rational to believe in Jesus risen from the dead and as the angel told Mary as recorded in Luke’s gospel “with man it’s impossible but with God all things are possible”. But to accept that Jesus rose from the dead is to be confronted with Jesus as God’s son, to see that Jesus life and his teachings and his death are God’s work, it is a call to trust in Jesus, listen to what he said and put it into practise, and give our lives over to him.

Unlike the other gospel’s Matthew does not take us through Jesus appearances to the disciples and other witnesses in Jerusalem, it’s important for him that he cuts to the third resurrection scene on the mountain in Galilee. Mountains are significant in Matthew’s gospel,  as a jewish man he equates encounters with God with mountain tops. Jesus Sermon on the Mount is on a mountain, his other long sermon in the gospel is given on the Mount of Olives, and they book end his public ministry. In the Old Testament the people of Israel encountered God on Mountains as well, Mt Horeb in the Sinai and of course Mt Zion where the temple was.  The disciples encounter Jesus transfigured on a mountain and now they encounter Jesus risen and alive on a mountain. It says that some worshipped him but some doubted. What that means is open to interpretation, maybe as good Jewish men they were uncomfortable about worshipping Jesus, for them only God is to be worshipped so they may not have been fully convinced that Jesus was indeed God’ son or they may have wrestled with Jesus risen from the dead. We are familiar with Thomas’ story. And Jesus starts his commission for all his followers for the church and a group wrestling with doubt, can I just say that liberating, it shows the grace of God, and there is hope for us.  

He tells them that all ‘authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth.’ Here is an affirmation of the truth of who Jesus is; that he has the authority that only God has. God’s kingdom has come into the realms of Man, but again it will not be manifested or enforced by violence or by conquest. In Luke’s account of this event, the disciples still don’t seem to get it, they want to know if it’s time to over throw the Romans. But Jesus, by his authority, commissions his disciples to go into every nation, again the revolution of God’s grace is not to be confined by death or ethnic boundaries and to make disciples, that they are to baptise people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teach people to obey everything that Jesus has taught them. The people who have witnessed the resurrection, who have meet the risen Jesus, are entrusted with the responsibility of seeing the reign of Jesus spread throughout the world. And in a certain way , through the slow process of making disciples, living alongside people, loving them, showing them and teaching them what it means in all areas of their lives to live in a anew way a way that reflects the very nature of God revealed in Jesus Christ. They had experienced that in their three years with Jesus, they knew his patience they knew his inviting to live with him and see how he acted and reacted, to hear his teaching and see it lived out, even to the point of sacrificial death. They were to include people by baptising them, as they came to be disciples to signify their identification with Jesus death and identifying with new life, washed clean. This may seem an amazing task for a group whom had all deserted Jesus just a short time before, and amongst whom some still doubted, but what makes it doable is Jesus last words and Low I am with you till the end of the age.

The gospel of Matthew is bookended by the amazing assertion that in Jesus, God is with us. Right at the beginning in Matthew’s narrative of Jesus birth an angel appears to Joseph and tells him that the his fiancee is pregnant by the Holy Spirit and the child is the one mentioned in the book of Isaiah, a virgin will have a son and his name will be Immanuel’ which means God with us. At the very end of the Gospel Jesus risen from the dead meets his disciples on a hill top in Galilee and commissions them, his last words to them and a promise that echoes down through two thousand years to us today  “and lo I am with you to the end of the age.”  In Christ God is with us.  Not just some dead guy way back when,  a good teacher with some radical ideas who was killed by people who rejected his teaching. But Jesus risen from the dead, alive the victorious son of God.  You and I can know the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives today. You and I can know the presence of Jesus as we go about doing what Jesus calls us to do to make disciples.

He is not here… he is risen… he is with us… go and tell.

An Easter Sunday Prayer... The Stones Been Rolled away He is not here... He is Risen... He is Risen Ideed Alleluia

I wrote this prayer several years ago but as I come to each new Easter Sunday I still find it that it for me is a great way to celebrate the wonderful truth of Jesus Resurrection. I changed the refrain a little this year from the one I posted back in 2011 http://howard-carter.blogspot.co.nz/2011/04/stones-been-rolled-away-prayer-for.html. Simply changing "the body is not there is not" to reflect the scriptures affirmation that 'He is not here'... No its not that I don't believe that Jesus is alive and with us today... but rather on an Easter Sunday we stand with those first women at the empty tomb and hear the wondrous news that Jesus ain't in the grave... he is not here... he is risen just as he said he would.

Anyway hope you find this encouraging and useful.

Lord of the star fields, ancient of days

Our mighty and gracious God

You spoke and all that is came into being

You formed us from clay and breathed your life into us

We were made in your image to obey and enjoy you always

Yet we turned our backs on you and went our own way

Death entered the world and injustice flourished

While still able to reach great heights and good

We are capable of such darkness, cruelty and the worst of sin

What hope is there for this fallen humanity?

The stones been rolled away

All: He is not here

Jesus is risen

All: He is risen indeed

Alleluia

Loving God you sent your son Jesus, to heal the rift between us,

To show and teach us what you were like

Jesus spoke of love and righteousness

Of you, O God in heaven, as Abba

A parent who loves and sustains us

Jesus healed the sick; spoke for justice, cared for the poor,

He was the shinning light of the world

Yet we betrayed him, condemned him

We beat him and mocked him and nailed him to a cross

He died there and was buried

What hope is there for us?

The stones been rolled away

All: he is not here

Jesus is risen

All: He is risen indeed

Alleluia

In this there is great joy beyond compare

You did not leave Jesus in the grave

Sin and death have not won

Jesus death paid the price for our sin

Jesus rising gives us new life,

Life free from sin, lived in gods embrace

Life that goes beyond the grave to eternity

O God of power that raised Jesus you are at work in us.

You sent your Holy Spirit to those who believe

That we may bear witness that Jesus is alive

O God we have a great hope to share

The stones been rolled away

All: he is not here

Jesus is risen

All: He is risen indeed

Alleluia

Yes Jesus is alive and we affirm that victory

There is forgiveness that smashes the chains of sin and shame

There is light that shines and vanquishes darkness

There is another chance when we’ve blown all our chances

There is hope that reaches down, even to our deepest despair

There is healing for sickness of bodies, mind and soul

 There is life even as we face death; it has lost its sting

There is power to withstand and overcome injustice

There is love that can restore broken lives and relationships

There is joy that dances even in the face of sorrow

We are an Easter people and alleluia is our song

The stones been rolled away

All: He is not here

Jesus is risen

All: He is risen indeed

Alleluia

AT The Foot Of Cross... Matthew 27 Good Friday 2012

The image above looks simply like the shadow of a power pole, projecting  as a cross on to a brick wall and that’s really all it is. But its context infuses it with meaning. It was taken in New Orleans during the aftermath of cyclone Katrina in 1995. You’ll notice that the streets are deserted that’s because people have been evacuated. The caption that went with it said that it was a photo of a cross taken on the wall of a building in the deserted 9th ward of New Orleans as aid workers waited to hear if the disaster was going to be as bad as they had feared.


Depending on how you look at it the image could mean many things.

It could be foreboding, the shadow of death awaiting the aid workers. Crosses are synonymous with death in our western culture. Be it rows in a military graveyard on a past battlefield or white crosses marking fatal road crashes on our highways. In roman times it was also equated with death it was a symbol and a very concrete reality  of suffering, shame and death,  the iron grip of the ruthless power of the roman empire, and symbolic of torture,  violence and the worst of  our inhumanity.


It may be a question.  Why has this happened? God in the midst of what we are going to encounter are you here with us or have you abandoned us. Where are you God?


Or it could be a symbol of hope. The photographer reminded of the presence of Christ with us; The God who in Christ knows our every sorrow and grief. Who offers new life even in the face of death. They are looking at it as a symbol of Jesus presence able to give strength and guidance in the face of tragedy.


In the end I wonder if, in the emotional roller coaster of those waiting to go into the flooded suburbs and devastated districts, it somehow manages to encapsulate all of that. That’s why I find it a very powerful and evocative image. That’s why I often revisit it on Good Fridays. It sums up for me the paradox’s that we find in the cross and Jesus death. It refocuses me again to sit at the foot of the cross, both in the narrative of the gospels and in the realities of our everyday lives over two thousand years later.

It’s at the foot of the cross that we see the tragedy of our brokenness, and the fallen-ness of Humanity. That no one is right, no one is innocent except for Jesus. The religious authorities had convened a mock trial, with trumped up charges and false witnesses. Jesus was to be sacrificed to keep the status quo, with the Romans. He did not defend himself or cry out against them. Sadly down through the ages in Europe this has been fuel for the fires of anti-Semitism.  And we religious people have proven ourselves unable to live up to our ideals and values. The civil authorities in the person of Pilate, when the ball was passed to him, for political expediency was willing to kowtow to the angry mob, even though his wife had warned him of the spirits stirring in a dream that Jesus was innocent. He was willing to release a known terrorist and sanction crucifying Jesus. The cross itself an example of the worst possible torture we can inflict on a fellow human being with death often measured in days of pain and shame, designed to show the dominance of the Romans over their occupied territories, and the futility of active resistance. It could be easy to point the figure at this display of corrupt power and oppressive regimes and without seeing ourselves there. But yes we could whisper a whole list of twenty first century examples. It’s harder to not identify with the crowd who had cheered and hoped as Jesus had entered Jerusalem only days before now willing to cry crucify him, crucify him. We could easily identify with the fickleness of the masses, it may seem trivial but just ask the black caps. But everyone shows their brokenness at the foot of the cross. Jesus own disciples had deserted him and fled. Judas had betrayed Jesus with a Kiss. Overcome with remorse he had turned to the religious authorities for forgiveness and they had turned him away, filled with despair he had hung himself. Sadly he didn’t look to Jesus. Peter had said he would never leave Jesus, if Jesus was going to die then he would die as well. In the garden he couldn’t even stay awake to comfort his friend, and as Jesus faced the powers and powerful denied knowing Jesus three times before the most powerless. At the foot of the cross “God’s searchlight shines in every dark corner of the human heart exposing the sickness in us all- and most of this exposure starts with Jesus followers.”  

It is also at the foot of the cross that we see the extent to which god in Christ identifies with humanity.


Matthew’s Gospel starts with Jesus being giving the title ‘Immanuel- God with us’, Joseph is told that this title from the book of Isaiah refers to Jesus. In Jesus John tells us the word became flesh. The question that we ask is how far does that with-us-ness of God go? Maybe we’ve all had experiences of fair weather friends, or seen even loved ones and family bail out when the going gets too hard,  walking away in the face of addiction or tragedy.  But at the foot of the cross we see extent of God’s with-us-ness and love.


In Jesus birth and ministry we see Jesus identify with the poor and the lowly, dine with the outcast and ostracised, embrace the leper clean. In his teaching we hear the grand invitation that God’s kingdom and love is for everyone. At the cross we see to what extent Jesus will go to make that a reality.

At the foot of the cross we see Jesus identify with our brokenness and sin. Not emulating it but willing to take it’s consequences on himself.  In Jesus prayer in the garden he talks of a cup that he will drink, that it is God’s will. The cup he mentions is the cup of God’s wrath from the book of Isaiah and Jeremiah. God will pour out his wrath not in blind rage or as punishment, but to turn the tables, and give the wicked a taste of their own medicine, to in the correct use of the term teach them a lesson, to change their ways, and to set the captives free and to give a fresh start, with the slate wiped clean. On the cross to heal our brokenness and darkness  Jesus drinks from that cup.


Now at the foot of the cross in Jesus we see God identify with our shame. Some of you come from what sociologists call shame cultures. You’ll understand this.  You are aware of how what we have done wrong or simply where you are from or who your family is can lead people to be ostracized; made to feel not only bad and guilty about something but less than human as well. At the cross Jesus identifies with this. He is shamed, spat upon and beaten by the soldiers, mocked. He is abused by the crowd, even the offer of a vinegar wine is a sign of mockery and identification with the poor believers. In Psalm 69 it says “I looked for sympathy, but there was none, comfort, but I found none. They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar to drink.”  Instead of the glory due to God for his goodness here Jesus identifies with our shame.


At the foot of the cross, we see Jesus also  identify with our questions, our search for reason and our feeling of separation from God in the midst of suffering. Jesus only words from the cross recorded in Matthew’s gospel are the ‘Eli Eli Sabacthani’, So etched in the memories of witnesses at the cross that they recall them in Jesus first language Aramaic. We see Jesus identify with the cry down through the ages of wrestling with the why’s and feeling abandoned and separate from the presence of God. “My God MY God, why have you forsaken me?”. Has God left us and deserted us why does this happen to us. It is not a cry of misunderstanding, Jesus was well aware of the purposes of God in this, but the physical pain was less than the ache of feeling cut off from the father, whom Jesus said he was one with. It is not a cry of despair, a falling at this final hurdle, it is still the affirmation of My God MY God. It is like the psalm, Psalm 22 that it quotes a bold assertion of faith in God even in the face of death and the total absence of his presence. A trusting even when God does not respond.

Now at the foot of the cross we see God identify with humanity even to the point of death. Such a total oxymoron, that the eternal should die, that the one who came to give life should lose his life.

But also at the foot of the cross, we see God’s rescue plan at work; The with-us-ness of God  and for- us-ness of God at work. We see God’s salvation plan.  It would be easy to go away from the cross thinking that Jesus had met with an ignominious defeat. That this good man’ search for justice and righteousness had failed. To think that the taunts of the crowd and gloats of the religious rulers were correct, but Matthew wants us to know right when it seem the darkest, God is at work, Jesus Dearing rescue plan is beginning to work.

AS one commentator (mark Woodley) puts in more eliqently than I ever could.

“After all hell breaks loose on the earth and Jesus “gave up his spirit”, Matthew begins to record the momentous events of Jesus daring rescue mission. Matthew piles on seven passive verbs “was torn,” “was shaken”,”were split”, “were opened,” “were rasied,” “were manifested”, “were frightened” to suggest that God the father was at work, even when everything looked utterly dark and hopeless, Matthew does not wait for Easter Sunday to say that as Jesus died for us, God the father was liberating the captives (us), raising the dead (us), reconciling sinners (us) to the Father and renewing the face of the earth (bigger than us)as “the hour” of darkness and betrayal descended on the earth, as the forces of evil converged to pummel Jesus with demonic hatred, as Jesus dies with a question on his lips, God was working powerfully to set captives free.”

The curtain in the temple was torn in two, the wall separating humanity from the very presence of God was broken down, and the way for us to come to know God was made.  The power of sin and its consequence death were broken.  Can I say I find Matthew’s account of the dead rising hard to comprehend? But in the narrative it does go to show how that the power of death has been defeated.

We start to see the effects of the cross for you and I. That our sins are forgiven, the price has been paid, that the shame we find ourselves hostage to is taken away and we are invited into God’s very presence. There is the reality of freedom and new life. Even the boundary of ethnicity is bridged, the gentile centurion seeing how Jesus died is the first to acknowledge the divinity of Jesus. “Surely this man was the Son of God”.  The revolution of God’s grace the early church would soon discover would jump all ethnic boundaries, between Jew and gentile to form a new people of God. In Christ we are forgiven and free we are forged in to a new community a new people.

At the foot of the cross we encounter amazing grace, wholeness and new life. Let me share a short video clip that puts that into the real lives of real people, one I cannot watch without tears in my eyes.

 At the end how do we respond to this...

When I survey the wondrous cross,
on which the prince of glory died
my richest gain I count by loss
and pour contempt on all my pride

were the wole realm of nature mine
that were an offering far too small
love so amazing so divine
demands my soul, my life, my all.
.

Good Friday Prayer (longer and a bit more formal)

While I'm posting liturgy for Good Friday here is another longer more formal prayer for Good Friday and the image is the resting image from our Good Friday Service this year.

Just and righteous God, full of mercy and love

We come today to thank you for what you have done for us

You created us

You made is in your own Image

Capable of love and creativity that reflect your own

You made us to have companionship with you

 To know you and to love you

You did not give up on us when we turned away from you

You continued to care

To speak and show us your love

To call us back to following your way

You sent your son Jesus into the world

The word become flesh

The light that shines in the dark came to us

He showed us who you are

He gave forgiveness to the sinner

Healing and wholeness to the sick

Acceptance and hope to the lost

Good news to the poor

Yet today we remember Jesus death on the cross

That the prince of life was willing to die for us

His loving hands cruelly nailed to rough wood

Jesus who had done no wrong took our sin

Jesus the eternal one carried it to death

In this event there is hope for us

That what we have done wrong can be forgiven

That we can have a clean slate and a new start

New life in Christ

We therefore confess our sin to you,

AS a race created in your image we have been capable of great good

Yet we have also turned ourselves to acts of darkness and great evil

Hatred, fear and greed have lead to violence murder and even genocide

Some of us have become so consumed with getting more than our share

That we have become deaf and blind to the plight of the poor and starving in our world

We plunder your good creation with little thought of tomorrow to fuel our own desire for more rather than caring for your great gift of this planet

Individually we have done what we should not do and left undone what we should do.

We have followed our own ways not yours

We have not loved others as you loved us

In the face of hatred, violence and evil

We have been silent when we should have spoken

We have been still when we should have acted.

Father God we ask that you would forgive us for this

This is the great truth of the scripture, The wonder of the cross

That as we have confessed our sin God is faithful and just and forgives us our sin and bids us to go and sin no more

Today we remember the death of Jesus

But not as a group forlornly grieving over a long dead leader

Rather with eyes that look back from beyond the wonder of the resurrection

Knowing that Jesus who died on the cross has been risen from the dead

That he is alive and with us today

We pray O Lord that you might fill us with your spirit

That we might live for you

Empowered to share you love

To your glory Father, Son and Holy Spirit Amen