We held a Good Friday Tenebrae on Friday, April 2, 2021 at 7pm. You may watch a recording on Facebook by clicking here, or you may watch below.
GATHERING Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley
WELCOME
CALL TO WORSHIP Sarah Are
We have been here before—
A place of grieving and mourning.
We have been here before—
A night that seems like it won’t end.
We have been here before—
Knee deep in fear, knee deep in doubt.
We have been here before—
Good Friday, the night Christ died.
So once again, we find ourselves here—
In community, in God’s arms.
Where else would we go when the world falls apart?
Let us worship holy God.
-First Light: Darkness of Suffering-
Isaiah 53:2-6
The First Light is Extinguished
HYMN Be Still My Soul
-Second Light: Darkness of Betrayal-
Mark 14:3-4, 6, 8, 10-11
The Second Light Is Extinguished
HYMN Go to Dark Gethsemane
-Third Light: Darkness of Desertion-
Matthew 26:36-40
The Third Light Is Extinguished
HYMN Ah, Holy Jesus
READING Good Friday Maria Melendez Kelson
Jesus, I want my sins back.
My prattle, pride, and private prices —
climbing, clinching, clocking —
I might loan you a few for the evening,
so you don’t show up at your own crucifixion
naked of all purpose.
But for God’s sake, don’t spill any
redemption on them! They’re my
signature looks. Body by Envy.
Make up & wardrobe provided by Avarice. Lord,
if you take away my inordinate cravings,
what the hell’s left? Do you know
how much I paid for my best rages?
I want them all back if they’re
so To Die For. Else shred my palms,
wash my face with spit, let the whip
unlace my flesh and free the naked blood,
let me be tumbled to immortality
with the stew of flood debris
that is my life.
-Fourth Light: Arrest and Denial-
Luke 22:47-48, 54-62
The Fourth Light Is Extinguished
HYMN O Sacred Head Now Wounded
-Fifth Light: the Trial-
Mark 14:53-54, 60-61 15:1-5
The Fifth Light Is Extinguished
HYMN What Wondrous Love Is This?
REFLECTION Nailed Together
-Sixth Light: Shadow of the Cross-
Mark 15:16-24
The Sixth Light Is Extinguished
HYMN Were You There?
READING What Abides Jan Richardson
You will know
this blessing
by how it
does not stay still,
by the way it
refuses to rest
in one place.
You will recognize it
by how it takes
first one form,
then another:
now running down
the face of the mother
who watches the breaking
of the child
she had borne,
now in the stance
of the woman
who followed him here
and will not leave him
bereft.
Now it twists in anguish
on the mouth of the friend
whom he loved;
now it bares itself
in the wound,
the cry,
the finishing and
final breath.
This blessing
is not in any one
of these alone.
It is what
binds them
together.
It is what dwells
in the space
between them,
though it be torn
and gaping.
It is what abides
in the tear
the rending makes.
© Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com
-Seventh Light: Darkness of Death-
Mark 15:25-28
Matthew 27:45-46, 50
The Seventh Light Is Extinguished
RECESSIONAL All is Silent in the Halls of the Dead Danielle O’Hallisey
