Good Friday is the day we remember the death of Jesus. It is a sombre day, a dark day, a day of grief. This morning at our worship we read the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and as we did we ‘stripped the sanctuary’. Items of decoration like flowers and banners were removed from our worship space. The candles were extinguished and removed. At the end of the service we covered the brass cross that sits on the communion table with black cloth and we closed the Bible. All this to mark the ending of something. It was a way to strip bare the complexity of feelings that come to us as we hear of Jesus last day.
In her book ‘Kneeling in Jerusalem” Ann Weems includes this poem
Friday
The sky peels back to purple
and thunder slaps the thighs of heaven,
and all the tears of those who grieve
fly up to clouds and are released
and drench the earth.
The ones who see and hear
know
that all is lost.
The only One named Saviour
died
upon a cross.
The ones who believed and loved
huddle together
stunned.
All night long
the angels weep.
Tomorrow the world will shift as dark turns to light and then the tomb will burst open and we will celebrate new life. But for now we must sit in darkness and grieve the death of one we love.
