GOOD FRIDAY SERMON

Today once again is Good Friday.

Today once again we stand facing the cross on which Jesus was crucified and died. It is significant that his close friends all forsook him and fled when the going got dangerous, and there is no evidence that any of his disciples were anywhere near.

Luke’s gospel records that his friends stood at a distance and watched while others brought cold comfort and sour wine to their friend as he died a most horrendous and inexplicable death.

Pilate had seen no reason for it, neither had Herod, and yet the general will of the crowd had prevailed, and Jesus died. Common justice was not served. His trial was a mockery, and even according to Jewish law illegal.

So it could be seen as a surprise that this day is revered as important for some.

We do face  some interesting questions as we come to this place. Questions about Justice for sure, questions about a just God who allowed his son to be punished for things he had clearly not done.

Questions about how it could all work anyway that a death of a man is seen or believed to make a difference to people living even today.

As Christians today these and other questions are not ones we should duck away from, and I don’t think it very helpful to simply blame it all or explain it all on the “way god works”

Opinion has been divided for many hundreds of years about the effects of Good Friday and Easter. For those who like to see punishment as the way of solving crime (sin) then today is key because it is seen as God punishing his own son for our wrongs and thus winning us freedom.

Others find this penal approach to justice flawed and cruel, fulfilling little purpose, yet to see God raising Jesus despite everything after death is a sort of restorative justice where love and forgivness have a real place and heart. And we see something of this as Jesus forgives those who punish him without the need for restitution or even penance, and the repentant thief is gifted paradise despite not being able to do much to “deserve” it.

On Sunday we heard the parable of the workers who were paid a days wage despite only working for a few hours in the day. And God declaring that surely he could do this as he was just it it had been agreed. Many find this approach of God very “unfair” to our way of thinking

God is declares in the Old Testament that he is about to do something new, he tells us that we should not remember the former things for something new is going to begin.

The ways we think are about to be turned on their head, and Jesus teaching also bears this out. Jesus was radical and not conformist, and yet we often like to see Jesus as quite conforming to the way we want to think. It is a bit of a conundrum.

I wonder what it is like to held secure and then to be let free. I wonder what it must feel like to be held in prison and then to be released?

It is perhaps no wonder that prisoners find this moment quite daunting and scary. How will we manage, will we make a mess of it over again as we slip back so effortlessly into the old ways, the ways we know.

Today, we begin to face the cross face to face and realise our own part in it. Our own part in the suffering, not just of Christ, but even of ourselves.

Is God about to do something new, can he make something new happen in us, or are we going to slip back into the ways we are so familiar with?

There is little doubt that the Olympics last year inspired many of us. The tenacity and courage of the athletes to enter the games alone never mind to succeed and win medals was immense. We heard stories of a lifetime of dedication and perseverance. It is no wonder that Paul uses a It It is not easy to believe in Jesus. We may like to think it is comfortable and conformist to do so but let’s face it hundreds of years have made it safe and secure for us to do so. Let us not forget Christians and other believers are still persecuted for believing.

 Paul comes to a sporting analogy, when he is talking about the efforts needed to be a believer, the efforts he says are needed to stand alongside Christ in his sufferings so that we can also share the resurrection. It was a life and death scenario for him.

Paul speaks of pressing on to make it his own…. It is a single minded approach, a focused and solitary task. But also a costly journey.

Todays gospel is perhaps a strange sort of “Good News” as it is uncomfortable news as we stand and stare suffering in the face and are powerless to do anything about it. Or we choose not to do anything about it.

Earlier in the Passion narratives we had been contemplating an intimate meal at the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Here Mary once again showed us the way as in silence the room is filled with the fragrance of the simple act of contemplation.

Like Mary and Martha today we seem to have a choice. We can busy ourselves or we can be still. It comes natural to be busy, but less natural to be still.

Questions of the justice of God aside, Today we stand at the raw face of the suffering Christ, powerless and yet adoring and as we do so we pray earnestly that God’s redeeming love can be felt within.

I do not see our act as being magical, or even as though we can earn anything by being here. If there is anything Good Friday can teach us it is that action does not win the day, doing things, even attending church today is not the solution.

Christians are called upon to pray, and to do this simple act continuously.

Yet we can even be seen to busy ourselves in prayer and miss the object of the desire completely.

Soren Kierkegaard wrote about prayer in these words “Prayer does not change God, it changes the person who prays” yet our attitude has so long been that we are trying to gain the attention of God when we are praying. We  rarely see it as silence and waiting. As gazing and being held.

We see it in the life of Jesus frequently, and it was reflected in the early years with many seeking solitude in the desert, being with God in silence and expecting something new to happen was what the life of prayer was all about.

It is surprising that we habitually react as if being busy is the right choice.  God is doing a new thing in us as we learnt that apparently gazing and doing nothing is a way of letting God in.

Stephen Cherry has highlighted this reaction this lent by urging the church to react against the need to proclaim business as the good way. He has challenged many to re think their attitude to living as if it was better to be able to prove that every moment of a working day was crammed with activity.

We are invited today one again to be still in the presence of God, to hear God speaking in the silence of our lives, but we give him little opportunity, as we busy him out or talk over him.

Let us be more still.

It continues to take the years rolling by to uncover what Good Friday and Easter means for the Christian believer.

However we see it, from what distance we see it, let us see God doing something new……. And let is not always expect it to be comfortable or to conform.