Good Friday, Year A (4/14/2017)
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 22
Hebrews 10:16-25
John 18:1-19:42
“O my people, O my church, what more could I have done for you?
Answer me.
I grafted you into my people Israel,
but you made them scapegoats for your own guilt,
and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal,
have mercy on us.”[1]
The Solemn Reproaches are ancient Christian verses associated with Good Friday worship. Each reproach is a lament of God, mourning the unfaithfulness of God’s people in spite of God’s unwavering love. On the day that we remember the cross of Jesus, let us also acknowledge our penchant for crucifixion, as human carelessness and violence have marred the image of God in vulnerable people throughout the ages.
“O my people, O my church, what more could I have done for you?
Answer me.
I grafted you into my people Israel,
but you made them scapegoats for your own guilt,
and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal,
have mercy on us.”
[A reflection from Daniel Isaak: “My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?”][2]
“O my people, O my church, what more could I have done for you?
Answer me.
I grafted you into my people Israel,
but you made them scapegoats for your own guilt,
and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.
Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal,
have mercy on us.”
Lord of the nations,
Do not abandon us to our fears and prejudices.
By your sacrificial love, draw us into relationship with those who are different
that we might bear witness to the crosses of all who suffer
on account of the way they look,
the way they speak,
the way they pray.
Give us the will to bear one another’s burdens,
and hold your beloved world, torn by our hostility,
in your healing hands.
Amen.
[1] “Solemn Reproaches,” Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Leader’s Desk Edition, 641.
[2] Ed. Richard Young, Echoes From Calvary: Meditations on Franz Joseph Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ, 105.
