Black Friday 2024

Blessed be our God forever and ever.

Amen.

The Lord be with you.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given into the hands of sinners and to suffer death upon the cross.

Who now lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Amen.

She was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh.

He passed on to Miss Paphagilead, and from Ms.

Paphagilead, he passed on to the Ammonites, and Jephtheb bowed a vow to the Holy One of old and said, If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then it shall be that the one who comes out, whoever comes out, of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return, having finished with the Ammonites, shall be the holy ones.

I will offer them up as a burnt offering.

Then Jephthav crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Holy One gave them into his hand.

He smote a mighty smitting on them for a roar until you come to Mineth, twenty towns, and as far as Abel Karimon.

So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.

Then Jephthav came to his home at Mizpah, and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with drums and with dancing.

Only she, an only child, he had no son or daughter apart from her.

When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, My daughter, you have knocked me down.

You have become my trouble.

I opened my mouth to the Holy One, and I cannot take back my vow.

She said to him, My father, you have opened your mouth to the Holy One.

Do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth.

After that the Holy One has taken vengeance through you against your enemies against the Ammonites.

And she said to her father, Let be done for me this thing.

Release me for two months, and I will go and go down among the hills, and weep for my virginity, I and my women friends.

Then he said, Go, and he sent her away for two months.

So she left, she and her women friends, and wept over her virginity among the hills.

And it was at the end of two months she returned to her father, who did to her what he bowed in his vow.

She had never known a man, and she became an observance in Israel.

Year by year the daughters of Israel would go out to tell the story of the daughter of Jephthah to Gileadite for four days.

The word of the Lord.

A reading from Psalm 22.

We will read responsively by half verse, as indicated by the asterisk.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer.

Yet you are the holy one.

Our forebears put their trust in you.

They crime to you and we're delivered.

But as for me, I am a warm unless a human.

You trust me in the moment from us.

My mouth is from another comment from it.

My tongue is next to the room of my mouth.

Save me from the summer.

Save me from the lion's mouth.

I will declare your name to my people.

Maybe all the screen is real to stand.

Praises of you in the great assembly.

The poor shall indeed be satisfied.

Those who seek you shall praise you.

All the ends of the earth shall be never in turn to you.

For yours is the royal power of God.

To you alone, all who sleep in the earth, bow down and worship.

My soul shall live for you.

My descendants shall serve you.

They shall come and make men to a people yet unborn.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also put aside every weight and entangling sin, and with endurance let us run the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the originator and corrector of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, its shame, disregarding at the right hand the throne of God has taken his seat.

Consider the one who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you all may not grow weary or your souls, souls grow faint.

Not to this point have you all in your struggles against sin resisted to the point of shedding blood.

The word of the Lord.

Now when the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table and the apostles with him.

Then Jesus said to them, I have greatly desired to eat this Passover with you all before I suffer, for I tell you all I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the realm of God.

Then Jesus took a cup, giving thanks.

He said, Receive this and divide it among yourselves, for I tell you all that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the reign of God comes.

Then Jesus took a loaf of bread, giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you all.

Do this in remembrance of me.

And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Look, the hand of the one who betrays me is with me on the table.

For indeed the Son of Woman is going as it has been determined, but woe to the one by whom he is betrayed.

They began to ask among themselves which one of them was about to do this.

There was also an argument among them as to which one of them should be considered the greatest.

But Jesus said to them, The royals of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have power over them are called benefactors, but not so with you all.

Rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the one who serves.

For who is greater, the one who is at table or the one who serves?

Is it not the one at table?

Yet I am among you all as the one who serves.

You are the ones who have remained with me in my trials, so when I covenant with you all, just as my Abba has covenanted with me, a royal inheritance, so that you all may eat and drink at my table in my realm, and you all will sit on thrones governing the twelve tribes of Israel.

Simon, Simon, listen.

The adversary has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you in order that your faith not fail, and you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

Then he said to Jesus, Rabbi, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.

But Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, this day the cock will not have crowed three times before you deny knowing me.

Then Jesus said to them, When I sent you out without a purse, a bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?

They said, Not a thing.

He said to them, But now the one who has a purse must take it, and likewise a bag, and the one who does not have one must sell his cloak and buy a sword.

For I tell you this scripture must be fulfilled in me.

And he was counted among the lawless, and indeed that which pertains to me is coming to its completion.

So they said, Rabbi, see here are two swords, and he replied to them, It is sufficient.

Then Jesus came out and went, as was his custom to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.

When he was at the place he said to them, Pray that you do not enter into testing.

Then he withdrew from them about a stone's throw on bended knee and prayed, Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me, yet not my will but yours be done.

Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.

In agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground.

When he rose from prayer he came to the disciples and found them sleeping from grief.

And he said to them, Why are you sleeping?

Get up and pray that you not enter into testing.

While he was speaking, suddenly there was a crowd, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them.

He approached Jesus to kiss him.

But Jesus said to him, Judas, is it with a kiss that you betray the son of woman?

When those around him saw what was happening, they asked, Rabbi, should we strike with a sword?

Then one of them struck a person enslaved by the high priest and cut off his right ear.

But Jesus responded saying, Enough of this, and he grasped his ear and healed him.

Then Jesus said to the ones who had come for him, the chief priests, the officers assigned to the temple, and the elders, Have you all come out with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit?

When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on me.

But this is your hour, the power and the power of darkness.

Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the house of the high priest.

But Peter was following from afar.

They kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together.

Peter sat among them, then a slave girl, seeing him near the fire, looked intently at him and said, This one also was with him.

But he denied it, saying, Woman I do not know him.

After a time someone else on seeing him said, You are one of them too.

But Peter said, Man I am not.

Then about an hour later another one insisted on the truth, this one was with him too, for he is a Galilean.

But Peter said, Man, I do not know what you're talking about.

Immediately while he was speaking, the cock crowed.

The Savior turned and looked at Peter.

Then Peter remembered the word of the Messiah, how he had said to him, Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.

And Peter went out and wept bitterly.

Now the men who were holding Jesus mocked him and beat him.

They also blindfolded him and asked him, Prophecy, who is it that struck you?

They yelled much other abuse at him.

Then when day came the elders of the people, both chief priests and religious scholars, gathered together and brought him to their council.

They said, If you are the Messiah, tell us.

Jesus replied to them, If I tell you you will not believe, and if I ask a question you will not answer.

But from now on the Son of Woman will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.

They all asked, Are you then the Son of God?

He said to them, You say that I am.

Then they said, What further testimony do we need?

We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.

Then the assembly rose as a body and brought Jesus before Pilate.

They began to accuse him, saying, We found this man leading our nation astray, forbidding paying taxes to the emperor, and saying that he is a Messiah, a king.

Then Pilate questioned him, saying, Are you the king of the Judeans?

He answered, You say so.

Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, I find no cause for legal action against this person.

But they insisted, saying, Because he stirs up the people by teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilea to this very place.

Upon hearing this, Pilate asked if the person was a Galilean.

Now when he learned that he was under Herod's authority, he sent him to Herod, who himself was in Jerusalem at the time.

When Herod saw Jesus, he was extremely glad, for he had wanted to see him for a long time, because he had heard about him and hoped to see him perform some sign.

Herod questioned him to his satisfaction, but Jesus answered him nothing.

The chief priests and the religious scholars stood by vehemently accusing him.

Herod and his soldiers also treated him with contempt and mocked him, and he put a majestic robe on him and sent him back to Pilate.

That very moment Herod and Pilate became friends with each other.

Previously they had been each other's enemy.

Pilate then called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people, and said to them, You brought me this person for leading the people astray.

Look, now I have examined him in your presence, and have not found this person guilty of your charges against him.

Nor has Herod, for he has sent him back to us.

Look here, there is nothing deserving death in this case.

Therefore whip and release him.

Then they shouted together, saying, Away with him, release for us Herabbas, who for a rebellion that had taken place in the city and for murder had been put in prison.

Again Pilate addressed them, wanting to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, saying, Crucify, crucify him.

A third time he said to them, Why, what evil has he done?

I have found nothing deserving death in him.

I will therefore have him whipped and release him.

But they insisted with loud shouts that he should be crucified, and their voices prevailed.

So Pilate passed sentence to grant their demand.

So he released the one in prison for rebellion and murder, who they asked for, and he handed Jesus over as they wished.

As they led Jesus away, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.

A great number of people followed him, and a group of women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him.

But Jesus turned to them and said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me.

Weep only for yourselves and for your children.

Look, the days are surely coming when they will say, Blessed are barren women, and wombs that have never given birth, and breasts that have never nourished.

Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills cover us.

For if when the wood is green, they Do this when it is dry, what will happen?

Now two criminals were also led away to be put to death with him.

And when they came to the place called Skull, there they crucified Jesus, there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.

Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

They divided his clothing by casting lots, and the people stood there watching, but the leaders ridiculed him, saying, Others he saved, let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, God's chosen one.

The soldiers also mocked him, coming and offering him vinegar wine, and saying, If you are the king of the Judeans, save yourself.

There was also an inscription above him, This is the King of the Judeans.

One of the criminals who was hanging there derided him, saying, Are you not the Messiah?

Save yourself and us.

But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same death sentence?

And we indeed justly for what we have done merit what we are receiving, but this one has done nothing wrong.

Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your realm.

Jesus replied to him, Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.

And it was now about the sixth hour of the day, or noon, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour of the day, about three in the afternoon.

The sun's light ceased, and the curtain of the temple was torn in the middle.

Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Saying this then he breathed down a final time.

Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he praised God, saying, This man was indeed innocent.

And all the crowds that had gathered for the spectacle saw what had happened, beating their breasts, and they turned back.

All those who knew him stood far off.

The women who had followed him from Galilee were watching these things.

Now take note, there was a man named Joseph, a member of the council, a good man and a righteous one.

He had not agreed with the council and their action.

He was from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he was waiting for the reign of God.

This man went to Pilate and requested the body of Jesus.

Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb hewn from rock where no one had yet lain.

It was the day of preparation, and the Sabbath was dawning.

The women followed, the ones who had come with him from Galilee, and they saw the tomb and how his body was placed.

Then the women returned and prepared spices and balms.

On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

So I'm going to take that risk anyway.

And maybe as a thought, sometimes an event happens in our lives or in our history, and the aftermath of that event seems so positive that it's almost like it had to be that way.

This is what sometimes people say that their cancer diagnosis saved their life.

Because it gave them new understanding of how short life is.

Today was called Black Friday.

Because the sky was filled with darkness from noon until three.

I think we're probably very aware that there are wonderful takeaways from the story of what the story means and how it demonstrates God's love for us.

Perhaps one of the greatest among these is that here is Jesus who has decided that suffering is not beneath him.

Here is Jesus entering into death, which if you think about it theologically means when we die, when we're betrayed, when things don't go well for us, it's not just that God understands with some empathy.

It's that God is actually present.

Because God has been present in the range of human emotions and experience.

We don't die away from God, we die inside of God and alongside God.

That is surely a beautiful takeaway.

It is actually unique to Christianity.

There is no other world religion in which the deity becomes fully incarnate and dies.

So it's a glorious takeaway.

But I think we come back every year to think about the day because we do find this day is somewhere between darkness, and the good can only come later.

This is not a good story.

I think that's why this year's lectionary has given us a reading perhaps you're not familiar with out of the book of Judges.

It doesn't usually get read in church because, frankly, it's not a good story.

I don't know if you've heard it before.

A man promises to sacrifice whoever comes out of his home to God in exchange for a victory.

Hopefully, thinking through that story, we realize God doesn't need or want that.

I hope you agree with me.

What was that man thinking?

We don't know.

Was he hoping it would be his wife?

We don't know.

And the man says, because I've made a vow to God, I can't take it back.

And his daughter even agrees, and I hope you join me in saying that is the text of terror.

God is not present in that story.

It is actually God's absence from that story that is striking.

And so I think we return to this day and we hear this story, and I hope you hear the frame, is that this is not a good story.

Because the consequences of calling this story good are that we might.

Well, there are several consequences.

Perhaps you're unaware of the history of Christian antisemitism.

For more than 1700 years, Christians have decided that it is okay to persecute and hate Jewish people because they killed Jesus.

That is not a good story.

That's a dark story, especially because antisemitism continues to rise, not just in Europe, but in the United States.

This story has been used to hurt others in the way that Jesus was hurt.

That is not good.

It is true that Jesus decided to become a human being in every way, which means Jesus decided to die, like all of us in the room will.

What if we said, you know, maybe Jesus does something to you?

What if we just listened to you instead of killed you?

I'd like to think that would have been a better Friday.

A better Friday.

If we take the story too easily into goodness, then we're able to repeat the story and say, the end justify the means.

What's one life when a lot of people could really benefit?

But when we tritely call this story good, it allows us to do evil.

Because this is a bad story.

The good comes later, but the good doesn't take away the betrayal by friends, the lack of justice, the yelling of the crowd.

Those things don't go away, they stay forever.

And so it's a dark day.

And it's hard to see in here.

There's no lights.

But it's a dark day.

Today is the one day, and today and tomorrow are the two days of the Christian calendar where the Eucharist cannot be celebrated.

So we have leftovers.

We have leftovers from yesterday.

Because we know even in the church calendar, this is such a difficult, dark story that we can't celebrate today.

We can be nourished, but we can't celebrate.

So that it can be a one-off, so that it can be a cautionary tale, that we don't have to treat people the way our forebears treated Jesus.

We don't have to.

This is station number two, and it's a photograph.

And I'm going to illuminate it now so you can see it.

The line from Hebrews says that Jesus took on the cross, despising its shame.

Despising its shame, because to be crucified was the most shameful death, not just for anybody in the ancient world, but for a Jew.

And there's station number two, which does something no other piece of art in the room can do.

Because it's a photograph, it's utterly realistic.

So you can paint a body in such a way that there is some separation from it, but a photograph is indisputable.

That is a body.

It's actually one of the priests in our diocese posing.

It's so incredibly intimate to see somebody's unclothed body with that beam of wood.

And particularly because that body does not look like most of the art I've seen.

That's not a triathlete's body.

That's not Sylvester Sallone when he's training for the title fight in Rocky.

That's not even a white body.

That's a regular body.

That's an ordinary body.

That's a body that I grew up hearing I should be ashamed of.

Because the skin's not taut.

It's not athletic, it's not swarthy, it's just normal.

And this is part of the story today.

Jesus despises the things that we call shameful.

Jesus was not ashamed to take on a human body, however it looked.

Jesus was not ashamed or humiliated by a culture as per the story.

Instead, he says these things which probably I could never really, really say.

Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing.

Jesus despises our lack of justice.

Jesus despises cultural body shame.

Because he knows that it leads to death.

This is why we come here on Good Friday.

Some things lead to death.

And with God's help, we're able to put them there where they belong, in the dead place.

Now I've never done this before with the cross, driving a nail into the cross.

The whole frame for that was that on the first day of Lan, Ash Wednesday, you could pick up one of these hand-forged nails, and you could sort of carry it all around.

And in my head, this was going to be a thing that was already wounding me anyway.

A thought pattern, a way of interacting, a way of perceiving that I knew was not leading me to life.

Self-defeating behavior, for lack of a better phrase.

But then I was very eneshed in.

So I carried it around and I thought about it.

And the opportunity then was to say, I don't want to carry that around anymore.

I don't want to carry it in my wrist or my side.

I don't want to carry it in my feet.

I don't even want to carry it in my pocket.

I want to put dead things where dead things go in the cross and leave them.

He already died.

Nope.

I'm laying something down.

And I hit it in so hard that I couldn't try it out.

Because that's the point.

You leave it.

And at 11:30, when I nailed this thing in, I really wanted it back.

I really wanted it back.

I'm still not sure I could live without this self-beheaving, self-defeating behavior that I have carried around not just for Lynn, for but for most of my life.

There's something really intimate about the nails we wear.

So intimate it can be hard to give them up.

So intimate that it can be hard to let dead things go where dead things belong, which is in the grave.

So once again, I think we find ourselves somewhere between a good Friday and a dark one.

And perhaps our hope is that next year, with God's help, Friday might be just a little bit better.

Because we've laid our nails down, because we've embraced justice, and because we're able to forgive even those who wound us on purpose.

Dear people of God, our Heavenly Father sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved, and that all who believe in him might be delivered from the powers of sin and death and become heirs with Jesus of everlasting life.

We pray, therefore, for people everywhere according to their needs.

Let us pray for the Holy Catholic Church of Christ throughout the world, for its unity and witness and service, for all bishops and other ministers and the people whom they serve.

For Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, our bishops, and all the people of this diocese, for all Christians in this community, that God will confirm the church in faith, increase it in love, and preserve it in peace.

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified.

Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you, for all members of your holy church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Let us pray for all nations and peoples of the earth, and for those in authority among them, for Job, the President of the United States, for the Congress and the Supreme Court, for the members and representatives of the United Nations, for all those who serve the common good, that by God's help they may seek justice and truth and live in peace and concord.

Almighty God, kindle, we pray in every heart the true love of peace, and guide with your wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth, that in tranquility your dominion may increase until the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Amen.

Let us pray for the Jewish people who possess an eternal covenant with the Lord.

Deliver them from bondage to freedom, for continued faithfulness to God's covenant with them, for their flourishing in peace as witnesses to God's sustaining love, for safety from all malice and harm, for the fullness of redemption for the sake of God's name, that unity and concord may exist between Jews and Christians in obedience to God's will.

O God of Abraham, you planted your people Israel as the root and grafted Gentiles as the wild branches into a single olive tree of praise to you.

As we come near to the cross, we lament Christian acts of prejudice and violence against your faithful people, of whom Jesus Christ was born.

Bless the children of your covenant so that together we may attain the Fullness of your blessing for the world.

Amen.

Let us pray for all who suffer and are afflicted in body or in mind.

For those who are hungry and humless, destitute and oppressed.

For those who are ill or suffer in body, mind, or spirit, for those in loneliness, fear, and anguish, for those who face temptation, doubt and despair, for those who are sorrowful and bereaved, for those who are persecuted for the sake of Christ, for prisoners, refugees, and captives, for victims of war, genocide and trafficking, and all those in mortal danger.

And stir up in us the will and patience to minister to their needs.

Gracious God, the comfort of all who sorrow, the strength of all who suffer.

Let the cry of those in misery and need come to you, that they may find your mercy present with them in all their afflictions, and give us, we pray, the strength to serve them for the sake of Him who suffered for us.

Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Let us pray for those who have not embraced God's redemptive love, for those who have never heard the word of salvation, for those who have lost their faith, for those hardened by sin and indifference, for the contemptuous and the scornful, for those who are persecutors of his disciples, for those who in the name of Christ have persecuted others, that God would open their hearts to the truth and lead them to faith and obedience.

Merciful God, the source of life and fountain of mercy.

Let the gospel of your Son Jesus Christ be preached with grace and love.

Turn the hearts of the followers of Jesus who have harmed others in his name.

Lead all to repentance and amendment of life, and sustain by your loving grace all to lift their eyes to you.

Amen.

God of unchangeable power and eternal light.

Look favorably on your whole church, that wonderful and sacred mystery, and by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation.

Let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by the one through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Amen.

We glory in your cross, O Lord, and praise and for upon your holy resurrection.

For by virtue of your cross, joy has come to the whole world.

May God be merciful to us and bless us.

Bless the light of your countenance and come to us.

Let your ways be common upon earth.

Your saving hell among all nations.

The peoples praise you, O God.

Let all the peoples praise you.

Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.

Our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo.

Forgive what our lips tremble to make, what our hearts can no longer bear.

What has become for us a consuming fire of judgment?

Let us free from the past that we cannot change.

Open to us a future in which we can be changed.

Grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image through Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

Amen.

Almighty God have mercy on you.

Forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life.

Amen.

And now as our Savior Christ has told us, we are old to pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy day, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day of our daily bread, and forgive us in our trespasses.

As we relax, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, we pray you to set your passion, cross, and death between your judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death.

Give mercy and grace to the living, pardon and rest to the dead, to your holy church peace and concord, and to us sinners everlasting life and glory.

For with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God now and forever.

Amen.