Celtic Lent Day 39

To say Your name before I sleep does not guarantee that in the morning I shall wake in that world which held my bed. Still it matters not, for every world in Yours as I am.
Calvin Miller

Death is like the past. We can't change either of them. We have to make friends with them both.
William Brodrick

I feel like Good Friday is a day which gives us permission to think about death and sadness, anyone who's seen the wonderful Pixar film Inside Out knows sadness is as important as joy. Sadness can help us to grow and change, put our lives in context and help us re-evaluate what's important.
On Good Friday we sit with that, although we know the Easter feast is just about tangible. When we're in the middle of grief or difficult times we don't know when there'll be an end to it. We hope the intensity will become less, which eventually it does.
This day, like Ash Wednesday, also gives us a chance to consider our own mortality. We're here just for a season and because of that need to consider carefully what and who we give our one life to. Good Friday is about love. Choose to give your life to love.

Scripture
I say to God, my rock,
   ‘Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
   because the enemy oppresses me?’ 
As with a deadly wound in my body,
   my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
   ‘Where is your God?’ 
Psalm 42.9-10

Day 39

Lent Day 39:

...Christian faith speaks about the paschal mystery, about Jesus Christ's death and resurrection as the first fruit of an inclusive harvest, about new unimaginable like breaking out through death itself and as a corrective to death.

Although for a time there was no glimmer of hope, God was near at hand, nevertheless, and Jesus was not ultimately abandoned.  The victory arrives through the living communion of love, overcoming evil from within.

To say this is not to rationalize suffering or to find a solution to the problem of evil or to offer cheap consolation.  The cross and resurrection scandalize and cannot be reconciled theoretically.

Rather, this event deepens the mystery of how God's solidarity with the suffering world brings about a future even for the most godforsaken.  It points to the real mystery of the trinitarian God as an ally against suffering and moves the community to the practice of love that corresponds to this mystery.

(from She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse by Elizabeth A. Johnson)

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

May all beings be free of suffering,
May all beings be at peace,
May all beings experience life breaking out,
May all beings be one with God.
Amen.
Pastor Patty Fox 40 Days with 40 Christian Mystics

Good Friday is a day dedicated to embracing the sadness, to dwelling with it, exploring it, accepting it. This is pretty counter-cultural as our society is perhaps more inclined to turn from sadness where possible; yet here we acknowledge our pain, name it and take ownership of it.

Think About The Good Friday Story

I was immersed in the Good Friday story at two very different services; firstly walking through Holy Week at our family service, and secondly the Good Friday liturgy at the hospital chapel.
The shared elements of these services, besides the story itself, was setting time aside to contemplate the things which have hurt us. Good Friday is the perfect time to do this, knowing we can place it all at the foot of the cross.
Culturally we're not very good at embracing sorrow. It's something to be swept away, to be made good again, and in particular we don't often let children face their sadness. Good Friday is the perfect time and space for facing our sadness, nailing it to the cross, and waiting for it to be reborn as joy on Easter Day.

Think about the Good Friday story

We didn't make an Easter garden today as the task suggested, but we did immerse ourselves in the Good Friday story.
Each Good Friday at St Michael's we have a children's service which in some way tells the Easter story, followed by a mountain of hot cross buns. For many years this was a simple passion play, using the children to act out the story. Then for a couple of years we had a service where the cross was central- we would pin our 'hurts' to a large cross and later in the service all the hurts would be covered up with a flower to symbolise Jesus healing us.
The last two years we've done 'Experience Easter' with stations all around the church representing different parts of Holy Week.
This year we decided it was time for a change and decided to go for a simple telling of the story. I wanted to find a way of getting the children to use their imaginations and put themselves in the story.
Through the Barnabas in Churches website I came across the Footsteps to The Feast material by Martyn Payne. This walks the children through each day of Holy Week, uses a chant to link between each day and has an action using our hands for each day. We built the service around this, but added a few of our own touches- the main one being getting everyone to think about something that made them sad, write it down and place it on the altar to hand their sadness over to God.
What I wasn't prepared for was the strong emotions the service stirred up. When I looked out and saw people in tears I at first thought I'd made a terrible error in judgement- yet there should be sadness on Good Friday. Without Good Friday there can be no resurrection, no celebration, no Easter and no 'Promised day' as Footsteps to the Feast calls it. Then I began to get feedback. The service had touched people, the strong emotions they had experienced were cathartic and healing. We had achieved our aim of immersing people in the story.
I think we spend a lot of our lives trying to avoid confronting sadness, death and mortality but us Christians have an entire belief system built around one man's death, but more importantly it's also built upon his resurrection. Death conquered holds no fear.