Note from this week’s writer: I cannot separate Easter Day from Good Friday. One without the other is senseless to me. When I read or hear the news from around the world, there is always a mixture of the bleakness and helplessness of Good Friday and the hope and joy God brings out of chaos, often in ways I find unimaginable.
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Holy One, we see Christ crucified still, today, in all parts of Your beloved world:
- Where the hungry cry for food, although there’s plenty
- (Middle East, Afghanistan, Yemen, Myanmar, and so many places)
- Where people are yelled at, jeered at, attacked, or imprisoned
- Where people are discriminated against, attacked, and even murdered because their skin, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality isn’t ‘right’.
- Where people are abused and raped
- (Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Sudan, reports over 3,300 instances, 41 of which involve children under 5)
- Where lust kills love, in the high rates of domestic violence and murder
We see Christ crucified still.
Our tears and shouts cry out:
ALL: God, creator of all, in Your power and tender mercy, hear us and respond.
We see Christ crucified still today:
- Where wars scar people, lands, and the endless killing politics of hate.
- (Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Syria)
- Where the cry for justice is unheard, oppressed, beaten down by cold world systems.
- Where power comes first
- Where religion is misused to twist faith
- Where fear kills trust
We see Christ crucified still.
Our tears and shouts cry out:
ALL: God, creator of all, in Your power and tender mercy, hear us and respond.
We see Christ crucified still today:
- Where creation’s fabric shreds, is bled, as hard-won wildlife protections are being dismantled
- Where earth’s beauty is destroyed
- (like Brazil‘s Pedra Branca State Park being threatened by real estate expansion)
- Where trees burn
- Where water poisons
- Where greed kills need
We see Christ crucified still.
Our tears and shouts cry out:
ALL: God, creator of all, in Your power and tender mercy, hear us and respond.
And we try – a little – to stem the deadly tide as we:
- Give – a little
- Write to those in power – a little
- Stand up for justice and reconciliation – a little
- Recycle our bottles, cans, paper, and cardboard – a little
- Try to love as Jesus said and showed – a little
We are living in a Good Friday world,
feeling lost and forsaken,
alone and rejected.
We long for the joy of Easter morning,
where we, like Jesus,
are revived by Your Holy Spirit,
and transformed into the new life you promise ALL of us,
after we have gone through the birthplace we call ‘death’.
For You are the God of the living, not the dead.
Our tears and shouts cry out:
ALL: God, creator of all, may those who rejected you in life respond to the crucified but now risen Jesus.
May they be transformed by Your love and work for the healing of all creation, instead of its destruction.
Holy One, immortal, life-giver and creator of all,
You long to nurture us; to grow our spiritual muscles
so when we choose to be one with You, in love,
together we work to make Your kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.
How far we still have to go.
Fill us with hope, courage, grace, and persistence as,
filled with Easter joy,
we celebrate the light, life, and redeeming love of the Risen Lord,
after the overwhelming darkness and seeming failure of Good Friday.
Forgive us when we feel almost overwhelmed by the unbridled evil, corruption, and chaos in the world.
Forgive us too for our part in this,
and renew our courage and commitment to follow the call of Jesus, and walk in His way: Your way
- even the way of the cross and resurrection
- but always the way of love
- seeking justice, forgiveness, reconciliation and transformation for, and of, ALL.
Then Your will may be fulfilled on earth as in heaven.
Moment by moment.
One healing experience at a time.
ALLELUIA. AMEN.
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