Good Friday 3-hour Devotion - 2nd April 2021 | Canterbury Cathedral

[Music] welcome on this good friday to the dinery garden at canterbury cathedral it seems incredible to me that one year ago on good friday when we found ourselves in total lockdown we recorded pre-recorded the three-hour service has just an an hour of uh four scenes and reflections i don't think any of us then thought that one year on we would still be restricted in what we can do in fact when we came to planning our holy week and easter services we realized that with restrictions still in place we would have to have a mixed economy of services online live from the cathedral and services pre-recorded and one of the services that we thought would benefit from being pre-recorded and out in the open air at this time of year was the three hour reflection and this year this is a three-hour reflection we've made it in six separate parts which are on line together for you to use just as you would like for your own reflections and they will involve readings from the scriptures and also a reflection and some music with some hymns again pre-recorded but with words on the screen so that you can enjoy the hymns too i very much hope that that will be helpful because that will remain on our website for you to use and think about and return to whenever you would like not only on this day but in the days to come certainly we have enjoyed creating this long reflection in different aspects of the garden to reflect the very different scenes that we're trying to portray and also at different times of day for the experience of jesus on the way of the cross with the preparation from the suffer table through gethsemane and then on to the trial in the middle of the night the trial the next morning before the roman governor the way of the cross the crucifixion and then the laying to rest in the tomb a long story but so many things to think about within it and so many reflections that you will have as you do so so we hope that this will be thought provoking and also prayerful for you and i know it will in your own hearts and minds give cause for many thoughts and reminiscences and moments in your life when some of the things that we're talking about would have had a special meaning we pray that very soon the separation that we now feel and all the restrictions will allow us once again to be worshipping uh together in the cathedral but for this year may good friday be blessed by this online offering for the three hours of good friday afternoon [Music] we're concentrating now on the table of the last supper as jesus and his disciples gather around that table in a way that luke tells us he is eager to do with the twelve many things will develop as that supper happens and in our minds we have pictures taken from each of the gospels which we know and sometimes we shall make a pattern of those pictures and symbols but for the moment we begin our thinking around the table with some verses from lamentation which gives us something of the sadness of dereliction which comes over us on good friday but also then we will go on to the canticle which is the song of jesus's first vision of his vocation that part of the prophet isaiah which he uses in the synagogue at nazareth and then as we come back to the story of the supper table from the gospel of saint john all these things will come together as signs of what we are reflecting on through these three hours blessed are you lord god of our salvation to you be praise and glory forever as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief your only son was lifted up that he might draw the whole world to himself may we walk this day in the way of the cross and always be ready to share its weight declaring your love for all the world blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever some verses from the song of lamentation is it nothing to you or you who pass by look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me which the lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger for these things i weep my eyes flow with tears for a comforter is far from me one to revive my courage remember my affliction and my bitterness the wormwood and the gall but this i call to mind and therefore i have hope the steadfast love of the lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end they are new every morning great is your faithfulness the lord is my portion says my soul therefore i will hope in him the lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul that seeks him it is good that we should wait quietly for the salvation of the lord for the lord will not reject forever though he causes grief he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone we read in luke's gospel that when jesus at the beginning of his ministry entered the synagogue at nazareth and was invited to speak and to read from the holy scriptures he chose this particular passage from the prophet isaiah to read of his own vocation the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the year of the lord's favor to comfort all who mourn to give them a garland instead of ashes the oil of gladness instead of mourning the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit that they may be called oaks of righteousness the planting of the lord that he may be glorified for as the earth puts forth her blossom and as seeds in the garden spring up so shall the lord make righteousness and praise blossom before all the nations you shall be called priests of the lord they shall speak of you as ministers of our god when jesus read that passage from the gospel of saint luke and he was feeling that it was his special vocation to announce it he completed things by saying today in your very hearing this text of scripture has come true so much of what we think of in our reflections on good friday is about the completion of prophecy of verses from the psalms of verses from the first five books of our old testament of verses from the prophets or the wisdom writings all of those things come to mind but jesus throughout his teaching as we've gone through lent up to this day has given us images to think about we've gone from one gospel to another and found ourselves first of all instant mark in the first few weeks of lent and then we changed to saint john the fourth gospel from the earliest to the last and at this particular time we find ourselves thinking of the story in matthew mark and luke of the last supper and at the same time of the gospel of saint john and what story that gives us of this last meal taken by jesus with the twelve as i've said when we were going through sin john he assumes so often that we know the story which the synoptic gospels have told us he assumes we know some of the things which in saint mark and in saint luke and vincent matthew are already being celebrated within the christian communities chief amongst them the beginning of the breaking of bread and the sharing of the cup of wine to remember this occasion with the sign that jesus gave his disciples to do that with john instead gives us a different dimension of that last supper and it's that one we're going to read it's something which is quite different it's john chapter 13 and we are now at verse 1 and i'll read up to verse 30. now before the feast of the passover when jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the father having loved his own who were in the world he loved them to the end during supper when the devil had already put it into the heart of judas iscariot simon's son to betray him jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from god and was going back to god rose from supper he laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel tied it round his waist then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him he came to simon peter who said to him lord do you wash my feet jesus answered him what i am doing you do not understand now but afterwards you will understand peter said to him you shall never wash my feet jesus answered him if i do not wash you you have no share with me simon peter said to him lord not my feet only but also my hands and my head jesus said to him the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet but is completely clean and you are clean but not every one of you for he knew who was to betray him that was why he said not all of you are clean when he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place he said to them do you understand what i have done for you you call me teacher and lord and you are right for so i am if i then your lord and teacher have washed your feet you also ought to wash one another's feet for i have given you an example that you also should do just as i have done to you truly truly i say to you a servant is not greater than his master nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him if you know these things blessed are you if you do them i'm not speaking of all of you i know whom i have chosen but the scripture will be fulfilled he who at my bread has lifted his heel against me i am telling you this now before it takes place that when it does take place you may believe that i am he truly truly i say to you whoever receives the one i send receives me and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me after saying these things jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified truly truly i say to you one of you will betray me the disciples looked at one another uncertain of whom he spoke one of his disciples whom jesus loved was reclining at table at jesus's side so simon peter motioned to him to ask jesus of whom he was speaking so that disciple leaning back against jesus said to him lord who is it jesus answered it is he to whom i will give this morsel of bread when i have dipped it so when he had dipped the morsel he gave it to judas the son of simon iscariot then after judas had taken the morsel satan entered into him jesus said to him what you are going to do do quickly now no one at the table knew why he had said this to him some thought that because judas had the money bag jesus was telling him buy what we need for the feast or that he should give something to the poor so after receiving the morsel of bread judas immediately went out and it was night symbols of light and darkness come all too easily in st john's gospel we remember right from the beginning in the earlier chapters of nicodemus because he was nervous of letting anyone know about his interest in jesus came to jesus by night under the cover of darkness and judas like all of us from time to time but this having succumbed to a great temptation has now gone out in to the night and jesus is left with the twelve around the companion companiable supper table but now they have become the eleven and this scene is one which the evangelist says was there to fulfill the scriptures but in jesus mind everything was there to fulfill the scriptures so often also signs that we shall see used like the bowl of water which jesus uses to wash the disciples feet as a sign of service they being resistant peter voicing that resistance [Music] that bowl of water which jesus uses to demonstrate his vocation to serve i am amongst you as one who serves and then the handing on of that vocation that bowl of water will appear again later in our reflections only this time in a very different way as one who has authority to do so many things uses the bowl of water to dispense with that authority as if to say nothing to do with me i'm meaning of course pontius pilate who eases his conscience with the bowl of water we shall find also later that other symbols appear twice in the stories particularly this gospel of saint john which so much deals with signs and symbols but the sense of the church using the signs and symbols of remembrance at the supper table and beyond is absolutely part of our life in the present jesus in the other gospels breaks the bread and as he offers it says this is my body the sign of his vocation his physical presence being broken and then given for the sake of them all and the cup also as he offers it this is my blood of a new covenant and that action has been used by christians to realize their own vocation as well as to remember this event as a prelude to all that the day following is going to bring jesus is beginning to steal himself for what is to follow and we remember that in 1980 i found myself as part of a parish group traveling across europe at pentecost to witness and be part of the oberamagao passion play being performed that year 1980. we were there in the week of pentecost and still there was snow on the alps outside as we looked out at the snow-capped mountains those of you who have been will remember that the stage is in the open air though you yourself are sitting in your hundreds in the theater itself i had no idea what to expect no idea what kind of experience i was going to have and we traveled across europe and arrived to be put into the houses of the people who live in uber america and be their guests we would stay for two nights the first night in preparation and also hearing stories from the family not only at supper but at breakfast the next day of how the play would be they were all involved and the father of the family was in the orchestra the mother of the family was playing one of the women of jerusalem and the daughter and the son were there also as part of the children of jerusalem and the ones who would follow jesus on the way of the cross we arrived and found that we were to be part of this play with an interval in the middle so that we could have a picnic together and then back into the theater for the next probably three hours or so of sitting there for the second part it went by without time being noticed and it began as i have on this afternoon with almost a prelude to the time of crucifixion it began earlier than than i have begun began with the events of what we remembered on palm sunday of jesus entering on the donkey a live donkey and then coming from the donkey into the temple and at that point um turning over the tables of the money changers and releasing doves which flew up in a great cloud of white doves into the blue sky and becoming almost hidden on the snow of the mountains beyond it was very dramatic indeed but before every piece of drama which was enacted from the new testament and certainly the drama of the supper was enacted very powerfully indeed before every enactment of that which was acted and spoken there was music which had been written in the early 19th century by one of the people of uber amiga and had been sung since and revised once or twice but there was this sense of the music having come from that culture and as the choir sang so a tableau was represented and each tableau before each new testament scene was from the old scriptures and before this scene of the supper came first of all the manner coming down from heaven in still tableau and the people reaching up their hands to receive the bread of heaven and then next as music continued from the choir a tableau of the miraculous bunch of grapes a huge bunch of grapes being carried on the shoulders of those coming back from the promised land in stillness it forms one of our windows in the cathedral one of the stained glass windows from the um 12th century in the miraculous bunch of grapes heavens provision but for jesus the bread representative of his total vocation his body broken and given and the grapes the cup the new covenant this truly is a scene of vocation and it's that that we want to think of there are many temptations to shirk what we sense to be our vocation and sometimes it's a vocation just for a moment on a particular day we know that if we are to follow the teaching and life of jesus there's a certain action or some words that we should take or speak and oftentimes sometimes just out of embarrassment or sometimes out of a a sense of fear we don't do that this is all part of our passion narrative and that sense of vocation is everything the bread and the figure of jesus represents that and lives that out the cup and the lifeblood of jesus lives that out and no gospel is more powerful than the fourth gospel for representing that but for jesus himself all those prophecies and verses which he knew by heart are ringing in his ears and in his heart as these hours of the time of preparation for and living out of the finality of his vocation occurs let's pause for a moment in a a silent reflection and concentrate not only on our vocation and perhaps times when we've shacked it but also of the limitless numbers who by their vocation have been there for us at particular times in our life and made a change for us [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so almighty and everlasting god who in your tender love towards the human race sent your son our savior jesus christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility and also be made partakers of his resurrection through jesus christ our lord amen the hymn there is a green hill far away without a city wall [Music] so [Music] he has to [Music] that is might be for him he died to make us his precious [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] our story moves on this time to an evening story a very late evening story but all over the world as work ends for the day and people return to their homes the citizens of canterbury are even now re returning and you'll hear perhaps the sound of their cars going back to their homes and there they may tell people and especially members of their family what goes on during the day what they've been doing but also mews about the past in other times in warmer weather one can go out into the evening and begin to experience the life of a community relaxing at the end of the day we have a favorite place in gascony an ordinary town there little town called moviza and there there's a lovely garden which looks out over the sunset the stone balustrade at the end of the walk and you look out towards the west as the sun sets and we sit with the people and they share a drink or a meal and talk about things and you know that they're relaxed because they're in a favorite place we all know lovely places like that that we look back on but here we're looking at a peaceful garden in this particular scene and the time has come when jesus himself is at the pitch of his vocation as our anointed is it nothing to you or you who pass by look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me which the lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger for these things i weep my eyes flow with tears for a comforter is far from me one to revive my courage remember my affliction and my bitterness the wormwood and the gall but this i call to mind and therefore i have hope the steadfast love of the lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end they are new every morning great is your faithfulness our scene is at evening and the morning will come and god's vocation for the anointed one will be received but at great cost to his humanity we're using a canticle from again the prophet isaiah a song that jesus would have known well we use it in passion tied it morning prayer in the cathedral as the first of the canticles here it is isaiah 63 and beginning at the first verse who is this that comes from edom coming from basra his garment stained crimson who is this in glorious apparel marching in the greatness of his strength it is i who announced that right has won the day it is i says the lord for i am mighty to save why are your robes all red oh lord and your garments like theirs who tread the wine press i have trodden the wine press alone and from the peoples no one was with me i will recount the gracious deeds of the lord the praises of the most high all that god has done for us in his mercy by his many acts of love for god said surely they are my people my children who will not deal falsely and he became their savior in all their distress so god redeemed them by his love and pity he lifted them up and carried them through all the days of old we go to the gospel of saint john and we'll read the gethsemane passage from there but then as we reflect we will have insights from the other three evangelists as well when jesus had spoken these words he went out with his disciples across the brook kidron where there was a garden which he and his disciples entered now judas who betrayed him also knew the place for jesus often met there with his disciples so judas having procured a band of soldiers and some officers of the temple police from the chief priests and the pharisees went there with lanterns and torches and weapons then jesus knowing all that would happen to him came forward and said to them whom do you seek they answered him jesus of nazareth jesus said to them i am he judas who betrayed him was standing with them when jesus said to them i am he they drew back and fell to the ground so he asked them again whom do you seek [Music] and they said jesus of nazareth jesus answered i told you that i am he so if you seek me let these men go this was to fulfill the word that he had spoken of those whom you gave me i have lost not one then simon peter having a sword drew it and struck the high priest servant and cut off his right ear the servant's name was malcus so jesus said to peter put your sword into its sheath shall i not drink the cup that the father has given me so the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the temple police arrested jesus and bound him first they led him to annas for he was father-in-law of caiaphas who was high priest that year it was caiaphas who had advised the jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people [Music] again the evangelist is assuming knowledge from other gospels and as we read this particular account in our own minds and imaginations as we think of the gethsemane story we have many more details crowding into them the details of how they left the supper table and before they went they sang the passover hymn which was probably psalm 114 but then john's gospel gives us a puzzle and it's a puzzle which gives us a particular lesson into how st john in this gospel is realizing what is happening at passover for instant luke's gospel which we read at morning prayer earlier in this week it was quite clear that the meal that the disciples had been eating with jesus was the passover meal whereas in st john's gospel john sets the passover one day later and it becomes important because it places the crucifixion of jesus at the exact moment that the lamb of the passover is being slain and that sign is a sign that this evangelist is wanting to give us it also means that with the night of the passover the only begotten son is about to be slain and in the real passover story of course the firstborn of israel were protected by the blood of the first covenant now the blood of the new covenant which jesus has given us a sign of in the cup of wine at the table the blood of that covenant is actually from the sacrificial lamb himself right at the beginning of the fourth gospel it's john the baptist who says behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world that image is made real by the time scale that john gives us and the passover which will be eaten on that night of the crucifixion will see the blood of the covenant protecting all others by the lifeblood of jesus being given why are your robes all red oh lord says the canticle i have trodden the winepress alone but he doesn't leave the supper table alone he leaves with his disciples having sung a hymn and they are um happy at the end of a festive meal and probably puzzled by all the things which jesus has been saying to them throughout the meal and the sense that one of their number whom as yet they still have not realized is going to betray jesus according to jesus himself but they go on to a familiar place a place where they are used to going perhaps on their way back to bethany and jesus pauses and perhaps they're used to this as well in order to reflect in prayer so often in the gospels jesus goes on with his disciples sometimes taking the little group of three with him one thinks of the mountain of transfiguration in the synoptic gospels and then going on sometimes to be alone and here in the garden he goes on alone in the stories told in mark and matthew and luke but on this occasion he takes three just a bit farther and they fall asleep well i suppose you could say who can blame them they've had a wonderful meal they're walking probably in their minds back to bethany and they've come to a stopping place that they know jesus likes to be at on other nights when maybe the meal hasn't been so long maybe they would have stopped and talked the sentence says that he was used to being there with his disciples think of convivial occasions but the companionship they're about to give is going to be short-lived and in the other gospels of course our mind has the story of jesus coming back and finding them asleep and saying couldn't you watch with me one hour the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak he's knowing that himself and it's in luke's gospel we have the sense of jesus praying in in such a human agony that his sweat as luke says was like great drops of blood falling into the ground full of signs and sentences like that so memorable but already the one who has been tempted by the sum of silver is leading with torches and lanterns and clubs a group of temple police to arrest jesus and i talked about the tableau the the still life tableau at the oberamagao passion play which the whole village had vowed as a sacred vow to perform every 10 years way back in the 17th century and that tableau before this scene was the tableau of the brothers of joseph selling him for 20 pieces of silver to the traders as they passed through the selling of their brother but on this occasion it's one of the twelve who in a way sells his friend this is then the cue for the arrival of judas it's simply done in st john's gospel the details aren't there except for jesus pausing the violence and also the fact that one of the disciples and that will become apparent a bit later on in our story one of the disciples knows the servant's name marcus and that name having been given gives an identity there's also in this particular scene the sense of the power of jesus's words ego amy i am the true vine i am the way the truth and the life i am the resurrection and the life i am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep whom do you seek jesus of nazareth i am he those words the words spoken in the wilderness to moses from the bush i am the great present tense of the verb of life to be throws them back on their heels and they're nervous everything they have heard and observed about jesus the fact that as we've heard the whole world is going after him and even some of the authorities are believing in him all of that for a moment makes the nerves of those officers of the temple police fray not for long though and instead worldly power overcomes the sense of drawing back but for jesus he has as the good shepherd one last task i have said i am he if it is me you seek let these my friends go he has in st john's gospel prayed for their safety in his high priestly prayer at the end of the supper he's also prayed for us in that prayer if you read back into chapter the chapter before this chapter 12. and you you hear what what is being said and jesus is actually saying i'm sorry i think i've got the wrong chapter um chapter 17 the whole of the high priestly prayer and at the end he prays for us those who are not his yet but will be jesus looking into the future but giving his mission everything that he set out in that initial nazareth statement from isaiah the spirit of the lord is upon me but now that spirit is going to be given to the others who are about to fail him when they're allowed to go they run away leaving jesus absolutely alone i have trodden the wine press alone and we see our savior standing arrested and then taken to anas and then to caiaphas who had made that prophetic statement as we're reminded it's better more expedient that one man should die for the people that the whole nation should be destroyed this sense of looking after others at a cost to oneself is something which is given at moments of special vocation to people there's an image i can't get out of my head from last week in in burma myanmar and that is of the catholic nun sister anne rose newton as the young people and children fled to her convent from the soldiers who with their guns leveled were about to shoot and the scene is of the catholic nun with her arms outstretched saying if you have to kill anyone kill me and the children behind her going to find shelter in the convent we know that this is one act only and that dreadful violence has been done to young people and children since then but on this occasion she was prepared to put her life in the way of violence to others she was being the good shepherd ready to give her life for the sheep and the amazing thing is that two of the soldiers are kneeling down as well with their hands together in prayer it needn't have worked out that way there are many saints in history who have offered their lives and then had to give them the moment of vocation the moment when the challenge comes but pictures like the burmese nun are pictures which encourage our hearts to feel that there is a depth of goodness in humanity and that jesus awakens that with the spirit of the divine image which is his gift which will be given in penti to the twelve and their denial and they're running away and who knows even the betrayal finds plentiful forgiveness later but for the moment they leave the human figure of the anointed one to do the deed all alone and jesus is led away from the friendly garden which had been a place of companionship for him and his twelve disciples when they were in jerusalem let's ponder in our reflection in silence now the sense of those who take courage at the moment that the challenge comes [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] the prayer of sintignatious loyola teach us good lord to serve thee as our deservist to give and not to count the cost to fight and not to heed the wounds to toil and not to seek for rest to labor and not to ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do thy will through jesus christ our lord amen the hymn praise to the holiest in the height and in the depths be praised [Music] good oh oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] hey from the comfort of the supper table and the agony in the garden from his friends deserting him and finding himself alone and taken now as night reaches its midnight to the courtyard of the high priest in the cold night so cold that we're told that the officers of the temple police have lit abrasia there in the darkness abrasion beside which saint peter will find himself later on huddling out of cold but also out of shock from all that has happened doing his best to stay near his master and behind me a pascal full moon is rising the sign of the confluence of the passover of the faith of our jewish friends and also the paschal full moon of easter in our own liturgical calendar which sets easter as the first sunday following the first full moon after the equinox and here it is in a clear sky rising behind me as i sit beside this brazier in the darkness and remember the ordeal of our lord alone that night let your ways be known upon us your saving power among the nations is it nothing to you all you who pass by look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me which the lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger for these things i weep my eyes flow with tears for a comforter is far from me here we read a psalm of desolation psalm 88 remembering that our lord shared the desolation of the psalmist who is writing this psalm so many years before but it would have been a psalm he knew well o lord god of my salvation i have cried day and night before you let my prayer come into your presence incline your ear to my cry for my soul is full of troubles my life draws near to the land of death i am counted as one gone down to the pitch i am like one that has no strength lost among the dead like the slain who lie in the grave whom you remember no more for they are cut off from your hand you have laid me in the lowest pit in a place of darkness in the abyss your anger lies heavy upon me and you have afflicted me with all your waves you have put my friends far from me and made me to be abhorred by them i am so fast in prison that i cannot get free eyes fail from all my trouble lord i have called daily upon you i have stretched out my hands to you do you work wonders for the dead will the shades stand up and praise you shall your loving-kindness be declared in the grave your faithfulness in the land of destruction shall your wonders be known in the dark or your righteous deeds in the land where all is forgotten but as for me o lord i will cry to you early in the morning my prayer shall come before you lord why have you rejected my soul why have you hidden your face from me i have been wretched and at the point of death from my youth i suffers your i suffer your terrors and am no more seen your roth sweeps over me your horrors have come to destroy me all day long they come about me like water they close me in on every side lover and friend have you put far from me and hid my companions out of my sight the darkness of this night is echoed in the psalmist's words and the loneliness of jesus lover and friend have you put far from me and hid my companions out of my sight we're reading from the gospel of saint john and i'm reading from verse 12 of chapter 18. so the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers arrested jesus and bound him first they led him to annas for he was the father-in-law of caiaphas who was high priest that year it was caiaphas who had advised the jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people simon peter followed jesus and so did another disciple since that disciple was known to the high priest he entered with jesus into the courtyard of the high priest but peter stood outside at the door so the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door and brought peter in the servant girl at the door said to peter you also are one of this man's disciples are you not he said i am not now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire because it was cold and they were standing and warming themselves and peter was also with them standing and warming himself the high priest then questioned jesus about his disciples and his teaching jesus answered him i have spoken openly to the world i have always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all jews come together i have said nothing in secret why do you ask me ask those who have heard me what i said to them they know what i said and when he had said these things one of the officers of the temple police standing by struck jesus with his hand saying is that how you answer the high priest jesus answered him if what i said was wrong bear witness about the wrong but if what i said is right why do you strike me anas then sent him bound to caiaphas the high priest now simon peter was standing and warming himself so they said to him you also are not one of the disciples are you he denied it and said i am not one of the servants of the high priest a relative of the man whose ear peter had cut off asked did i not see you in the garden with him peter again denied it and at once a crowed there are certain things that as we have said once or twice this gospel expects you to know from other sources and here again is one of them the fact that peter had made a claim that even if he must die with jesus he would never forsake him and jesus in other gospels has said this very night i tell you before the crows twice you will deny me three times the denial is told in a way with more information which tends to make one feel that perhaps the disciple who knew the household of the high priest was the beloved disciple himself and then coming out to fetch peter in it was peter who was asked by servants who didn't know him you're not one of this man's disciples are you and peter three times denies it and then the crows and of course we because we know the story as told in the other gospels in greater detail sometimes and in less detail at others because we know that we make the connection that will be happening with all these gospels but each evangelist is telling us what we need to know in order to believe and they do it in different ways for the sharing of the faith and the sharing of the good news and of the evangel the gospel is a very personal thing and it's always happening as we keep saying in the present tense even though we're reading it now it's coming to us afresh again though we've read it many times we will notice because our experience has been different we will notice different things as we go along but the one thing to notice now is that jesus stands absolutely alone with no one to help him you remember how in sydney luke's gospel which we've been reading each morning at morning prayer throughout this week in st luke's gospel when the crows the lord turns and looks at pisha it's a heartbreaking sentence and it causes peter to stumble outside and in matthew and mark also bursts into tears for his failure is all too evident and that look and we've no idea what kind of look jesus gave him it may just have been a look of thank you for being here or of recognition by the light of the brazia that here at least was a friend who was nearby or maybe it was looking at peter and saying there is the growing who knows we don't know what we do know is that later in this gospel by the light of another brazier at breakfast on the lakeside in galilee after the resurrection jesus asks those words of love from peter and just as denial happened by the brazier so forgiveness will be given by the brazier where jesus has invited those on the lake to come and have breakfast the bowl of water serving the needs of the disciples the bowl of water washing the hands of one in authority the brazier a sign of denial the brazier the sign of forgiveness these signs are everywhere but jesus now becomes the sign of a human being's capacity for loneliness and despair and also of the sense of being unjustly accused by false witnesses who appear in the other gospels with the story that they will tell and two witnesses are enough to condemn all of this our lord shares with humanity by his loneliness in this darkness of the trial in the high priest's courtyard as a prelude to the way of the cross and it causes us to remember how often jesus turns in the gospels and i'm talking about all four of them turns to the one who is being left out by the many is losing their identity by the will of the many i think only and if we go back earlier uh in this time since christmas when we were looking at the gospel of saint mark think how the man who was called legion and was living out among the tombs he's given his identity again by jesus jesus looking to the needs of the one or the syrian phoenician woman or the woman at the the well or on another occasion when mary has anointed jesus with the precious nard and she's attacked by judas and saying what purpose is waste and so on into this sort of murmur around leave her alone says jesus she has done a beautiful thing for me or when blind bartimaeus at the gates of jericho shouting out son of david have mercy shut up shut up say the crowd and jesus stops and calls him putting the crowd to shame how many times can one go through the gospels and find that jesus looks for that one the one who said i am the good shepherd and i know my sheep is also the one who said though ninety and nine be safe the one lost on the mountainside is the one that the shepherd will go to find and restore to the others but also restore identity it's such a wonderful quality and it's a quality that we are asked constantly to emulate to be intuitive about how someone is feeling who is on the margins or has been hurt by the will of the crowd who are supporting one another and those who can see that sometimes aren't even brave enough to speak up all of that is a comfort when one thinks that our lord and master chose to go through this for the sake of those who were the one zacchaeus come down from the tree the sycamore tree and i'm coming to share the hospitality of your house over and over again despite the murmurs of those in authority jesus looks for the one who needs him most the individual whose frightened eyes like the woman taken in adultery are declaring that she is the one who is being singled out and held up while all of the others are feeling virtuous until jesus kneeling upright from writing on the ground says let the one of you without sin casts the first stone and shamed they go away beginning with the eldest all of those things give clues to jesus's ministry but it also takes me to that sentence in psalm 139 and i say it in the coverdale version if i go down into hell thou out there also hell can be a place in one's mind or one's experience here on earth just as easily as after we have crossed the divide and the psalmist knows that the power of god is infinite and in the same way that earlier in the week we were talking about charles wesley's hymns being so full of the everlasting and limitless love and mercy of god so the psalmist i climb up into heaven you are there if i go down into hell you are there also if i take the wings of the morning and fly to the utmost past even there you will find me and if one goes back to the letter to the hebrews and many things in the epistles telling us that we have a high priest who is not unable to sympathize with our weakness and frailty because he has been through the very same things himself and has suffered these things yet without sin the good shepherd leads but not only leads but turns to find the lost sheep at every step of the way by the brazier later on lifting the shame face peter at that breakfast occasion in order to restore and commission to have a ministry which itself understands what it is to fail and be strong to try again here in the courtyard of the high priest's house in the night jesus the lamb without anything but silence before the shearers is our lord and savior who has more of the journey to do yet and yet we thank god for this moment in the middle of the night we have someone that we've come to know virtually and by the voice of friends in uh the stage she's called mary burkett i mentioned her once before in one of our morning prayer programs and she having been a teacher and not an artist found in retirement that she had a vocation to draw which was called out of her by the face of a child in one of the nazi concentration camps and she thought of that face not in that misery but as that face had been loved by the child's mother and she drew it and the eyes of the child spoke to her as she made that drawing and she began to draw more as she found them in the pictures of those awful camps she called them beloved because that's exactly what they had been loved by parents by others and their identity was restored by her drawing and her exhibitions have called forth the same kind of love for the children's eyes that she's been drawing it's just a byproduct of her vocation a wonderful vocation and we were privileged to have a conversation with her yesterday she is a person who is full of faith but she's also full of wonder that the gift that was hiding inside her of creativity which released the identity once again of those who had been loved but also had found themselves in this life in hell but the psalmist helps us i go down into hell they are there also and here is jesus in the uttermost depths of human suffering and loneliness and not only betrayal but denial by one who had promised so much but there's a journey yet to make and that we shall come to at first light for the moment we go on at this time and we reflect for a few moments in silence as the brazia and the paschal moon give light around us reflecting on those who have helped us when we felt a bit low or very low or marginalized and we give thanks for them they might not have even known that they were the ones who by a word said were showing that they somehow intuitively understood our situation and we pray that by grace we shall often have often have that opportunity to do that for others especially at this time of pandemic and separation by imaginative means across the world [Music] [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] so so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] prayer of saint francis of assisi lord make me an instrument of your peace where there is hatred let me sow love where there is injury pardon where there is doubt faith where there is despair hope where there is darkness light where there is sadness joy o divine master grant that i may not so much seek to be consoled as to console to be understood as to understand to be loved as to love for it is in giving that we receive and it is in forgiving that we are forgiven and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life amen the hymn o sacred head [Music] is [Music] is [Music] hey [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] the white flower of the lucoja looking so very frail and delicate and also of great purity rather like the white magnolia against the uncompromising quality of the stone behind it perhaps it's a good image for this particular section of our reflection of jesus standing before the roman governor pontius pilate who holds the power the imperium in his hands and yet even that holding of power is for him a nervous and doubtful thing as he faces in conversation jesus of nazareth whom he doesn't seem to be able to understand at all is it nothing to you all you who pass by look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow we start with some verses from the prophet isaiah chapter 52 and then on through into chapter 53. how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news who publishes peace who brings good news of happiness who publishes salvation who says to zion your god reigns behold my servant shall act wisely he shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted as many were astonished at you his appearance was so marge beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of humanity so shall he sprinkle many nations kings shall shut their mouth because of him for that which has not been told them they see and that which they have not heard they understand who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the lord been revealed for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground he had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him he was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by god and afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to their own way and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent so he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment he was taken away and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living stricken for the transgression of my people and they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth the song of the suffering servant as we turn to another seat of judgment of one who is high and lifted up by the occupying power we go on from the courtyard of the high priest to the house and headquarters of the governor when in jerusalem then they led jesus from the house of caiaphas to the governor's headquarters it was early morning they themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled but could eat the passover so pilate went outside to them and said what accusation do you bring against this man they answered him if this man were not doing evil we would not have delivered him over to you pilate said to them take him yourselves and judge him by your own law the jews said to him it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death this was to fulfill the word that jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die so pilate entered his headquarters again and called jesus and said to him are you the king of the jews jesus answered do you say this of your own accord or did others say it to you about me pilate answered am i a jew your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me what have you done jesus on said my kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world my servants would have been fighting that i might not be delivered over to the jews but my kingdom is not from this world then pilate said to him so you are a king jesus answered you say that i am a king for this purpose i was born and for this purpose i have come into the world to bear witness to the truth everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice pilate said to him what is truth after he had said this he went back outside to the jews and told them i find no guilt in him but you have a custom that i should release one man for you at the passover so do you want me to release to you the king of the jews they cried out again not this man but barabbas now barabbas was a robber then pilate took jesus and flogged him and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe they came up to him saying hail king of the jews and struck him with their hands pilate went out again and said to them see i am bringing him out to you that you may know that i find no guilt in him so jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe pilate said to them behold the man when the chief priests and the officers saw him they cried out crucify him crucify him pilate said to them take him yourselves and crucify him for i find no guilt in him the jews answered him we have a law and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the son of god when pilate heard this statement he was even more afraid he entered his headquarters again and said to jesus where are you from but jesus gave him no answer so pilate said to him you will not speak to me do not know that i have authority to release you and authority to crucify you jesus answered him you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin and from then on pilate sought to release him but the jews cried out if you release this man you are not caesar's friend everyone who makes himself a king opposes caesar so when pilate heard these words he brought jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the stone pavement and in aramaic gabatha now it was the day of preparation of the passover it was about the sixth hour he said to the jews behold your king they cried out away with him away with him crucify him pilate said to them shall i crucify your king the chief priest said we have no king but caesar so pilate delivered jesus over to them to be crucified this is a game of neat politics pilot is intrigued but how far will that curiosity about this strange and in his mind in thinking about capital offense innocent prisoner standing before him how far will his curiosity go before this intricate game of politics with the high priest and those of his party and the temple police and the officers of the jews and even those of the pharisees party in the sanhedrin the council of the jews prevail and have this man put to death snuffed out we know that caiaphas has already said it's better that one man should die than the whole nation be destroyed by the roman occupying force he knows what a tightrope the procurator pontius pilot is walking he knows that rome is looking at this troublesome province and the ability of the procurator to keep the peace will give him credibility later in promotion in imperial affairs all of those things which human society values are being played out around the one lonely figure of jesus and yet pilate in this conversation clearly believes that there is a kind of authority there that he can't put his finger on they play with the word king which jesus resists so you are a king then he says and the answer that jesus gives i like the translation of the new english bible king is your word i came to bear witness to the truth for jesus throughout the gospels has resisted the temptation to become that political leader of force if he is a king he is a king of a very different kingdom and all those things in his mind are metaphors and the ways of putting images of power in front of people what we know is that those who have human power human authority very often think well we have to weigh the balance do we look after the many or the one and once again jesus is standing alone looking towards the end of this judgment a pitiful figure with a crown of thorns in mockery pressed down on his head and already before ever execution takes place blood is beginning to run both from the flogging that pilot has ordered possibly as a way of propitiating the anger of the jews and saying look i have punished him it's not enough and now the pressing down in mockery by the soldiers of this crown of thorns and the putting on him of a robe of imperial petal they're making fun in order to belittle what is there in front of them it's the way that people of power in their own eyes usually weak people in power find those who are most vulnerable in dark places and have their will with them how many examples of that can we think of in recent news bulletins in recent practice and going back through history how many examples i leave you in your reflection to think of that and who stands for the one alone and i leave you in your reflections to think of that and also i leave you in your reflections to think of the heavy burden that political leaders carry when they make decisions and how sometimes they risk all for the sake of the one and sometimes shirk the risking of all for the sake of the many in their mind but here we have the stone pavement and the fragility of the purity of the figure of jesus the lamb of god on this day in st john's gospel this day of the preparation of the passover when the lambs are slain and jesus himself is given over to execution and any passover that she will enjoy will be in the kingdom of heaven how i have eagerly longed to eat this with you says jesus but then the hint is given that the passover in this way that the evangelist is telling will be the banquet of the kingdom of heaven nevertheless he stands there in his own mind and vocation as the image of the suffering servant whom the prophet isaiah whom he is fond of quoting probably next of all the to the verses of the psalmist on the way through but as we know our lord was always quoting from the old testament scriptures in which he had been brought up and here we've read the song of the suffering servant which handles messiah sets so beautifully to music in prophecy in its part too as the messiah works out his vocation oh the threat to his humanity and the enormous desire no doubt to leave all this and have gone back to galilee but no the suffering servant is there to do the will of the one who sent him and to enrich with salvation and freedom and good news all those to whom that gift of the spirit will be released and forgiveness of sins offered in plenty to all those who have failed in their own shirking a vocation so that the next time they may go on all this is being played out in this dialogue and then a strange thing for pilot to be asking what is the truth of the one who said i am the way and the truth and the life all that is standing in front of pilate as he sits on the stone pavement and sees the fragility of a single human life it's easy for him simply to think well for the sake of my own career my own safety from riot and tumult in the holy city which is heaving with people and like a powder keg at this time of passover and the high priest standing in front of him using every trick in the political book to get jerusalem rid of this threat against which he himself has prophesied which is better that one man should die for the sake of the people that the whole nation be destroyed a fascinating trio high priest roman governor who officially has the power and jesus whose power comes as he himself has said not from this world but beyond breaking the limits of temporary human power and going far beyond what pilate and caiaphas much to the shame of the high priest could have imagined and embracing the fulfillment of the anointed one so wonderfully proclaimed in the song of the prophet which is about to be fulfilled so in our reflection now for a few minutes let's just think of scenes that have been set before us recently in our imagination or scenes of the past where the one who is most vulnerable has been the placing of the one who temporarily has power and then think of the vocation of leaders to protect the vulnerable [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so so the bowl of water of the washing of one's hands of responsibility for a situation which is too difficult to deal with or the bowl of water of the one who washed his disciples feet as he knelt before them and said the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many almighty god whose most dear son jesus christ went not up to joy before he suffered pain and entered not into glory before he was crucified mercifully grant that we walking in the way of the cross may find it to be none other than the way of life and peace through jesus christ our lord amen for him my song is love unknown my savior's love for me [Music] my [Music] he can oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] morning now and the sun is creating shadows on the lawn from the tall leafless trees and their branches but it's as if old nature is reminding us of aspects of this story which we've been reflecting on next to me here is an english crab apple tree with its straight trunk and around the tree twines a rose rambling rosie the rose is called a deep red when the rose flowers these trees bear extraordinary symbolism for the truths that people have reflected about on the years through the apple in medieval times and the apple tree was always associated with the fruit that caused humanity to fall away from the divine image right at the beginning of the book of genesis of the story of eden but here also the rose with its deep red flowers but its cruel thorns a sign of this particular day as we remember the crucifixion of jesus we're going to say our prayers first and then we'll return to the gospel of saint john for our reflection at this point in our three-hour reflection is it nothing to you or you who pass by look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me which the lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger for these things i weep my eyes flow with tears for a comforter is far from me one to revive my courage the steadfast love of the lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end they are new every morning great is your faithfulness the lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul that seeks him it is good that we should wait quietly for the salvation of the lord our psalm at this point of our reflection is psalm 89 and it's a long sound so i'm reading just the first few verses and then the last part of the psalm which speaks of today my song shall be always of the loving kindness of the lord with my mouth will i proclaim your faithfulness throughout all generations i will declare that your love is established forever you have set your faithfulness as firm as the heavens for you said i have made a covenant with my chosen one i have sworn an oath to david my servant your seed will i establish forever and build up your throne for all generations you spoke once in a vision and said to your faithful people i have set a youth above the mighty i have raised a young man over the people i have found david my servant with my holy oil have i anointed him my hand shall hold him fast and my arm shall strengthen him no enemy shall deceive him nor any wicked person afflict him i will strike down his foes before his face and beat down those that hate him my truth also and my steadfast love shall be with him and in my name shall his head be exalted i will set his dominion upon the sea and his right hand upon the rivers he shall call to me you are my father my god and the rock of my salvation and i will make him my firstborn the most high above the kings of the earth the love i have pledged to him will i keep forever and my covenant will stand fast with him his seed also will i make to endure forever and his throne as the days of heaven but if his children forsake my law and cease to walk in my judgments if they break my statutes and do not keep my commandments i will punish their offenses with a rod and their sin with scourges but i will not take from him my steadfast love nor suffer my truth to fail my covenant will i not break nor alter what has gone out of my lips once for all have i sworn by my holiness that i will not prove false to david his seed shall endure forever and his throne as the sun before me it shall stand fast forever as the moon the enduring witness in the heavens [Music] but you have cast off and rejected your anointed you have shown fierce anger against him you have broken the covenant with your servant and have cast his crown to the dust you have broken down all his walls and laid his strongholds in ruins all who pass by despoil him and he has become the scorn of his neighbors you have exalted the right hand of his foes and made all his enemies rejoice you have turned back the edge of his sword and have not upheld him in battle you have made an end of his radiance and cast his throne to the ground you have cut short the days of his and have covered him with shame how long will you hide yourself so utterly oh lord how long shall your anger burn like fire remember how short my time is how frail you have made all mortal flesh which of the living shall not see death and shall deliver their soul from the power of darkness whereo lord is your steadfast love of old which you swore to david in your faithfulness remember o lord how your servant is scorned how i bear in my bosom the taunts of many peoples while your enemies mock o lord while they mock the footsteps of your anointed blessed be the lord forevermore men and are men a sound full of questions which must have been in the hearts of those who were followers of jesus who had believed him to be the one who came the anointed one who would return the kingdom of david and now all this wood and thorns we come to the gospel of saint john and take over from the point where we left off and i'm beginning in chapter 19 at verse 16. [Music] so they took jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of the skull which in aramaic is called golgotha and there they crucified him and with him two others one on either side and jesus between them pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross it read jesus of nazareth the king of the jews many of the jews read this inscription for the place where jesus was crucified was near the city and it was written in aramaic in latin and in greek [Music] so the chief priest of the jews said to pilate do not write the king of the jews but rather this man said i am the king of the jews tyler dan said what i have written i have written when the soldiers had crucified jesus they took his garments and divided them into four parts one part for each soldier also his tunic but the tunic was seamless woven in one piece from top to bottom so they said to one another let us not tear it but cause lots to see whose it shall be this was to fulfill the scripture which says they divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots so the soldiers did these things but standing by the cross of jesus were his mother and his mother's sister mary the wife of clopas and mary magdalene when jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby he said to his mother woman behold your son then he said to the disciple behold your mother and from that hour the disciple took her to his own home suddenly in the middle of all this torment and noise one gets an intimate scene but first jesus has had to walk the way of the cross and the heavy wood is laid upon his own shoulder here's a straight living piece of heavy wood and i can feel its strength and see its straightness and sense its life and jesus's own hands the hands of the carpenter and the carpenter's son would have known wood wood from his own particular area this is a an english crabapple and so probably not one of these nearby but nevertheless when i see our stonemasons put their hands on pieces of stone i know that just by touch they will know how that stone will work and what can be done with it and how fragile a particular piece of maybe spoiled stone because it had lain wrong in the ground actually is for those who deal creatively with materials whether they be artists or gardeners or carpenters or stonemasons have a sense of relationship with the things which their hands touch and in certain cases their noses smell and their eyes see and their human senses can tell what quality it would have been no strange thing for jesus to feel wood on his shoulders but at the same time this particular crabapple is surrounded by the weaving of this red rose climbing around the trunk doing it no harm the roses weaving is actually not feeding on the tree but it's using it for support and it reminds us as so often natural images do it reminds us that when jesus came out of the governor's palace and pilate presented him to the people with the famous words so often painted behold the man jesus was wearing the crown of thorns that had been planted for him by the soldiers it wouldn't take me a moment in moving my hand in the wrong direction for the rose to do me damage for humanity as our son tells us was fragile and bleeds easily and in this moment when jesus steps out of the praetorium and the cross is laid by the soldiers across his shoulders his head is already bleeding from the mocking crown of thorns so many legends like the legend of the apple and of the tree of life a mass around this particular scene because it's a scene that has been painted over and over and over again and so often in medieval paintings the eurasian goldfinch is shown now it's because of a legend so often these things have both a legend and a meaning but a bird is a fragile thing too but wings between heaven and earth and the legend is that the goldfinch which was at that time just a brown and black bird quite dull in its aspect took pity on the one carrying the cross who was bleeding and came down and settled on the crown of thorns and began with her beak to pluck off the thorns and the goldfinch's face as you now know is red and because of that act of mercy rather like veronica's napkin the bird in the legend is gleamed with gold on each side the glory of heaven but also white in front the white of the purity of intention when a goldfish flies and when a flock of them fly of the eurasian goldfinch then you see the gold as they fly off they come down here to eat the thistle seeds and when they do that and particularly at a later time of year when thistles are beginning to shed their seeds and fly into the air then the thorns of the thistle the reminder once again of the frailty of life in a world where even plants have thorns but it's also a reminder of the fact that these living things can be used as weapons of torture of cruelty of war and this was a king jesus himself of david's royal line as blind bartimaeus had proclaimed him son of david have mercy on me this was a king who had refused the concept of kingship with pilate in earthly terms and had told his own disciples that only the rulers of the gentiles would have that kind of overarching cruel authority that they would not look after their people the kind of leaders they were to be those 12 at that time when he was talking to them would be those who served as he was there to serve and now with the wood of the cross in the sense that the psalmist is saying is this is this the glory is is this the triumph of the anointed one and the answer is yes it is every question in the sun is being answered with this this is the lord's work for his anointed he has not been forsaken but jesus's own humanity is having to bear that and also the mother of jesus and the beloved disciple and mary magdalene standing near the cross having to bear all that is being done to jesus whom they loved and jesus's own words from the cross in the fourth gospel the gospel of john looking down and told as we're told at the end of the gospel by an eyewitness says mother here is your son and then to the disciple here is your mother and a new family is made up as the beloved disciple takes mary to his own home but meanwhile the drama of the crucifixion is being lived out by the figure who had prophesied his own lifting up and the spreading of his arms to embrace a whole world i when i am lifted up will draw all things to myself all the hurt and all the sorrow all the damage that can be done to living things and at the same time the way in which this can be seen as a symbol of jesus's arms spread wide we call it the passion and the word has a derivation from being passive for jesus's hands have been used to move in blessing and in forgiveness and now humanity has fixed them on the cross so that they can move nowhere cannot touch or bless and eventually will be unable to be active in a physical way but in all this the one whom jesus has known as father whose will those outstretched arms is accomplishing that one is working through his creation and through this act of redemption and salvation and on this good friday we use the symbols and particularly the symbol of the cross reaching out its arms as a symbol of our salvation and not of death but of life shadows cross the lawn here and one of the shadows is of the mulberry tree behind me the mulberry tree in canterbury speaks most of all of the terribly bloody death of thomas beckett the archbishop of canterbury for the murderers had tethered their horses to a mulberry tree and so every mulberry in the precincts and there are many of them remind us of that these emblems that jesus kept pointing to so that as we walked the way of the cross in our ordinary life we would not forget but don't think that everyone stopped and the great silence fell across the way of the cross and also around the crucifixion ordinary life continued many of you will have been to jerusalem and i remember in walking the way of the cross there was a sense of me thinking gosh i i i wish people would just be a bit silent and not keep interrupting me or trying to sell me things or all this noise was and then i suddenly realized that this was how it was all these truths have to be lived out all this vocation has to be lived out for you and for me as it was for jesus in the midst of the cruel noise and press and hatred and violence and shouts against him and at the same time eyes of compassion around him whom he sees from the cross all those things says jesus is nailed to the wood of the cross and wears on his head the symbol of his kingship which is a kingship of service to humanity and salvation of humanity which the rose with the thorns is reminding us of as well it's a day for giving thanks it's why we call it good friday for so much good is being done by those outstretched arms and continues to be done nevertheless what is seen by those who love him is a scene of pain and human cruelty and the death of a human being drawing nearer and nearer at this time we reflect on our human fragility and as we do so we give thanks that so many signs around us in the seasons in creatures but particularly in one another and what happens to us in our own life and the challenges we meet are represented by this central story of god's love for humankind and for the whole world [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] oh jesus master carpenter of nazareth who at the last through wood and nails purchased our whole salvation wield well your tools in the workshop of your world so that we who come rough hewn to your workbench may be fashioned to a truer beauty by your hands amen the hymn it is a thing most wonderful almost too wonderful to be [Music] shall come from [Music] me [Music] r [Music] i [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is we have come very near to the end and vessels of sour wine stand at the foot of the cross but something new is about to happen and the life of the church will begin at this moment in st john's gospel as water and blood from the side of christ come forth as signs of all that christ wills for his church in terms of a new covenant and of a sacrifice of service which the church is asked to give to the world but at the end in matthew's gospel and mark's gospel jesus quotes from psalm 22 and we read that now as this drama of good friday draws to a close my god my god why have you forsaken me and are so far from my salvation from the words of my distress oh my god i cry in the daytime but you do not answer and by night also but i find no rest yet you are the holy one enthroned upon the praises of israel our forebears trusted in you they trusted and you delivered them they cried out to you and you were delivered they put their trust in you and were not confounded but as for me i am a worm and no man scorned by all and despised by the people all who see me laugh me to scorn they curl their lips and wag their heads saying he trusted in the lord let him deliver him let him deliver him if he delights in him but it is you that took me out of the womb and laid me safe upon my mother's breast on you was i cast ever since i was born you are my god even from my mother's womb be not far from me for trouble is near at hand and there is none to help i am poured out like water all my bones are out of joint my heart has become like wax melting in the depths of my body my mouth is dried up like a pot shed my tongue cleaves to my gums you have laid me in the dust of death for the hounds are all about me the pack of evil doers close in on me they pierce my hands and my feet i can count all my bones as they stand staring and looking upon me they divide my garments among them they cast lots for my clothing but be not far from me o lord you are my strengths hasten to help me [Music] we return to the gospel of saint john and read from the moment that jesus has given his mother into the care of the beloved disciple verse 28 of chapter 19. after this jesus knowing that all was now finished said to fulfill the scripture i thirst a jar full of sour wine stood there so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth when jesus had received the sour wine he said it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit since it was the day of preparation and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the sabbath for that sabbath was a high day the jews asked pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away so the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with jesus but when they came to jesus and saw that he was already dead they did not break his legs but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and at once there came out blood and water he who saw it has borne witness his testimony is true and he knows that he is telling the truth that you also may believe for these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled not one of his bones will be broken and again another scripture says they will look on him whom they have pierced after these things joseph of arimathea who was a disciple of jesus but secretly for fear of the jews asked pilate that he might take away the body of jesus and pilate gave him permission so he came and took away his body nicodemus also who earlier had come to jesus by night came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes about 75 pounds in weight so they took the body of jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices as is the burial custom of the jews now in the place where jesus was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid so because of the jewish day of preparation since the tomb was close at hand they laid jesus there john's gospel is full of signs signs which can be transformed by the activity of what is going on and certainly at this point in the drama of good friday the signs are plentiful the prophecies from the psalmist but also the activity of the soldiers who become at this point crucial in what is going on for jesus is aware that the end is very near and that things are drawing to a conclusion his mouth as in the prophecy in psalm 22 is dry my tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth my dr my mouth is dry like a pot shed and he says i thirst the soldiers who have a long watch on these days of crucifixion they're about their ordinary work but one hears and on a branch of hyssop the sponge filled with the sour wine of the soldier's ration for refreshment is held up to the lips of jesus hyssop was what was used to sprinkle the blood on the lintels and doorposts of the people and was used in sprinkling with blood the places of holiness that the high priest of the old dispensation at that time would have been using and hyssop here becomes a sign of the old covenant just as what is about to happen becomes a sign of the new covenant which jesus has already established with the cup and the broken bread the blood of the new covenant and the body broken he is very near to the end and what the wine gives him power to do is to utter the word in the greek tetelestai it is accomplished is the best word the best translation something has happened which allows him to know that it is accomplished i don't see this in any way as a cry of despair i see it as the completion of a vocation and the faith that in the everlasting hands of the father whom he has trusted something new is going to happen but his humanity now gives up the spirit and breathes its last on the cross jesus bowed his head and gave up his spirit and then there's activity for as far as the authorities are concerned this crucifixion is a completion they've done their work and they have stood in other gospels and laughed and taunted at the foot of the cross which psalm 22 has plentifully prophesied but now they have other things to do because they must be about their business for this is the day of the preparation in john's gospel and they they go to pilate and say we cannot have bodies hanging there on the sabbath we must get them down but to do that they must be dead and so pilate gives the orders that the legs will be broken which will then complete the death of the three hanging on the cross and they come and do that for the two on each side of jesus jesus is already dead and there is no need to break his bones but instead a soldier puts up a lance and pierces his side and from his side flow water and blood and we're given the eyewitness testimony of the writer that these streams begin to flow and we have always seen this as the way in which the sacramental life of the church begins [Music] there are so many images that we could point to the image of the flowing water from the side of the temple in the book ezekiel which gets wider and wider and deeper and deeper sweetening everything as the water flows from the side of the temple and out towards the sea and on either side of the flowing waters up trees with leaves for healing that also is of course reflected in the last book of our scriptures in the new testament the water flowing down the center of the eternal city and the trees the tree of life with the leaves for the healing of the nations so many images but for the moment there's any sorrow for those who had been the companions and friends of jesus for the human friend that they had known the master they had loved is hanging dead on the cross and the last things which joseph of arimathea and nicodemus respected members of the council but secret disciples of jesus come to do for him is what would be done for any loved member of a family when they had died they they bring the spices and they do a very quick burial because the sabbath is about to happen and joseph places jesus in his own tomb in the garden that and the tomb is sealed but that water and that blood of the new covenant has already begun to flow it's very much in the western tradition that we have an enormous amount of music in terms of the passion and not so much music for the easter event different in the orthodox church the eye goes straight to the easter event the resurrection but here the passion has always been a great thing and at the end of the passions the bark passions even handles music of messiah the great music is reserved for the passions and at this point one can see that signs of resurrection are already beginning with the flowing of the water and the blood and the care that jesus is giving to one disciple to look after his mother all of those things are at the foot of the cross it's calvary the hyssop protecting and the blood and the sour wine becoming signs of all of those things nature itself is full of signs in that way and flowing waters of refreshment and also of new growth as the water goes on to parched land just as it had allowed jesus's parched lips with the gift of sour wine which i hope was intended in an act of compassion from one of those soldiers below not an act of cruelty in any way at that point we've come to the conclusion of the passion which good friday sets in front of us jesus still crowned with thorns his arms still outstretched on the cross hands on the vocation to those who are his friends and that means as we read it you and me it's our vocation now and it becomes an important thing to know that present tense once again of the gospel every time we read it for that love which jesus gave to the whole world and the power released by the gospel the evangel and this evangelist is quite clear that this is only being written down so that you may believe and so may i say when we visit it each time every sign every symbol every activity every prophecy fulfilled when we read the psalms and find something awakening in us when we have in our heart and mind things in our memories things that we can say are knapsack as jesus said to his disciples when he set them off i i sent you off with no need for anything while i was here now you will need all the equipment you can find but the sacrifice of the christ is being lived out in small means and great actions day in day out in the societies of the world and never have those arms enfolded such a united humanity in one respect because of the threat we have all faced and the welfare that we wish for each other by the distances and the restrictions that we've been going through long before last good friday all those things are there for each of us but to revisit and hear jesus's words and contemplate in our minds and hearts the physicality of what happened on that good friday and the streams of blood and water which have refreshed the church since and the way in which creation is refreshed when looked after properly all of those things become a sacred duty for our sacrifice of thanksgiving on this particular day we like joseph and nicodemus and those involved on good friday generally take up a pause through easter eve until the day breaks on the first day of the week but for the moment we leave that scene and we remember all that happened on this good friday in our thinking we challenge ourselves with what has been happening to us through reflections and most of all by hearing the story which the fourth evangelist tells read to us again and reacting to it here and now in this year so so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so a new testament canticle love is patient love is kind love is not jealous or boastful it is not arrogant or rude love does not insist on its own way it is not angry or resentful it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth love bears all things and believes all things love hopes all things and endures all things love will never come to an end but prophecy will vanish tongues cease and knowledge pass away but now we know only in part and we prophesy only in part but when the perfect comes the partial shall pass away when i was a child i spoke like a child i thought like a child i reasoned like a child but when i attained maturity i put an end to childish ways for now we see only puzzling reflections in a mirror but then we will see face to face now we know only in part then we shall know fully even as we have been fully known there are three things that last forever faith hope and love but the greatest of these is love father look with mercy on us your family for which our lord jesus christ was content to be betrayed and given up into the hands of sinners and to suffer death upon the cross who is alive and glorified with you in the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so we say the prayer our savior taught us each in our own language our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever our men the grace of our lord jesus christ and the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with us all evermore amen the hymn when i survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died my richest gain i count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] my soul you

Channel: Canterbury Cathedral

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Keywords: Worship, faith, pray, prayer, church, holy, eucharist, Christian, Anglican, Episcopal, cathedral, Canterbury, England, mother, communion, archbishop, saint, service, online, leo, cat, cats, black prince, becket, tiger, st paul, durham, Lincoln, notre dame, corona, coronavirus, covid, lockdown, choral, evensong, choir, organ, chorister, lent, holy week, palm Sunday, easter

Id: aKUvA6VCHzE

Length: 197min 20sec (11840 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 02 2021