April 3, 2025 Tridum Good Fruiday.Tenebrae Service

 

The darkest night

This service is usually better attended at Creator than Maundy Thursday, and this year was no exception. This was true of the services in my youth as well. 

It is easier, I suppose, to get caught up in the drama. There is also a tradition of focused attention on the last words of someone who is dying as if this summarizes a life. 

It makes me think what inscription Jesus might have wanted written, rather than Pilate's as the sign on the cross. Love you? With you? Remember me? Nothing?

This was also another Tenebrae service, like last year. A Tenebrae service features the gradual extinguishing of candles to represent the fading loyalty of the disciples and Christ’s journey into death, culminating in a "strepitus" (loud noise) symbolizing the earthquake/tomb.

Good Friday services are always hard for me. I feel the story is too big. I don’t have words to explain it, and don’t want to explain it. What was accomplished on the cross and in the resurrection? Love somehow sets us free, brings us through our Red Sea crises, breaks our hearts and gives us hope. I do feel the weight of it, wondering how to voice the reality of grief and good news both. 

Yes, we sang our traditional songs and heard the stories from scripture that we have listened to for years. We watched an artist's depiction of Jesus' last words at the beginning of theisservice. The altar was reverently stripped to close the service.  

We left contemplating death and the loss of hope it brings again. 

Rather than an Easter Vigil service, this worship will be our sole preparation for Creator's Easter service.  

Service

March 28, 2024 - Good Friday - Tenebrae, A Service of Darkness

 What Abides - For Good Friday - 

 Jan Richardson

You will know
this blessing
by how it
does not stay still,
by the way it
refuses to rest
in one place.

You will recognize it
by how it takes
first one form,
then another:

now running down
the face of the mother
who watches the breaking
of the child
she had borne,

now in the stance
of the woman
who followed him here
and will not leave him
bereft.

Now it twists in anguish
on the mouth of the friend
whom he loved;

now it bares itself
in the wound,
the cry,
the finishing and
final breath.

This blessing
is not in any one
of these alone.

It is what
binds them
together.

It is what dwells
in the space
between them,
though it be torn
and gaping.

It is what abides
in the tear
the rending makes.

from Circle of Grace

Tenebrae - A solemn remembrance for Good Friday. As candles were extinguished after each reading tonight there was a sad rediscovery of pain and loss in the sanctuary draped in black. Pastor Emillie was wearing all black, as were others who attended. 

There was a dramatized ache many felt which culminated in the sound meant to represent the closing of the tomb. It was a solemn and reflective gathering that commemorated the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The atmosphere quickly became somber and reverent, as attendees contemplate the sacrifice made by Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.

As the service began, the ambiance was subdued, with somber music setting the tone. There were banners which incorporated symbols of Christ's suffering and throughout the service, the readings from the Bible reminded us of the profound suffering and sacrifice endured by Jesus during the crucifixtion..

Matt played the music Creator associates with Good Friday service and we sang with sincerity and reverence that expressed our emotions that were connected with the profound significance of the day.

Towards the conclusion of the service, there may be a period of silence or meditation, allowing attendees to reflect quietly on the significance of Christ's sacrifice and what it means for their faith and lives. Some services may also include a ritual of veneration of the cross, where attendees have the opportunity to approach and kneel before a cross, offering their prayers and reverence.

We reflected on  our repentance and our gratitude for the sacrifice of Jesus.

April 19, 2019 - Good Friday - Tenebrae

The Scripture readings and music were done in stages tonight and a candle was extinguished after each of the seven readings from the Gospel of John.

When worship moves to the Holy Week, memories of past Holy Weeks and how they were commemorated loom large. Two years ago Pastor Michelle and Ron Houser worked on a unique Stations of the Cross display with contemporary pictures that were set up like traditional stations around the sanctuary.

In years before O Sacred Head Now Wounded was a traditional piece Creator would always sing. Two years ago Good Friday closed with those gathered singing repeatedly "My God, my God, O why have you abandoned me?" from Marty Haugen's My God, My God.

Tonight began with simple black cloth adorning the altar and a stand for the candles, the cross, and the seven lit candles. The liturgy was John's Passion narrative. There was time for silent prayer and meditation.

John narrative quotes and echoes scripture repeatedly and, to my ear, works like a script. Jesus knows all that is going to happen, and needs to happen to him in order to fulfill the scripture. During his arrest he asks “Who is it you want?” and when those who are arresting him reply “Jesus of Nazareth,” Jesus responds “I am he,”. Then they draw back and fall to the ground. As I posted yesterday the humanity of Jesus is not emphasized in this passion narrative but rather his God nature to my ear.

I was surprised after The Adoration of the Cross of Christ the selected music was In Christ Alone. The last verse went through my mind:

No guilt in life, no fear in death, This is the power of Christ in me From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny No power of hell, no scheme of man, Can ever pluck me from His hand Till He returns or calls me home Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

I wasn't sure that a Good Friday / Tenebrae service should close the service with these words but, to great effect, the song was cut off after the first line of the next to last verse "There in the ground His body lay" We sang those words, the piano stopped and Pastor Ray slammed the Bible shut in The Closing of the Book and exited dramatically.

In the silence and meditation that followed I had two trains of thought.. One was "in the ground his body lay" made me think of a seed and the new life that was ready to burst forth with such intensity at Easter..

The other was that the last verse of In Christ Alone and our faith in the power of Christ would not be stopped by the cross and tomb that we mediated on tonight..

Here in the power of Christ we are promised we will stand at the end of this Holy Week Triduum service with "No guilt in life, no fear in death"  The whole verse activated in my hearts yet this promise was silent within everyone there. The sharing is to be anticipated, not acted on tonight.

We left in silence. 

Blog Anniversary - Good Friday, 2006

Holy Week: Good Friday

Creator's evening service emphasizes Good Friday as the darkest night. It is the dark night of our souls,. This is the night faith is tried, when the consequence of faith is frightening to us. This is the part of the three-part service where the altar is stripped, and where we understand how deeply and constantly we betray in life what we profess to believe.

Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation writes:

Souls are like wax waiting for a seal. By themselves, they have no special identity. Their destiny is to be softened and prepared in this life, by God's will, to receive, at their death, the seal of their own degree of likeness to God in Christ. And that is what it means, among other things, to be judged by Christ.The wax that has melted in God's will can easily receive the stamp of its identity, the truth of what it was meant to be. But the wax that is hard and dry and brittle and without love will not take the seal: for the hard seal, descending upon it, grinds it to powder.

Therefore, if you spend your life trying to escape from the heat of the fire that is meant to soften and prepare you to become your true self, and if you try to keep your substance from melting in the fire -- as if your true identity were to be hard wax -- the seal will fall upon you at last and crush you. You will not be able to take your own true name and countenance, and you will be destroyed by the event that was meant to be your fulfillment.

Jesus helps us deal with our fears, our knowledge of death, and our knowledge of injustice in the world. This is the night when this is the most visceral.