Good Friday Gathering - April 15

Trinity United Church
April 15, 2022
Good Friday
Worship

Worship Leader: Rev David Cathcart
Music Leader: David Rogers
Scripture Reader: Joy Galea
Zoom Hosts: Jo-Ann Dahms, Peggy Horvath
Sound: Ross Shearer

Welcome:

May the Peace of Christ be with you. And also with you.

Welcome to Trinity United Church in Port Coquitlam. We are grateful you have joined us for worship this morning. 
Trinity United Church in Port Coquitlam resides on the unceded traditional territory of the Coast Salish People the Kwikwetlem First Nations. Our acknowledgement of unceded traditional territory is a first step in reconciliation between settler cultures and indigenous peoples and the decolonization of western systems that continue to oppress and exploit indigenous peoples and land.
If you are joining us on YouTube, please check out our website at ucpoco.ca. We would also appreciate it if you would subscribe to our channel and like and share our services, those buttons are just below the video. It does help our reach when you do so.
It is Good Friday, so our service will end unresolved. You should feel that you have been left hanging, because we continue our vigil until Sunday Morning. We will be hearing the part of the Gospel called the Passion of Christ from the Gospel of John interspersed with silence and some hymns. After the final candle has been extinguished, we will sing our response, and then you are invited to leave in silence. We will be gathering in person on Sunday Morning at 8:30 at Lions Park for our “Sunrise Easter Morning Service.” We will be serving touchless communion. We will gather again here and on ZOOM for 10:30 worship.
    I invite you to take a deep breath, and let it go. I invite you to take another breath, and let it go. And one more time, take a deep breath and let it go. Let us prepare our hearts and minds for worship.

Prelude: David Rogers

Call to Worship and Opening Prayer:
You have watched with Jesus through the night.
    We have come with him to this place.
Is it your intention to continue to follow Jesus?
    Yes, it is our intention to follow Jesus.
Then let us walk with him this day.*

Will we come and follow, you ask us, O God, 
as we watch what is happening to Jesus today?
We are not sure it is a question 
we want to answer today.
We are not sure it is a question 
we can answer today.
Will we come and follow, 
when the path is filled with chaos and betrayal?
Will we come and follow, 
when we ourselves are overwhelmed with emotions and grief?
Will we come and follow, 
and be witnesses to the greatest act of love?
Yet, here we are, gracious God, 
drawn by your love, compelled by your grace.
Here we are, as witnesses, 
sad and fearful as we may be.  Amen.*

*written by Susan Lukey and David Robertson
Found in Gathering L/E 2018 (Year B), p69
Used with permission

Hymn: “Jesus Christ Is Waiting” VU 117   CLICK HERE

Reading: John 18:1-12

[extinguish first candle and a brief silence]

Hymn: “Go to Dark Gethsemane” words by David Cathcart
Come to dark Gethsemane,
you who seek to know Christ's way;
know his conflict and his pain
persecuted and betrayed;
recognizing our own part
in the breaking of Christ’s heart.
 
Judas was the first to go
to the powers that betray.
So, we too, betray our Lord
When we seek an easier way:
that denies the bitter salt
of admitting our own fault.

Judas offered Christ a kiss
but his touch was to betray.
Judas turned his back on Christ,
letting soldiers take away
one who healed, and blessed and fed.
All deserted Christ, and fled.
 
So we, too, proclaim Christ friend,
but deny his deepest grace.
Do we travel to the end
or surrender in our haste,
seeking comfort in our deeds
rather than in God's decrees?

Reading: John 18: 13-27
[extinguish the second Candle, a longer silence]

Reading: John 18:28-40

[extinguish the third Candle, and a longer silence]

Reading: John 19:1-16

[extinguish the fourth Candle]

Hymn: “Do You Know” (tune VU 144) words by David Cathcart
Do you know when they crucify the Lord?
Do you know when they crucify the Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Do you know when they crucify the Lord?
 
Do you see when the hungry go with none?...
 
Do you hear when the rich neglect the poor?...
 
Do you feel when the strong abuse the weak?...
 
When we choose to look the other way...

Reading: John 19: 16-24

[extinguish the fifth Candle]

Hymn: “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” words by David Cathcart
Beneath the Cross of Jesus in truth we must confess
as to the part each one has play-ed in this world’s distress;
We acquiesce to worldly norms accepting: might makes right;
the wealthy ones get richer still; the poor get no respite

Beneath the Cross of Jesus the truth is hard to bear;
Our striving for completeness often leads us to despair.
We live in comfort, wealth and ease and still we want for more
We’ve taken from our neighbours what was rightly theirs before.

Beneath the Cross of Jesus we’re called to take a stand
-Held with loving gentleness within God’s gracious hand,
to boldly witness in this world of selfish want and greed
beyond our longing dreams a hope of joy and no more need

Reading: John 19:25-42

[extinguish the sixth candle]

 Anthem: “In a Borrowed Tomb” J. Paul Williams and Patti Drennan, Trinity Choir

Prayers of the People/Disciples’ Prayer:

Holy, Holy, Holy God,
You are our strength, our salvation and our comfort.
Paul calls us to share in the suffering of Christ 
and to become like him in death.
Send us strength, send us courage, 
send us humility and patience 
to enter the tomb with him 
and to know the pain and suffering 
of your creation and your people.

Our world is one 
in which violence, ignorance, 
intolerance, and injustice reign. 
Again and again, 
Christ suffers and Christ dies.

When world leaders value profits 
over human wellbeing 
and just stewardship of the land, air and waters, 
Christ suffers and Christ dies.

When racism, homophobia, 
religious intolerance, and misogyny 
are evoked to amass power and influence, 
Christ suffers and Christ dies.

When human dignity is diminished, 
where children are separated violently from parents, 
Christ suffers and Christ dies.

When human edifices and institutions 
are valued more than human lives, 
Christ suffers and Christ dies.

Again and again our world crucifies Christ, 
betraying his gospel, 
betraying the image and likeness in which we are created, 
betraying your promise, your love and your compassion.

And in the darkness, 
in the stillness, 
in the unknowing, 
may your spirit stir in us 
such that the seeds of grace 
might germinate and start to grow to new life. 
The seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

In the name of the one who died, 
In the name of the one rises, 
in the name of the one who will come again, we pray. 

And now we turn to you a s a child turns to her mother seeking affirmation and comfort praying the words you son taught us: “Our father, who art in Heaven…”

Disciples' Prayer: spoken

Hymn: “God Weeps” MV 78  CLICK HERE

Tenebrae Candles:
“My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, 
from the cry of my distress?
O my God, I cry out in the daytime, but you do not answer; 
at night also, but I get no relief.
…But you are the One who took me out of the womb.
You kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
On you have I depended from my birth.
Even from my mother’s womb, you have been my God.” (Psalm 22, VU 744)

Jesus trusts God’s way all the way to the cross, even when God seems distant and inattentive.  For all intense purposes, it appears God has abandoned Jesus to the cross. And yet, in death, new life awaits.

We extinguish the last candle, taking us into the darkness, remembering that God disrupts our dreams and aspirations, delivering us from the old to the new.

[extinguish a candle]

Response: “The Light Still shines” WorshipCollective 

The light still shines the light is still there
Disrupted but delivered, it’s there
The light still shines the light is still there
We tread this lonely landscape
Following, transforming, surrendering 
we are yours we are yours
The light still shines

Arrested and condemned 
divided and alone soldiers 
weave the truth broken, 
soul and bone

The light still shines the light is still there
Disrupted but delivered, it’s there
The light still shines the light is still there
We tread this lonely landscape
Following, transforming, surrendering 
we are yours we are yours
The light still shines

* WorshipCollective

The congregation is invited to leave in silence.