29B*
A Call to Worship
Good Friday, Year B 2018
Psalm 22

God of comfort, we come to you for comfort because we have been rejected.
“…Our ancestors trusted in you, and you rescued them…and were saved…”

God of compassion, we come to you because we need your compassion now.
Holy LORD and God, “…You have been my God from the moment I was born…”

God of grace and mercy, we come to you because we have trusted you in the past
and we know that you hear our cries, and that you respond in love, grace and mercy.
We come to worship and thank our God, and we promise: we will “…proclaim your
name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people….” Amen.

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Psalm 22
For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be sung to the tune “Doe of the Dawn.”

1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far away when I groan for help?
2 Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.
Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief.

3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 Our ancestors trusted in you, and you rescued them.
5 They cried out to you and were saved.
They trusted in you and were never disgraced.

6 But I am a worm and not a man. I am scorned and despised by all!
7 Everyone who sees me mocks me.
They sneer and shake their heads, saying,
8 “Is this the one who relies on the LORD?
Then let the LORD save him! If the LORD loves him so much,
let the LORD rescue him!”

9 Yet you brought me safely from my mother’s womb
and led me to trust you at my mother’s breast.
10 I was thrust into your arms at my birth.
You have been my God from the moment I was born.
11 Do not stay so far from me, for trouble is near, and no one else can help me.
12 My enemies surround me like a herd of bulls;
fierce bulls of Bashan have hemmed me in!
13 Like lions they open their jaws against me, roaring and tearing into their prey.

14 My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax, melting within me.
15 My strength has dried up like sunbaked clay.
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead.

16 My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs;
an evil gang closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and feet.
17 I can count all my bones. My enemies stare at me and gloat.
18 They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.

19 O LORD, do not stay far away! You are my strength; come quickly to my aid!
20 Save me from the sword; spare my precious life from these dogs.
21 Snatch me from the lion’s jaws and from the horns of these wild oxen.
22 I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.
I will praise you among your assembled people.

23 Praise the LORD, all you who fear him! Honor him, all you descendants of Jacob!
Show him reverence, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy.
He has not turned his back on them, but has listened to their cries for help.
25 I will praise you in the great assembly. I will fulfil my vows
in the presence of those who worship you.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied. All who seek the LORD will praise him.
Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.
27 The whole earth will acknowledge the LORD and return to him.
All the families of the nations will bow down before him.
28 For royal power belongs to the LORD. He rules all the nations.
29 Let the rich of the earth feast and worship.
Bow before him, all who are mortal, all whose lives will end as dust.
30 Our children will also serve him.
Future generations will hear about the wonders of the LORD.
31 His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born.
They will hear about everything he has done.

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Prayers of Trust and Petition
Good Friday, Year B 2018
Psalm 22

God of comfort, we come to you for comfort because we have been rejected and we
need an awareness of your presence with us again, to comfort and bless us. We are
very aware of our promises we have made to worship you, to praise and thank you—
and we do; but we feel so isolated right now; and there is no one to whom we can go
except to you. You have never let us down in the past; and we celebrate the fact that
“…Our ancestors trusted in you, and you rescued them…and were saved…”; so once
again, we come to you today. We know there are many other people experiencing the
same sense of rejection and aloneness as us; and we pray for them today. Be for all
abandoned, rejected and lonely people the LORD of Comfort, Security and Blessing.

God of compassion, we come to you because we need your compassion now. We are
in need of your tenderness, your gentleness, your acceptance, and the warmth of your
presence with us to help lift this load of pain and grief that is weighing us down. Be for
all grieving and pain-filled people the LORD of Compassion; especially for all who are
struggling for answers to the endless asking of ‘why?’ and ‘how can this be’ questions.
Help us all to understand that sometimes there is only mystery; only vague situations
with no clear answer; but that as we worship our God, who is the Ultimate Mystery; we
can say with the psalmist: “…You have been my God from the moment I was born…”;
and to leave our unanswerable questions to God as our Guide and Counsellor to bless us.

God of grace and mercy, we come to you because we have trusted you in the past and
we know that you hear our cries, and that you respond in love, grace and mercy. We
come to worship and thank our God, and we promise: we will “…proclaim your name
to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people….” As we
gather today on this sacred day; we pray for all people unable to attend shared worship
of you. Today, we pray especially for people for whom this day is just one more day on
a long and dreary life; who know no joy in their employment; or who are unable to find
any employment at all; and are diminished as people because of their rejection as being
of no value to employers. Be for all distressed people the LORD of Grace and Mercy. Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Good Friday, Year B 2018
Psalm 22

I am indebted to Steve Garnaas-Holmes who has given me permission to use his
words from his website www.unfoldinglight.net for my “Worship on Thursday”
work and writing for “The Timeless Psalms”. I am basing the meditation on Steve’s
writing for Good Friday the last three years. Steve wrote about Psalm 22:1, and
how Jesus experienced for himself the psalmist’s sense of utter abandonment:
‘“…My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away
when I groan for help…?’ Jesus, fully human, feels the anguish of God's distance,
the bare landscape of abandonment. Jesus, fully divine, feels that anguish, too, the
ripping ache of aloneness. This is not the cry of someone deserted by God but of
one who knows God listens when we feel that way. This is the cry of God, broken-
hearted for us. God does not peer into our loneliness from above, but lives there,
suffers there. The void is the silence of the soul of God, the desert of our exile,
whose sandstone canyons echo with God's own sobs…This is the sigh of the Beloved
whose ear is pressed to the door of our hearts from the inside. This is the only voice
of hope. My God...you have descended so deep into my suffering that even I no longer
see you.”¹ We pause to reflect and pray for God’s merciful forgiveness and blessing.
“Lamb of God, Jesus Lamb of God. Surrendered love of God, you give yourself to us,
grant us peace, grant us peace, have mercy on us, mercy on us, Jesus, Lamb of God.”²



Another year Steve wrote: “Sometimes it happens that Good Friday falls on the
twenty-fifth of March, for literalists who count such things, nine months before
Jesus' birth: the day Mary supposedly conceived. This day of death and our great
‘No’ is the very day of Gabriel's promise and Mary's great ‘Yes’ - the very day.
You come among us, knowing. Even as we fall away you fall into us. Even deep
in our fear and rage your seed opens. You bless our failure, make death into life,
our unsteady hearts worthy. What is love, but your grace in our weakness? In
the darkness light shines. Love and the cost of love, both kinds of tears fall mingled.”¹
Our tears of love and remorse fall and give the potential for new life to the seed of
hope that grows in the darkness within us; and as it is nurtured, it swells from our
tears, and grows up to the light of the Creator of all things – so that hope is alive.
May the love of God shine into our lives, bringing light and growth in all our living.
“Lamb of God, Jesus Lamb of God. Light in our darkened world, lead us to new life,
grant us peace, grant us peace, have mercy on us, mercy on us, Jesus, Lamb of God.”²



Steve also wrote quoting from Revelation 8: 1b: ‘“…there was silence throughout
heaven for about half an hour…’ God taking it all in. Heaven inhaling. Even God
has to wait for love to gestate. Gracious host even to pain, staying with it, the silence,
the remorse, the lack of remorse. Forgiveness doesn't come from a shallow breath."¹
John of Patmos had a vision he recorded in Revelations of all of heaven’s saints in light
endlessly singing praises to God; but his vision also included the sounds of heavens
of heaven’s joys silenced in awed amazement at Jesus’ obedient and sacrificial death.
“Lamb of God, Jesus Lamb of God. Bearer of our pain, you tend the needs of all, grant
us peace, grant us peace, have mercy on us, mercy on us, Jesus, Lamb of God.”²



1 2015, 2016, 2017 “Unfolding Light”
Words by Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Used with personal permission.
www.unfoldinglight.net

2 From “Comfort my people” CD track 13
Words and music by Monica Brown
© 2002 Monica Brown & Emmaus Productions
Used with personal permission

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Acknowledgements:
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation,
copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

*Revised Indexing Scheme from 'Consultation on Church Union' (COCU).

I acknowledge and give heartfelt thanks for the theological help and inspiration so frequently available from the writings of Professor Walter Brueggemann and Professorial brothers Rolf and Karl Jacobson; and the resources from "The Text this Week" (Textweek).

If the Prayers and/or Meditation are used in shared worship, please provide this acknowledgement:
© 2018 Joan Stott –‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year B. Based on verses from Psalm 22.
Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au
www.thetimelesspsalms.net

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: good_fridayb_2018.pdf