So i like to plan ahead....

Here's a reading for our next Good Friday Service

7

Reader 1: Seven

Reader 2: Some shouts

Reader 3: Others whispered.

Reader 2: Pleas of pain

Reader 1: and proclamations of freedom.

All: Seven

Reader 1: The soldiers look upon their atrocities of torture to the one mocked as king of the Jews.

Reader 2: To the one who knew no sin. The Lord of Lords hangs suspended between heaven and Earth. He looks over the horizon at Jerusalem for whom he wept.

Reader 1: Feeling the pain of sins march… Looking toward the vast horizon of time past and beyond he whispered.

Reader 2: Father

Reader 4: Forgive them

Voice over: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) 



Reader 1: Over the voice of those who mocked him

Reader 3: challenged him

tortured him

Reader 2: He listened for the still small voice.

Reader 1: The voice that once said, “This is my beloved son in who I am well pleased.”

Reader 3: He yearned for the communion of the divine

Reader 4: but there was none.

All: He was alone there.

Reader 1: Suffering.

Reader 2: No Bethlehem star

Reader 1: No transfigured communion

Reader 3: No dove descending

Reader 4: He spoke ancient words

Reader 1: He cried out:

Voice over: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46) 



Reader 3: She once called out to the servants at the feast

Reader 2: Whatever he tells you to do, just do it.

Reader 4: She held him in her arms- the blessed woman

Reader 2: She was the recipient of angelic visitations and divine protection and now she too was alone. Alone near the one she loved most.

Reader 1: A farewell like no other, yet still in his pain, he attended to the needs of others.

Reader 3: He spoke to a widow and grieving mother

Reader 4: He spoke to a follower, disillusioned and broken.

Reader 2: He understood their pain for he too was alone.

Reader 1: 

He said to his mother,

Voice over: "Woman, behold your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" (John 19:26-27) 



Reader 3: His tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth.

Reader 2: Sheer exhaustion and pain.

Reader 1: But his work not yet accomplished.

Reader 3: There was more to say.

Reader 4: There he bore the pain of a world thirst for God.

Reader 1: Broken, dry- like the bones of elijah’s vision.

Reader 4: As if the spring of living water that brought tax collectors and Samaritans hope ran dry.

Reader 2: He cried out: 



Voice over: "I thirst!" (John 19:28) 



Reader 4: Even in his moment of greatest agony and excruciating sacrifice he called to a guilty man.

Reader 1: Clinging to the hope that he saw in the eyes of Jesus, guilty man cried, Remember me.

Reader 3: And we cry out to God.

All: Rememeber us.

Reader 4: When we stumble and fall into the trap of sin.

Reader 1: Remember us.

Reader 2: When we become fearful of life’s end.

Reader 3: Remember us when terror and injustice reign.

All: Remember us

Reader 1: When all hope wains.

All: Remember us.

Reader 3: We are needy and alone

All: Remember us Lord Jesus

Reader 2: Remember me when you enter into your kingdom

All: Hallelujah!

Reader 1: What grace!

Reader 2: What wonderous love is this that would reply

Voice over: "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43) 



Reader 3: Like an auctioneer shouting the glorious end of the transaction.

Reader 1: Like a marathon runner stretching deep within himself to see the goal.

Reader 2: He cried out

Reader 1: to task of redemption

Reader 3: to the power of hopelessness

Reader 4: To the doubted masses

Reader 1: to his beautiful bride

Reader 3: to his beloved father

Reader 4: to his excecutioner’s reed.

Reader 1: to all the earth and those under the earth. His voice echoes still today.

Voice over: 

"It is finished!" (John 19:30) 



Reader 1: With the task completed. In a voice as soft as a distant lamb

Reader 2: Jesus Christ

Reader 4: The Son of God

Reader 1: The Soveriegn King

Reader 3: The Righteous One

Reader 4: The victory for sinners

Reader 1: and the proof of all creation

All: Free at last.

Reader 2: Task accomplished

Reader 1: Satan ruined

Reader 4: payment received

Reader 3: God appeased

Reader 1: like the thrush of a dove escaping into the wind

Reader 4: Jesus whispered…

Voice over: "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46)