‘Good Friday’
Good morning…
on Good Friday. This is the day when most Christian churches around the world remember the death of Jesus. (Orthodox churches will commemorate this next week – their Easter (or Pascha) is Sunday 19 April). While churches will not be holding their usual services in their places of worship – often an hour or even three hours reflecting on the time of Jesus on the cross – many Christians will be reflecting in prayer and reading on the meaning of Jesus being given up to suffering and death for the salvation of the world. Further on I will share how you can be involved in such reflections online today.
The quietness of this year’s Good Friday is of course highly unusual. The University of St Andrews, unlike other Scottish universities, does not take Good Friday as a holiday, and many students and staff have found it strange to be in class on this day. That may well still be the case this year, as lectures via Panopto and tutorials via Teams take place. But the town’s streets will be near-deserted, somehow catching the solemn and melancholy mood of the events of the first Good Friday.
Both my wife (who is Irish) and I have been recalling Good Fridays spent in Ireland. Doing my PhD in Dublin in the 1990s, I discovered that on Good Friday everything was closed – Trinity College Dublin for sure, but also all the shops, banks and institutions. Even the pubs were shut. Only hotels could offer food, but, I seem to recall, no alcohol. One year my sister was visiting and we went for a drive through empty roads in Co. Kildare. Nowhere was open. As we drove we listened to the radio and heard of the successful conclusion of negotiations over the future of Northern Ireland – the Good Friday Agreement. It somehow seemed fitting that peace should come on the day when all Ireland was recalling the cross. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians: For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us… that he… might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. (Ephesians 2:15-16)
Today what strikes me is less the peace-making of the cross but the solidarity of Jesus with all people. It is a profound paradox. On the day when he was most isolated from humanity, he was most united with humanity. He was abandoned by most of his friends, yet he was giving his life for them. He was suffering hostility yet overwhelming it with love. He was alone and yet one with all.
We are experiencing a time of isolation as human beings – confined largely to our homes, unable to visit family or friends, unable to touch those whom we meet. Those who would wish to cannot gather together to commemorate the death of Jesus. And yet the fundamental truth of Good Friday is that the Son of God experienced the deepest isolation of all for the sake of a wonderful life-giving community – between human beings and God, and among each other. Even in separate homes, we are still a community, and we are not alone.
As an image for this Good Friday, I’ve chosen a crucifixion scene thronged with people, to exemplify this sense – that Jesus’ isolated death brings reconciliation and community into being.
Peter Gertner, Crucifixion, 1537
As for our own St Andrews community, the ecumenical group within the town has prepared something like the usual pilgrimage through St Andrews – the Way of the Cross. There will be eight stations in St Andrews, with images, readings, reflections and prayers from the churches. We’ll begin at 5 pm at St Mary’s Quad, representing the Temple in Jerusalem, and finish at around 6 pm at St Mary on the Rock, representing Jesus’ burial-place. It will happen live and you can listen and watch here from 5 pm today: https://www.facebook.com/CornerstoneStAndrews/live/ You do not need a facebook account to access the video. This year, we will not be gathering on Easter morning at St Mary on the Rock, so this is the main ecumenical worship and reflection over the season in St Andrews, bringing people together in pilgrimage, faith and prayer.
And tonight, the Chaplaincy will hold the final Holy Week evening service at 9 pm via Zoom. I will give an address on hearing (the final of the five senses explored this week), but the heart of the service will be the passion narrative from the Gospel according to St John, sung by members of St Salvator’s Chapel Choir. Here is the invitation. All are welcome.
Donald MacEwan is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Good Friday Service
Time: Apr 10, 2020 09:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/674577342?pwd=aC9zSmlYaWRBcTNjRzRWMHF1TldDUT09
Meeting ID: 674 577 342
Password: 7cn4Uo
There will be no service tomorrow, but there will be a Companionship email with the zoom invitation to our Easter morning service at 11 am on Sunday 12 April.
Everyone in the Chaplaincy wishes you a peaceful Good Friday, and hope found in community.
Yours,
Donald.