Date: Good Friday or Easter
Texts:
Good Friday
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 22:1-18
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 18:1 -- 19:42 or John 19:17-30
Easter
Acts 10:34-43 or Isaiah 65:17-25
Psalm 118:14-24
1 Corinthians 15:19-26 or Acts 10:34-43
John 20:1-18 or Luke 24:1-12
Theme: Frustration is real, but it does not have the last word.
Subject: Easter
We may think it is Easter Sunday, but it is still Good Friday. Evil still seems to have the upper hand. But Sunday is just around the corner. An elderly, experienced black pastor in West Philadelphia says it like this:
It was Friday, it was Friday and my Jesus is dead on the tree, but that’s Friday, Sunday is acomin’.
Friday, Friday, Mary is crying her eyes out, the disciples are running in every direction like sheep without a shepherd. But it’s Friday, Friday. Sunday is acomin’.
Friday, Friday, those are looking at the world and saying as things have been so they shall be, you can’t change nothing in this world. You can’t change nothing in this world. But they didn’t know it was only Friday. Sunday is acomin’.
Let’s try one more time here, Friday, Friday, them forces that oppressed the poor and keep people down, them forces that destroy people, them forces is in control and they are going to rule, but they don’t know it’s only Friday. Friday, Friday, Sunday is acomin’.
Friday, Friday, people are saying darkness is going to rule the world, sadness is going to be everywhere, but they don’t know it’s only Friday, Sunday is acomin’.
And here in our lives and in our community, [even on Easter Sunday] it seems like it’s always, Friday....
the rich are getting richer while the poor and working fathers and mothers are paying the bill.
But Sunday is coming.....
by the grace of God you and I will change the way things are to the way they ought to be the rich will pay their fair share and the needs of the poor and working fathers and mothers will be met by a society that cares, that has compassion, that knows there is no future for any of us unless there is a future for all of us.
It is Friday....
We are killing our children with dope, booze, speed, and AIDS.
Our children are killing themselves
junk and bunk are polluting their minds,
and there is nothing worth living for.
But Sunday is coming.....
when getting high on the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest thrill in the world,
that living for others makes life worthwhile
and the truth shall set us free
and the young shall see visions and dream dreams and know that to live is Christ.
It is Friday....
and the unloved and wretched of the earth have no way of dealing with their hurt other than hurting others.
But Sunday is coming..... but here and now and the lion shall lie down with the lamb and loving and caring and listening shall never be in short supply. And no one will have to harm his brother or sister ever again.
It is Friday....
and all that we have tried, all that we have lived our lives for, seems doomed to futil-ity.
Our husbands and wives no longer love us and we can’t talk to our children any-more.
But Sunday is coming.....
God makes all things new,
we stumble, we fall, but he picks us up again,
we confess our shortcomings and ask our loved ones to allow us to love them and they love us in return.
It is Friday....
The environment is battered and bruised and bleeding.
Mother Earth is dying and no one seems to care,
we are spending our substance for things of no value, and using up in one generation the endowment of centuries.
But Sunday is coming.....
We are learning our lessons and, one by one, beginning to do something about it.
Earth shall endure and we shall be reborn, regenerated with her.
It is Friday....
and life is not fair
and depression clings to us like a heavy, wet coat. we see nothing at the end of the tunnel but more tunnel and no one gives a damn.
But Sunday is coming.....
But he shall fill our souls with gladness, our hearts with laughter. He shall turn our sorrow into dancing.
Darkness shall fade and the light of God’s presence break through-not in the “sweet
by and by,” but now.
And here in his church God shall give us brothers and sisters who love us with a faithful and constant love, with His own love.
It is Friday....
There are unpaid bills and peeling paint and leaks everywhere - leaky faucets, leaky roofs, leaky bank accounts and always a surplus of what we don’t want and a shortage of what we desperately need.
But Sunday is coming.....
When God shall carry us in his bosom as a shepherd carries his lambs,
When God shall stroke our foreheads and hug us and walk with us and talk with us and tell us we are his own.
Where the Word of God is preached and heard, God shall fill our hearts and minds and stomach with good things, with sweet and tender things that nourish us forever.
And we shall never hunger nor thirst again.
It is Friday....
and we are one step closer to the grave, to the end, to futility, to nothingness.
And terror clings to us like a mean and ugly pit bull.
But Sunday is coming.....
and we are one step closer to the house of our Father, the house where Jesus has prepared a place for us.
And we are filled with the wonder and awe that God shares his own life with us and that this life can never be extinguished. For God is among us, filling us with hope.
It is Friday.... and the politicians are crooked and the cops take graft and the IRS is out to get us.
But Sunday is coming.....
the kingdom of God is at hand,
the first shall be last and the last, first.
And all the crooks and thugs will answer to God and, starting today, we will be part of a world that works for everyone.
It is Friday.... and we don’t know who we are or what we are supposed to do with our lives.
But Sunday is coming.....
We shall know even as we are known by God
and our lives will have purpose, meaning, and fulfillment.
It is Friday....
and our poems don’t rhyme
we can’t find the right words to express ourselves or the right notes for the melody
the colors and shapes and proportions of our paintings are all wrong, our architecture collapses.
When we try to ask for help, the words stick in our throats.
But Sunday is coming.....
God shall be all and all
The crooked shall be made straight
The desert shall bloom
We shall be unstuck and released and redeemed and creative and our expressiveness shall know no limitation. We shall make a difference.
It is Friday.... and the elderly are tucked away in foul-smelling nursing homes and the mentally ill sleep in parking lots and women make half as much as men but have twice the responsibility.
But Sunday is coming..... when the wisdom of the old shall save the young from folly and the sick shall be made whole and our demons shall be cast out together with their demons and all shall receive what they need and give what they can And there shall be honor and respect for caregivers and all shall carry the burden of work and family together.
It is Friday....
and looks count and stature means height
and who you know counts for more than what you know.
But Sunday is coming.....
when the only beauty is inner beauty
and the only one worth knowing is one’s own true self.
It is Friday....
and the horror of war revolts us
and the bloated stomachs of starving children offends our sensibilities and we do nothing about it.
But Sunday is coming.....
we shall beat our swords into plowshares
and turn our munitions into foodstuffs
and everyone of us shall accept responsibility for doing something to ending war now and wiping out hunger today.
It is Friday.... and men drink cheap wine and Sterno and sleep in alleys and families sleep in their cars and the night in the shelters belongs to the rats and the roaches and the comfortable and content wag their fingers and cluck their tongues and close out the outside world with their garage door openers and shut off their TVs with their remote controls and seal themselves off from the homeless in their midst.
But Sunday is coming.....
and Jesus shall say, “I was homeless and you let me die in the streets.” And we shall say, “When, Lord?”
And we shall get the point and realize that nothing will change unless we change it
and change ourselves in the bargain
And there shall be jobs and dignity and homes to go around.
It is Friday....
and we lock men up in cages like animals
and abuse women for being women
and kill one another in hot blood, in cold blood, because we want to, and because we are too heedless to know we are killing.
But Sunday is coming.....
love shall annul fear and set the prisoners free,
Women shall be called blessed once again,
and human beings shall live at peace with one another and with all other living
beings
And God shall reign, forever and ever!
Sociologist/preacher Anthony Campolo says it well:
People, that’s good news. When we take the gospel seriously this is
what will happen. Our psychological needs will begin to be met. Our capacity to love will be developed. Our appreciation of the miraculous will cause us to expect great things from God. And the Spirit of God that
possesses us will motivate us to give ourselves to those who are suffering in a way that we have failed to do up to this day. And when all of that happens, this is the good news, this is the very good news, that even though this world is rotten as it is right now we know it’s only Friday. It may be Friday, but wherever the Good News is proclaimed and lived, wherever men and women have the courage to stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution, Sunday is coming!
It may be Friday....
But Sunday is coming!
Amen.
--LDS
[1700 words]
[17 minutes]
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