25 Mar. 2005 Bulletin

Good Friday Tenebrae Service

A joint service with the Mirral Church

Memory of Activist Sister Is Now Brother's Mission

Beneath the cross of Jesus
E.C. Clephane, 1872

1. Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock
Within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness,
A rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat
And the burden of the day.

2. Upon that cross of Jesus
Mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One
Who suffered there for me;
And from my smitten heart with tears
Two wonders I confess,
The wonders of His glorious love
And my unworthiness.

3. I take, O Cross, thy shadow
For my abiding place;
I ask of no other sunshine than
The sunshine of His face;
Content to let the world go by,
To know no gain or loss,
My sinful self my only shame,
My glory all the cross. Amen.

Lyrics in Korean

THE FIRST MEDITATION: Luke 23:32-34 (English - Korean)

Look, more than half of the population believe they are already Christian. They don't think that they need to know the gospel any more or any better. There is no more difficult people to evangelize than those. The rest of the population believe that they have known Christianity and they have dismissed it. But they have not rejected the real gospel of Jesus Christ, but an image, probably a caricature they have come across in their home, in the media, in the church, or in Christians they have known. There is no more difficult people to interest in the gospel than those....To evangelize is to incarnate the gospel in time.

-Mortimer Arias to a TV reporter in the United States. (Bishop Arias was forceably abducted from his home in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on August 26, 1980, by national police. Released on October 2, he was ordered to leave his country.)

Were you there when they crucified my lord?
African-American Spiritual

1. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

2. Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

3. Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?

4. Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?

5. Were you there when He rose up from the dead?
Were you there when He rose up from the dead?
Oh! Sometimes I feel like shouting glory, glory, glory!
Were you there when He rose up from the dead?

Lyrics in Korean

THE SECOND MEDITATION: Matthew 27:45, 46 (English - Korean)

For those of us who live at the shoreline
standing upon the constant edges of decision, crucial and alone
for those of us who cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice
who love in doorways coming and going in the hours between dawns
looking inward and outward at once before and after
seeking a now that can breed futures
like bread in our children's mouths
so their dreams will not reflect the death of ours;
For those of us who were imprinted with fear
like a faint line in the center of our foreheads
learning to be afraid with our mother's milk for by this weapon
this illusion of some safety to be found
the heavy-footed hoped to silence us
for all of us this instant and this triumph
we were never meant to survive.
And when the sun rises we are afraid it might not remain
when the sun sets we are afraid it might not rise in the morning
when our stomachs are full we are afraid we may never eat again
when we are loved we are afraid love will vanish
when we are alone we are afraid love will never return
and when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent we are still afraid.
So it is better to speak remembering
we were never meant to survive.

"Litany of Survival"
Audre Lorde

Isaiah 53:1-3 (in Korean)

THE THIRD MEDITATION: John 19:25-27 (English - Korean)

Sister Dorothy, a naturalized Brazilian who was one of nine siblings from a Catholic household in Ohio, became energized in the 1960's by the winds of change then sweeping through the church about administering to the poor.

Sister Dorothy was shot four times in the chest and head by a pair of gunmen while visiting a remote rural encampment near the Trans-Amazon Highway in Pará State. She had been working with peasants who had clashed with illegal loggers.

Four people have been arrested, and Brazil's attorney general has made a formal request that the suspects be prosecuted by federal officials because local justice is unlikely.

Lamentations 2:10-13 (Korean)

O Come and mourn with me a while
F. W. Faber, 1849

1. O come and mourn with me a while;
O come ye to the Saviour's side;
O come, together let us mourn:
Jesus, our Lord, is crucified!

2. O break, O break, hard heart of mine!
Thy weak self-love and guilty pride
His Pilate and His Judas were:
Jesus, our Lord, is crucified!

3. Seven times He spake, seven words of love;
And all three hours His silence cried
For mercy on the souls of men:
Jesus, our Lord, is crucified!

4. O love of God, O sin of man!
In this dread act your strength is tried!
And victory remains with love
For He, our Love, is crucified!

THE FOURTH MEDITATION: Luke 23:35-43 (English - Korean)

For too long, chained hands.
For too long,
Hands chained in prayer.
For too many months and years
I have held no one with passion.

Oh, Lord, come to me!
Break these iron chains,
Free me from the heavy chains.

Grief wounds my soul,
Chained even in my dreams
In this valley of despair;
Starved for righteousness and love
I wander to the death
In this valley filled with death.

Oh, Lord, come to me!
Break these iron chains,
Free me from the heavy chains.
Kim Chi-ha

Job 3:20-26 (English - Korean)

On a Hill far Away (The Old Rugged Cross)
G. Bennard, 1913

1. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.

Refrain
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.

2. Oh, that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above,
To bear it to dark Calvary.
Refrain

3. In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see;
For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.
Refrain

4. To the old rugged cross, I will ever be true;
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I’ll share.
Refrain

THE FIFTH MEDITATION: John 19:28, 29 (English - Korean)

Messiah
Expectant eyes,
Dark, brooding,
Silently pleading.
Outstretched hands, gravel-grimed and dusty
From filling potholes in the country road.
What does he want, this anonymous Haitian child?
Is it mere money,
Or do those pleading eyes and dirty hands
Beg for something deeper,
A simple acknowledgement of our connectedness--
A recognition that we are family?

Look closely.
Have not those dusty palms
Been pierced by penetrating nails?
Has not that young battle-beaten brow
Been scarred by a crown of thorns?

I wind down the window of my car.
Eager expression undaunted by hellish heat
Sears my soul.
I place a few meager coins
Into those hopeful hands reaching for resurrection.
Is that all that I can offer to this Christ?

Harry J. Fielding

Alas! and did my Saviour bleed?
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) From Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707

1. Alas! And did my Savior bleed,
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

2. Was it for crimes that I have done,
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

3. Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When Christ the mighty Maker died
For man, the creature’s sin.

4. But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
’Tis all that I can do. Amen.

THE SIXTH MEDITATION: John 19:30 (English - Korean)

Philippians 2:5-8, 12-13 (TEV/GNT, English)

Isaiah 53:4-6 (English - Korean)

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
Medieval Latin, attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)
German paraphrase by Paul Gerhardt, 1656
Translated by James W. Alexander, 1830; alt.
Isaiah 53; John 19:1-3

1. O sacred Head, now wounded
With grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorns, Thine only crown;
How pale Thou art with anguish,
With sore abuse and scorn!
How does your visage languish
Which once was bright as morn!

2. What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners’ gain:
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But Thine the deadly pain;
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
'Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor,
Vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

3. What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee, dearest Friend;
For this Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever,
And should I fainting be,
Look, let me never, never
Outlive my love to Thee. Amen.

Lyrics in Korean

THE SEVENTH MEDITATION: Luke 23:44-46 (English - Korean)

Luke 4:18-19 (TEV/GNT, English)

As a pastor, I am obliged, by divine command, to give my life for those whom I love--and that is for all Salvadorians, even for those who may assassinate me. If the threats should come to pass, I offer God, from this very moment, my blood for the redemption and resurrection of El Salvador.

Archbishop Oscar Romero,
assassinated March 24, 1980

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Isaac Watts, 1707; alt. Galatians 6:14; Philippians 3:7-8

1. When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

2. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

3. See, from his head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

4. Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all. Amen.

Lyrics in Korean