The Words from the Cross: Seven Meditations Good Friday Service Part 3 (April 16, 1965)

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	(choral music)	0:04
	(instrumental music)	1:04
-	Let us continue in prayer.	1:28
	Most merciful Father,	1:32
	who of thy great compassion toward us sinners,	1:34
	didst give thine only-begotten son	1:38
	to be an offering for our sins.	1:41
	Grant us grace.	1:44
	We humbly beseech thee	1:46
	that being united unto him by thy Spirit	1:48
	and made partakers of his suffering and his death.	1:52
	We may die daily unto the world	1:57
	and lead holy and unblamable lives.	2:00
	Cleaving unto his cross in all of the temptations of life,	2:05
	may we hold fast	2:11
	the profession of our faith without wavering,	2:13
	and finally attain under the resurrection of the just	2:17
	through our crucified savior.	2:22
	Forbid oh God, that we should forget	2:27
	amid our earthly comforts	2:31
	the pains and mortal anguish	2:33
	that our Lord endured for our salvation.	2:35
	Grant us this day,	2:41
	a true vision of all that he suffered in his betrayal,	2:42
	his lonely agony,	2:47
	his false trial,	2:49
	his mocking and scourging,	2:52
	and the torture of death upon the cross.	2:54
	As thou has given myself utterly for us,	3:00
	may we give ourselves entirely to thee,	3:04
	through Jesus Christ,	3:09
	our only Lord and savior.	3:10
	Oh Lord, Jesus Christ,	3:16
	who for our sakes did suffer death upon the cross,	3:19
	help us to bear about with us thy dying	3:24
	and in our living to show forth our life.	3:28
	Looking on thee whom we have pierced,	3:33
	we would mourn for our sins with unfaked sorrow.	3:37
	We would learn of thee to forgive,	3:44
	with thee to suffer	3:50
	and in thee to overcome.	3:55
	Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world,	4:01
	have mercy upon us.	4:05
	Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world,	4:08
	grant us thy peace.	4:11
	Lord we pray thee in thy great mercy.	4:16
	Remember us when thou comest into thy kingdom.	4:19
	Amen.	4:26
	(instrumental music)	4:37
	(choral music)	4:55
	Let us pray.	5:47
	All loving and all gracious God	5:54
	who does permit us at this time to draw an eye into thee,	5:58
	grant us wisdom and understanding,	6:03
	reverence and humility,	6:06
	that as we remember the hours of darkness of our Lord,	6:10
	we may know him in the fellowship up of his suffering,	6:15
	may be enabled to die to our own sins	6:19
	and to be created to newness of life,	6:25
	through his death and resurrection.	6:28
	Infinite and eternal Spirit,	6:33
	our God and our Father,	6:36
	author of all good	6:39
	and never far from any of our children,	6:41
	we drawn you to thee that in fellowship with thee	6:46
	we may receive of thy Spirit.	6:48
	May all of the bonds of love and ties of friendship	6:52
	be made stronger and sweeter through him	6:57
	who in his mortal agony was not unmindful	7:00
	that we need one another's love,	7:04
	even Jesus Christ, our Lord.	7:07
	Oh eternal God who alone make his men	7:12
	to be of one mind in a house,	7:14
	help us, the members of this household of faith,	7:18
	faithfully to fulfill our duties to thee and each other,	7:22
	put far from us all unkind thoughts,	7:28
	anger and evil speaking.	7:31
	Give us tender hearts full of affection	7:35
	and sympathy towards all.	7:38
	Grant us grace to feel the sorrows	7:42
	and trials of others as our own,	7:44
	and to bear patiently with their imperfections.	7:48
	Preserve us from selfishness	7:54
	and grant that day by day,	7:57
	walking in love,	7:59
	we may grow up into the likeness of thy son,	8:01
	Jesus Christ, our Lord.	8:04
	Oh God who does call us	8:09
	out of our hidden and rebellious lives	8:10
	with the word of permission to live,	8:13
	may we in freedom take up the positions in life open to us,	8:16
	our roles in the family, work, school,	8:21
	nation, religion, international relations,	8:25
	and our roles to all broken structures and outcast men.	8:31
	May we see these roles as one	8:36
	in which all of our life can be expressed and lived	8:38
	whether the expected outcome is great or small,	8:43
	life or death,	8:47
	and even when we see in the beginning,	8:50
	the end of our roles.	8:53
	Grant to us a tenaciousness	8:56
	that will not let go until the final battle closes	8:57
	and a nonchalance that the final battle	9:02
	does not depend on us.	9:05
	Oh thou who on the cross didst offer thy grace to all men	9:10
	and yet what's not unconcerned	9:17
	with our own intimate relations,	9:19
	we would pray not only for our brothers everywhere,	9:23
	but keeping in mind, individuals	9:29
	in their several needs.	9:33
	May the great sufferer's prayer	9:37
	for those who crucified him prevail this day	9:39
	on behalf of all who reject him and crucify him and you.	9:43
	May the power of the cross	9:49
	give support and comfort to burdened and suffering lives.	9:51
	May persons who are anxious	9:58
	and distressed on behalf of loved ones,	9:59
	know Jesus in the fellowship of his sufferings	10:03
	and the power of his resurrection.	10:06
	Hasten the day oh Lord, when all men shall see the truth	10:11
	there manifested	10:15
	and believe that thy kingdom may fully come	10:18
	and Jesus Christ be acknowledged as Lord of all.	10:23
	Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord,	10:28
	amen.	10:32
	(choral music)	10:58
	When Jesus saw his mother	14:49
	and the disciple whom he loved standing near,	14:51
	he said to his mother,	14:54
	"Woman, behold your son."	14:56
	Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother."	15:00
	The journey from Bethlehem to Golgotha was uncommonly short.	15:06
	Only a few short years before as men reckon time,	15:11
	Luke tells us that the Angel Gabriel	15:15
	was sent by God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth	15:17
	to a maiden betrothed to a man named Joseph.	15:20
	The Maiden's name was Mary.	15:24
	Gabriel had said to her then,	15:27
	"Do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God	15:29
	and behold you will conceive and bear a son.	15:34
	You shall call his name Jesus.	15:37
	He will be great and will be called the son of the most high	15:40
	and the Lord, God	15:44
	will give him the throne of his father, David.	15:45
	And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever	15:47
	and of his kingdom,	15:50
	there will be no end."	15:52
	In due time,	15:55
	a son was born of Mary in Bethlehem of Judea.	15:56
	As a child, Jesus lay in the manger,	16:00
	a heavenly host, praised God saying,	16:03
	"Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace	16:06
	and goodwill toward men."	16:10
	If she had known then what she had come to know now,	16:13
	standing there at the foot of that rugged cross,	16:17
	driven cruelly into the earth.	16:20
	What would her prayer have been?	16:23
	Might she have prayed a very human,	16:25
	a very sentimental prayer?	16:29
	"The things I've known, let me forget,	16:32
	the voices in the sky,	16:36
	the fear, the cold,	16:37
	the gaping shepherds and the queer old men	16:39
	piling their clumsy gifts of foreign gold.	16:42
	Let me have laughter with my little one,	16:45
	teach me the endless tuneless songs to sing.	16:48
	Grant me my right to whisper to my son	16:52
	the foolish names one dare not call a king.	16:55
	Keep from my dreams the rumble of the crowd,	16:58
	the smell of rough-cut wood, the trail of red,	17:01
	the thick and chilly whiteness of the shroud	17:04
	that wraps a strange new body of the dead.	17:07
	Ah, let me go kind Lord, where mothers go	17:10
	and boast his pretty words in ways	17:13
	and plan the proud, happy years that we shall know together	17:15
	when my son has grown a man."	17:19
	Such a prayer would have been born of human sentiment,	17:22
	of one who could at best have perceived	17:26
	but dimly the incarnation,	17:28
	for how can a mother nursing her first born child	17:32
	look steadfastly at a crucifix?	17:34
	How could she have born the sight of her fair child	17:37
	playing with little rows of nails in the carpentry shop	17:40
	or born the sound of Joseph's hammer swing	17:44
	if she had known that short years,	17:47
	hence her Jesus by a hammer and three nails would die.	17:49
	We do not know the childish games	17:54
	Mary and Jesus enjoyed together in the early years	17:55
	nor the songs they sang.	17:59
	We can only imagine	18:01
	the careless carefree days they spent together.	18:02
	The washing of dirty hands,	18:07
	the tying of sandals,	18:09
	the kissing of her places	18:11
	and the drying of her tears,	18:12
	the meeting of knowing understanding eyes	18:15
	and the joyous spontaneous caresses,	18:17
	which are the shared faith of mothers and sons.	18:19
	He was not her possession long.	18:23
	As a boy of 12,	18:26
	he stayed behind in Jerusalem without permission.	18:27
	Mary remonstrated with him,	18:31
	"Son, why have you treated us so?	18:32
	Your father and I have been looking for you anxiously."	18:35
	"But I must be about my Father's business,"	18:39
	was his cryptic reply.	18:41
	Mary did not understand then, Luke confides in us,	18:44
	but she kept these words in our heart again to that day,	18:47
	when they might become clear.	18:50
	All too soon the troubled turbulent years	18:53
	of her son's ministry came.	18:56
	Behold I send my messenger before your face,	18:58
	who shall prepare your way.	19:01
	The voice of one crying in the wilderness	19:03
	prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.	19:06
	The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.	19:09
	Repent,	19:12
	believe.	19:13
	Those who are called of God belong to no one but God.	19:15
	They can possess and be possessed by no one else.	19:19
	No, not brother nor sister, no, not father nor mother.	19:23
	We are told that on one occasion	19:29
	Jesus heard that his mother was nearby	19:31
	and wished to speak with him.	19:33
	"Who is my mother?"	19:36
	He's said to have asked rhetorically,	19:37
	whosoever does the will of God my Father.	19:39
	No, Mary did not possess her son for long.	19:44
	And so it was until that fateful day in Jerusalem today,	19:48
	Jesus had run his brief course from Bethlehem to Golgotha	19:53
	and that afternoon in Jerusalem,	19:56
	that afternoon in lower Jerusalem, they met	20:01
	and parted once more, Jesus and Mary,	20:04
	no touch or kiss could ease their anguish	20:08
	while the markers hist.	20:11
	And he, he's the fool who thought	20:13
	his dreaming him could cure the woman.	20:15
	See the two of them,	20:18
	the son and wife of Joseph come to this.	20:19
	Two hearts cried out (indistinct)	20:22
	and Jesse's flower was cut from Jesse's stem.	20:25
	Perhaps she thought of name	20:30
	of all the land where wonders blossomed	20:31
	as he walked three years of Jairus, Lazarus,	20:33
	the withered hand, of flowing mercies and of drying tears.	20:37
	And still she knew her bitter place and part,	20:42
	he would not heal her with it, withered heart.	20:46
	There Mary stood at the foot of the cross	20:51
	watching as a nail part of herself to that tree.	20:55
	And all he said to her was,	21:01
	"Woman, behold you son."	21:04
	And then he placed her in the care of a beloved disciple.	21:09
	We do not know the feverish, anguish thoughts	21:15
	that crowded Mary's mind that afternoon.	21:18
	Surely she knew as all of us know,	21:21
	life can break the heart of every mother later or sooner.	21:24
	but like all of us,	21:30
	she must have hoped against hope	21:31
	that hers would not be broken so soon	21:33
	and not like this.	21:37
	If ever the cross was a stumbling block,	21:39
	a wretched absurdity, it must have been then.	21:42
	We know now what Mary could not have known then,	21:48
	what she could not have believed	21:51
	even if she had known.	21:53
	For here was cosmic drama unfolding itself	21:55
	for in this accent for man,	21:58
	willfully separated from his creator,	22:00
	witnessed the transforming power of selfless love.	22:02
	God was in Jesus, reconciling him off unto the world.	22:05
	For God so loved world that he gave His only son	22:09
	that whosoever believes in him should not perish,	22:13
	but have everlasting life.	22:16
	For greater love has no man than this,	22:19
	than a man lay down his life for his friends.	22:21
	But who among us,	22:25
	standing beside Mary at the foot of that cross	22:26
	would have dared to mouth, such pious words.	22:29
	Wait now for through the eyes of artists,	22:34
	we can see the broken body taken from the cross so tenderly	22:36
	and placed again in the waiting arms of Mary who bore him.	22:40
	She washed his body with her tears,	22:44
	but who was there to wash away her hurt	22:47
	and to dry her tears?	22:51
	Perhaps in that moment,	22:54
	Mary too was transformed by the power of his love.	22:55
	And in fantasy, we may imagine that having watched	22:59
	the shroud cover her own son's body,	23:01
	she took into her arms with equal care	23:04
	and with measureless love	23:07
	the broken bodies of the male factors	23:09
	from crosses standing nearby.	23:10
	Those whom her son had named as his brothers.	23:13
	The Bible reminds us that the children of God	23:18
	know where they have come from and where they are going.	23:21
	In this knowledge, there is strength	23:24
	to get on with the business of living	23:26
	and if need be of dying.	23:28
	John reminds us of this in his account of the last supper.	23:30
	Jesus knew, we are told that his hour had come	23:34
	to depart out of this world	23:36
	and having loved his own who were with him in this world,	23:38
	he loved them to the end.	23:41
	During supper, Jesus, knowing that he had come from God	23:44
	and was returning to God	23:47
	rose from his place at the table,	23:48
	laid aside his garments,	23:50
	guarded himself with a towel	23:52
	and washed the feet of his disciples.	23:54
	They did not understand then, but in time they did.	23:57
	And in that understanding, they were transformed.	24:02
	Jesus said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son."	24:05
	She did not understand then, but perhaps in time she did.	24:11
	And perhaps in time we shall.	24:17
	Let us pray.	24:21
	Grant oh Lord in all our ways of life, thy health,	24:25
	in all our perplexities of thought, thy counsel,	24:30
	in all our dangers of temptation, thy protection	24:34
	and in all our sorrows of heart, thy peace.	24:38
	Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,	24:42
	amen.	24:46
	(instrumental choral music)	24:58
	Let us pray.	26:40
	Oh Almighty God who art the most strong tower	26:50
	to all those who put their trust in thee,	26:54
	to whom all things in heaven, in earth	26:57
	and under the earth do bow and obey,	27:00
	be now evermore our defense	27:05
	and make us know and feel	27:08
	that there is none other name under heaven given to man	27:10
	in whom and through whom	27:15
	we may receive health and salvation,	27:17
	but only the name of thy son our Lord, Jesus Christ.	27:20
	We praise thee oh God for thy son Jesus, the Christ,	27:26
	the lamb of God who surely had to own our griefs	27:31
	and carried our sorrows.	27:35
	We praise thee who hath raised Christ Jesus from the dead,	27:39
	that he also was wounded for our transgressions	27:44
	and bruised for our inequities.	27:48
	We give thanks to thee that this same Jesus	27:53
	is now our health and our salvation,	27:55
	our very present help in time of despair and desolation.	27:59
	Glory be to thee oh Lord,	28:05
	praise be to thee oh, Christ.	28:08
	Thou does give us oh Lord through thy Holy Spirit,	28:14
	the ability to see and to see,	28:18
	to hear and to hear.	28:22
	The man on the cross we are moved to recognize	28:27
	as him who is despised and rejected by us men.	28:32
	He is also cut off from thee for he is a man.	28:38
	Yet we have cut ourselves off from him.	28:45
	We have crucified him for, he is God,	28:49
	even thy son.	28:54
	Forgive us Lord for our part	28:57
	in this rejection and desolation,	29:00
	which was thy experience on the cross	29:03
	and which is the experience of our brothers around us daily.	29:07
	We have bruised and wounded both thee and our fellows.	29:13
	Forgive us.	29:18
	Forgive us oh Lord, our puny desire	29:21
	to be delivered from unpleasantness,	29:23
	from suffering of body, of mind, of spirit.	29:27
	Guide us through the desert of separation.	29:32
	Even when we hear no answer to our cry,	29:36
	sustain us with thy steadfast presence.	29:40
	Make us to know thy comfort when the pains and griefs	29:46
	are so intense as to prevent all contact with anyone	29:49
	even with thee.	29:55
	We pray now for all who are cut off	29:58
	and separated from their brethren and from thee,	30:01
	thy drought and desolation of spirit,	30:06
	thy pain of body and of mind,	30:09
	thy willing rebellion against others,	30:13
	thy willing acceptance of rejection prompted by love.	30:17
	As thou didst raise Christ Jesus from the dead,	30:23
	also give to us new life	30:27
	through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord	30:30
	in whose name we pray.	30:34
	Thou knowest Lord, the secrets of our hearts,	30:38
	shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer,	30:43
	but spare us Lord most holy,	30:48
	oh God, most mighty,	30:52
	oh holy and merciful savior,	30:54
	thou most worthy eternal judge.	30:57
	Suffer us not at our last hour	31:01
	for any pains of death to fall from thee.	31:04
	May we not feel forsaken of thee	31:09
	or shut out from thy love.	31:13
	But save us in all our mortal strife	31:16
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord,	31:21
	amen.	31:25
	(instrumental music)	31:43
	(choral music)	32:55
-	Or the fourth word from the cross.	39:54
	Let us turn to the Gospel according to St. Mark,	39:56
	15th chapter, the 33rd verse,	40:00
	"And when the sixth hour had come,	40:05
	there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.	40:07
	And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice,	40:13
	"Eloi,	40:18
	Eloi,	40:19
	lama sabachthani,"	40:21
	which means my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?	40:24
	My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?	40:33
	What does this mean?	40:38
	What are we to make of these words?	40:41
	Is this a cry of desperation?	40:44
	If this is the son of God,	40:49
	how can he succumb for one moment to this or to human cry?	40:52
	This seeming note of utter human despair.	40:59
	For centuries,	41:06
	thoughtful Christians have puzzled	41:08
	over these difficult words.	41:12
	Are we not confronted here with a baffling contradiction?	41:16
	Surely it's impossible to think that the son of God	41:22
	in his final agony lost faith	41:26
	in the divinity that gave meaning to his whole life.	41:29
	Yet, is this not what these troubled words	41:34
	seem to say in plain language?	41:37
	"My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?"	41:41
	Throughout the Christian era,	41:46
	theologians and biblical scholars	41:49
	have found this cry perplexing.	41:51
	Surely it would be the ultimate in arrogance on our part	41:59
	to pretend we can resolve this problem	42:04
	in a few minutes	42:07
	here in this chapel of a Good Friday afternoon.	42:08
	But in the brief moments at our disposal,	42:15
	there is one thing we can do.	42:17
	We can pause in our too hurried lives	42:21
	and we can consider these vexing words anew.	42:25
	We may be unable to resolve the difficulty	42:31
	that has troubled the scholars for so long,	42:34
	but at least we may come to understand the problem	42:38
	confronting them.	42:42
	"My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?"	42:45
	Doesn't this sound like a cry of despair?	42:50
	Aren't these the words of a very human being	42:56
	in fearful distress?	42:59
	Isn't this the voice of abandonment and terror?	43:02
	Consider the setting in which these words were uttered.	43:08
	A man is being tortured to death,	43:13
	not quick merciful death,	43:16
	but long, slow, agonizing death.	43:19
	The horror of such a death	43:24
	is embodied in our word, excruciating.	43:27
	Excruciating pain, the pain that is unbearable.	43:33
	It means literally, death on a cross.	43:38
	Moreover, our Lord was suffering,	43:43
	not only physical pain,	43:46
	bodily pain,	43:48
	but mental anguish of a peculiarly crushing sort.	43:50
	He had set out to save the world, to show the way	43:59
	and now he was dying in agony.	44:04
	He was suffering crucifixion,	44:07
	a form of execution reserved for the meanest of criminals.	44:10
	And perhaps most painful of all,	44:15
	he'd seen his band of followers	44:19
	one after another	44:21
	desert him in his final hour.	44:24
	Under such circumstances,	44:28
	the voice from the cross seems eminently human,	44:31
	something we can know,	44:35
	and we can understand.	44:37
	Haven't we heard this cry	44:40
	in one form or another throughout our own lives?	44:42
	In our world here and now,	44:48
	don't we hear just such cries of anguish	44:50
	from the mother who has lost her only child?	44:54
	From the father whose child has gone wrong,	44:58
	dreadfully, horribly wrong	45:01
	despite the best efforts of loving parents to guide the way?	45:04
	Haven't we heard this cry in the hospital	45:09
	as the elderly soul lies dying painfully and alone?	45:13
	Haven't we heard it even in the recorder's court?	45:20
	All the language may differ,	45:23
	but the anguish is the same.	45:26
	"My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?"	45:29
	These are very human words.	45:34
	But must we see them	45:38
	only as a cry of desolation and abandonment?	45:40
	Must we create theological difficulties for ourselves?	45:46
	First we see in them, Jesus abandoned by God.	45:52
	After all, there are various translations	45:57
	from the Hebrew and from the Aramaic.	46:00
	And even our English words	46:03
	lend themselves to a variety of interpretations,	46:05
	the Oxford English Dictionary,	46:11
	that great historical compendium of our mother tongue,	46:13
	gives us some helpful clues.	46:18
	The verb to forsake may mean to abandon,	46:22
	but it also has many other interpretations.	46:28
	For example, it can mean neglect,	46:33
	to neglect	46:37
	or to disregard.	46:39
	And there's a world of difference between neglecting,	46:42
	which can be temporary	46:47
	and abandoning, which implies a complete	46:49
	and permanent renunciation.	46:53
	The importance of these shades of meaning	46:58
	emerges even more clearly	47:00
	if we turn back to the Aramaic itself.	47:03
	Sometime ago, a biblical scholar	47:09
	returned from the Middle East	47:12
	with a charming tale that illuminates this point.	47:14
	Not far from the side of ancient Nineveh,	47:20
	the traveling scholar fell in with a citizen of the country	47:24
	whose native tongue was Aramaic.	47:28
	In their conversations,	47:32
	they had chance to discuss this very passage from the Bible.	47:33
	The native described how he was sometimes detained	47:42
	on the road and returned home	47:46
	to his waiting wife and children long after dark.	47:48
	And in a land, more anarchic and less secure than our own,	47:54
	this was cause for concern	47:59
	and even for alarm for his family.	48:01
	When at last, he did arrive,	48:05
	they greeted him at the door saying,	48:07
	"Lama sabachthani."	48:10
	And by this he explained, they meant,	48:14
	"Where have you been?	48:16
	What has kept you?	48:18
	Why have you left us alone like this?"	48:20
	Now doesn't this simple story	48:24
	provide us with a flood of insight?	48:27
	Doesn't this put an entirely different construction	48:31
	on the words of Jesus?	48:34
	Interpreted in this fashion,	48:37
	the anguish cry seems less an accusation of dereliction	48:40
	and much more reasonable, more human,	48:45
	more understandable.	48:50
	There's still another way	48:53
	and we can look upon this difficult passage of scripture.	48:55
	As every student of the Bible knows,	49:01
	the words of Jesus' cry from the cross	49:05
	are the opening lines of the 22nd song.	49:10
	Let me read it.	49:14
	"My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?	49:17
	Why are thou so far from helping me	49:22
	from the words of my groaning?	49:25
	Oh my God, I cry by day,	49:28
	but thou does not answer	49:31
	and by night, but find no rest.	49:32
	Yet, thou art holy	49:36
	and thrown on the praises of Israel.	49:39
	In thee, our Father is trusted.	49:44
	They trusted and thou didst deliver them.	49:48
	To thee they cried and were saved.	49:52
	To thee they trusted and were not disappointed."	49:56
	Was Jesus recalling the words of the old Psalm?	50:04
	Now we know historically, that it was a common place	50:09
	for pious Jews to repeat the 22nd Psalm	50:14
	in time of adversity to gain encouragement.	50:18
	Was Jesus' voice not despair,	50:23
	but unfaltering assurance?	50:28
	In thee our Father's trusted and thou didst deliver them.	50:32
	Here we sense neither bitterness nor despair.	50:40
	Here we find not reproach, but assurance.	50:44
	What is more,	50:50
	this is the assurance of God's triumph.	50:52
	For in the death of his son	50:55
	was the fulfillment of prophecy.	50:58
	Not to make this idea	51:01
	of prophetic fulfillment more obvious.	51:04
	We have only to read a more lines from the 22nd song.	51:06
	"Yay, dogs are around about me,	51:13
	a company of evil doors encircle me.	51:17
	They have pierced my hands and feet.	51:20
	I can count all my bones.	51:23
	They stare and gloat over me.	51:25
	They divide my garments among them.	51:28
	And for my (indistinct), they cast lots."	51:31
	Now then, what shall we make of these words from the cross?	51:36
	Do they represent human agony?	51:43
	Yes, they do.	51:46
	But surely not hopeless despair.	51:48
	The cry of anguish is authentic human suffering.	51:52
	This is Jesus, the man.	51:57
	Jesus, the man sharing our mortal condition,	52:00
	reminding us that he too has known the depths.	52:04
	But on the other hand,	52:08
	these words from the cross are the voice of prophecy.	52:11
	The fulfillment of the prophetic tradition.	52:16
	Here, we see not alone, Jesus, the man,	52:20
	but the Christ, the son of God.	52:24
	We need not fret over the seeming contradictions	52:28
	and dilemmas in this cry.	52:32
	Here are, but two aspects of a single whole,	52:35
	man and God,	52:41
	human and divine,	52:44
	the here and now	52:46
	and the hereafter.	52:48
	Let us pray.	52:51
	Oh merciful God who has made all men	52:58
	and hated nothing that thou has made	53:01
	nor desires the death of a sinner,	53:05
	but rather that he should be converted and live.	53:08
	Have mercy upon all who know thee not,	53:12
	not as thou art revealed in the gospel of thy son.	53:15
	Take from them all ignorance,	53:21
	hardness of heart and contempt of thy word.	53:25
	And so fetch them home, blessed Lord	53:30
	to thy fold that they may be made one flock	53:33
	under one shepherd, Jesus Christ, our Lord	53:37
	who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost.	53:42
	One God, world without end.	53:45
	Amen.	53:50
	(instrumental music)	53:58

Item Info

Title:

The Words from the Cross: Seven Meditations Good Friday Service Part 3 (April 16, 1965)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4r789q5w

Date:

April 16, 1965

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0292
ref5789_oq8
uachapelsermaud
duke:628081
dcrau002291
ark:/87924/r4r789q5w
29b11537-bfc6-43d0-b583-0fb887bf8efa

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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The Words from the Cross: Seven Meditations Good Friday Service Part 3 (April 16, 1965)

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Duke University Archives

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