What’s good about Jesus’ Friday death?
Good Friday service is at 7pm at PEACE Lutheran Church. Marc Chagall painted “The White Crucifixion” in 1938. Courtesy WikiArt.
Two Good Friday services help us remember the extraordinary sacrifice Jesus made for all humanity. This is the most solemn day in the year for believers, and we invite you to be touched and moved by this awesome mystery!
Solemn, serious, somber — and yet so uplifting! Our liturgy has a poetic, chanting quality that will bring you to a deeply spiritual place. You will feel God’s Spirit calling to you. No matter who you are, or what you have done, or what you think of yourself. God loves you and wants you close to Him!
- Our noon Good Friday-Tenebrae service will be held at 12 p.m. Friday, April 19, at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 235 S. Church St., Grass Valley. This is an ecumenical service involving PEACE, Emmanuel and Grass Valley United Methodist Church.
- Our evening Good Friday-Tenebrae will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, April 19, at PEACE Lutheran Church. This also is an ecumenical service involving these three congregations.
We Lutherans believe we are an Easter people living in a Good Friday world! Death and destruction dominate. We struggle even in the best of circumstances. “We are but dust,” the psalmist cries out.
“Where are you, God???” Jesus himself gasped this anguished reproach on behalf of every human being that ever lived. If God’s own Son could feel utterly abandoned by the Creator, how are we supposed to manage? How can we believe in a loving God who cares for us?
Easter. That’s how. God doesn’t take away our suffering. But he suffers with us. He waits with us, even when we feel dead. Then, he works a miracle on us. Something amazing and unearthly radiates through us. Something lifts us out of our tomb. Something sets us on our feet and fills us with new life.
But to get to Easter, we have to die at Good Friday. “Tenebrae” comes from a Latin word meaning “shadow.” Can we face our own shadows to follow Jesus to the cross? (Yikes, God, when you put it that way, I’m not so sure…)
Living in a Faith Community
Weak in the knees, unsure of ourselves, but clinging to God for dear life — yes, we can! We invite you to do it with us, week after week, by living in a faith community that celebrates the resurrection God works in us!