Easter

This is a copy of a Good Friday liturgy that I created in 2006 for a youth Easter Camp, please feel free to use it in your Good Friday preparations. Prior to the camp we made a coffin out of wood, painted it and painted the lid in gloss white paint so we could write on the lid, I brought some textas and candles. We set the space up as a half circle, with the cross and a lit candle in the centre.

Introduction:

Liturgy – “God on a Stick” – Link (From the book Alternative Worship)

Readings:

Read: Funeral Blues by Auden

Play: Peter Gabriel – “I Grieve”

As the song finished the cross was taken out and the coffin replaced it’s space.

Liturgy – “I Wonder”

I wonder
I wonder how the disciples spent the night
Hiding from the soldiers
Hiding from each other
Hiding from their shame
Their regret
Their failure as friends and as brothers
How they consoled each other
How they ate
Where they were
Where they hid
Was it cold
Was it dark
Was it hidden away
I wonder where the women were
How they spent their night
How they consoled each other
How they dealt with their grief
I wonder if they were consoled by the disciples
If they spent the night alone
Crying, screaming, sobbing….

I wonder how Mary spent the night
How she cried over the death of her child
How she could have slept ever again
Exhaustion and dehydration kicking in
Headaches, nausea, cramps…
Reminding her of the pain of carrying a child
The months of pregnancy
The pains of childbirth
He was my son
This isn’t how I pictured it
I used to clean his wounds
Now all I can do is grieve his loss
This doesn’t make sense
I’m supposed to go first
I’m not supposed to bury my son
Definitely not one so blessed
So innocent
So, so…
So mine

I wonder how Judas felt
What was going through his mind
This doesn’t make sense
I’m confused
This isn’t the way that it should have gone
This isn’t how I planned it
He was the messiah wasn’t he?
He was the one to bring the end to all evil
The one, the king to rule over the world
The one to bring redemption
I thought he was going to be confrontational
Be a revolutionary
Be violent
Destroy those who stood between Israel and freedom
It was the time
I went to get the kings men,
To arrest Jesus
To bring the conflict
It started out ok
Mark with his sword
Soldiers ready to battle
But
But
But he went peacefully
Not a struggle
He even healed the man’s ear…
This isn’t how I planned it
This isn’t how we planned it
It doesn’t make sense

I wonder how Peter felt
Grieving the loss of his brother
Of his friend
Of his master
I remember first meeting him
He was different than anyone I knew
He called, I followed,
I’m still not sure why
He spoke with compassion
He excited me
Sometimes to the point that I’d say silly things…
But still he’d love me as a brother
Heh, what was I thinking “Let’s build tents for you all to stay in”
He loved me still though
He called me the rock
Although I don’t feel like one right now
I should have been killed with him
I should have been at his right hand
I should have confessed him out loud
Instead
Instead I denied him
I was afraid
I don’t get it
He should be here now
This isn’t how I pictured it
This isn’t how I planned it
This doesn’t make sense
I’d give anything to see his face again
To hold his hand again
To eat with him again
To hear his voice
Just one more time
I don’t understand…

I wonder how all the other disciples felt
I’m confused
I don’t want to go back to fishing
Where to now
He was the one…
Wasn’t he?
He was the one that was going to bring about peace
This isn’t the way I pictured it
Only days before we entered the town to cheers and applause
Now
Now we hide, our leader dead
Our friend dead
Our brother dead
Our messiah dead
I’m confused
Why did this happen
He was the one wasn’t he?
Am I to blame?
Could I have done something
Said something
Stopped him from dying

I wonder how you feel
You’ve been with him on his journey
You were with him as he was born
You were with him when he was baptized
When he was tempted
When he healed a leper
When he fed thousands
When he walked on water
When he made friends
When he ate
When he was on trial
When he died
You’ve been a part of the story
Just as much as the disciples
Even more so
You’ve been in on all the inside jokes
All the prophecies
You stayed awake while the disciples could only sleep
You were there when he met the woman at the well
When he was challenged by a woman
When he healed the dead child
You were there when he turned all the tables over in the temple
When he was happy
When he was sad
When he cried to God for his life
When the children of the town sat on his lap
And we don’t get it
We don’t understand, any more than the disciples did
He’s dead
Our messiah is dead
Our leader is dead
Our friend is dead
Our brother is dead
This isn’t the way that we’d planned it
This isn’t the way we’d pictured it

I wonder how you’re feeling right now
What questions you have
What tears you want to shed
What memory of Jesus you hold onto tight
What’s the thing about him that you want to remember
What’s your favorite story
Your favorite memory
Your favorite lesson

I wonder if you had a question what it’d be
If you could see his face one last time what you’d say
What’s on your mind
What’s on your heart
What do you want to ask

Me
Me, I’m full of questions
I’m full of stories
I’m full of tears
But if I had one question
One thing I could ask I know what it’d be
I want to know
Why?

– here’s where I invited the community to walk to the coffin in the centre of the room and write their questions, their feelings, their favorite Jesus story on the coffin’s lid, we had candles to light, pens to write with and lots of time.

– I’d placed the textas and candles on the coffin as I spoke the wondering liturgy, walking around the coffin, occasionally placing my hand on it, acknowledging the coffin as a piece in the story, in the liturgy I’d ask a number of the questions to the coffin, without an answer…

– during the following time we played Peter Gabriel’s “I Grieve” and Lou Rhode’s “Why”

End….

John 10:11-18 (NRSV)
1 John 3:16-24 (NRSV)
Acts 4:5-12 (NRSV)
Psalm 23 (The Message)

Song Suggestions: Together To Celebrate

Jesus Stinks

I preached over at Cooma Uniting this morning, I was a tad sleep deprived due to having to drive home from Sydney the night before and only getting home at 3am but I still managed to do it with a great deal of energy, primarily sourced from a few Krispy Kreme donuts eaten for breakfast… This Sunday was Shepherd Sunday, I’ve posted the readings above for you to chase down if you so wish.

I started by asking the congregation to close their eyes and imagine Jesus the Good Shepherd, clean white robes, little bo peep crook, clean flowing hair, nice complexion, blue eyes, clean feet with all the happy fluffy white sheep following him behind.

Then I stopped and told them all that this image was a falsity, it was a lie, it was an imaginary picture developed by someone who had no idea at all about working with animals.

I was in a 2 year relationship with a girl who was studying agricultural science, she’d come home from a day at university all covered in dirt and who knows what from a day out on the field. I remember her coming home one night jumping with excitement
Her: “Guess what I did today!!! I helped a cow give birth to a calf!!!! My arm was up to my shoulders inside the cow!!! IT was so exciting!!!!”
Me: “Ummmm, that’s nice, how about you shower two times and scrub that arm before you touch me again eh?”

And on another day she came home…
Her: “We learnt how to castrate pigs today!!! Our lecturer showed us how to finish the job off with HIS TEETH!!!! Hahaha, it was so funny…”
Me: Ummmmm, that’s, well, wrong on so many levels, how about you shower three times and then brush your teeth before you kiss me tonight eh?

And I was in a rather short relationship with a shearer, in which I learnt that showers and laundry visits were few and far between, it was like she had to buy new clothes each time she came home to replace the ones that she’d worn for the last 4 months on the land…

Here’s the thing, if you work with animals you smell, you can stink to high heaven at times, white robes, flowing clean hair, clean feet, happy sheep… that’s all a lie, it’s a myth.

I liked the image that Sarah posted the other day of the shepherd, she says that “shepherding was more about survival than it was about serenity” for the shepherd their livelihood, and that of their family rested on the health of their flock, which meant that they’d have to travel for ages to find decent pastures to feed, they’d have to sleep with the sheep, constantly watching over them, and on occasions standing between them and wolves, risking their own lives.

Being a shepherd was more about survival than it was about serenity…

And in the times of Jesus shepherds were looked upon as the not-so-desirables, especially by the family first crew who weren’t too happy with the idea that one could leave their family behind in order to find sheep food to eat and water to drink. They’d have to put up with the long day’s sun and cold nights, they’d have sun spots, dry skin, they’d be dirty, they’d suffer the worst working conditions, they’d have to help sheep give birth and help heal them when in need, and what’s more…

They’d stink like sheep.

I think that there’s some truth in Bill Loader’s point that:

The shepherd was a common image used for rulers, from ancient Egypt to Israel. It reflected both versatile strength and nurture. It was an image of engaged leadership. That the ideal king, David, was once a shepherd could easily be the creation of legend; it fits so well; perhaps it just a ‘legendary’ fact.

But I think that was more of an afterthought than a reality, perhaps some leaders were attributed shepherd like qualities, but I doubt it worked the other way round with shepherds being given leadership like qualities…

And so, in one hand we have the mythical good shepherd, and in the other the reality of working with animals, the reality of being a shepherd… And it doesn’t matter whether you’re the good shepherd or not, being a shepherd still meant long nights, long sunny days, hard work and smelly work conditions.

And this is the reality that the disciples found themselves living in after the resurrection, the reality that being a disciple, being a shepherd is all about survival, it’s about getting one’s hands dirty, it’s about living lives that people may think are less desirable, it’s about getting so close to the people you’re ministering with, caring for, living with that you start to smell like them.

The early church could have chosen to be more about serenity than about survival, it could have chosen the clean shepherd, but it didn’t, it lived a radical existence with people placing their goods into the community and being given back all they needed to survive, it was about healing the sick, taking care of the poor, about recognizing that there is no Jew, no Greek, no slave, no woman in the kingdom of God…

And here we are, after the resurrection facing the same issues, do we get dirty? Do we throw away the myth of the white robed shepherd and adopt the role of shepherd? Do we adopt the role of sheep or shepherd? Are we serious enough about this good news to get our hands dirty, to really start stinking, to smell like the people we live around, like the people in our work places, in our schools, in our town…

What would our world look like, what would our town look like if instead of concentrating on our inner serenity, about our own spiritual lives, about reading the bible more, praying more, confessing more, singing more hymns, studying more and started concentrating on survival, on getting in touch with the pastures.

What would your school look like if you decided to get stinky?
What would your workplace look like if you decided to smell?
What would your church look like if it was full of people who smelt like everyone else in your town?

The reality is that the good shepherd stank to high heaven, he needed to, for the sake of the flock, for the sake of his family, for the sake of his life.

The reality is that in the end the good shepherd stank like blood, spit, bitter wine, tears, sweat, wood, sand, dirt…

And that’s the reality that we, like the early church are faced with, the choice is ours to choose… Sheep or Shepherd, Myth or Reality, Clean or Smelly…

–

And for those of you who were wondering what story I told for the “Children’s Talk” I chose Pete the Sheep by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley it’s a fantastic, funny, thematic and pretty cool picture book…

Good Friday Liturgy

Year B / Easter 4 – Shepherd Sunday