GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE OF DARKNESS - Grace of God Lutheran Church
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GOOD FRIDAY
SERVICE OF DARKNESS
April 2, 2021
7:00 pm
The images accompanying the Passion Reading tonight are details from the Isenheim altarpiece by Matthias
Grünewald painted between 1512 and 1516. It was placed in the St. Anthony Monastery hospital in Isenheim,
France where plague patients were treated and cared for. The painting served as a comfort to both patients and
care-givers because it showed Christ suffering with them and for them. Many have found the same comfort and
hope in this painting, and during the current pandemic it is of significant importance to remember that Christ is
with us in all our suffering. In all of life we find hope and comfort in Christ crucified.
1
WELCOME
Please observe silence before the service.
Our worship tonight focuses on the cross. We will hear the Passion reading according to St. John in seven
parts. As we hear the story we will extinguish candles symbolizing the voluntary offering of Jesus’ own life for
our salvation. All are invited to bring a nail to the cross and pound it into the word of the cross at the
appointed time in the service. You can receive a nail when you enter.
GREETING AND PRAYER
P The Lord be with you.
C And also with you.
P God, we ask you to look with mercy on your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be
betrayed and to be given over to the hands of sinners and to suffer death on the cross; who now lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
C Amen
SONG Sung by cantor:
L Ours were the griefs he bore, ours were the pains he carried.
Ours were the sins he took on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
RESPONSIVE READING Isaiah 53
P He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.
C He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should
desire him.
P He was despised and rejected by others, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
C Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
P Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,
C yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
P But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought
us peace was upon him,
C and by his wounds we are healed.
P We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;
C and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
P He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
C he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did
not open his mouth.
P He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death,
C though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
P Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
C because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.
P For he bore the sin of many,
C and made intercession for the transgressors.
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SONG Sung by ALL:
a
THE PASSION OF OUR LORD
ACCORDING TO JOHN
PART 1
John 18:1-11
(The first candle is extinguished.)
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HYMN
O sacred head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded, with thorns your only crown,
O sacred head, no glory now from your face does shine;
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call you mine.
PART 2
John 18:12-27
(The second candle is extinguished.)
4
HYMN
My song is love unknown,
my Savior's love to me,
love to the loveless shown
that they might lovely be.
Oh, who am I that for my sake
my Lord should take frail flesh and die?
PART 3
John 18:28-19:3
(The third candle is extinguished.)
HYMN
How pale you are with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn;
Your face, your eyes now languish, which once were bright as morn!
Your grief and bitter passion were all for sinners' gain;
mine, mine was the transgression, but yours the deadly pain.
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PART 4
John 19:4-17
The fourth candle is extinguished.)
HYMN
He came from his blest throne
salvation to bestow;
the world that was his own
would not its Savior know.
But, oh, my friend, my friend indeed,
who at my need his life did spend!
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PART 5
John 19:18-24
(The fifth candle is extinguished.)
During the hymn and music you may bring a nail forward and pound it into the wood of the cross as a
reminder that our sin put Jesus on the cross and his deep and abiding love for sinners kept him there.
ALL SING REFRAIN
Oh, Lamb of God Sweet Lamb of God
I love the holy Lamb of God
Oh, wash me in His precious blood
My Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God
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PART 6
John 19:25-30
(The sixth candle is extinguished.)
HYMN
Here might I stay and sing—
no story so divine!
Never was love, dear King,
never was grief like thine.
This is my friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend!
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PART 7
John 19:31-42
(The seventh candle is extinguished.)
What language shall I borrow to thank you, dearest Friend,
For this your dying sorrow, your pity without end?
Oh, make me yours forever, and keep me strong and true;
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love for you.
PRAYER
Let us pray.
Almighty God, you willed that your Son should bear for us the pains of the cross and so remove from us the
power of the adversary. Help us to remember and give thanks for our Lord's passion so that we may receive
forgiveness of sin and redemption from everlasting death; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. For
thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
9HYMN
Abide with me! fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless:
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness:
Where is death’s sting? where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes.
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heav'n's morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee.
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
THE RESURRECTION
OF OUR LORD
Easter Sunday, April 4
7:00 am in person gathering with Holy Communion
9:00 am in person gathering and live streaming with Holy Communion
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