April 18, 2025 Good Friday
Prelude: Be On Guard, My Protector
(Sehr langsam from Sonate III)
Paul Hindemith
Welcome
The Service of Shadows
The Shadow of Betrayal
Reading: Matthew 26:20-25
Response: Ah, Holy Jesus (Hymn 93)
Crüger/Heermann
Ah, Holy Jesus, how have you offended,
that mortal judgment has on you descended?
By foes derided, by your own rejected, O most afflicted!
Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon you?
It is my treason, Lord, that has undone you.
‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied you; I crucified you.
The Shadow of the Agony of Spirit and Arrest
Reading: Matthew 26:36-50
Response Solo: Shadows Lengthen into Night
Bringle/Morris
Betsy Hammond
In the garden, still and deep, those he asked to watch and pray,
Heavy-lidded, fall asleep, weary from the anxious day.
Shadows lengthen into night.
Deeper in the garden’s chill, Jesus kneels to pray alone,
Wrestling with God’s holy will, crying out, “Let it be done!”
Shadows lengthen into night.
All too soon, the silence rends, with a crash of club and sword.
Judas, still received as “Friend,” with a kiss betrays his Lord.
Shadows lengthen into night.
The Shadow of Denial
Reading: Matthew 26:69-75
Response: Incantation
William Grant Still
Jill Cathey, oboe
The Shadow of Accusation
Reading: Matthew 27:11-15, 20-29
Response: O Sacred Head, Now Wounded (Hymn 98)
Hassler/Bernard of Clarivaux
O sacred head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down;
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, thine only crown;
O sacred head, what glory, what bliss till now was thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call thee mine.
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.
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,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to thee.
The Shadow of Crucifixion and Humiliation
Reading: Matthew 27:31-43
Response: Vexations
Erik Satie
The Shadow of Death
Reading: Matthew 27:45-54
Response: Throned Upon the Awful Tree (Hymn 99)
Ellerton/French & Welsh melody
Throned upon the awful tree, Lamb of God, Your grief I see,
Darkness veils Your anguished face; none its lines of woe can trace.
None can tell what pangs unknown hold You silent and alone—
Silent through those three dread hours, wrestling with the evil powers,
Left alone with human sin, gloom around You and within,
Till the appointed time is nigh, till the Lamb of God may die.
The Christ Candle is Removed
The Shadow of Burial
Reading: Matthew 27:57-60
Response: Were You There? (Hymn 102)
African-American Spiritual
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? (Were you there?)
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? (Were you there?)
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?...
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?…
Silent Meditation and Departure
OneLicense# A-727502
CCLI# 283345
