You are invited to participate by reading aloud the sections in bold/italics.

Call to Worship

Eternal God,
in the cross of Jesus
we see the cost of our sin
and the depth of your love:
look with mercy on this your family
for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed
and given up into the hands of sinners and to suffer death upon the cross;
may we place at his feet
all that we have and all that we are,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Journey to the Cross (Part 1)

As told in Luke 22:48-51; 54-57; 61-63; 65-66; 70-71; 23:20-23; 26

When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’

While he was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him; but Jesus said to him, ‘Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?’

When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, ‘Lord, should we strike with the sword?’ Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, ‘No more of this!’ And he touched his ear and healed him.

Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house. But Peter was following at a distance.

When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. Then a servant-girl, seeing him in the firelight, stared at him and said, ‘This man also was with him.’ But he denied it, saying, ‘Woman, I do not know him.’ The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.

Now the men who were holding Jesus began to mock him and beat him. They kept heaping many other insults on him. When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, gathered together, and they brought him to their council. All of them asked, ‘Are you, then, the Son of God?’ He said to them, ‘You say that I am.’ Then they said, ‘What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips!’

Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again; but they kept shouting, ‘Crucify, crucify him!’ A third time he said to them, ‘Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.’ But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed.

Song: Looking for a Savior

I abandon my addictions to certainty of life
My need to know everything
This illusion can speak
It cannot walk with me tonight
As I taste life’s fragility

I am looking for a savior
I can see and know and touch
One who dwells within the midst of us
May a broken God be known
In the earth beneath our feet
May our souls behold humility
May our souls behold humility

When our plans become the casualties
In getting through the day
We begin to know our weakness
And denial isn’t strong enough
To hold our fears at bay
And we can’t escape our emptiness

I am looking for a savior
I can see and know and touch
One who dwells within the midst of us
May a broken God be known
In the earth beneath our feet
May our souls behold humility
May our souls behold humility

I can’t pretend to know
The beginning from the end
But there’s beauty in the life was given
We may bless or we may curse
Every twist and every turn
Will we learn to know the joy of living
Will we learn to know the joy of living

Journey to the Cross (Part 2)

As told in Mark 15:22, 25-27; 33-34 | John 19:30 | Luke 22:46

As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.

Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull).  It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, ‘The King of the Jews.’ And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left.

When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last.

Practice: Cruciformity

Song: Jesus Paid It All

I hear the Savior say
Thy strength indeed is small
Child of weakness watch and pray
Find in me thine all in all

Jesus paid it all, All to him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and thine alone
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone

Jesus paid it all, All to him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow

And when before the throne
I stand in him complete
Jesus died my soul to save
My lips shall still repeat

Reflection: “Father Forgive”

The Cross of Christ

All our problems
We send to the cross of Christ!
All our difficulties
We send to the cross of Christ!
The trials of the desert
We send to the cross of Christ!
All our hopes
We send to the cross of Christ!

Song: How He Loves

He is jealous for me
Love’s like a hurricane,
I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy

When all of a sudden
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize just how beautiful You are
And how great your affections are for me

Oh, how He loves us so
Oh, how He loves us
How He loves us so

So we are His portion
and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking

So heaven meets Earth
like a sloppy wet kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about the way

That He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves

Journey to the Cross (Part 3)

As told in Matthew 27:57-58 | John 19:39-41

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.

Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid.