In a world where famine, disease, war, and the ravages of climate change are consuming our senses, it is only natural to say, as Holy Week concludes, “What Good is Good Friday?”.

I take solace from the words of theologian NT Wright as he wisely observes.
“We are summoned by the most powerful love in the world to live by the pattern of death and resurrection, repentance and forgiveness, in daily Christian living, in sure hope of eventual victory. The “problem of evil” is not simply or purely a “cosmic” thing; it is also a problem about me. And God has dealt with that problem on the cross of his Son, the Messiah. The cross is the place where, and the means by which, God loved us to the uttermost.” N.T. Wright

Clearly there is much anti-Christian rhetoric floating around. And, we appear to be in a period which has come to be called “Post Christian”. There are many reasons for this which will not be the focus of this piece. However, Holy Week, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday epitomizes the nexus of belief for Christians worldwide.

My favorite theologian mentor is Walter Brueggemann. His Prayer for Good Friday keeps me centered during this day.

Holy God who hovers daily round us in fidelity and compassion,

     this day we are mindful of another, dread-filled hovering,

     that of the power of death before which we stand

          thin and needful.

All our days, we are mindful of the pieces of our lives

     and the parts of your world

     that are on the loose in destructive ways.

We notice that wildness midst our fear and our anger unresolved.

We mark it in a world of brutality and poverty and hunger

     all around us.

We notice all our days.

But on this day of all days,

     the great threat looms so large and powerful.

It is not for nothing

     that we tremble at these three hours of darkness

          and the raging earthquake.

It is not for nothing

     that we have a sense of our helplessness

     before the dread power of death that has broken loose

     and that struts against our interest and even against our will.

Our whole life is not unlike the playground in the village,

     lovely and delightful and filled with squeals unafraid,

     and then we remember the silencing

          of all those squeals in death,

     and we remember the legions of Kristy’s

     that are swept away in a riddle too deep for knowing.

Our whole life is like that playground

     and on this dread-filled Friday we pause before

          the terrible silencing we cannot master.

So we come in our helpless candor this day…

     remembering, giving thanks, celebrating…

     but not for one instant unmindful of dangers too ominous

     and powers too sturdy and threats well beyond us.

We turn eventually from our hurt for children lost.

We turn finally from all our unresolved losses

     to the cosmic grief as the loss of Jesus.

We recall and relive that wrenching Friday

     when the hurt cut to your heart.

We see in that terrible hurt, our losses

     and your full embrace of loss and defeat.

We dare pray while the darkness descends

     and the earthquake trembles,

     we dare pray for eyes to see fully

          and mouths to speak fully the power of death all around,

     we dare pray for a capacity to notice unflinching

          that in our happy playgrounds other children die,

               and grow silent,

     we pray more for your notice and your promise

          and your healing.

Our only urging on Friday is that you live this as we must

     impacted but not destroyed,

     dimmed but not quenched.

For your great staying power

     and your promise of newness we praise you.

It is in your power

     and your promise that we take our stand this day.

We dare trust that Friday is never the last day,

     so we watch for the new day of life.

Hear our prayer and be your full self toward us.

Amen.

-From Walter Brueggemann’s collection of prayers, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth