Good Friday – Why have you forsaken me?

Welcome—This is the second night of three that
make up The Three Days.
Of all the questions in our series, this one remains
the most unanswerable. Jesus quotes the psalmist
when he cries out on the cross, “My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?” His final lament gives
voice to all those who have been forsaken—those
who suffer injustice, those who are abandoned, those
who are unjustly convicted. Instead of trying to
answer this question with logic or theology, we are
invited to live it, to sit with it. Sitting with this
unsettling question unearths and unveils many more
questions: What do we do in the face of
unimaginable suffering? Can we sit in the silence of
death and trust that God is there? Can we allow
ourselves to feel the fullness of loss? Will we be in
solidarity with those who suffer and grieve? What do we say with our last breath?

Let us pray…
Almighty God, look with loving mercy on your family, gathered here and throughout the world,
for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to suffer death on the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Let us now fully enter this space of sorrow and silence focused on this question: “What sorrows, mine or the world’s, do I bring into this space?”
Ringing of the bell.
Pause for three minutes of silence.