Good Friday

Psalm 22
Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-33
1 Peter 1:10-20

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope...

Hope is a such a rare thing in our society.  We live in a world crying out for hope, desperate for hope.  You can see it everywhere.  In 2008 the mere word energized the population into electing a president.  Yet, it seems that that hope is not realized.  You can see it in the faces of Tea Partiers and Occupiers alike; you can see it everywhere.  Now, I'm not here to make a political statement (this not the place for that, and today is certainly not the day) except for this, that hope is not to be found in elections or presidents or legislation or protests or social movements.  Hope is not found in a better economy or a different government or a healthier environment.  Hope is found only in one place: the one who today in unutterable shame and agony bled and died upon the cross.

At first I found it odd that the readings today spoke so much of hope.  Today, after all, we remember the darkest hours in all of history.  It must have really been a rather hopeless day to the followers of Jesus.  As far as they were concerned there was no escaping Roman justice, no escaping death.  It must have seemed that there was nothing to be done.  It was over; their hope in Jesus must have been misplaced.  Now their only stark hope was to be able to escape sharing in Jesus' fate.  

It is, however, in those darkest moments, those most hopeless times, that only hope in God can endure.    I think that is what we are to be reminded of today, why we live out this week and especially these three days every year.  It is because they take us to the bottom of hopelessness, the very death of him who is our Hope.  They leave us there weeping at the dark and shaken foot of the cross, with the blood and water dripping down.  In that moment we have only Hope to cling to, all else is gone.

Our lives never descend to the depths of Good Friday, but they do go often go pretty low.  It is not so rare I think to be left with only hope to cling to.  Yet, if our hope is not the one Hope then it too will melt through our fingers.

Therefore, gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

You see, while these holy days teach us how to live in hope even at the foot of the cross, they also assure us that our hopes are not unfounded.  This darkest day is followed so quickly by the great triumph.  The hopelessness of the cross is trampled down by the victory of the resurrection. 

Let us today remember the affliction and the bitterness, the wormwood and the gall.  Let us continually think of it and be bowed down.  Yet let us also call to mind and have hope that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases no matter how dark the hour.  Let our souls say "The Lord is my portion therefore I will have hope."  Then let us, secure in the Hope, declare our Hope to a hopeless generation, proclaim to that people yet unborn the deliverance which He has wrought.