Good Friday Church

Black was the mood and color of the Good Friday church service we attended this morning.

I was sitting in the balcony……here’s how the wall next to me looked:

The walls of our 136-year-old church sanctuary are lined with embossed tin, covered in a coat of paint. The walls are blue, the ceiling is whitish. I was sitting in the balcony, right below the junction of the wall and ceiling, and near the peak of the tall stained-glass windows.

I was sitting with the choir; we sang Were You There When They Crucified My Lord. We had five sopranos, two altos, and five men…..a good turn-out. I used to sing soprano, but switched to alto a few years ago and I love it!

The service consisted of responsive readings of Psalms interspersed with congregational hymns, and Gospel readings done by the pastor. He had a sermon, too, but honestly I can’t recall much about it right now. Mostly, I was thinking about a quote another blogger had mentioned to me recently……something to the effect that “religion can be a place in which to hide from God”. That’s a thought provoker! Do I do such a thing, I wonder? Is it an easier routine to get involved in churchy stuff rather than “Love thy neighbor as thyself” stuff? Could be.

One of the congregational hymns we sang was O Sacred Head, Now Wounded. I get along fine until the fifth verse:

What language can I borrow

To thank you, dearest friend

For this your dying sorrow

Your mercy without end?

Then I choke up and can’t sing the rest of the hymn because I’m thinking of dear friends, and Friend, of course. Nothing I can do about it……it just happens every year.

On Good Friday we’re supposed to focus on Christ’s suffering and death on the cross. I try to, really I do, but then I always go on to think that there have been lots of people who have experienced terrible anguish and sufferings in life, due to tortures or injuries, physical or mental, sometimes lasting for long periods of time. The pastor said Christ’s hours of suffering were ultimately worse because He had to take on the guilt of the sins of ALL people, past, present, and future.

I realize the possibility exists that some readers of this blog are non-Christian. Its OK…..you are welcome here. Please don’t go away. The older I get, the more easily I can see the aspects of Christianity that are not particularly attractive to others. It seems that ALL religions have their negative aspects. I struggle, and have doubts-—believe me, I do---wondering about it all sometimes. Why am I a Christian, anyway? Because I was reared that way. If you are not a Christian…..why is that? Mostly because you weren’t reared that way, probably. We’re all just people trying to make our way through life, usually on a path laid out before us when we were children.