Burning Our Demons

By The Very Rev. Sherry Crompton
March 21, 2008 (Good Friday)

Read: John 18:1-19:42

“Then he bowed his head and gave up his Spirit”. It’s Good Friday. The day we are called to stand at the foot of the cross with Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. We are invited to experience our own impotence. Our inability to stop the dying.

“The Word became flesh and lived among us,” as the Gospel of John declares. (John 1:14) In a way far beyond our human capacity to know or to understand, God is in Christ, knowing our sufferings from the inside out, hallowing the blood, the sweat and the tears, converting the cross from an instrument of death to a tree of life.

Today a mystery is revealed. We are brought to the foot of the cross and invited to experience suffering and at the same time, great love. Divine love. A love that converts death to life.

Jesus died on the cross for our salvation. Offering forgiveness of our sins. Divine love.

In a little bit, during the singing of the song “He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word” you are invited to come up to this cross. This year, you are also invited to write down on those little slips of paper, whatever it is that weighs on your soul, weighs on your heart, weighs on your conscience. Whatever might keep you awake at night. Whatever secret you are afraid to share. When you come forward to venerate the cross…crumple up those pieces of paper and place them in the prayer bowl, a prayer bowl designed for burning. After we confess our sins, we will burn those pieces of paper. No one but our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will see what you wrote down. Jesus died on the cross for our salvation, for the forgiveness of our sins. He died on the cross for you and for me. Name your demons by writing them down and we will burn them together as we ask for forgiveness.

Today is Good Friday. May it be “Good” indeed. God loves us with an everlasting love. Amen.