Friday Daily Prayer

April 10, 2020

Holy God,

Sunny days seem both a cruel and gracious backdrop to this Holy Week. We bask in beautiful calming rays as they stream into our windows, mercifully forgetting, in the moment, that darkness envelopes our world these days, as it did on that night in the garden so long ago. 

We wonder, did Jesus have the same mercy of enjoying beauty, while facing deep suffering? In gratitude, we offer deep thanks for these moments of reprieve. And, in our humanity, we succumb to grips of fear and depression; grief, sorrow, and anguish - emotions all too familiar to our Jesus in the garden, and to your ears as you watched on in heart-rending compassion. 

God, on this day which we call "good," we are struck by how vastly inadequate a name this is for such a day as Good Friday. On a day wrought with pain and agony, we acknowledge that the goodness lies in a hope much deeper than anything we could ever explain: that your dream for the world is for love to endure and loom larger than fear. That division that "other" people who deviate from a norm that we have set in place will fall apart and in its place will be a shared humanity that recognizes the divine in each beloved child of God. 

We remember today, the road to Calvary, the weight of the cross, the soul-gutting sound of nail piercing flesh. A scene so quiet with horror and awe, that one could probably hear the blood drop from the savior's forehead to the ground below. 

In all our shared anguish, today, we give thanks for the man of sorrows. Finding solidarity in the shared experience of suffering as a given in life, we lift our hearts to join the cry, "our God, our God, why have you forsaken us?" 

And yet, we know the story is not over. Oh blessed hope, fill us today with strength for the dark night and hope for a brighter tomorrow and even more magnificent Sunday. Let us not, however, lay aside in discomfort, the magnitude of this holy, holy day of death and sacrifice. 

We hold in tension the sorrow and the joy of this most holy of weeks on this day.

Bless us, O God, as we remember. 

This is our prayer, through he who comes in the name of the Lord,

Amen. 

—
Sara Robb-Scott
Pastor for Senior Adults and Pastoral Care
First Baptist Church Decatur