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    • Sunday service - Holy Communion December 28, 2025 at 9:30 am – 11:00 am Grace Church 215 Pleasant Street, Sheldon, VT Website: www.gracechurchsheldon.comTime:  09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)        Every week on Sun.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/83929911344?pwd=alZQTWZMN0ZkWFFPS1hmNjNkZkU2UT09Meeting ID: 839 2991 1344Password: Call for detailsOne tap mobile+13126266799,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (Chicago)+19294362866,,83929911344#,,1#,816603# US (New York)Dial by your location        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)        +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)Meeting ID:…
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Good Friday   March 30, 2018

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Beth Crane

The following are excerpts from a meditation by Martin Smith of the Society of St, John the Evangelist. The meditation is called “No More Tears.”

The suffering of God is one of the deepest mysteries of the Christian faith. Those who hear about it for the first time are often shocked, for this mystery doesn’t lie on the surface of the scriptures but deep down.

…In the agony and crucifixion of Jesus God was not hurt merely by sympathy with the latest prophet to be martyred. God suffered in Christ.  The audacious teaching of the early Christians that Jesus was the Incarnation of God’s Word and Wisdom had the staggering consequence of making the crucifixion on Golgotha God’s climactic suffering at the hands of his own creatures. God suffers.

Maybe this [Good Friday] could  be a good time for [us] to ponder this mystery. It could help [us] realize how revolutionary the doctrine of the incarnation is. If Jesus is nothing more than the greatest prophet of God, then we can leave God out of suffering in heaven. But if the Crucified is God, then God is revealed as the one who is with us in suffering. The concept of God as a remote and dispassionate observer is smashed as an idol.

What effect might is have in [our own lives] to ponder this mystery?…We may find our way of  thinking of God’s presence in the world undergoing a change. If God suffers, then God can truly be recognized by faith as present everywhere in a creation that groans in travail. We will stop praying to God to pay attention to this or that tragedy. God doesn’t need to pay attention to suffering because he is already present in and with the sufferers, and from that place of pain is moving us to contribute our caring and loving to his.

Contemplating the mystery of God’s cross will change the way we come to terms with our own pain. If we have explored the mystery beforehand we may, when sickness, death, betrayal, or disappointment befall us, be better prepared to see that God is not far from us, but keeps us company and continues to hold us up with those hands that from the beginning of time have been pierced with unimaginable nails.

But such is the mystery that all the seasons of Lent left to us in this life will not be enough to sound its depths. Only by seeing Christ in the glory of the Father with his hands, feet,  and side still pierced with wounds will we grasp that Mystery—or be grasped by it.

Martin L. Smith, SSJE, “No More Tears,” in Nativities and Passions, pp. 148-151.

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Good Friday–April 18, 2014

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Beth Crane

“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” The moving hymn asks that searching question. We were not literally there all those years ago, but, walking the Way of the Cross, we are there now.

Sometimes I wonder, Would I have been so afraid of the authorities that I would have denied him as Peter did? Herod and Pilate could snuff out a life in an instant. Maybe I would have been that afraid. I hope I wouldn’t have betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver the way Judas did, but can I honestly say that I would not have denied I knew him? I don’t know.

Would I have gotten caught up in the mob psychology that makes us do things we would not ordinarily do and yelled out, “Crucify him?” I hope not, but I do not honestly know what I would have done.

Mary, his mother, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene followed him every step of the way. There they were, as close to that horrible instrument of torture as anyone could get. Jesus looked down from the cross and told Mary and John, his beloved disciple, that they were mother and son. In the midst of the horror, he created a new family, and we are part of that big family. Would we have had the courage those women had, to follow him, never to waver, and to stand at the foot of that cross? We hope and pray that we would have been faithful and would have followed him to the end, but we do not know for sure what choices we would have made.

But we know what our Lord did. He took all that hate and turned it into love. He took all that death and turned it into life.

His love is stronger than any earthly power. We are with him now. We are standing at the foot of the cross. And he is pouring out that love and filling us with that love and healing and new life. May we accept his love. May we accept the gift of his forgiveness. May we share those gifts with others. Amen.

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