The recording is the full service. The service was a Tenebrae service built around the seven words of Jesus from the cross. The rhythm and theater of the service is Reading, Hymn (which in this case is three verses of a hymn each reading specifically designed for this service), a meditation and the dowsing of a candle (which you can’t see, sorry).

A meditation on the seven words from the cross ends up being a different animal than the fuller passion reading. You aren’t really telling the story or reflecting on any of the other characters. It is strictly about what is so important that Jesus says it to us while he is on the cross. I think you might find it surprisingly moving. I always have.

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Meditation Drafts

The service is a Good Friday Tenebrae service built around the seven last words from the cross. The Choir sings an opening, middle and closing as well as the texts. After each text there is a short meditation on it. The congregation responds singing the hymnals meditation LSB 447, Jesus, In Your Dying Woes. Then slowly, one-by-one, seven candles are extinguished.

It is a unique service and a unique preaching chance. It is seven mini-sermons. It is seven funeral sermons in a way. Words that are full of pathos, and prayerfully hope.

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Full Draft

Our Good Friday service tonight differed from our normal community reading of the passion story. Our choir took on the task of Carl Schalk’s Seven Words from the Cross. That piece formed the reading. It was followed by a short meditation on those words and then a congregational response in the form of LSB 447, Jesus in Your Dying Woes, which is a form of the Seven Words devotional itself. One of the seven candles are put out after each of the words. The recording is the full service.

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