As we experience Good Friday and Holy Saturday, we invite you into God’s presence. This post is part of our 2020 Lent At Home worship resource series. You can download the full Lent At Home worship guide here.
Good Friday
This Friday is considered “good” because nothing, not even Jesus’ painful death, could come between us and God’s saving love and grace.
Getting Ready
- Make a copy of the litany page for each reading participant.
- Prepare for this service with some quiet worship music and
silence. - Light all the Lent candles and the Christ candle.
- Write or draw personal confessions on slips of paper before
beginning the litany. (Keep them for the middle of the litany.) - Add a metal bowl to your worship center, in which you can burn
up your confession slips. - Plan for family or household members to take turns snuffing out
the candles. - Have family or household members take turns reading the “One” part.
Good Friday Litany
One:
When we hate or are unkind to each other, the world becomes a darker place. (extinguish one candle)
All:
Jesus taught us to love each other.
One:
When we want everything for ourselves, the world becomes a darker place. (extinguish one candle)
All:
Jesus taught us to share with others.
One:
When we scare or bully others, the world becomes a darker place. (extinguish one candle)
All:
Jesus taught us that love is better than fear.
One:
When we are jealous of others, the world becomes a darker place. (extinguish one candle)
All:
Jesus taught us contentment.
One:
When we lie, the world becomes a darker place. (extinguish one candle)
All:
Jesus taught us honesty.
One:
People’s hatred, greed, selfishness, jealousy, and dishonesty placed Jesus on the cross. (extinguish one candle)
All:
For Jesus’ friends the world seemed like a very dark place.
One:
In the darkness, Jesus said, “O God, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” (extinguish one candle)
Sing: Hymnal: A Worship Book 257 “Were you there,” Sing the Story 83 “Remember me,” or Sing the Story 84 “So much wrong,” while you burn up your confessions, lighting them with the still-burning Christ candle.
(Finish the litany on Easter Morning.)
Holy Saturday
Holy Saturday is a day for silence and quiet anticipation of Easter Sunday joy. The sadness of Jesus’ sacrificial death lingers with us, but we already anticipate resurrection joy. If your family life includes young children, it is good to let them know that we will soon be singing alleluias. This is a day where Easter eggs are traditionally painted, so we can crack them open and eat them on Easter Sunday, like the tomb that held Jesus’ body for a while was opened on Easter morning.
Activities to enrich this day in a silent, anticipatory way
- Take the chocolate that you may have been resisting during Lent and quietly chop it into chunks. Use the chunks in your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, and quietly shape the cookies into rock shapes, so they can remind you of the rock closing the tomb in which Jesus’ body lay. Allow the smell to remind you that Easter and its joy are almost here. Save the “Rock-Chocolate” cookies for Easter breakfast and beyond.
- Bake “Empty Tomb” buns. Use your favorite dinner roll recipe and quietly shape each dinner roll around a marshmallow. Seal it tightly, place the seams facing up on the pan, and wait for them to rise. Quietly wonder what will happen. As the roll bakes, the marshmallow will dissolve and leave a mysteriously empty, but sweet, cavity or tomb. Save these “Empty Tomb” buns for sharing the good news, “Christ is risen! He is not in the grave!” with each other on Easter morning.
