Theological Fragments

 Last year, we had to completely scrap our plans for our Good Friday Service at Turner Christian Church and develop something that could be done entirely online. The result of that pivot was a Good Friday Service that focuses on personal confession by observing the role of human sin in each stage of the Crucifixion story.  I was actually surprised at how east it was for me to identify all of the Seven Deadly Sins at play in the story. I have embedded the video of our Good Friday Service for you to watch, and pasted the text below. Feel free to adapt and use this liturgy. Hope it's helpful! Good Friday Confession Service Good evening, and welcome to Turner Christian Church’s online Good Friday Service. We are gathered today, across space and time, to meditate on the journey of Jesus Christ from Gethsemane up to the cross, and down to the tomb. In this story we see Jesus Christ confront the power of sin and destruction in the world—our sin, and our destructive acts. In order to und

  [The following confession was read during the January 10th worship service at Turner Christian Church, during our regular time of confession--which normally focuses on individual reflection and confession. The live recording can be found here. ] Confession today is going to look a little different. Normally we focus on confessing our individual sins and victories. However, there are several examples in scripture of what we call corporate repentance: moments when God’s people gather together and recognize that they have sinned in large, collective, systemic ways. These passages teach us that when God’s people sin on the world stage, none of us are innocent. None of us can stand apart and say we had nothing to do with it. The church is an interconnected body, and in times like these we all bear the guilt. The events in Washington DC this past week were shocking and heart-wrenching. There is footage of people cowering in the congressional chambers, praying for God to protect them. And w