Good Friday - 4/7/23

<p style="margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"> <strong><span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> Many of us gathered here tonight have spent time sitting at the bedside of a relative or friend who is dying.<span style= "mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> Ken and I intimately shared this experience with Dorothy this past October as she faced the end of her life. Such an experience is sacred, and it is a deathwatch. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Quite frankly, this experience will inevitably be part of every human being’s life because none of us can escape death, whether it is the death of a dearly loved relative, a friend, or even our own death.<span style= "mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> Being present in a deathwatch is a necessary work and ritual, as we walk with loved ones to the endpoint of life.<span style= "mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></strong></p> <p style="margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"> <strong><span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> Tonight, on this day we call</span></strong> <strong><span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;"> Good</span></strong> <strong><span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> Friday, we gather and stand at the foot of the cross to experience a</span></strong> <strong><span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> deathwatch</span></strong><strong><span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> We stand together in community as we watch our friend, Jesus, draw his last breath, and we experience a form of</span></strong>