Maundy Thursday
20 March 2008
THEME AND SUGGESTED SERMON TITLE: MYSTERY AND MERCY: IN
REMEMBRANCE
LECTIONARY TEXTS
Exodus 12: 1-4, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26; John 13:
1-17, 31b-35
Exodus 12:1-14
YAHWEH said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2This month
shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month
of the year for you. 3Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the
tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for
each household. 4If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall
join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in
proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5Your lamb shall be
without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from
the goats. 6You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month;
then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at
twilight. 7They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two
doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8They shall
eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9Do not eat any of it raw or
boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and
inner organs. 10You shall let none of it remain until the morning;
anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11This is how
you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your
staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover
of the LORD. 12For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and
I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human
beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I
am the LORD. 13The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you
live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall
destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14This day shall be a day
of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the
LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual
ordinance.
Psalm 116
1I love the LORD, who has heard my voice and my supplications.
2Because God’s ear is inclined to me, therefore I will call on my
Deliverer as long as I live. 3The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.
4Then I called on the name of YAHWEH: “O God, I pray, save my
life!”
5Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful. 6God
protects the simple; when I was brought low, it was God who saved me.
7Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the LORD has dealt bountifully
with you. 8For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from
tears, my feet from stumbling.
9I walk before the LORD in the land of the living. 10I kept my
faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”; 11I said
in my consternation, “Everyone is a liar.” 12What
shall I return to God for all this bounty to me? 13I will lift up
the cup of salvation and call on God’s name, 14I will pay my vows
to the Holy One in the presence of all the people.
15Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of the faithful
ones. 16O God, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of
your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds.
17I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name
of YAHWEH. 18I will pay my vows to God in the presence of all the
people, 19in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O
Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!
John 13:1-35
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour
had come to depart from this world and go to his Father/Mother. Having
loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2The
tempter had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot
to betray him. And during supper 3Jesus, knowing that God had given all
things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to
God, 4got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel
around himself. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the
disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied
around him. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are
you going to wash my feet?” 7Jesus answered, “You do not
know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8Peter
said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered,
“Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” 9Simon Peter
said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my
head!” 10Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not
need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are
clean, though not all of you.” 11For Jesus knew who was to betray
him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned
to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to
you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is
what I am. 14So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you
also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have set you an
example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16Very truly, I
tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers
greater than the one who sent them. 17If you know these things, you are
blessed if you do them.
18I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it
is to fulfill the scripture, ‘The one who ate my bread has lifted
his heel against me.’ 19I tell you this now, before it occurs, so
that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he. 20Very truly, I
tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever
receives me receives the One who sent me.” 21After saying this
Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, “Very truly, I tell
you, one of you will betray me.” 22The disciples looked at one
another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. 23One of his
disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to
him; 24Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was
speaking. 25So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, “Lord,
who is it?” 26Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I give
this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” So when he
had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon
Iscariot. 27After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into
him. Jesus said to him, “Do quickly what you are going to
do.” 28Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him.
29Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was
telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival”; or, that
he should give something to the poor. 30So, after receiving the piece of
bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
31When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Human One has been
glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been
glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify
him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You
will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you,
‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34I give you a new
commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you
also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are
my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
A CALL TO WORSHIP
ONE
I remember you O God
Because you dared to dream me into existence.
I remember you O Christ
Because you gave me your promise in bread and wine.
I remember you O Spirit
Because you breathe hope into my hopelessness.
God I remember, help me never to forget.
ALL
God of mystery and mercy
Grant us new life with you
as we draw near in remembrance during this journey of Lent.
Amen
A CONTEMPORARY LESSON
from In Wisdom’s Path by Jan Richardson, © Cleveland:
Pilgrim Press, 2000, p. 73
...The women around Jesus are [this] for me in these stark days:
colorful and vivid and passionate in the ways they encounter and
accompany him, especially as they anoint him, touch him, tend him with
compassion and courage in his final days. And though the Gospels bear
witness to their companioning of Jesus in his journey toward the cross,
the women are mysteriously absent from the text of the last
Supper. Yet I think they must have feasted somewhere, those women
whom Jesus touched and who touched him in turn, somewhere they
remembered and prepared for what lay ahead.
Eucharista
We give great thanks for you
who gave your body and blood
to give him birth.
who sustained him in his growing,
who traveled the path with him,
who supported him
from your own resources.
We give great thanks for you
who reached to him for healing,
who challenged him with questions,
who shared your table with him,
who claimed your place at his.
We give great thanks for you
who drank in every word,
who told out his good news,
who touched him in his leaving,
who walked with him toward death.
And so,
with thanksgiving and celebration,
we praise you
you who found
the stones of your life
turned to bread by him,
we remember you.
You who found
your bitter cup
turned to wine by him,
we remember you.
Those whose names
have been lost to the winds,
whose stories
have been turned to scraps,
whose voices
echo through the ages
and beckon us to listen,
we give thanks
and we remember you.
OR
The Last Supper by Rainer Maria Rilke
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/4027/supper.html
On seeing Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper", Milan 1904.
Tran(slated by Albert Ernest Flemming)
They are assembled, astonished and disturbed
round him, who like a sage resolved his fate,
and now leaves those to whom he most belonged,
leaving and passing by them like a stranger.
The loneliness of old comes over him
which helped mature him for his deepest acts;
now will he once again walk through the olive grove,
and those who love him still will flee before his sight.
To this last supper he has summoned them,
and (like a shot that scatters birds from trees)
their hands draw back from reaching for the loaves
upon his word: they fly across to him;
they flutter, frightened, round the supper table
searching for an escape. But he is present
everywhere like an all-pervading twilight-hour.
CONSECRATION
On this night, you took the loaf, made from grain harvested with
sweat and oppression, beaten and sifted, ground and kneaded, baked and
given with love – and declared it holy.
On this night, you took the cup, made from the careful harvest of
fruit, crushed, filtered, fermented, and poured with love – and
declared it holy.
As we come again to that sacred night, that sacred meal, we also lift
the bread, bless it, break it and claim that this bread is broken and
given with mystery and mercy.
You asked us to remember you – your body, your humanness and
the love you have for us. We remember.
Likewise, we lift the cup, bless it, and share it in its mystery and
mercy.
You ask us to remember your life force, your blood, your humanness
and the love you have for us. And so we remember.
For these gifts of grain and fruit, we thank you.
For these mysteries of our faith, we thank you.
For your mercy, we thank you.
(Rev Jane Acuff, Christ Covenant MCC, Decatur, GA USA)
MUSIC
Hymns:
Journey to Gethsemane
#219 in the New Century Hymna.
It Was a Sad and Solemn Night
#225 in the New Century Hymnal
Choir:
In Remembrance of Me, Buryl Red
SATB acc. Pepper 935908.
This Do in Remembrance of Me, Judy Hunnicutt
SATB acc. Pepper 1484906.
Ave Verum Corpus (Hail the True Body), W. A. Mozart
SATB acc. or a capella. Pepper 964486, Latin and English.
2 part, Latin only, 3124039.
Ave Verum Corpus, Edward Elgar
SATB acc., medium solo. 1614544, Latin only.
A CONFESSION
So often, O God, we turn from what memory could offer us. Some of our
memories are painful. Some are so full of joy that we can hardly bear
their passing. What did Jesus mean when he asks us to remember
him?
We are still in awe of our seat at the table that we forget to
remember what we’re here for.
So now, in the silence, we remember. In the silence
oft-forgotten, we remember… we’re there in his
presence.
Forgive, O Christ, our distraction from remembering you and grant us
the stillness that brings us to the mystery of our faith and the mercy
of your love. Amen.
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