Maundy Thursday, April 9, 2020
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Today we are offering a unique celebration of the Lord's Supper for Maundy Thursday. As you plan for a time of worship, I encourage you to prepare bread and juice in advance. Do not worry if the elements you use are home are not the same as what we would use at church. Simply have something that represents the body of Christ and his blood. During the service, you will be invited to partake.

I planned this as a "hybrid" of a corporate service and a guided personal reflection. The words of institution for the bread and the cup will be given in the video. However, I am also including a link to over an hour of reflective hymns. I would encourage you to share in the time of worship, hear the invitation to the table, then take some time in reflection. When ready, consume the elements. Perhaps follow communion with an additional time of silence and reflection.

I pray you've enjoyed our journey through Holy Week. Tomorrow I am encouraging you to watch The Passion of the Christ, or The Jesus Film as our encounter with Good Friday. Saturday, I suggest you consider an intentional time of silence - whatever that means to you. Perhaps a day of technological silence, maybe a period of complete silence, maybe an entire day of silencing everything and focusing on the day of descension, when Christ paid the penalty for our sins.

Grace and Peace to you,
Pastor Dan
Mark 14: The Last Supper

12  On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
13  So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.  14  Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’  15  He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”
16  The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
17  When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve.  18  While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”
19  They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”
20  “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me.  21  The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
22  While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
23  Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24  “This is my blood of the [ c ]  covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.  25  “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo. Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment. Set us free from a past that we cannot change; open to us a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image, through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen.
May the grace, mercy and peace, which comes from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, be with you this day, and every day, forevermore!

AMEN