Maundy Thursday

Freelton Strabane United Church

To live our discipleship with integrity and grace.

Maundy Thursday


March  28 2024

 

Rev.Will Wheeler BA M. Div.



 E-mail: wwwheeler@sympatico.ca

Musician Joan Simpson 

   Prayer

 

All: Holy God, we come to worship in the gathering shadows of Jesus’ suffering and death. We come with his friend, the men and women who have followed him in every place and generation, to live once again this story of service and betrayal of weakness and courage. We come to witness your love in action. Be with us, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen

 

One: Our Journey leads us to this point. Contemplate our story once more. Our Lessons are taken from the psalm 116 and  John 13:1-17.

One: This is our story

All thanks be to God for its telling. Amen 

   One footsteps could be heard running through the streets toward Caiaphas’ lodging but few heard them as bitter herbs, radish and celery were tasted. 

All: soldiers’ sandals sounded as they marched the alleyways out of the city as they always did, in tens, but this time with a purpose that was different. No one’s attention was drawn to them as roast lamb with slices of garlic were cut to make the Passover feast. 

One: Round the table in an upper room voices fell silent, A teacher kneels and ritually washes their feet. Round the table in an upper room Voices fall silent as a beloved friend breaks open costly perfume to anoint her friend.   

  One: At one table, a betrayer was accused. A holy man and his followers faced each other, denying and blaming the other. Only two of them knew who had done it, and one of them was soon to leave under the noise of the shouting. 


All He would walk the cobbled street under moonlight, passing menorahs in each window, slithering through wafts of roast lamb and turmeric and coriander towards a secret meeting place among the trees and shadows. But not yet. 

        Round a table in and upper room voices fall silent and Jesus took the unleavened bread and with a face drawn and tired, ripped it. “This is my body”, he said. The follower looked at each other, forehead furrowed. ‘Take it and eat it, all of you. Twigs snapped under the trees. The high priest’s door shut. Footsteps went scurrying. And as they ate a piece each, chewing over silent questions, Jesus took the cup of wine that every Passover meal requires and staring into it said, “This is my blood, the sign of the new covenant. Drink of it all of you” and as whispers were heard around the city and religious leader moved by stealth to the meeting place, they did Drink - all of them. 

    All: If they had listened maybe they would have heard what was happening in heaven and in the streets. But their ears were filled with the back and forth of questions and silence. The world was turning against them, and only one person in that room could hear it.

 

 Prayer.



 God of anguish let us walk with you, into the darkness.   

God, who knows the shadow is coming, hold us as walk into the world’s darkness.

God of passion we kneel with you, praying, through the night, while the world conspires against you and tries to put an end to love

God, kneel with us, as we pray too, through the night and forces gather around us and betray love’s future

 God of the day and night we follow, holding your cup trusting your will; the shadows seem so long

 God, who lives in us, help us to keep trusting Jesus, through the deep night   Amen

 

 


One: Love has moved out. The room is silent. The table is left; broken bread still sitting there, wine half-finished herbs and lamb scattered across the table  

 

All: In the distance you can hear footsteps moving through the olive grove, whose they are we do not know.  

 

One: The room hangs suspended in time, cushions scattered crumbs across the floor, and a basin and a towel sit by the door.

 

All: There is a rustle of leaves among the trees, a brushing of garments caught on branches, the sound of knees breaking twigs as they kneel. 

 

One: The room is cold, full of questions. The air is deep with the with the lingering echoes of betrayal and panic, of accusations and unfinished stories 

 

All But something deeper is gone, and gone forever: a presence, a hope.

 

One: Footsteps sound on their way past the house out of the city. The room is dull. Shadows stretch across unfinished bread and half-drunk wine, A breeze from the empty window fills the space and crumbs roll and tablecloth flutters as the wind searches and cools the wound of that room; a ghostly presence, filling the hole, haunting love

 

All: There is a gathering of noisy shouts….and silence. 

One: suddenly, all at once, the wind changes direction, the silence sinks, there is a cry somewhere in the city, and a kiss is traced on a teachers, a friend’s cheek. It is the moment of betrayal The night has truly arrived.

 

Commissioning and Blessing 

One: Where Christ walks
All we will follow 
One Where Christ stumbles 
All We will stop 
One Where Christ cries 
All We will listen 
One Where Christ suffers 
All we will hurt 
One When Christ dies 
All We will bow our heads in sorrow 
One When Christ rises again in glory 
All We will share his endless joy 
One There is no other way 
All Christ is the only way. 

 One :Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. 
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper: et in saecula saeculorum,  
May God the one who brings us comfort surround you, May Christ our Joy walk with you. May the Continued presence of The Holy Spirit illuminate our path and keep us safe. Amen  

(Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. 
Even as it was in the beginning, and now, and ever: and world without end, Amen.)

We Shall go out with hope of resurrection  

Yesterday
we honour our heritage.

Today
we know that we are not alone,
that we live in God's world.

Tomorrow
with God,
we will discover
the undiscovered country.

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