Bells Corners United Church
MAUNDY THURSDAY
Text and Audio only
Adapted from a liturgy written by Doug Varey, while at Northminster U.C., North York, Ontario.
Maundy Thursday takes its name from the Latin ‘mandatum’, meaning commandment, in reference to the new commandment Jesus gives his disciples at the Last Supper: “I give you a new commandment that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34)
Please have the following prepared as you begin the service:
A jug of water and a basin
A towel
Bread
Wine or Juice
A lit candle
Prelude: Voices United #147 – What Wondrous Love is This
The Betrayal and Arrest
Sacred silence: filled.
Holy moment: overflowing.
Haunting seconds: brimming.
Tonight, too much happens
in the holy story to comprehend.
Too much fear and deceit, too many questions and confusion, too few words and too little space.
Heaven is teetering.
The basin is waiting.
The action is joined.
The holy one of God moves.
The darkness encroaches.
The light crumples.
Bread breaks,
and wine spills.
Sacred silence: filled.
Holy moment: overflowing.
Haunting seconds: brimming.
A questioning promise,
A broken covenant, a wondering band of followers, and a worried Messiah.
Won’t you wait here a while?
Won’t you wait here a while?
Long enough,
long enough, to grasp even a glimpse, and hold even a fraction, of a broken heaven.
(silence)
Prayer
Holy God, we come to worship in the gathering shadows of Jesus’ suffering and death. We come with his friends, 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.
Hymn: Tell Me the Stories of Jesus – Voices United #357
1 Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear,
things I would ask him to tell me if he were here:
scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea,
stories of Jesus, tell them to me.
2 First let me hear how the children stood round his knee,
and I shall fancy his blessing resting on me;
words full of kindness, deeds full of grace,
all in the lovelight of Jesus' face.
3 Tell me, in accents of wonder, how rolled the sea
tossing the boat in a tempest on Galilee!
And how the Master, ready and kind,
chided the billows and hushed the wind.
4 Into the city I'd follow the children's band,
waving a branch of the palm tree high in my hand;
one of his heralds, yes, I would sing
loudest hosannas! Jesus is king!
5 Show me that scene in the garden of bitter pain;
and of the cross where my Saviour for me was slain.
Sad ones or bright ones, so that they be
stories of Jesus, tell them to me.
Water of Forgiveness; Water of Baptism
(pour some of the water into the basin – you will do this 3 more times during the prayer)
Prayer:
Servant God, kneeling, bending, serving us. Take our dusty journeys, and wrap your hands around them. Every path we have trodden in life: every word that has taken us to hurtful locations, every thought that has moved us toward the shadows, every act that has led us into rough places, wash away the pain, as we confess, and you forgive.
(during a moment of silence, pour more water)
Take the wounds of our traveling and hold them in your healing hands: every journey of remembrance that holds too many memories, every burden we carry that weighs us with anger that we cannot let go, every place we have visited that holds too much pain. Wash away the lingering, as we let go and let you heal.
(during a moment of silence, pour more water)
Take the discomfort of our values, and wash and wipe and cleanse as you serve us:
every lesson about love we have not learned, every heavenly value we have not grasped, every truth of your Realm we have ignored. Wash away the hesitation, as we accept your love, and offer our love too.
(during a moment of silence, pour more water)
Jesus says: Come you who are weary, you who are heavy laden. Come, and let my hands refresh your living. Let me be your servant, and witness heaven on earth. (silence)
Sharing the Word
Psalm 116 Voices United #836
Refrain:
How can I repay you God, for all the goodness you show to me?
I love you, God, because you heard my voice
when I made supplication,
because you turned your ear to me,
when I called upon your name.
The cords of death entangled me,
and the pangs of the Grave laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called upon the name of God:
'O God, I pray, save my life.' Refrain
How can I repay you, God,
for all the good things you have done for me?
I will take up the cup of salvation,
and call upon the name of God.
I will pay my vows in the presence of all God's people. Refrain
Precious in the sight of God is the death of the saints.
O God, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your maidservant.
You have freed me from my bonds.
I will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and will call upon the name of God. Refrain
I will pay my vows to God in the presence of all God's people,
in the courts of the house of God, in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Gospel - John 13: 1-17
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father.
Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him.
And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.
Then 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.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"
Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet."
Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me."
Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!"
Jesus 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."
For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."
After 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? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am.
So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
(If you are following the audio version, you may want to pause it here)
Hand Washing – One by one, dip your hands in the water and have the next person dry them… the towel is passed to the next person while the one who dried dips their hands, until all have taken part.
Meditation
Footsteps could be heard running through the streets toward Caiaphas’ lodging, but few heard them as bitter herbs, radish, and celery were tasted.
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 was cut to make the Passover feast.
At one table, a betrayer was accused. A holy man and his followers faced each other.
Only two of them knew who had done it, and one of them was soon to leave under the noise of the shouting.
He would walk the cobbled street under moonlight, passing menorahs in each window, slithering through wafts of roast lamb and turmeric and coriander toward a secret meeting place among the trees and shadows.
But not yet.
Round the table in an upper room voices fell silent, and Jesus took the unleavened bread and, with a face drawn and tired, ripped it. “This is my body,” he said. The followers looked at each other, foreheads 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 cup, my life poured out for you, the sign of the new covenant. Drink of it, all of you.”
And as whispers were heard around the city and religious leaders moved by stealth to the meeting place, they did drink – all of them.
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.
Here is that bread, broken.
Jesus said, “The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.”
They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
He said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. And anyone who comes to me I will never drive away.”
Here is the cup, filled.
Agape Meal - Sharing the Bread and Wine
In remembrance of that night, tonight we take bread and share it. (share the bread at your table)
In remembrance of that night, we share the cup of grace, a symbol of the new covenant (share the wine or juice at your table)
Prayer after the Meal
God our saviour, power of loving service in the world, we thank you for Jesus, who on the night he was betrayed, gave himself to his friends in humble service, and in bread and wine. May we do the same for the whole world, as we follow his example. Amen
Living in the Shadows
God of anguish,
let us walk with you,
into the darkness.
God, who knows the shadow is coming, hold us as we 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.
Hymn – Stay With Us Through the Night # 182
1 Stay with us through the night.
Stay with us through the pain.
Stay with us, blessed stranger
till the morning breaks again.
2 Stay with us through the night.
Stay with us through the grief.
Stay with us, blessed stranger
till the morning brings relief.
3 Stay with us through the night.
Stay with us through the dread.
Stay with us, blessed stranger
till the morning breaks new bread.
From the Upper Room to the World
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.
In the distance you can hear footsteps moving through the olive grove, whose they are we do not know.
The room hangs, suspended in time, cushions scattered, crumbs across the floor, a basin and a towel sit by the door.
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.
The room is cold, full of questions.
The air is deep with the smell of betrayal and panic, of accusations and unfinished stories.
But something deeper is gone, and gone forever a presence, a hope.
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.
There is a gathering of noise, shouts, and silence.
From the room all there is to hear is distant muttering. The trees capture the sounds and clasp the moment of betrayal.
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 carpenter’s cheek.
It is the moment of betrayal.
The night has truly arrived.
(pause and extinguish the candle)