Maundy Thursday

Scripture  John 13:12-17

After he had washed their feet, 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. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

Prayer Before Going to Church on Maundy Thursday
God of the table and the towel, You bid us come… “Come to the table,” You whisper.  

“Come to the age old feast that fills us with new dreams,” You sing.

But is it so hard to come to the table.  

The table is messy.  

At the table we see Christ sitting between the betrayer and the beloved. 

At the table plates are passed from hands that will deny 

to hands that will doubt and we struggle 

because we know that deep within we are all of the above.  

We struggle at the table as sinner longing to be saint, 

as broken and breaking longing to be whole.

We struggle at the table because we know the rock will crumble 

and the only ones left at the cross are the ones thought weak.  

We struggle at the table because as Jesus lifts the bread he honors this HOLY MESS

and challenges us to do the same.

And as Christ lifts the towel to wash road weary feet, 

You, forgiving God, dare us to do the same.  

In the name of the One that Is, Was and always Will BE.

Amen.

Journal: When have you shared food at your table? What does feasting mean and feel like when the struggles for justice are expressly present?

Action: Gather with Urban Abbey at 6:30pm. All church attendees are invited to bring a gift of beans or rice for the All People’s Pantry.