Koonung Heights Uniting Church – Service of Worship at Home
Maundy Thursday – 14 April – 7pm or whenever possible
You may like to light a candle during your time of worship.
As part of this service we will share in Communion.
Candle Lighting:
In lighting the Christ candle this evening
we remember that Christ came to be the light of the world,
and that no matter how hard the darkness tries,
it is never able to extinguish the light.
Acknowledgement of Country:
As we gather in God’s presence tonight,
I acknowledge the land which is covered by the Koonung Heights Uniting Church,
and its traditional custodians,
the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung People of the Kulin nations.
I pay my respects to their elders, past and present,
and acknowledge all future generations.
May we honour and share more deeply in the wisdom of all,
and walk in paths of just reconciliation and renewal.
Call to Worship:
Come and see, Jesus is here –
he is serving his friends,
he is showing them the way.
Come and see, Jesus is teaching his friends – by his words and actions he reveals his love.
Come and worship, the servant king,
offer your life in service to him.
We Sing: “O love how deep, how broad, how high!” – (Click on this link for tune – TIS words below)
O love how deep, how broad, how high! It fills the heart with ecstasy
That God, the Son of God should take our mortal form for mortals’ sake.
He sent no angel to our face of higher or of lower place
But wore the robe of human frame himself, and to this lost world came.
For us he was baptised, and bore his holy fast, and hungered sore;
For us temptations sharp he knew; for us the tempter overthrew.
For us he prayed, for us he taught, for us his daily works he wrought,
By words and signs and actions, thus still seeking not himself but us.
To him whose boundless love has won salvation for us through his Son,
To God the Father, glory be both now and through eternity.
Prayer of Adoration and Confession:
Loving God,
We gather in remembrance –
of Jesus’ love for us
and his sacrifice for us.
We gather in prayer and reflection –
to give thanks and praise for all we have
and for all we’ve been given.
Help us this day to see Jesus in our lives,
seated at our tables,
inviting us to dine with him
and all our sisters and brothers.
Forgiving God,
We come before you in remembrance –
of Jesus’ compassion,
even in the face of unbearable pain.
We come conscious of our own sins, our own failings.
May we be forever assured of your endless forgiveness,
your abundant grace and your constant love.
Help us to see your presence in our lives,
and lead us to do your will.
Gracious God,
We join together in remembrance –
of Jesus’ care shown to us and to all creation,
on this day of preparation for the pain of tomorrow.
Help us to recognise the light that remains in the world
even in the darkest dark.
Show us the path towards your kingdom,
your glory, and your love,
now and every day.
Amen.
The Story (Part 1): Listen, Remember
We tell these stories to our children.
We tell them to our neighbours and our friends.
We tell them to ourselves.
We tell them to remember,
to ground ourselves,
to bring Jesus into our midst.
Passover.
We remember.
We remember the food eaten hastily,
the blood on the doorposts,
being dressed for a journey.
Aware that God was about to do something
that would change our lives
and our children’s lives forever.
Listen.
Bible Reading: Exodus 12:1-5, 11-14 – The First Passover Instituted
1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell 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. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
11 This 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. 12 For 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.
13 The 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.
14 This 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.
The Story (Part 2):
We remember that night.
We remember it
in story and tears and laughter
and food and solemnity and song.
We remember.
Tonight, Maundy Thursday,
we remember.
We remember the story told to us by John.
Jesus, well aware of what was going to happen to him,
the water poured into a basin
the towel tied around his waist.
We remember Peter.
We remember Judas.
We remember that it was Passover night.
Listen.
Bible Reading: John 13:1-17, 31b-35 – Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet
1 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. 2 The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5 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. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 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.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 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? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16 Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
The New Commandment
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little 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.’ 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The Story (Part 3):
We remember that night.
We are remembering it now
in story and tears and laughter
and food and solemnity and song.
We remember.
And we remember what Jesus told us
again and again and again.
Love one another
as you have been loved.
Family,
strangers,
friends,
travellers,
refugees,
neighbours,
people who think and behave like you
and people who don’t.
Love one another
as you have been loved.
Remember.
We Sing: “A new commandment” – (Click on this link and skip the ads – TIS words below)
Reflection:
It is the usual story, accompanied by the usual food.
It is the usual rabbi, accompanied by the usual group of disciples.
It is the usual conversation, accompanied by the usual jests and theological point-scoring.
That is, it is the usual, until the unusual happens.
Mid-meal, the usual rabbi suddenly rises from the table and starts disrobing.
This unusual action has got their full attention.
Dressed in just his tunic, a towel around his waist, the usual rabbi looks unusually fragile.
Chatter stopped, they listen as the water falls into the bowl, watch in silence as he kneels before them: as servant.
The usual meal has become unusually awkward as the natural order of things is overturned and feet are washed by the Master.
It is the usual way of things that Peter misunderstands and then jumps in with both feet first.
The unusual usual rabbi teaches as he washes, showing them the way of loving service.
All is upturned: it is the unusual that is to become the usual.
Bread becomes body, wine becomes blood, power is stripped of ego.
It is an unusual story, accompanied by unusual food.
It is an unusual rabbi, accompanied by an unusual group named ‘friends’, gathered through the ages.
It is an unusual conversation, accompanied by unusual love shown in word and action.
That is, it is the unusual, until it becomes the usual … for, usually, love is a work in progress.
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
‘Love one another’ is a command, but have we done it? Do we do it? Have we lived up to Jesus’ greatest, Jesus’ last command? Sometimes it is easy to love, and sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it is convenient to love, and sometimes it isn’t.
As we move into the time when we share around the table, let us remember the meal that Jesus shared with his friends that night so long ago. Let us also remember Jesus’ words … ‘love one another just as I have loved you’.
Communion:
Invitation
Tonight we come, as invited guests, to remember, be fed and refreshed.
We come, not because we can, but because we must.
Come, invited guests, you are welcome here.
The Peace
The peace of God be with you … and also with you.
We Remember
Jesus gathered in an upper room with his disciples and many others including women. They gathered as part of the Jewish tradition to share the Passover meal, the annual meal to remember God saving the people of Israel from their Egyptian tyranny.
As they shared the meal in an upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus will create something new from it. He will wash the feet of his followers, he will serve them even though he is their rabbi, their leader. He will invite them to follow him and become servant leaders themselves.
He will take bread and wine, bless them and share them with his followers creating a new tradition for all who follow him. Tonight we embrace this in memory of Jesus and his loving sacrifice.
Prayer and Invocation
O God, you sent Jesus, your Son, into the world to save us all,
how can we ever thank you.
He came to reveal your love for us,
your desire for us to return to that love and to serve you here on earth,
continuing the work that Jesus began, building your kingdom.
Lord, we confess that we have often failed to answer the invitation to follow and serve,
preferring to follow our own path and to serve our own desires instead.
Forgive us once more, Lord God,
give us humility to kneel before you again and offer our service,
to give all we have received from you back to you
for the sake of the work of your kingdom.
As we prepare to answer your call once more,
to gather together around the table you have prepared,
to share together in taking bread and wine,
remind us of the invitation to serve you.
Holy Spirit, we call upon you to come among us wherever we are
and rest upon us and these elements of bread and wine.
Jesus you have invited us here,
you have prepared the table before us,
and you have blessed the elements.
May we remember all you have done as we share together.
Amen.
Sharing Bread and Wine
Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it and shared it with those at the table,
so we also take the bread before us and remember the body of Christ, broken for us.
Jesus poured a cup of wine, blessed it and shared it with those at the table,
so we also take this cup before us and remember the blood of Christ, shared for us,
a symbol of the new relationship we have been invited into with God.
The bread of life. The cup of hope. The gifts of God for the people of God.
Come and share for all is prepared.
Prayer after Communion
Generous God,
you sent Jesus into the world that we might know how much you love us,
and also to invite us to join you in the work of building the kingdom,
learning to serve one another and become servant leaders.
In sharing bread and wine, and the peace together,
we have once more remembered Jesus and our decision to follow in his footsteps.
Amen.
We Sing: “Help us accept each other” – (Click on this link and skip the ads – TIS words below)
Blessing:
Having eaten, dressed for a journey, we go.
Into the night, into tomorrow, we go.
With Peter and Judas, with the disciples and Jesus, we go.
We will love one another as we have been loved.
Thanks to all those who have assisted in preparation for this liturgy with encouragement, prayers and conversation. I have also utilised the following resources:- Spill the Beans (Issue 42).