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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
Holy Thursday Liturgy
Welcome: Sign of Peace/Washing of Hands
Dennis: Scripture tells us that if a person is not at peace with someone to “leave your gift at the altar. First go away and make peace with that person. Then come back and offer your gift.” As we prepare to bring our gifts in the celebration of this Eucharist, let us strive to be faithful to the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. And where we struggle, may God transform us to be a healing balm of love. Divine healer of all, we pray, Amen.
Let us offer a sign of peace to one another. We then ask that you approach the water bowl, in remembrance of Jesus’ witness to service and the creation of a community of equals, and in response to his words, "Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other. This is how all will know you for my disciples: by your love for one another" (John 13, 34-35), and wash the hands of another member of our community.
Music during ritual: Blessing Song by Miriam Therese Winter
Deep Peace, Sara Thomsen, Video by Denise Hackert-Stoner
Opening Prayer
Gayle: O Holy One, throughout his life, Jesus revealed that nothing can separate us from Your infinite love. He lived a life of apparent joy in sharing meals with the people of the Galilean countryside. The open table of his public life challenged the discriminatory social code of his time and taught us that all people are to be included as equals in Your kin-dom. May we, like Jesus, continue to open our table, and our lives to all, especially those in need. Amen.
Opening Song: At This Table by Idina Menzel video by Denise
Reading 1: It’s Time: Challenges to the Doctrine of the Faith by Michael Morwood
The human reality is that Jesus, the Jew, had a Passover meal with his Jewish friends. In a movement of friendship with Jesus, try to understand what might have been moving in his mind and heart as he came to the end of his life, knowing his ministry had failed. Let us take on board the image of a man who when he came to Jerusalem for the last time, broke down and cried over what might have been. Let us imagine Jesus considering the small group of men and women gathered around him thinking that the future of his dream and everything he was ready to die for rested with them. Only when we meet Jesus heart to heart in this way will we really understand and appreciate the true story of "Eucharist."
Jesus took bread, broke it, and identified the gesture with himself. The point of the gesture was not to raise questions about how the bread was Jesus or became Jesus. Rather, it was Jesus' powerful way of expressing symbolically, this is what it is like to be me. What Jesus wanted his friends to see in the gesture was his willingness to give his all for what he believed, someone blessed and broken and given. Jesus wanted his friends to remember him this way. But, more than that, he asked them to eat the bread. The point of eating the bread was not to raise questions about what they were actually eating. That question would not have risen in the minds of Jews sharing a Passover meal that was permeated with the power of symbol. No, the obvious question here is: To what were those present committing themselves if they took the bread from Jesus and ate it? They would have realized that Jesus was symbolically asking for their commitment to carry on his ministry. He was asking if they, too, were willing to be blessed, broken and given.
These are the inspired words of Michael Morwood, theologian, and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
Reading 2 (Ann): With Burning Hearts by Henri Nouwen
Communion creates community. Communion makes us look at each other and speak to each other, not about the latest news, but about him who walked with us. We discover each other as people who belong together because each of us now belongs to him.
We ate his body, we drank his blood. In so doing, all of us who took from the same bread and the same cup have become one body. Communion creates community, because the God living in us makes us recognize the God in our fellow humans. Only God in us can see God in the other person. This is what we mean when we say, “Spirit speaks to Spirit, Heart speaks to Heart, God speaks to God.”
This new body is a spiritual body, fashioned by the Spirit of Love. It manifests itself in very concrete ways: in forgiveness, reconciliation, mutual support, outreach to people in need, solidarity with all who suffer, and an ever-increasing concern for justice and peace. Thus communion not only creates community, but community always leads to mission.
These are the inspired words of Henri Nouwen and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
Alleluia: More Light by Christopher Grundy
Gospel: A reading from the anonymous author of the Gospel of John (adapted by Dennis)
It was before the Feast of Passover, and Jesus realized that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to Abba God. He had always loved his own in this world, but now he showed how perfect this love was.
So during supper, Jesus—knowing that God had put all things into his own hands, and that he had come from God and was returning to God— rose from the table, took off his clothes and wrapped a towel around his waist. He then poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and dry them with the towel that was around his waist.
When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Rabbi, you’re not going to wash my feet, are you?” Jesus answered, “You don’t realize what I am doing right now, but later you’ll understand.” Peter replied, “You’ll never wash my feet!” Jesus answered, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”
Simon Peter said to Jesus, “Then, Rabbi, not only my feet, but my hands and my head as well!”
After washing their feet, Jesus put his clothes back on and returned to the table. He said to them, “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me “Teacher,” and “Master”—and rightly, for so I am. If I, then—your Teacher and Master—have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
These are the inspired words of the anonymous author called John and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
Shared Homily
Statement of Faith
We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding,
the heart of all that has ever existed,
that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word,
bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion,
bright star in the firmament of the Holy One's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of divine love,
a source of wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of peace in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One,
the life that is our innermost life,
the breath moving in our being,
the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen.
Liturgy of the Eucharist
Dennis: As we prepare for this sacred meal, we are aware of our call to serve, and just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. We bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns.
Intentions shared
We bring these and all deeply held blessings, cares, and concerns to the table of friendship and peace.
Dennis: Let us pray our Eucharistic Prayer together:
All: Source of Love and Light, we join together in unity of Spirit, love and purpose with all Your people everywhere, living and crossed over. With all of creation across billions of galaxies, we open our hearts and souls to become One in the mystical Body of the Cosmic Christ. In your loving, embrace we are liberated from division, fear, conflict, pride and injustice. We are transformed into wholeness. With gratitude, we meld ourselves into You, into the one Cosmic Body that knows all, shelters all and transforms all into love, abundant and eternal. United in one voice, we sing of the glory of all Creation with these words of praise and thanks:
Holy, Holy: Here in this Place – Christopher Grundy
We thank you, Holy One, for the incarnation of Jesus, a radical balance of human and divine who points our way and who strives with us in our time of need. We yearn with passion to live as Jesus, one with you and your Spirit, in peace and justice with all. May our desire to be a part of the Body of Christ join us to all living things. We seek to heal the differences that isolate us across the globe so that we may live and breathe in solidarity with all your people, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or class. May we have the imaginative sympathy and love of Your Spirit to go beyond the confines of time and space into the Oneness of forever and ever where Love abides.
Presider 1: Please extend your hands in blessing.
All: Together, we call on Your Spirit, present in these gifts-bread that satisfies our hunger and wine that quenches our thirst–to make us more deeply One, living in the fullness of holy compassion and Sophia wisdom.
Anticipating the likelihood of betrayal, arrest and pain, Jesus wanted more than anything to be with his friends at a Seder, to share the meal, exchange stories and create fond memories. To strengthen the bonds of friendship that evening, Jesus washed the feet of his friends in an act of love and humility.
All: Back at the table, he took the Passover Bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying,
Take and eat, this is my very self.
(pause)
Then he took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying: Take and drink. Whenever you remember me like this, I am among you.
(pause)
What we have heard with our ears we will live with our lives. As we share Communion, we become Communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s Challenge.
Please receive the bread with the words, I am blessed, broken, and given.
Communion Song: We Come To Your Feast by Michael Joncas
Post-Communion Prayer:
Knowing that Jesus spent his time with the lowly and hurting, the needy and shunned, we seek to be alert to how we can bring the love and unity of the Body of Christ to wherever and with whomever is in need. We ask for the grace to see with the eyes of Jesus, touch with the hands of Jesus and heal with the heart of Jesus. Amen.
Prayer of Jesus
Dennis: Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
All: O Holy One, who is within, around and among us,
we celebrate your many names.
Your Wisdom come. Your will be done,
unfolding from the depths within us,
Each day you give us all we need;
You remind us of our limits, and we let go.
You support us in our power, and we act with courage.
For you are the dwelling place within us,
the empowerment around us,
and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen
(Miriam Therese Winter)
Blessing
Dennis: Let us raise our hands and bless each other.
All: May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.
May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.
May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.
May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really can make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.
-Franciscan Blessing
Closing Song: I Will Sing of Your Love, Love, Love by Christopher Grundy
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