KILRENNY PARISH CHURCH

You Tube link: 

https://youtu.be/l6Z_vV3ukX4 

Welcome

Welcome to this service of reflection on the Thursday of Holy Week: Maundy Thursday. For those of you, like me, who wonder about the name Maundy Thursday, apparently it comes from the Latin for ‘mandate’ which refers to the new commandment that Jesus gives His followers at the Last Supper.

 

Call to Worship

Lord Jesus Christ, You have called us to worship you in moments of joy and moments of sorrow. As we remember all that You did during your last night on earth, we share in your sacrifice and we relive with you those moments of clarity before your arrest. Amen.

 

Hymn 189                    Be still, for the presence of the Lord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOXj-ZE_2Zo

 

 

 

 

 

Opening Prayer & Lord’s Prayer

Let us pray:

God,

like so many of your servants

we can sometimes feel you have treated us harshly,

that life has dealt us an unfair deal.

We wonder how we will cope with

bereavement and loss,

painful endings and uncertain futures,

wounds, inflicted by self or others,

burdens we bear and heavy loads we carry.

 

So how do we face

the dark night of the soul

the harsh reality of another day,

the darkness of the sun going down

on a relationship, a job, a life?

 

God,

Your Son and servants in the past

have been anxious too,

have lived with danger, doubt and darkness.

Their example reminds us that

courage does not mean an absence of fear,

rather the ability to live with it.

 

Help us, God,

to utilise the resources around us

and within us

to get us through.

To lean on friends and family when we need to,

to accept help and company,

to tell how it is,

to them, to you

and to realise that to do this

is not to fail.

 

For in our weakness

You are our strength.

 

 

And now, we join our voices together in the Prayer Jesus taught us:

 

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done;

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for ever

Amen.

 

 

Reading: John 13: 1 – 20

 

Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet

It was now the day before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. He had always loved those in the world who were his own, and he loved them to the very end.

 

Jesus and his disciples were at supper. The Devil had already put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, the thought of betraying Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him complete power; he knew that he had come from God and was going to God. So he rose from the table, took off his outer garment, and tied a towel around his waist. Then he poured some water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Are you going to wash my feet, Lord?”

 

Jesus answered him, “You do not understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later.”

Peter declared, “Never at any time will you wash my feet!”

“If I do not wash your feet,” Jesus answered, “you will no longer be my disciple.”

Simon Peter answered, “Lord, do not wash only my feet, then! Wash my hands and head, too!”

 

Jesus said, “Those who have taken a bath are completely clean and do not have to wash themselves, except for their feet. All of you are clean—all except one.” (Jesus already knew who was going to betray him; that is why he said, “All of you, except one, are clean.”)

 

After Jesus had washed their feet, he put his outer garment back on and returned to his place at the table. “Do you understand what I have just done to you?” he asked. “You call me Teacher and Lord, and it is right that you do so, because that is what I am. I, your Lord and Teacher, have just washed your feet. You, then, should wash one another's feet. I have set an example for you, so that you will do just what I have done for you. I am telling you the truth: no slaves are greater than their master, and no messengers are greater than the one who sent them. Now that you know this truth, how happy you will be if you put it into practice!

 

“I am not talking about all of you; I know those I have chosen. But the scripture must come true that says, ‘The man who shared my food turned against me.’ I tell you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe that ‘I Am Who I Am.’ I am telling you the truth: whoever receives anyone I send receives me also; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.”

 

Hymn: CH 356                      Meekness and Majesty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtt52JEW_Zo

 

 

Reading:   John 13: 31 – 35

The New Commandment

After Judas had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man's glory is revealed; now God's glory is revealed through him. And if God's glory is revealed through him, then God will reveal the glory of the Son of Man in himself, and he will do so at once. My children, I shall not be with you very much longer. You will look for me; but I tell you now what I told the Jewish authorities, ‘You cannot go where I am going.’ And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

Hymn                                     A new commandment I give unto you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoWrAgiIGak

 

 

 

 

Reflection: “Preparing the way”

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in your sight Lord, amen.

 

Tonight, I want to focus on two aspects of the Last Supper: Jesus’ act of service and the new commandment to love one another. So often we concentrate on the breaking of bread and the betrayal of Judas – both central to the events of the final full day of Jesus’ earthly life – but the Last Supper was more than just instructions on how to remember Him or about how His death would be accomplished. Jesus was looking to the future in a positive manner, not just offering symbols of commemoration.

 

In washing the feet of His disciples, Jesus was very deliberately contrasting the behaviour of all those in power with that of the way He expected His own followers to behave in the future. Like everything Jesus did in these last days, it was symbolic, but it was also about an attitude of living that He had been inculcating in those around Him throughout His ministry.

And it is a behaviour He still expects us to commit to today: to be servants to each other, to be willing to do the unsung work as well as the obvious, and to be available to those we have been tasked to serve.

 

In giving a new commandment, Jesus was not replacing all those commandments that had been handed down to Moses during the forty years in the desert. Instead, Jesus was reinforcing the commandments by simplifying them into one code that would cover all aspects of life: if we love one another then all other things will flow from that way of living. In so many ways, that one instruction takes the standard of behaviour we all have to live by so much higher than the multitude of rules that most people find restrictive and unbearable. However, in its simplicity, it also makes life so much easier to cope with. If we all live by that simple maxim, we will all gain more than life itself.

 

Even in His final moments, Jesus was giving His followers a vision for a new way of life, a new relationship with each other and the opportunity for a new relationship with God.

 

Amen and may God add His blessing to these words.

 

Prayer

Thank You loving God,

that You know and understand us and all human beings.

As we walk again through Holy Week

may we listen again to our own hearts

and notice which part of the story is especially touching our hearts this year.

 

Thank You that Your Word is living; not frozen in history, but alive.

Ancient stories revealing present truths.

You know what we need to hear this Holy Week,

whether we need to hear the challenging aspects

or the reassurance and support.

 

You work in the layers within us we nowadays call unconscious;

we trust You to work in us so that this Easter

we might find more of Your life welling up from within our own being.

 

And as we observe again the sacrifice of Jesus,

His willingness to live with effects of the violence and hate of human beings,

to the point to death;

Help us to know that this act in history,

points to an eternal truth of God always willing to forgive;

to give people a chance to begin again;

and to free us all from things we regret;

mistakes we have made;

inadequacies that we struggle with

 

Help us take seriously that like the crowds around Jesus

we can be fickle

and sometimes unintentionally allow ourselves to be dragged along

by the views and thoughts of others

without noticing that we are joining in with consequences

that lead to death and not life.

Forgive us.

 

Reveal to us our attitudes that are not life giving.

For You are always calling us on a path of greater self-discovery,

of greater clarity about who we are and what our purpose is.

As we walk alongside Jesus, facing the consequences of His call,

illuminate Your will for us, and what new life You are calling us to live.

Bless us, that we might become a blessing to You.

Amen.

Hymn CH 399              My song is love unknown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv7OZSoA22w

 

 

Blessing

Mercy, peace, and love in fullest measure,

to you whom God has called,

who live in the love of God the Father

and are kept safe for the coming of Jesus Christ.

Amen.