Holy Week 2008 – Maundy Thursday

WELCOME AND INVITATION

Welcome to this service of remembrance.  Tonight we will be

together with each other as Jesus was with the disciples on his

last night.  We will begin with the servant ritual of foot washing

that Jesus offered the disciples, and continue with a simple meal.

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader:    Are you prepared to come to the feast of Jesus, the Christ, whose life was poured out for you?

People:    By the grace of God, we are.

Leader:    Are you able to watch with Jesus at prayer in the garden —

indeed, to struggle to be in unity with God’s will for you?

People:    By the grace of God, we are.

Leader:    Then let us praise God, even in this hour of darkness!

All:          God of all grace and steadfast love, greatly is your name to be praised in all the earth. Bring us to this feast of remembrance with open hearts!

SILENCE

PRAYERS

CONFESSION

Leader:     O Christ, in your presence we discover who we are.

People:     You wash our feet,

                and we learn how reluctant we are

                to serve one another and the world around us.

Leader:    We are so like your disciples.

People:    We look to our own self-centered interests as you give yourself for the sake of the whole world.

Leader:    You invite us to join all creation at your feast, yet our love scarcely suffices for those closest to us.

 

All:           Forgive us, and help us treasure your presence more deeply,

that we may find this night a celebration of overflowing joy.

 Amen.

INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

ASSURANCE

 Leader:    God reaches out to heal, and to reveal again the love that will not let us go.

Know that you are forgiven, to answer God’s love with praise, devotion and service.

 

People:    Know that you are forgiven, to answer God’s love with praise, devotion and service.

 

COMMUNITY PRAYER

HYMN       

"Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love"           NCH 498

FOOT WASHING

Gospel reading:    John 13:1-17, 31-35

(When your feet have been washed, take the bowl and towel, and wash the feet of someone else, as an act of love and service.)

 

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

Leader:    Wellspring of all the waters of creation, we thank you for your mighty acts of deliverance.

 

People:    You enable us to cross over from despair to hope, from brokenness to wholeness,

from death to life.

 

Leader:    We thank you for the deep love of Jesus, which moved him to give himself for the redemption of all creation.

 

 All:          We thank you for the grace we experience in receiving these symbols of the life Christ gave for others, and for us.

Amen.

 

HYMN      

"Eat This Bread, Drink This Cup"

COMMUNION

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Leader:    On the night of his arrest Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks to God, broke it and said,

"This is my body which is for you; do this remembering me."

 

THE MEAL

 

Leader:    After supper Jesus took the cup and said, "This is the cup of the new covenant; whenever you drink it, do so remembering me."

 

ENTERING THE PASSION

Leader:    Let us join Christ in the garden of prayer.

 

People:    Let us join Christ in passion and victory.

A reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew (26:36-46)

 

UNISON PRAYER

All:          Eternal One, Father and Mother of us all, Holy is your name.

Let justice and mercy fill all Creation and let us recognize

that every thought and thing belongs to you.
Feed us with the bread we need for today.

Forgive our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Stand with us in trial and temptation.

Free us from the grip of all that is evil.

For you invite us into creation with you,

now and forever.  Amen.

 

HYMN     

"Were You There?"            NCH 229

KISS OF PEACE

Leader:   The meal is over.

Let us greet one another with the kiss of peace and leave in silence.

 

DEPART IN SILENCE