In Matthew 18:20, Christ tell us that “for where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
But what happens when those two or three can not gather together? Does that mean that Jesus, and therefore God, is not among them?
As the COVID-19 pandemic marches on, there is a growing feeling of loneliness and isolation as communities are not able to worship together, a feeling of loss as prayers and hymns are brought to silence and the Eucharist tabled until further notice (pun intended).
Debates are happening around virtual Eucharist and discussions about what “real church” looks like now that we are worshiping online, at home but also “together”.
All the while, what seemed to be dying breeds – church-goers, God-believers, evangelists – are growing exponentially. As more churches move to online worship services, church attendance is electronically growing.
In my opinion, virtual church might, and should, become part of the new normal.
The younger, tech-savvy generation, whom we have struggled to get in a pew on a Sunday morning, are listening online when and where they want to,
The aging generation who can no longer attend worship services in person due to health and mobility issues, are now able to tune in via YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch.
Those who may be searching for a place to worship but whose social and general anxiety won't allow them to step through the door of a place full of strangers are, through the joys of technology, able to church-surf without the pressure of going from place to place.
Those who have been harmed by the church but yet long for connection with God can do so from the safety and comfort of their homes.
So do the empty church buildings mean that Christianity is coming to a halt, that Jesus is no longer present in our lives?
Or does the increasing number of online viewers indicate a new way of evangelizing and a growing need for faith and spirituality in a world suffering together?
While reports were showing that physical presence in church was becoming less important, I see no proof that God and faith are going the same way. In fact, what has become evident during this time of isolation is the revelation that the search for faith and spirituality increases significantly during times of duress.
We will always need physical worship spaces, as being a part of a church community is important for its own reasons. But it's time that we start looking outside of the box, or in this case outside the walls, and realize that our community need not be limited to those who are sitting in the pews.
I would be interested in hearing your thoughts about the movement of church into the virtual world and how you think church will like like post-pandemic isolation.
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed
for us; therefore let us keep the feast. 1
Corinthians 5:7-8
Collect
from the BAS:
Lord of life and power,
through the mighty resurrection of your
Son,
you have overcome the old order of sin
and death
and have made all things new in him.
May we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
reign with him in glory,
who with you and the holy Spirit is alive,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.
Earlier in the year, the
Anglican Journal published an article about the church having an end date. It
spoke about declining membership and attendance, fewer people giving money to
the church, and a declining interest in the sacraments of baptism,
confirmation, and church-based weddings and funerals.
It appears the general opinion
is that people are no longer looking for a church to which to belong, resulting
in a conclusion that God is becoming irrelevant and spirituality an antiquated
way of dealing with life.
The onslaught of the COVID-19
pandemic has physically shut the doors of churches around the world, seemingly
bringing to fruition the end of the church two decades earlier than predicted.
As March turned into April and isolation continued on with no end in sight, the
weight of celebrating Holy Week without church services darkened the mood of
all believers.
On the surface, it seemed as
if the church was on its own march from Gethsemane to Jerusalem, being put on
trial for all the world to see, demands being placed on it to prove its
worthiness and importance.
But as Christ bore the weight
of the cross on his shoulders, so have the people of the church.
As Christ moved forward
despite all opportunity to simply give up and give in to despair, so have the
people of the church moved forward with courage.
What I have witnessed in the
last few weeks is the people of the church showing the world their
faithfulness, their spirituality, and their willingness to find new ways to not
only gather together but to spread the Gospel.
Instead of the church fizzling
out during these strange times of isolation, the church has grown stronger.
Those who were faithful
church-goers but have had to stop for any number of reasons, can now once again
worship with others through the mediums of the internet and social media.
Those who had walked away from
the church have found renewed faith and spirituality, seeing all of us coming
together in goal of loving each other as Jesus loved us.
As we celebrate the
resurrection of Christ, let us also celebrate the resurrection of the church as
a whole.
On an Easter Sunday where
churches will be empty instead of being full of life and joyful music, may we
celebrate the renewal of our faith in God and in Christ, that by self-isolating
out of love for each other we show more of Christ’s love than any Easter Sunday
worship could ever reveal.
We can take strength in the knowledge
that when we do worship together once again, we will do as per Jeremiah and have
a joyful return of the exiles, shaking our tambourines, dancing like
merrymakers, and embracing each other in the love of Christ.
Easter
Preface (partial) from the BAS:
Blessed are you, gracious God,
creator of heaven and earth;
we give you thanks and praise
for the glorious resurrection of your
Son
Jesus Christ our Lord;
for he is the true paschal lamb
who has taken away the sin of the world.
By his death he destroyed death,
and by his rising to life again
he has won for us eternal life.
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is
risen indeed. Alleluia!
Closing
Hymn
- Was it a Morning Like This by Jim Croegaert, performed by Steve Bell
**Please note this is based on the format previously used at St Michael's Anglican Parish in Victoria Beach, MB and the hymns are from the Book of Common Praise (BCP). Other
hymns and prayers have been sourced to give appropriate credit.
**NRSV translation used for the readings, unless otherwise stated.
**This is for personal use at home as
the church is unable to gather in our houses of worship but together we can
worship in our own homes.
The echoes of cheering die away and the partying palm
branches shrivel on the side of the road.The glimpses of light on the way ahead flicker into darkness.All that lies within the shadows and the emptiness
waits to be entered, in its pain, its oppressions, and its deathliness.
(Silence)
But one thing is never in doubt: That Christ goes on in
faithfulness.
Let us pray:
God of everlasting covenants, we come to you this day in
sorrow.
As we contemplate the death of Jesus so long ago on the
cross,
Help us to come to terms with the things we have done, that
continue to crucify Him in our world.
Give us the strength and courage to open ourselves honestly
to your judgment, and as we confess all that we have done, and all we have
failed to do, may we receive the fullness of your Grace.
In the name of Jesus, crucified and risen, we pray. Amen.
A
reading from the book of Isaiah52:13-53:12
See, my servant shall prosper;
he shall be exalted and lifted up,
and shall be very high.
Just as there were many who were
astonished at him
—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of mortals—
so he shall startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which had not been told them
they shall see,
and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.
Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should
look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their
faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.
Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us
whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the
slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By a perversion of justice he was taken
away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the
living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.
They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush
him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for
sin,
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall
prosper.
Out of his anguish he shall see light;
he shall find satisfaction through his
knowledge.
The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will allot him a portion
with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out himself to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be
to God.
Psalm 22
My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not
answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm, and not human;
scorned by others, and despised by the people.
All who see me mock at me;
they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
“Commit your cause to the Lord; let him
deliver—
let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”
Yet it was you who took me from the
womb;
you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
On you I was cast from my birth,
and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
Many bulls encircle me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs are all around me;
a company of evildoers encircles me.
My hands and feet have shriveled;
I can count all my bones.
They stare and gloat over me;
they divide my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
But you, O Lord, do not be far away!
O my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
From the horns of the wild oxen you have
rescued me.
I will tell of your name to my brothers
and sisters;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he did not despise or abhor
the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me,
but heard when I cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great
congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in
the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
and proclaim his deliverance to a people
yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
A reading
from the letter to the Hebrews10:16-25
“This is the covenant that I will make
with them
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds,”
he also adds,
“I will remember their sins and their
lawless deeds no more.”
Where there is forgiveness of these,
there is no longer any offering for sin.
Therefore, my friends, since we have
confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living
way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and
since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the
confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.
And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not
neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Let us gently
cover the wounds that lie in this Holy life, knowing that, as we do, we are
also receiving the gracious love of Jesus the Christ.
(Silence)
We bring our
pain, our grieving, and our unforgiven failures.We bring the injustices and rejections of the
world.We bring violence of the
world.We bring the struggling life of
our planet.Like the friends of Jesus in
his day, we will gently cherish the Christ. We will now lay down the difficulties of
life.We bring these burdens to the Body
of Christ, for healing, comfort, forgiveness, and new life in the future.We will place them into the tomb of love and
care.
Lord God, we
meet you beneath your cross today.We
meet friends, strangers, and mourners – grieving for the loss of love in this
world.We meet because we want to
understand the awful things that have happened.We meet because we want to be alongside you on the cross.
And in our
meeting we keep silence.We keep silence
at a time when words fail us.We keep
silence as you kept silent on the cross.And so we keep silence with those crucified today, and those who live in
darkness, in despair, in pain.
People who
seem different or strange.
(Silence)
We keep
silence with those treated as scapegoats: lone parents, people of different
orientations, loners.
(Silence)
We keep
silence with those who are robbed of a sense of belonging in our society: women
beaten up by money lenders, mothers and fathers whose sons have been murdered.
(Silence)
We keep
silence with those who mourn a loved one.
(Silence)
We keep
silence with those rebuilding their lives in places of conflict.
Their names
are not in the headlines but the slaughter goes on.
(Silence)
We keep
silence with those known to us today who live in darkness.
Who find it
hard to see beyond desolation and despair.
(Silence)
In the pain,
misfortune, oppression, and death of the people, God is silent.
God is silent
on the cross, in the crucified, and in this silence is God’s word, God’s cry.
In solidarity,
God speaks the language of Love.
Amen.
An ancient
Good Friday tradition calls for the reading of a series of “reproaches” in
which we hear the voice of God challenging humankind for acts of betrayal.
The reproaches
included here reflect back on the various stories of covenant that have been
read this Lenten season. After each reproach we will say:
Jesus Lamb of God have
mercy on us
After the
earth was destroyed by a flood, I made a covenant with all creation.I promised never to destroy the earth with a
flood, but you have made it your business to destroy creation, by poisoning the
waters, the land, the air, neglecting to consider the effects of your living,
on the fragile creation you have given us.
Jesus Lamb of God have mercy on us
I called you
to travel to new lands and to seek new adventures, promising to be with you
always.
In your zeal
for power and conquest, you have slaughtered whole nations, or relegated them
to slavery.
You have not
welcomed refugees, and have constructed lies to support your own history.
I have given
enough for all, if only you would share.
Yet you do
not.
Jesus Lamb of God have mercy on us
I offer you
loving ways to live, to guide you in ways of justice. You turn it into hardened law, place yourself
in judgment over your brothers and sisters, and make people feel guilty when
they do not live up to your expectations.
Jesus Lamb of God have
mercy on us
Yet millions are dying because they
cannot afford basic medical care.
Many with certain illnesses are made to
feel ashamed, various methods of healing are devalued, and often you believe
that you can control the forces of life
and death.
Jesus Lamb of God have mercy on us
I continually
offered you a covenant, promising forgiveness and a new beginning over and over
again.
Yet you have
denied the rights of many even to exist, making nations and communities
scapegoats for your guilt.You would
deny my blessing and forgiveness to many, preferring your own limited view of
my limitless love.
Jesus Lamb of God have mercy on us
I came to you
as one of you and you rejected me.
You shouted
“Hosanna” and then “Crucify" with the same breath.
You claim to
adore my Messiah yet you deny many who would proclaim the gospel in his name.
Jesus Lamb of God have mercy on me
(Silence)
Closing
Hymn - O Sacred Head, Now Wounded (Evangelical Lutheran Worship #351)
Let us go out in reverent silence, as
those whose life is so precious to God that the Christ would die rather than
stop loving us.
May these next three days be spent in
the quiet of contemplation and may every moment be held safe in the open arms
of Jesus Christ and our faith, in what is to come, be lifted up in hope by the
Holy Spirit.
**Please note this is based on the format of the Anglican Church of
Canada. Unless otherwise indicated, all prayers come from the Book of
Alternative Services (BAS). Hymns and other prayers have been sourced to give
appropriate credit.
**NRSV translation used for the readings.
**This is for personal use at home as the church is unable to gather in
our houses of worship but together we can worship in our own homes.
Opening Hymn – Great God, Your Love has Called Us
Here (BCP #442)
This is the day that
Christ the Lamb of God gave himself into the hands of those who would slay him.
This is the day that
Christ gathered with his disciples in the upper room.
This is the day that
Christ took a towel and washed the disciples’ feet, giving us an example that
we should do to others as he has done to us.
This is the day that
Christ our God gave us this holy feast, that we who eat this bread and drink
this cup may here proclaim his Holy Sacrifice and be partakers of his resurrection,
and at the last day may reign with him in heaven.
Collect
O God, your son Jesus
Christ has left to us this meal of bread and wine in which we share his body
and his blood. May we who celebrate this sign of his great love show in our
lives the fruits of his redemption; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
A reading from the book of Exodus12:1-14
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall
mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year
for you. 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. If a
household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in
obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people
who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may
take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the
fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel
shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on
the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall
eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with
unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water,
but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let
none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning
you shall burn. 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. 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. 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.
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 word of
the Lord
Thanks be to God!
Psalm 116: 1, 10-17
I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my supplications.
I kept my faith, even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted”;
I said in my consternation,
“Everyone is a liar.”
What shall I return to the Lord
for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the
Lord,
I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his
people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his faithful
ones.
O Lord, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child
of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the
Lord.
A reading from the first letter of Paul to the
Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord
Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had
given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do
this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper,
saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you
drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink
the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
A video reading from the
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John13:1-17, 31b-35
Sermon
Holy Week is celebrated by
both Jews and Christians alike - for similar reasons but with very different
undertones.
In tonight’s account in Exodus,
God tells Moses and Aaron how to combat the 10th plague. Do you remember what
the 10th plague is? Let me remind you:
From Exodus 11:
Moses said, “Thus says the
LORD: About midnight I will go out through Egypt. Every firstborn in the land
of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the
firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn
of the livestock. Then there will be a loud cry throughout the whole land of Egypt,
such as has never been or will ever be again. But not a dog shall growl at any
of the Israelites—not at people, not at animals—so that you may know that the
LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
In tonight’s reading from
Exodus 12, God instructs Moses and Aaron to have each family slaughter a lamb
and spread its blood on their doorways. By doing so, they would be telling God
which houses belong to the Israelites, and thus, by default, which belong to
the Egyptians. It says in line 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.”
For the Jewish community, this
week is one of celebration that commemorates the exodus of the Jews from
slavery in Egypt. The Hebrew word pesach (pay-sock) refers to the ancient
Passover sacrifice, known as the Paschal Lamb; it is also said to refer to the
idea that God “passed over” the houses of the Jews during the 10th plague on the
Egyptians, the slaying of the first born. The holiday is ultimately a
celebration of freedom, and the story of the exodus from Egypt is a powerful
metaphor that is appreciated not only by Jews, but by people of other faiths as
well.
Passover is one of the best
known Jewish holidays, as much for its connection to Jewish redemption and the
figure of Moses as for its ties with Christian history. The Last Supper has
been described as a Passover seder (say-der), a Jewish ritual feast that marks
the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover.
According to the Synoptic
Gospels, it is on Thursday evening that Jesus, in the upper room with his
disciples, celebrates Passover and institutes the Lord's Supper. The Gospel of
John, however, speaks of the Thursday supper as the day before Passover,
linking Jesus' death on Friday with the Passover sacrifices.
And so while Jews are
celebrating the joy of their freedom from slavery, this week, for Christians,
is a week of sadness as we come closer to the end Jesus’ life.
In the end, Christians will
celebrate their freedom and forgiveness from sin, but the build-up to Easter
Sunday is more sombre than joyful.
Tonight is an especially
sombre night as Jesus lays the foundation of his departure even while his
disciples are oblivious to the fact.
There was no human reason why
Jesus had to die. To the general public, he was more helpful than harmful. But
to the Roman leadership, Jesus was a real pain.
Jesus was a small-town peasant
in a Roman province far from the centers of political and religious power.
People in such circumstances rarely threatened Rome in any serious way. A
miracle-working Jewish prophet and teacher would not have posed much of a
conventional threat to such power and brutality. For his own part, Jesus never
took up arms, nor did he encourage his followers to do so.
But while Jesus did not
exercise conventional kinds of political authority, his actions and his message
included threats to the status quo.
Chief among his threatening
actions? Jesus could draw a crowd. The gospels report that great crowds
followed him. When he entered Jerusalem during the last week of his life, he
entered to local fanfare.
The popularity of Jesus,
combined with the gathering of perhaps hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in
Jerusalem for Passover, would have made Roman authorities very nervous. It was
this nervousness that flamed the desire to pull Jesus from hiding and set him
on trial before Pilate.
Jesus knew this was all going
to happen. He knew that his time on earth was coming to an end. He even knew
who was going to hand him to Roman authorities. And he knew that the ending
wasn’t going to be a pleasant one.
So why didn’t he tell anyone?
Why did he turn towards the end instead of running the other way?
Cryptic as always, Jesus
washes the feet of his disciples, declares that one of them will betray him,
and tells them that he will only be with them a short while longer. And as
usual, the whole situation goes over the disciples’ heads.
If you knew you were going to
die, wouldn’t you tell your best friends? Wouldn’t you want you their support?
Or at least give them a chance to say goodbye?
Jesus didn’t do any of that,
but he did impart some pretty heavy last lessons to his disciples.
First, he delivers to them a
new commandment – to love one another.
The reading says, “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.”
While the Romans thought Jesus
was a rebel-rouser, he really was, in fact, a teacher in the art of love. In
all of his miracles, parables, and lessons, the underlying fact is that all can
be done and achieved through the love of one another and of the stranger.
Second, Jesus imparted a
lesson of remembrance.
Jesus may not have openly
declared to his people what was about to happen, but he wanted his disciples to
remember him and the lessons that he had been teaching.
And so, much in the Jewish
tradition of seder, Jesus and his disciples had one final supper together.
The Last Supper is one of the
foundational pieces of the Christian faith. To accept the Eucharist in
remembrance and thanks to the life and death of Jesus is to openly declare
yourself one of his disciples.
It is what makes this night so
special, despite its darkness.
Similar to the Jewish
celebration of freedom from Egyptian slavery, tonight we, as Christians,
celebrate our freedom to declare our love and faith in Jesus and reveal our
willingness to follow in his footsteps.
Feel the quiet power these
words:
Take this bread and eat it. It
is my body. As you eat it, remember me.
Take this wine and drink it.
It is my blood. As you drink it, remember me.
Ten years ago, I read
tonight’s Corinthians passage aloud for the first time, my lips sounding out
the words of our Eucharistic prayers.
I felt a presence in those
words, a presence that I felt physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Ten years ago, I heeded the
words of our Lord and became his disciple.
Tonight is a powerful night.
It was for the disciples 2000
years ago. It was for me ten years ago.
It is for us tonight.
We go into the darkness, but
there is still a presence. One that will remain with us until our Lord comes to
us once again.
on the night before
his death, Jesus set an example for his disciples by washing their feet, an act
of humble service.
He taught that
strength and growth in the life of the kingdom of God come not by power,
authority, or even miracle, but by such lowly service.
Therefore, I invite
you who share in the royal priesthood of Christ, that you may recall whose
servant you are by following the example of your Master.
But come remembering
his admonition that what will be done for you is also to be done by you to
others, for “a servant is no greater than his master, nor is one who is sent
greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if
you do them.”
Foot Washing
Prayers of the People
(Please allow
yourself some quiet time for reflection on the intercessions after each of the
suggested petitions and take time to offer your own prayers.)
With confidence and trust, let us pray to the Lord.
For the one holy catholic and apostolic Church throughout the world, we
pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the mission of the Church, that in faithful witness it may preach
the gospel to the ends of the earth, we pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For peace in the world; that a spirit of respect and reconciliation may
grow among nations and peoples, we pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer; for
refugees, prisoners, and all in danger; for all those working in essential
services and their families; for all who have been stricken with the COVID-19
virus; that they may be relieved and protected, we pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For all whom we have injured or offended, we pray to you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For grace to amend our lives and to further the reign of God, we pray to
you, Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
Gathering our prayers and praises into one, let us pray as our Saviour
taught us,
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen.
A new commandment I
give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 13:34
