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    Apr 09, 2020

    Maundy Thursday

    Maundy Thursday

    Passage: Luke 22:39-43

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Tonight will not likely be like any other Maundy – or Holy – Thursday you have ever observed. . I invite you to worship tonight focused on Christ’s obedience and passion – not THE passion, but the passion of a man who was called to do the unimaginable

    listen to the service as you follow along with the script

    Holy Thursday Worship

    April 9, 2020

    Call to Worship

    Tonight will not likely be like any other Maundy – or Holy – Thursday you have ever observed.  We are separated from each other, making The Lord’s Supper all but impossible, and so we will focus this night on other parts of the story – parts that we often omit because it’s just too long to do the whole thing.  I invite you to worship tonight focused on Christ’s obedience and passion – not THE passion, but the passion of a man who was called to do the unimaginable

    Unison Prayer

    Eternal God, even as we remember every single year the story of Holy Week, this story is so hard to contemplate.  It isn’t pretty and it isn’t easy.  It’s about obedience and it’s about a kind of love that we know you want from us but that we so often fail to muster, especially when called to love people we don’t even like.  On this night, speak to us through the story of a Savior whose determined and tragic obedience lifted us to new life.  Enable us to see the Savior whom we far too often take for granted.  We truly desire to love you and to live for you.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

    Meditation

    All evening things were out of kilter.  It was Passover!  The disciples had to know that Jesus just wasn’t himself, but you have to wonder if they were hoping it would be a Passover like all the others:  great food, 7 cups of wine, the greatest story – the one that reminded them every year that God rescued their people from slavery in Egypt.

    Yet all evening long, things happened that just weren’t in keeping with the way it was supposed to be.  Jesus started things off by washing their feet.  What?

    Then he started talking about betrayal and death.  And about how this meal was different.  They were to see Jesus’ body and blood in the meal.  Remember him?  Jesus, you’re right here!

    You know how when people are anxious or tired or deeply stressed, they act out?  So very often people aren’t at their best when they are anxious or tired or deeply stressed.  Funerals are one case in point.   How often do people say things they would not usually say when someone dies?  Well, friends the disciples were no different.

    After that unusual meal, the guys got to talking, and perhaps predictably, an argument arose.  I’m the greatest!  No I’m the greatest!  And once again Jesus said something truly unexpected and perhaps difficult to understand.  He said: the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.  For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. (Luke 22:26-27)  Can’t you imagine them scratching their heads?

    And then – then he predicted that Peter would deny him.  What?

    Very soon thereafter, Jesus got up and, as one writer put it, he bolted from the table to go pray in the Garden of Gethsemane.  I’ve never thought about it that way.  Bolted.  I don’t think I ever before thought that Jesus felt an urgent need for prayer.  Think about it.  The disciples were not just having trouble understanding what he was doing and saying – they even started arguing.  They missed the point completely that Jesus’ life was in danger – that there was a plot and he was the object of the plot.  The chief priests were out to get him!  Can’t they just behave themselves on this horrible night?  Bolted. 

    He must have been fed up – and more than a little desperate.

    Hear the story from Luke 22:39-43

    39 Jesus left and made his way to the Mount of Olives, as was his custom, and the disciples followed him. 40 When he arrived, he said to them, “Pray that you won’t give in to temptation.” 41 He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed. 42 He said, “Father, if it’s your will, take this cup of suffering away from me. However, not my will but your will must be done.” 43 Then a heavenly angel appeared to him and strengthened him.

    There is an iconic painting of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  I’m sure that many of you have seen it before.  Jesus is kneeling piously and looking toward heaven with a halo illuminating his head and a serene look on his face.  In fact, let me show it to you.

            Click to view the painting

    I find that painting to be WAY too sweet.  Who can look like that when they are expecting things to get truly ugly in a very short period of time?  Perhaps the painting would seem more realistic if the next 3 verses weren’t included in the story:

    44 He was in anguish and prayed even more earnestly. His sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. 45 When he got up from praying, he went to the disciples. He found them asleep, overcome by grief. 46 He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray so that you won’t give in to temptation.”

    He was in anguish.  Far from looking cool, calm, and collected, I wonder if Jesus was more like the portrayal of  Jesus by Glenn Carter in the recent stage production of Jesus Christ, Superstar when he sang the song Gethsemane – I Only Want to Say.

    I Only Want to Say

    Will no one stay awake with me?  Peter, John, James.
    Will none of you wait with me?  Peter, John, James.
     
    I only want to say,
    If there is a way,
    Take this cup away from me
    For I don't want to taste its poison.
    Feel it burn me,
    I have changed.
    I'm not as sure, as when we started.
    Then, I was inspired.
    Now, I'm sad and tired.
    Listen, surely I've exceeded expectations,
    Tried for three years, seems like thirty.
    Could you ask as much from any other man?
    But if I die,
    See the saga through and do the things you ask of me,
    Let them hate me, hit me, hurt me, nail me to their tree.
    I'd want to know, I'd want to know, My God,
    I'd want to know, I'd want to know, My God,
    Want to see, I'd want to see, My God,
    Want to see, I'd want to see, My God,
    Why I should die.
    Would I be more noticed than I ever was before?
    Would the things I've said and done matter any more?
    I'd have to know, I'd have to know, my Lord,
    Have to know, I'd have to know, my Lord,
    Have to see, I'd have to see, my Lord,
    Have to see, I'd have to see, my Lord,
    If I die what will be my reward?
    If I die what will be my reward?
    Have to know, I'd have to know, my Lord,
    I'd have to know, I'd have to know, my Lord,
    Why should I die? Oh why should I die?
    Can you show me now that I would not be killed in vain?
    Show me just a little of your omnipresent brain.
    Show me there's a reason for your wanting me to die.
    You're far too keen on where and how, but not so hot on why.
    Alright, I'll die!
    Just watch me die!
    See how I die!
    Then I was inspired.
    Now, I'm sad and tired.
    After all, I've tried for three years, seems like ninety.
    Why then am I scared to finish what I started,
    What you started - I didn't start it.
    God, thy will is hard,
    But you hold every card.
    I will drink your cup of poison.
    Nail me to your cross and break me,
    Bleed me, beat me,
    Kill me.
    Take me, now!
    Before I change my mind.
     
     Watch Glenn Carter as Jesus sing I Only Want to Say

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuR2mVKEfdE

    Unison Prayer

    We are overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of Jesus’ obedience to you – especially since we know he did it for us, to give us freedom from sin and new life the in your love is made perfect.  Give us the grace to worship you and your Son Jesus with our whole lives.  For the sake of the One who died for us, Jesus.  Amen.