Thursday, April 1, 2021 - Maundy Thursday Devotion - Lent Day 38
Maundy Thursday Online Worship
Today’s service available on our Facebook page. No in-person worship today.
Full Holy Week Schedule
Access the online bulletin for today’s Maundy Thursday service, here
Access the a printable bulletin for today’s Maundy Thursday service, here
Access the children’s activity sheets for today, Maundy Thursday, here
Access the signup for our Holy Week Gift Bag here
Access the signup for Good Friday or Easter Sunday Worship here
Access the signup to volunteer Good Friday or Easter Sunday here
Maundy Thursday - April 1 - “Loved In Grace Alone!”
Our Maundy Thursday pre-recorded service will be available on our Facebook page.
Service to include: Readings, Music, Words Of Institution, Stripping of The Cross
Holy Week & Easter Gift Bag pick up, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., and 6-7 p.m.
A reminder: No in-person worship for Maundy Thursday.
Good Friday - April 2 - “Saved In Grace Alone!”
Worship, 7 p.m., in person and live streamed.
Service to include: “Jesus’ Seven Last Words,” Readings, Music, and Prayers
Easter Sunday, The Resurrection Of Our Lord - April 4 - “Alive & Anew In Living Grace!”
Worship, April 4, 9:30 a.m., in person and live streamed
Easter Worship includes: Festive Music, Children's Message, Holy Communion
(Please sign up to attend in person. Our capacity continues to be 80 people to allow for distancing. Please plan to begin arriving at 9 a.m. to allow time to be safely seated.)
Take and eat this bread.
Take and drink this cup.
This is my body and my blood.
When you eat this bread,
When you drink this cup,
You live in me and I in you.
Come all who thirst
For life eternal,
Come to the table of salvation.
““I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. 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.””
When was the last time an experience touched you at the core? When was the last time you wondered if you would ever be touched like that again? When was the last time you felt something touch you in a way you never thought possible?
When was the last time you touched someone else? That person knew it and you knew it. The two of you shared a connection, and you were the one who made the first move. Touching another, making a connection, is as amazing as being the one who is touched.
Maundy Thursday. What is this night all about? Where does the name for this night come from? "Maundy" comes from the Latin form for, "mandate." This night is about the "new mandate," the "new commandment," to love one another as we have been loved by the One who made the first move, to touch us at the core, for we have been touched by God in God's grace alone in Jesus Christ!
On this night, even in this night, in which He is betrayed, Jesus makes the first move once again! Jesus touched his disciples by washing their feet, by taking the bread and the cup, by serving them, by loving them and gracing them. Trust Jesus is still amazed and blessed as he touches you. He longs for you; he longs to touch you at the core again. He longs for you to touch another with his grace alone, to love one another as you have been loved, as you have been touched.
Though things are not yet the way we long for them to be, though we are not worshipping in person today the way we long to, Jesus is still really present, in the grace of his body and blood given and shed for each of us, and Jesus is really present right where we are, wherever we are, filling whatever is empty, as we share this holy day and night.
When was the last time you were touched at the core? Wondering if you will ever feel it again? In God's grace alone, let today, let tonight, let this weekend, be the next time!
Let us pray: Lord, today I come longing to be touched by you, and yet, allowing you to grace me, to touch me, to touch another's life and to love another, is hard for me. Make the first move again; call me again to yourself, to your Holy Table, to feel your presence, your touch; to love one another. Call me through your new commandment, to trust I can go and touch the lives of others, for I have first been so loved and touched by your grace alone. In your name I pray, touched by You, Your sacraments and Your grace. Amen.
