Holy Week is starts tomorrow – March 28 Palm Sunday, starting outdoors to idoors.
April 1 is Maundy Thursday with in-home zoom worship.
April 2 Good Friday worship at 7 p.m. Indoors.
April 4 Easter at 10 am. Indoors. (with masks and proper social distancing and a special time for the children).
If you would like to purchase a lily for Easter. Email the church with the dedication you would like. The cost is $10/lily which you can send in or given at church.
Thank you for supporting this and thank you for your continued support of our ministry.
This Message is especially for Maundy Thursday April 1. It is an in-home worship service. You can join us on Zoom so we can participate together @ 5 p.m.
Zoom link for this Maundy Thursday April 1 at home service is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81752203011?pwd=dXU0VUVNSXVEYjRuZGcvMWlvOEFKQT09 — Meeting ID: 817 5220 3011 — Passcode: 030439
We will all be at home with family in the same way that Passover has been celebrated through the centuries – at home with family and friends. Indeed, that is how Jesus celebrated it – with his disciples.
To prepare:
Have a glass of wine or grape juice, some bread and a bowl for foot washing or some shoe polish if you want to engage in the foot washing part of the remembrance.
Prior to our time together at 5 p.m.
Meal: you might have a meal together. If so, you might include some lamb or bitter herbs and flat bread. If you would like to move deeper into the Seder meal, there are some good websites including this one from the catholic church. https://todayscatholic.org/a-christian-family-seder-meal-bring-theology-to-the-table/. The scripture regarding the first Passover comes from Exodus 12.
Reading of the first Passover
Exodus 12:1-4 [5-10] 11-14 Israel remembered its deliverance from slavery in Egypt by celebrating the festival of Passover. This festival featured the Passover lamb, whose blood was used as a sign to protect God’s people from the threat of death. The early church described the Lord’s supper using imagery from the Passover, especially in portraying Jesus as the lamb who delivers God’s people from sin and death.
1The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3Tell 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. 4If 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. [5Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.] 11This 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. 12For 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. 13The 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.
14This 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.
This is the observance Jesus and the disciples celebrated on the night of his betrayal and trial.
Foot washing:
John 13: 3 -10.
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” 9Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” 11For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
You might reenact this Gospel reading for Maundy Thursday. By each family member washing the feet of the other. You could also polish their or your shoes, which is more what we do today. Notice the humble nature of Jesus in this moment, near his death. When we have our zoom meeting together, let’s share a story of your experience with this or you might also share a story of a person who has been a servant in your life.
Service for our time together:
Grace and Peace from God our creator and Christ our Redeemer.
Initial Short discussion:
Did you do the foot washing or shoe polishing? How did it feel?
Who were the servants “foot washers” in your life?
Prayer: Lord we gather together, in the comfort of our homes, preparing ourselves to partake in a solemn feast; originally celebrated initially in the home. Jesus bent down to wash the dirty feet of his disciples. May we be of humble service in the world as well. Thank you for those who have assisted us in our lives. Jesus gave us a new commandment, to love one another as he loves us. Write this commandment in our hearts and give us the will to serve others as he was the servant of all, your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Confession: Releasing our sins –
Pastor: Friends in Christ, in this Lenten season we have heard our Lord’s call to struggle against sin, death, and the devil—all that keeps us from loving God and each other. Within the community of the church, God never wearies of forgiving sin and giving the peace of reconciliation. On this night let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor, as we enter the celebration of the great Three Days reconciled with God and with one another.
Silence is kept for reflection and self-examination.
Most merciful God,
we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.
We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.
Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.
Pastor: God, who is rich in mercy, loved us even when we were dead in sin, and made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. In the name of ☩ Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Almighty God strengthen you with power through the Holy Spirit, that Christ may live in your hearts through faith.
Amen.
Read John 13: 31b-35
31b“Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Prayer of the Day – together:
Holy God, source of all love, on the night of his betrayal, Jesus gave us a new commandment, to love one another as he loves us. Write this commandment in our hearts and give us the will to serve others as he was the servant of all, your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Have the bread and wine in front of you as we remember the Lord’s Supper.
Introduction to Communion – Pastor
Christ, in his abundant graciousness,
Offered himself freely and completely to all,
Modeling for us the essence of Love,
Instructing us to give ourselves completely to this Love,
and inviting us to be this Love and usher in a new Kingdom.
A Kingdom where hope reigns in uninhibited glory.
A Kingdom where gifts are freely given without expectation of reimbursement.
A Kingdom where equality is assumed and mercy equally distributed.
The new Kingdom of God. The ancient reality of being wonderfully human.
Pastor: Beloved, let us celebrate with Jesus at the table of peace.
All: Let us eat the Feast with him.
Pastor: For now, nothing can separate us from his love.
All: And let us love one another well, for he laid down his life for us all.
Pastor: We remember that he longed to celebrate the Passover with his friends.
He arranged for a meal, his last in this life. We remember that he gave them a new commandment:
All: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
WORDS OF INSTITUTION
Pastor: And we remember that on that night, with danger and death in the air, Jesus remembered with joy the deliverance of his ancestors from the oppression of Pharaoh. He told the victory story, ate bitter herbs, shared the unleavened loaf, and drank the cup of blessing. Paul was well aware of the importance of communion, even as new as he was to the faith.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
Pastor: 23For 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, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said,
Together:
“This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Pastor:
25In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying,
Together:
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Pastor:
26For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
INVITATION
Pastor: Friends, if you are hungry for a taste of what is to come, if you yearn to feast on a love without condition and without end; take and eat this bread of life. The Body of Christ given for you:
[Eat the bread]
If you are thirsting for forgiveness, then open your hearts to this meal, a sign of grace, a gift of peace, and partake in the cup of joy.
[Drink the wine]
And all God’s people said:
All: Amen.
Lord’s Prayer
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 forgiven 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 forever. Amen.
Prayer:
Almighty and everliving God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the Body of your Son, and heirs of your eternal kingdom. And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
Again the Zoom link for this Maundy Thursday at home service is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81752203011?pwd=dXU0VUVNSXVEYjRuZGcvMWlvOEFKQT09 — Meeting ID: 817 5220 3011 — Passcode: 030439
If you cannot join us feel free on Thursday to use it yourself or with family.
WORSHIP – Sundays at 10 am on our campus and via Zoom. We are now worshipping in the sanctuary. The Zoom link each week on Sunday will be https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89118792862?pwd=WUF6aHB3dmFHOXp5SWZ4ZnRDVUtJdz09 You can also go into Zoom and enter Meeting ID: 891 1879 2862 with the Passcode: Faith. We also record the service.
UPCOMING DATES
Sunday, March 28 – Palm Sunday Holy Week begins outdoors moves indoors.
Thursday April 1 – Maundy Thursday at home worship – zoom at 5 p.m.
Friday, April 2 – Good Friday Service 7 p.m. – indoor worship.
Unique Church Office Hours this Holy Week Thursday and Friday April 1 and 2. Then back to Tuesdays and Wednesdays – April 6 and 7.
Reminder — people who have Thrivent, remember to designate your 2020 Choice dollars THIS WEEK. Over $1,050 has been received thus far.
Sunday, April 4 – Easter Sunday
MEMBER UPDATES AND CONTINUAL PRAYERS
- Thank you for your prayers:
- Jerry Mills is recovering well from surgery and is now at home.
- Jeanne Koenig was back at work this week and feeling much better.
- Michael Shea’s daughter, Rebecca, has been with us in worship.
- Glenda Kirker’s cancerous tumor is contained.
- Jan Wheeler’s cancer was removed and all markers are clear.
- Carol Jensen’s daughter Karen does not need treatment on the cluster of tiny cysts that were found just 6-month check-ups.
- Dona Whitt’s daughter Sheri Whitt-Graham had wonderful news following a year of COVID related disabling illness, including a heart attack. After her second vaccine and working with Stanford University she is back to normal.
- The disabled friend of the Halls, Mike, is on the mend.
- Roxanne Foss would like prayers for her niece Ginny.
- Steve Cady and his sister, Sherry, are working to find a place for their mother., Donna.
- Carol Fultz’ sister, Barbara Colangelo, is leaving rehab. However, husband Ed is having some squamous removed. Their granddaughter-in-law Vanessa is undergoing tests related to her high-risk diabetes.
- Continue prayers for erwin for strength and Lynda for healing.
THANKS
- Glenn Egertson and a crew from camp will be here in the next few weeks to complete the covered walkway to the fellowship hall.
- Landscaping improvements are continuing out front; thanks to Joe and Steve who are working on crosses for the front and to Sharon and Debbi who picked out plantings.
- Our next pantry day is this Saturday, March 27. We could use pasta sauce as we have a lot of pasta.
- Eleanor Diaz has completed ELEVEN quilts and 14 lap blankets. We have 20 quilts completed now after adding in the 11.
You are special people! We are a special congregation of FAITH!