Walking with Jesus in Holy Week: Maundy Thursday

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered,

instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood:

Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully

in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord,

who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life;

and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

John 13. 35

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.”

It’s not until someone isn’t around that we miss all that they do.

Martin has been a servant at St. Mary’s for as long as I’ve been there. He does a lot of things behind the scenes, most so ordinary that we don’t even notice that they’ve been done. Except when they aren’t.

During Lent, Martin suffered a very painful back problem. He was on bedrest for a number of weeks, and thankfully, is now back up and about, but must use a walker to get around.

Martin has many not so little tasks that he does for Lent, Holy Week, and Easter. He starts us off on Shrove Tuesday making pancakes, and finishes the great Forty Days with pancakes at the Easter Sunday breakfast. He gets the fire pit out for the burning of palms on Shrove Tuesday, then gets it out again for the Holy Fire at the Great Vigil of Easter. He retrieves the large cross we use on Good Friday and places it for all to see on Palm Sunday. He also gets the cross ready that we use for the flowering of the cross on Easter Sunday.

On Holy Wednesday, I realized that the Good Friday and Easter Sunday crosses weren’t out. We had taken Martin’s annual service so for granted, I wasn’t even sure where they were.

When we called to ask Martin, he was at physical therapy. I seemed to remember that the cross was stored in the attic. Turns out that most people didn’t even know we had an attic! I knew that it would be a task to go up there and get those cumbersome crosses down, so I told the Altar Guild directress to wait until there were some stronger folks around to do it.

I went back to my office to do my oh, so important work. Next thing I knew, I heard banging and screeching out in the hall. Three women from St. Mary’s had decided to bring the crosses down from the attic, with, I must add, no help from the rector (me!).

What these three women did is the Gospel for Maundy Thursday in action. Had I not been there with camera, no one would know the act of love they did for hundreds of people. Turns out until Martin was unable to do the service he had done so selflessly year after year, no one appreciated his act of love. These folk didn’t wash feet, but they did serve as they had been served.

An email went out last night to dozens of people asking them to help with the Easter breakfast. Though Martin believes he can make the pancakes, he’ll need a lot more help since he is less mobile right now. There are others who help with breakfast year after year, but I can’t wait to see who else will live the Maundy Thursday gospel on the Sunday of the Resurrection, especially by making breakfast (which is, of course, one of the things Jesus did for his disciples after his resurrection).

Thank you to all of the servants who share God’s love as Jesus did. Continued healing prayers for Martin, too.

Join us tonight at St. Mary’s for the Maundy Thursday Holy Eucharist which will include foot washing and will conclude with the stripping of the altar and a vigil in the (inside) prayer garden.

Join us tomorrow for the continued vigil in the garden through noon, followed by the Good Friday liturgy at noon, and Stations of the Cross at 6.30 PM, either traditional stations in the nave, or family stations in the outdoor prayer garden.

Walking with Jesus: Wednesday in Holy Week

Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior

gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon:

Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time,

confident of the glory that shall be revealed;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The readings that we will use at the Holy Eucharist this morning are different from the daily office readings that were included in the St. Mary’s Holy Week booklet. They definitely include some greatest hits:

From Isaiah 50. 4–9a

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens–wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

Hebrews 12. 1–3

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.

And just like that, dear brothers and sisters, you’ve both read Scripture and prayed today!

I think the most challenging part of Holy Week is having the world and our many commitments continue to swirl around us, and yet go to that place of connecting with Jesus and the way of the cross. There is no week in the year when the world place and the God place feel more discordant. And yet, what we are called to do is to see the cross of Christ within our most ordinary moments–that place where the quotidian Gospel is lived.

Coming tomorrow: Maundy Thursday Eucharist at 7 with 15 hour Watch with Christ Prayer Vigil following (at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Cypress, Texas). A few of the Vigil time slots are still empty. Will you give an hour of your time (plus travel!) to pray?

Walking with Jesus: Tuesday in Holy Week

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son

you made an instrument of shameful death

to be for us the means of life:

Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ,

that we may gladly suffer shame and loss

for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you

and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

AM Psalm 6, 12; PM Psalm 94

Jer. 15:10-21 + Phil. 3:15-21 + John 12:20-26

This Lent my intent was to attend Morning and Evening Prayer more frequently at St. Mary’s. I don’t know about you, but when I try to be more intentional about some spiritual practice, too often more and more obstacles seem to fall in my path.

I have a back up plan which I often do when I can’t join my brothers and sisters at St. Mary’s in the Prayer Garden for the daily office. It does connect me with brothers and sisters in the larger Anglican Communion. David Guthrie from the Anglican Church in New Zealand has a twice daily podcast of Morning and Evening Prayer. I download it and keep it ready on my ipod for when I’m driving during Morning or Evening Prayer at St. Mary’s.

The thing about our Holy Week walk with Jesus is to do something sometime. The thing is to find some pocket of time somewhere and do some spiritual practice. I think we start out with lofty plans, and when we fall short, too often dismiss the smaller moments of time that God gives us each day. In the same way that we love to have people we love be with us, a short visit better than no visit at all, God loves to have those God loves with God, and will always give us time for that visit, no matter how brief.

So if you haven’t taken time yet to say at least a small prayer, to read one verse of Scripture, the day isn’t over yet. In fact, if the last thing you do before you go to sleep tonight is to say a prayer and one verse of Scripture (even “Jesus wept,” or “God is love”)–then your day is better for it.

And after all, tomorrow is a brand new day to walk with God.

P.S. Tomorrow is Holy Wednesday, and we will celebrate Holy Eucharist with Healing at 9 AM. Please join us if you can.

Walking with Jesus: Monday in Holy Week

The Daily Office for Holy Monday:

AM Psalm 51:1-18(19-20); PM Psalm 69:1-23

Jer. 12:1-16 + Phil. 3:1-14 + John 12:9-19

There are occasions in the Church calendar when time becomes especially focussed. Holy Week, the last week of Lent and the week before Easter, gives each day of the week it’s own unique name–each day is that important. Yesterday was Palm Sunday. Today is Holy Monday. Tomorrow will be Holy Tuesday. The Church assumes that there will be daily worship, and even provides collects (prayers) and Scriptures for that day’s celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Although we didn’t celebrate Holy Eucharist at St. Mary’s today, those praying Morning and Evening Prayer can pray this day’s collect:

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,

and entered not into glory before he was crucified:

Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,

may find it none other than the way of life and peace;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

I took today as my Sabbath, and so joined the other at home prayers and worshippers. I lit my candle and connected with all of us praying and worshipping at St. Mary’s and elsewhere.

I took a walk. I made gingerbread. I knitted. I cleaned off book shelves and took books to the Northwest Library for their Friends of the Library Book Sale. I wrote to a couple of friends. I took a nap. I looked ahead to the Scriptures for Maundy Thursday and spent quiet time reading and beginning to pray about the sermon I’ll preach that night. I prayed for my friends and family, and especially my family at St. Mary’s.

I’m mindful that most everyone in the parish had a day full of busy-ness. I’ll be joining them first thing tomorrow as the Holy Week push to Easter continues. But for now, I hold the parish in my heart and pray that they will each have moments of reaching out and grasping Jesus’ hand.