{"id":1692,"date":"2008-03-20T22:27:33","date_gmt":"2008-03-20T22:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=1692"},"modified":"2020-12-02T02:39:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T02:39:31","slug":"maundy-thursday-tenebrae-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/maundy-thursday-tenebrae-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 20, 2008<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opening Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holy God, we need your help to face the challenges of this night. Our intentions are good. We want to share in the heritage of our faith, to remember the saving drama of Passover and to celebrate Jesus\u2019 last meal with close friends. We want to be disciples, but we also count the cost, and tremble. Incline your ear to us and hear our prayers. We gather as your servant people, knowing we are precious in your sight, yet afraid to take the risk of trusting you completely. Lead us this night into deeper commitment. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You Are Hungry<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 26:26<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus knew us. He knew how our bodies and our minds work. He knew that our bodies need food every day. Food gives us energy and life. Lack of it stunts growth and cripples us. Forget to eat, and the body goes into a shutdown mode, until we die. So the signal that we are running low on food is hunger; it is the body\u2019s way of telling us that we need to eat again. Once we do, our bodies are satisfied and the hunger disappears\u2014until the next time the food energy runs low. That is the cycle; and it is not optional: when we need food, our bodies are programmed to be hungry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are other kinds of nourishment human beings need in order to live, too. The nourishment of love, for instance. Or kindness. Or joy. Or peace. Jesus knew this, too. He knew that you can starve a person with lack of gentleness just as surely as you can starve her with lack of food. This is probably why we refer to many of these necessities for life as \u201cfruits of the Spirit,\u201d since our souls, our spirits literally die without them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that some of these hunger pangs are trickier to recognize; we may not always know how dangerously malnourished we are. But when you start to feel like nothing you do is right; when you begin to think of yourself as broken and not worth fixing; when you find yourself asking, \u201cWho would ever want to be friends with me?\u201d\u2026you aren\u2019t crazy. You\u2019re hungry. You aren\u2019t weak. You are hungry. And there is nothing for it except to stop and eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What kind of food would satisfy this hunger? Jesus said, \u201cThis is my body, broken for you. This is my blood poured out for you.\u201d Stop, tear off a piece of broken bread, and remember what you have forgotten, in your hunger. Jesus said, \u201cI gave my life so that you could have life. There is nothing on heaven or earth that can separate you from the love of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus knew that we are programmed to run out of food, spiritual or otherwise. And here is the brilliance of Jesus\u2019 Last Supper with his disciples and with us today\u2014maybe we won\u2019t admit we\u2019re starving for love, but our bodies won\u2019t let us be hungry forever. Sooner or later, we\u2019re going to have to eat. And when we pick up a piece of bread, pass it to the next person, we will remember Jesus\u2019 commandment, \u201cYou also should love one another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maundy (which means \u201cnew commandment\u201d) is a reminder for us on this Thursday night to remember Jesus\u2019 new commandment to love one another as he has loved us. Tonight we know once again that the food we need to thrive comes only from Jesus Christ. This little piece of bread is not just a spiritual snack; it\u2019s the kind of bread that can save your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fed at Christ\u2019s table, we have been strengthened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broken bread has refreshed us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cup of blessing has filled us with God\u2019s peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rejoice and be glad; death does not have the last word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is good and right and true prevails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s glory will be seen in the risen Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We go out in confidence, upheld by God\u2019s love. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service March 20, 2008 Opening Prayer Holy God, we need your help to face the challenges of this night. Our intentions are good. We want to shareContinue readingMaundy Thursday Tenebrae Service<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-1692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-ng-sermons","tag-easter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1692"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2161,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692\/revisions\/2161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}