Gathering

Confession and Forgiveness

God who is love,

C:   we come admitting the brokenness in our lives: the brokenness both within and between ourselves; the brokenness between nations; the brokenness between humanity and creation. Give us the courage to acknowledge this truth. Give us the faith to trust your presence. Give us the desire to share your healing, promised and provided in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

The presiding minister addresses the assembly:

P:   God, who is rich in mercy, loved us even when we were dead in sin, and made us alive together with Christ. By grace we have been saved. Our sins are forgiven in the name of Jesus Christ. Almighty God strengthen us with power through the Holy Spirit, that Christ may live in our hearts through faith.  Amen.

Prayer of the Day

Word

A Reading from Exodus, the 12^th chapter.    

Israel remembers its deliverance from slavery in Egypt to freedom by celebrating the festival of Passover. 

The Reading: The 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 neighbour 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 judgements: 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.

¹⁴ This 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.

Word of God.  Word of Life.   Thanks be to God.

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 (Read together responsively)

I love the Lord, who has heard
   my voice and my supplications.
Who has inclined an ear to me,
   therefore I will call on God as long as I live.
What shall I return to the Lord
   for all my bounty?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
   and call on the name of the Lord,
I will pay my vows to the Lord
   in the presence of all God’s people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord
   is the death of his faithful ones.
O Lord, I am your servant;
   I am your servant, the child of your serving-maid.
   You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
   and call on the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord
   in the presence of all God’s people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord,
   in your midst, O Jerusalem.Praise the Lord!

Gospel      

            The holy gospel according to John, the 13^th chapter.    Glory to you, O Lord.

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.’

¹² After 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…  

^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.’

The Gospel of the Lord.   Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Hymn of the Day                                    One Bread, One Body                       # 496

Chorus:

One bread, one body, one Lord of all;

One cup of blessing which we bless,

And we, though many, throughout the earth,

We are one body in this one Lord.

1. Gentile or Jew, servant or free,

Woman or man no more.  chorus

• Many the gifts, many the works,

One in the Lord of all.  chorus

• Grain for the fields, scattered and grown,

Gathered to one for all.  chorus    Text: John Foley, b. 1939, © 1978 John B. Foley, SJ, and OCP Publications.  Reprinted under ONE LICENSE #732181-A

Prayers

In your mercy, hear our prayer.

Peace

May the peace of Christ be with you all.

And also with you.

Meal

Offertory Prayer

The Great Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you.  And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.  We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Eucharistic Prayer

Blessed are you, O God of the universe.

Your mercy is everlasting and your faithfulness endures from age to age.

A plate of bread in each home may be lifted up.

In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it saying: Take and eat.  This is my body given for you.  Do this for the remembrance of me.

A cup of wine in each home may be lifted up.

Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink saying: This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.  Do this for the remembrance of me.

With this bread and cup, we remember our Lord’s Passover from death to life as we proclaim the mystery of faith:

Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again.

O God of new life:

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these gifts of bread and wine.  Bless this feast.  Grace our table with your presence.

With your holy ones of all times and places, with the earth and all its creatures, with sun and moon, and stars, we praise you, O God, blessed and holy Trinity, now and forever.  Amen

Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.  For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever.  Amen

Distribution

If you are in a group, you may serve one another.  If you are alone, you may serve yourself.  All use these or similar words:

The body of Christ, given for you.

The blood of Christ, shed for you.

Blessing

Post-Communion Prayer

Stripping of the Altar and Psalm 22

The service continues with Good Friday tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM.