Liturgy: Maundy Thursday Lessons and Carols, Mark 13:1 - 14:42 (March 28, 2024)

*You are welcome to use or adapt any of my resources for free, but I ask that you provide proper citation AND comment on this post to let me know.*

Opening Words: Mark 13:1-2

Leader: Throughout Lent, we have been hearing the story of Jesus’ life through Mark’s gospel, and we’ve been learning about how we can encounter God through different Spiritual Practices. Tonight, we continue our journey: we will hear the story of Jesus’ final moments with his disciples as we encounter God through the Spiritual Practice of Meditative singing.

...Given For You.

Over the past month, I've both donated whole blood for the first time in 17 years and donated platelets for the first time ever.

A little background:

The first time I gave blood was at a blood drive in High School. The donation itself was uneventful, but as I stood to make my way to the snack table, my vision began to narrow, and as soon as I sat down, I passed out. It was humiliating and scary, and while I didn't regret donating blood, I wasn't eager to repeat the entire experience.

But when the church I serve hosted a blood drive a month ago, I decided it was time to try again. I knew I'd be surrounded by people who knew me and loved me, and I'd be able to go right back to my office to lie down if necessary. While on the cot, I quickly became lightheaded and nauseated (per tradition), but I let the phlebotomists know and they immediately took measures to alleviate the symptoms. I didn't wind up passing out, and while I wouldn't call the experience comfortable, it was a triumphantly successful return to blood donations. 

Sermon: “Recipe for Repentance: Empathy”, John 13:1-17, 33b-35 (April 1, 2021--Maundy Thursday)

(This is the Maundy Thursday sermon for our Lenten series, "Recipe for Repentance".
Previous sermons can be found here, here, here, here, and here,

and the Ash Wednesday message can be found here.)

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I think I’ve mentioned it in the past, but it bears repeating that the word “Maundy” (which we see almost exclusively in the context of Holy Week) comes from the Latin word for “command”. While this holy day is most often associated with the Last Supper or the foot washing that we just read about, it’s named for the “new commandment” that Jesus gives the disciples: “Love one another as I have loved you.” As an aside, I always imagine Jesus smiling wryly as he calls this a “new” commandment, since it’s the exact same message he’s been trying to get across since day one of his ministry. But on Maundy Thursday, he elevates it from a suggestion or an instruction to a genuine commandment, on par with the Torah: Love one another as I have loved you.

Sermon: “Sensing the Sacred: Taste the Divine”, Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7/Matthew 4:1-11 (March 1, 2020)

(This is the second sermon in our Lenten series, "Sensing the Sacred". 

The first sermon can be found here.)

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Food is DANGEROUS. Or at least, we tend to think of food as dangerous. How many of you have ever described yourself as “bad” for taking a second helping at dinner? How many of you have ever described dessert as “a temptation”? If you’re giving something up for Lent, how many of you have chosen to forgo some sort of food item? Our relationship with food isn’t all lighthearted self-deprivation, either: over 30 million Americans struggle with disordered eating;[1] for these people, any event involving food is a minefield of emotional, physical, and psychological danger. What’s more, about 32 million Americans have allergies to food, with 200,000 people being hospitalized for them in the U.S. every year.[2] For these people, the prospect of eating food at any given time can literally be a matter of life and death. Suffice it to say, even though food is the necessary fuel to sustain human life, many of us have a complicated relationship with it, for all sorts of reasons.

In which I Daydream About the Perfect Communion Experience

Communion.

We all do it (well, if you consider yourself a Christian and attend worship on any sort of regular basis). But we don't all do it the same way.