Looking Ahead to March 29, 2018 -- Maundy Thursday

The worship on Maundy Thursday invites us to remember Jesus' last meal with his friends.  So naturally we have our worship within a meal.  Our combined potluck/worship begins at 6:00 in the West basement.  Please use the north west door when you arrive.

During our gathering we will hear these Scripture Readings:

• John 13:3-17, 34-35
• 1 Corinthians 11:20-26

Early Thoughts: We call the Thursday before Good Friday Maundy.  Why? The title comes from the Latin word maundatum which means commandment. And that is because one of the traditional passages for that night is from John 13 where Jesus says "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another", a commandment given just after Jesus has modeled servant-leadership in the washing of the disciple's feet.

What does it mean to be known by the fact that we love one another?
What does it mean to be given that commandment the night before Jesus is arrested, tried, and convicted?

In the other three Gospels the Last Supper is set as a Passover Seder [in John's Gospel it is not as John has Jesus die about the time that the Passover lambs were being killed and prepped for roasting to become the main course for the Seder --symbolic much there John?]. In those accounts we get another commandment. We are commanded that we are to eat and drink and remember, that we break the bread and pass the cup in remembrance of Jesus.

How does the communal meal (which from reading Paul's words in 1 Corinthians we can tell has been a hallmark of Christian worship from the very beginning) tie in to the commandment to love?
--Gord