Second Presbyterian

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Virtual Maundy Thursday Service

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Join us for our annual Maundy Thursday Community Communion Service. While we miss being together and the community atmosphere of having the participation of multiple churches and choirs, we are excited to invite you to join us for this special service virtually.

This is a communion service, so please prepare bread or crackers and juice or wine so that you are ready to take part in communion.

A Maundy Thursday message delivered by Pastor Cress Darwin. Special thanks to Dr. Julia Harlow, Lee Lingle, Clarissa Rider and Joel Dettweiler for contributing haunting choral music for this Holy Week (at safe social distance) and to Ken Carrington who has produced all of our online worship services with help from SaSa Darwin.

CALL TO WORSHIP

All:         God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them, and has commissioned us with the message of reconciliation.

Leader:   Praise the Lord.

People:  The Lord’s name be praised.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION & DECLARATION OF PARDON

O God of mercy: you sent Jesus Christ to save lost people. Judge us with love, and lift the burden of our sins. We confess that we are twisted by pride. We see ourselves pure when we are stained and great when we are small. We have failed in love, forgotten to be just, and have turned away from your truth. Have mercy, O God, and forgive our sin, for the sake of Jesus your Son, our Savior. Amen.  Almighty God: You love all Your children and do not hate them for their sins. Help us to face up to ourselves, admit we are in the wrong, and reach with confidence for your mercy; in Jesus Christ the Lord.

Scripture reading, Sarah Craven: John 13:1-17

Second Scripture: John13:31B-35

Christianity produced an earthy, human set of texts by which we set our lives. In the Gospels, Jesus pulls apart fish on a hillside. A woman breaks her best oil jar over his feet, massaging ointment into his worn soles. In another story, Jesus takes earth and his own spit, making holy mud that washes away the stigma of sin from a blind man. The Gospels are stories of bodies that hunger and long, fight and weep, rest and toil, drink and bleed. And the center of Christian worship is a meal in which we claim to ingest God, the body of Jesus becoming part of our bodies.

Stay home, stay healthy and let’s flatten the curve! Services will be posted at the time we would usually gather so that we can come together in spirit as much as possible.