Maundy Thursday is for the Garden of Gethsemane

Dear Church Family

   Here we are on Maundy Thursday in the middle of Holy Week. Perhaps for the first time in our lives, the crazy week for Jesus is starting to make some sense to us. It has not been what we thought it would be like at all. Maybe we can build on that sense of being out of step, to recognize how God is helping us in our own out of step experiences in this Pandemic of coronavirus. I have particularly experienced all of this in a very personal way. Please keep praying for Elaine. It’s a long time to be out of sync with plans and dreams.

   Back to our own journey in Holy Week as a church family, we are learning new ways of experiencing our life together and apart. For me it’s been the first time in my ministry that what I usually do is not available. Maundy Thursday has usually meant a time to remember the Passover Meal, reflecting on all the elements of the food and it’s special significance to the Jewish People, that Jesus transitioned to the Lord’s Supper and a New Covenant of deliverance. It has meant foot washing components, not always done for feet, sometimes for hands. Hand washing is very important now. Be sure you wash yours a lot.

   In previous times, Maundy Thursday meant a full-blown discussion of Jesus comment about some of the disciples lack of faithfulness, Peter you will deny me, one of you will betray me, all of you will scatter. We have found many ways to share this reflection with the major question is it I Lord? Do we betray by our actions, that we are not yet all Christ like? Do we deny that we know him? Especially when it’s inconvenient to be that loving? Do we scatter when the pressure is on? All very valuable reflections to be sure.

   Sometimes we have taken a lot of time to reflect on what we call the Eucharist, or Holy Communion and it’s institution at that last supper in the Upper Room. We can reflect on the meaning and the desire that Jesus had to give us a piece of himself, and a way to remember his love and his teachings. We really can’t be connected to one another like we want to be because of our physical distancing right now. Doing Communion online is possible in some circumstances, but it feels awkward and take away some of it’s community building elements, when we are separated and with families, or all alone, as many of our church family is right now.

   So what does that leave us? I am leaning toward one of the parts we only skip over because there is so much more going on, and that’s the time in the garden of Gethsemane. This was a time for Jesus to pray and prepare for Good Friday. So this year’s Maundy Thursday service will emphasize the Garden. The hymn go to Dark Gethsemane is all about that experience.

1 Go to dark Gethsemane,
You who feel the tempter's pow'r;
Your Redeemer's conflict see;
Watch with Him one bitter hour;
Turn not from His griefs away;
Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

   So tonight, for our service, we will spend time going to Gethsemane. To learn to pray as Jesus did, “Not My Will, but Thine be done.” Please join us and maybe we can learn in the midst of this pandemic, a new way to find and trust in God.

   Tonight at 7 pm on Zoom.   

Blessings to you all,                Pastor Jeff

Lament to Praise

Dear Church Family

   April 6, first day of Holy Week and we are still in the stay home and be safe mode. With more people showing positive signs of the Covid-19, I thought I would share a very helpful devotional I came across a day or so ago. Our prayers will grow as we include a wide range of thought.

   From N.T. Wright Online, he offers the reminder that our faith doesn’t always have an answer to every question, but offers us a way through every situation with prayer. The book of Psalms particularly, has many prayers called Laments. For the Psalms have a history of dealing with suffering, maybe it’s time we really appreciated them.

1.    Lament is a form of Praise.

   Old Testament Scholars estimate that two-thirds of the psalms are laments. There are many examples of the people of Israel, especially in the desert complaining to God, but in reality they eventually turn to lament, asking God out of his great love for them, to help them in their dire straights. With some thought, a complaint becomes an awareness that God has helped in the past, that’s why we are disappointed, and now we want help again.

2.    Lament is a proof of the relationship.

   The laments were a people, whom YHWH – God, the sole sovereign creator – had called His “firstborn”. They were asking their Father to act accordingly. Like small children who on Saturday morning want breakfast, maybe before parents want to get up, that they are hungry. They know to ask parents, not their neighbors for food.

3.    Lament is a pathway to intimacy with God.

   By laying out every emotion and every experience before God, their covenant God, same with Jesus in the Upper Room, with a New Covenant, the laments psalms are reinforcing a bond of intimacy, affirming the attachment. By breaking open our hearts we are moving toward God who moves into the brokenness of our lives. But often, not until we ask, so lament is asking for help from God, based on our moving toward God’s care for us.

4.    Lament is a prayer for God to act.

   Many of the laments are calls for action. They plead with God to pay attention to them and to act on their behalf. It’s like a cry to God to listen, for we have trouble. It’s the other side of the coin, where God asks us to listen to God’s guidance and help. The prayer is an intention to increase the listening, the paying attention, and actually for both sides of the request. We ask God to listen to our woes, and God asks us to listen to God’s ways. In Jesus, he was teaching us to ask for the arrival of the Kingdom

5.    Lament is a participation in the pain of others.

   Lament is not only for suffering but is for solidarity with the suffering. If the Psalm doesn’t speak to your exact condition, there is someone you know or should think about who is. Read all the Psalms regularly and learn to pray in a wider sphere of awareness and compassion. Lament often leads to Praise, when the prayers are answered. I’ve tried to pray 5 Psalms a day, getting through the whole book every month. I invite you to grow in your prayer language the same way.

This week we move from Lament to Hallelujah. May you feel God’s help and ask for others as well.

Blessings.     

Pastor Jeff

Do It Again, Lord

Hello Church Family

   Here it is April 3 already, my how time flies. I just watched the Governor of Maryland ask us to pause at noon on Sunday to pray for one another, especially those who are suffering or who have died with Covid-19 and for all those who are on the front lines of caring for those who do. That is a great invitation. I hope we can do that. We will have a Zoom worship experience for Palm Sunday starting at 10 am. I will try to remind us do to that after we are finished with our virtual coffee hour following the worship service.

   This Sunday will be a special day for us, for it is Palm Sunday. I’ve been working all week to find a way to make this a meaningful experience of gathering together to welcome Jesus to Jerusalem, and yet honor that we are physical distancing for each other’s health’s sake. For over 40 years, I’ve tried to arrange for a parade on Palm Sunday of some kind. The last few years we have marched around the sanctuary while we sing the great Palm Sunday hymns together. This time we will have to find a way to parade around our homes or in our homes to share in that experience. I like Joye Jones, idea that we place a palm branch or drawing or picture in our windows so that those going by will see it. Thanks for the idea, Joye.

   Our service on Zoom on Sunday will be a walk through the Holy Week events. I hope you prepare for it with this special assignment for the week. The idea is that you read a whole chapter in the Gospel of Matthew as a way to identify with Jesus and the week he had.

Palm Sunday: Matthew 21.  Monday: Matthew 22.  Tuesday: Matthew 23  Wednesday: Matthew 24–25 (We might end up calling this “End Times Wednesday”!). Maundy Thursday: Matthew 26. Good Friday: Matthew 27. Easter Sunday: Matthew 28

   Our worship will feature readings from Matthew and videos of the hymns we would have sung together in worship. I hope you can sing along at home with these hymns that help us tell the story. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem to be the anecdote for our sickness unto death, the separation our choices cause us to have with God. Good Friday is Good News, because by his action, we are forgiven and restored to a healthy relationship with God. It’s also a way for us to know that God in Christ is absolutely connected to what we go through in life, no matter how hard it seems. God does understand. And sometimes the suffering can inspire us to renew our connection to God because we realize in our pain and weakness, we have a source of strength from God, because God loves us.

   Sunday’s celebration may take a little longer than the usual worship time, but for once I can say where else would you be? Do you have a plane to catch? I hope you will know that our being together will be a source of strength for us, beyond our own imagining.

   Max Lucado, one of the authors of The Story, that we have been reading together has a powerful prayer for this time, he called it Do It Again, Lord. I’ll share pieces of this, you might want to look it up on Google and join in the whole prayer. “We are anxious, Father. And so we come to you. We don’t ask you for help; we beg you for it. We don’t request; we implore. We know what you can do. We’ve read the accounts. We’ve pondered the stories and now we plead. “Do It Again, Lord, Do it again.”

   Remember Joseph, who you rescued from the pit? Remember the Hebrews, you rescued from Egypt? Remember the Sarahs, Joshuas, David, Daniel, Doubting Thomas, the Widow of Nain, Mary & Martha, Peter and John. You rescued them, Do It Again Lord.

   May God’s peace be with you as we move through this weekend and toward Holy Week.

Blessings.  Pastor Jeff