Maundy Thursday Video - April 9, 2020 - Psalm 88

Below please find the video and the manuscript from our Maundy Thursday service last week.

Be a blessing to someone today!

In Christ,
Roy

Maundy Thursday Service – April 9, 2020

Prelude: Kathryn Myers

Opening Reading:
Psalm 22 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
Plea for Deliverance from Suffering and Hostility
22 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
    Why art thou so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but thou dost not answer;
    and by night, but find no rest.
3 Yet thou art holy,
    enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In thee our fathers trusted;
    they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
5 To thee they cried, and were saved;
    in thee they trusted, and were not disappointed.
6 But I am a worm, and no man;
    scorned by men, and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock at me,
    they make mouths at me, they wag their heads;
8 “He committed his cause to the Lord; let him deliver him,
    let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
9 Yet thou art he who took me from the womb;
    thou didst keep me safe upon my mother’s breasts.
10 Upon thee was I cast from my birth,
    and since my mother bore me thou hast been my God.
11 Be not far from me,
    for trouble is near
    and there is none to help.
12 Many bulls encompass me,
    strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me,
    like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax,
    it is melted within my breast;
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
    and my tongue cleaves to my jaws;
    thou dost lay me in the dust of death.
16 Yea, dogs are round about me;
    a company of evildoers encircle me;
    they have pierced my hands and feet—
17 I can count all my bones—
    they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them,
    and for my raiment they cast lots.
19 But thou, O Lord, be not far off!
    O thou my help, hasten to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword,
    my life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion,
    my afflicted soul from the horns of the wild oxen!
22 I will tell of thy name to my brethren;
    in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee:
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
    all you sons of Jacob, glorify him,
    and stand in awe of him, all you sons of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or abhorred
    the affliction of the afflicted;
and he has not hid his face from him,
    but has heard, when he cried to him.
25 From thee comes my praise in the great congregation;
    my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
    those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
    May your hearts live for ever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
    and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations
    shall worship before him.
28 For dominion belongs to the Lord,
    and he rules over the nations.
29 Yea, to him shall all the proud of the earth bow down;
    before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
    and he who cannot keep himself alive.
30 Posterity shall serve him;
    men shall tell of the Lord to the coming generation,
31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
    that he has wrought it.
(Psalm 22)


Call to Worship: Pastor Roy
Let us hold fast to the faith we confess.
For we have a great high priest who has gone into the very presence of God – Jesus, the Son of God.
Our high priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy with our weaknesses.
On the contrary, we have a high priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin.
Let us be brave, then, and come forward to God's throne, where there is grace.
There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.


Opening Prayer:
Eternal God of mercy, we gather in awesome wonder to behold your
loving gift of Jesus Christ, who, in coming to bring the world to wholeness, was broken by it.  Yet by his death we live and know your unbreakable love.  As we gather to remember Christ's gift of fellowship at the table, and to recall our frail failings of devotion, pierce our hearts with a conviction of our betrayals, reassure us of your abiding presence, and transform us by the Spirit of Christ.  Amen

Music: 

Old Testament Reading:
Isaiah 53  Revised Standard Version (RSV)
53 Who has believed what we have heard?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
    he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
    and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb,
    so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him;
    he has put him to grief;
when he makes himself an offering for sin,
    he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand;
11     he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous;
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out his soul to death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.


New Testament Reading: John 13: 1-15 Pastor Roy
John 13:1-15 New International Version (NIV)
Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet
13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Message:
Psalm 88   Revised Standard Version (RSV)
Prayer for Help in Despondency
88 O Lord, my God, I call for help[a] by day;
    I cry out in the night before thee.
2 Let my prayer come before thee,
    incline thy ear to my cry!
3 For my soul is full of troubles,
    and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am reckoned among those who go down to the Pit;
    I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one forsaken among the dead,
    like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom thou dost remember no more,
    for they are cut off from thy hand.
6 Thou hast put me in the depths of the Pit,
    in the regions dark and deep.
7 Thy wrath lies heavy upon me,
    and thou dost overwhelm me with all thy waves.Selah
8 Thou hast caused my companions to shun me;
    thou hast made me a thing of horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9     my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon thee, O Lord;
    I spread out my hands to thee.
10 Dost thou work wonders for the dead?
    Do the shades rise up to praise thee?Selah
11 Is thy steadfast love declared in the grave,
    or thy faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are thy wonders known in the darkness,
    or thy saving help in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I, O Lord, cry to thee;
    in the morning my prayer comes before thee.
14 O Lord, why dost thou cast me off?
    Why dost thou hide thy face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
    I suffer thy terrors; I am helpless.[b]
16 Thy wrath has swept over me;
    thy dread assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long;
    they close in upon me together.
18 Thou hast caused lover and friend to shun me;
    my companions are in darkness.


Prayer of Consecration: Pastor Roy Karlen

Loving Creator, we thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ to be the Savior of this world.  Though the powers of this world sought to extinguish his flame, it still burns as it has since the dawn of all time.  We thank you for the mystery of your love as revealed to us through the cross. None of us can completely understand all that the cross means, but yet we feel your hand upon us and we pledge to give ourselves to you.  Your love so amazing, so divine, demands our lives, our souls, our very all and all.  Take our lives, use them in your ministry of reconciliation to a world deeply in need of love and mercy and justice and righteousness.  Lord here we are as your disciples. Send us out to do your work in this fallen world. In the risen Christ's name we pray.  Amen.