SPEAKER_05: Bless the Lord who unburdens all of our sin.
SPEAKER_05: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_05: Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_05: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_05: Almighty Father, whose dear son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the sacrament of his body and blood.
SPEAKER_05: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life, and who now lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: It shall be the first month of the year for you.
SPEAKER_02: Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household.
SPEAKER_02: If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one.
SPEAKER_02: The lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat it.
SPEAKER_02: Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year old male.
SPEAKER_02: You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
SPEAKER_02: You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month.
SPEAKER_02: Then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.
SPEAKER_02: They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
SPEAKER_02: They shall eat the lamb the same night.
SPEAKER_02: They shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
SPEAKER_02: Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roast it over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs.
SPEAKER_02: You shall let none of it remain until the morning.
SPEAKER_02: Anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
SPEAKER_02: This is how you shall eat, how you shall eat it, your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it hurriedly.
SPEAKER_02: It is the Passover of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals.
SPEAKER_02: On all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment.
SPEAKER_02: I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live.
SPEAKER_02: When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_02: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_02: How shall I repay you, O Lord?
SPEAKER_02: I will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all the chosen people.
SPEAKER_02: Precious in your sight, O Lord.
SPEAKER_02: O Lord, I am your servant.
SPEAKER_02: I am your servant and the child of your heaven.
SPEAKER_02: I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all the people in the courts of the Lord's house.
SPEAKER_01: That the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took a loaf of bread.
SPEAKER_01: And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body that is for you.
SPEAKER_01: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way he took the cup also after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
SPEAKER_01: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_05: Glory be to thee, O Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father.
SPEAKER_05: Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
SPEAKER_05: The accuser had already put it into the heart of Judah, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: And during supper, Jesus, knowing the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he'd come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself, and then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.
SPEAKER_05: He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?
SPEAKER_05: Jesus answered, You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.
SPEAKER_05: Peter said to him, You will never wash my feet.
SPEAKER_05: Jesus answered, Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.
SPEAKER_05: Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not only my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
SPEAKER_05: Jesus said to him, One who is bathed does not need to wash except for the feet, but is entirely clean.
SPEAKER_05: And you are clean, though not all of you.
SPEAKER_05: For he knew who was to betray him.
SPEAKER_05: For this reason Jesus said, Not all of you are clean.
SPEAKER_05: After he'd washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, Do you know what I've done to you?
SPEAKER_05: You call me teacher and lord, and you are right, for that is what I am.
SPEAKER_05: So if I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
SPEAKER_05: For I've set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
SPEAKER_05: Very truly I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.
SPEAKER_05: If you know these things, you're blessed if you do them.
SPEAKER_05: Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.
SPEAKER_05: If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and will glorify him at once.
SPEAKER_05: Little children, I am with you only a little longer.
SPEAKER_05: You will look for me, and as I said to the Jewish leaders, so now I say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.
SPEAKER_05: I give you a new commandment that you love one another.
SPEAKER_05: Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
SPEAKER_05: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
SPEAKER_05: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a lamb of your own fold, a sheep of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming.
SPEAKER_05: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_05: I'm grateful to celebrate today that has so much bandwidth packed into such short time with you.
SPEAKER_05: The name of the day, of course, is Monday Thursday, and it comes directly from this reading from John.
SPEAKER_05: The Latin word, of course, is mandate.
SPEAKER_05: The mandate is love one another as I've loved you.
SPEAKER_05: I want to unpack that a little bit and then talk about the next thing we celebrate today.
SPEAKER_05: Not only is the mandate to serve one another, but the mandate comes around God's table.
SPEAKER_05: And then, of course, Jesus knew the ending himself, so I don't want to spoil the ending for you.
SPEAKER_05: We're coming in in light, and we're going to go out in dark because we know the evening ends in darkness, with one of Jesus' best friends handing him over unto his death.
SPEAKER_05: He knew it, so I haven't ruined the story by telling you.
SPEAKER_05: In fact, perhaps maybe it makes Jesus' invitation to love one another all the greater to consider he knows what's coming to happen.
SPEAKER_05: First thing is about foot washing.
SPEAKER_05: Depends on which scholar you read.
SPEAKER_05: Some scholars believe you could not even command a slave to wash someone else's feet, so dirty and low that job was considered.
SPEAKER_05: But certainly never would a rabbi wash his disciples' feet.
SPEAKER_05: It would be like you going to the Oval Office and Joe Biden seeing that you've got some crumbs around your mouth and him getting his own sleeve wet and wiping your mouth for you as an adult.
SPEAKER_05: Of course, you say that's preposterous, right?
SPEAKER_05: Because you could easily tell an adult person or even a grown child, you could say, you've got food on your mouth, just wipe that off.
SPEAKER_05: You could say to the disciples, because there's a basin in the room, look, y'all, uh, I'm glad you feel at home, but this isn't our home.
SPEAKER_05: So let's go ahead and y'all take care of that and we'll come back to the table.
SPEAKER_05: What Jesus chose to do, though, from his position of privilege, is to use his privilege to serve people who maybe could have served themselves but didn't choose to.
SPEAKER_05: I don't know how to love that way most of the time.
SPEAKER_05: Most of the time, I like to think my privilege is in telling people what to do instead of seeing a need, whether someone can meet it themselves or not, and immediately doing what I can.
SPEAKER_05: And Jesus suggests that this is how we are to love one another.
SPEAKER_05: It undoes a lot of my parenting strategies.
SPEAKER_05: I have to be honest.
SPEAKER_05: I'm trying to relearn.
SPEAKER_05: Jesus does not shame his disciples, he washes them.
SPEAKER_05: And I read an incredible quote this morning that says, Giving from the hand and giving from the heart are entirely different.
SPEAKER_05: When you give from your hand, you give until it's empty.
SPEAKER_05: And when you give from your heart, you give until it's full.
SPEAKER_05: And Jesus, if you'll remember, on Palm Sunday, I suggested that Jesus spends the week emptying himself, emptying his hands, and filling his heart.
SPEAKER_05: And all of this becomes all the more consequential.
SPEAKER_05: I mean, consider this isn't even just wiping somebody's mouth.
SPEAKER_05: This is like going to somebody in the hospital and changing their diaper.
SPEAKER_05: That's the equivalent of what Jesus does to these people who could do it themselves.
SPEAKER_05: And I don't know if you noticed, Jesus knows Judas is going to betray him, but Judas is in the room.
SPEAKER_05: Imagine this is your last meal and you know it.
SPEAKER_05: With your best friends from your fraternity or your sorority, the members of your family you actually really get along with.
SPEAKER_05: And you start to do this lovely gift, and then you get to somebody who you know is not going to receive it.
SPEAKER_05: You get to somebody who you know is not only going to refuse to receive it for what you'd like to give, they're going to turn you in at the end of the night and get you in jail and throw away the keys and get you on death row.
SPEAKER_05: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_05: My heart wouldn't be real excited about serving that person.
SPEAKER_05: John is really clear.
SPEAKER_05: Judas is in the room and he gets his feet washed by Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: And I want to return to that phrase because Jesus doesn't wash his disciples' feet in any kind of transaction.
SPEAKER_05: This is not an investment.
SPEAKER_05: He's not trying to show them just a way of being, and they better get it right.
SPEAKER_05: Jesus is giving a gift because his heart was filled to give it, regardless of how or if it was received.
SPEAKER_05: And that's the mandate to love one another, to give gifts from a full heart, because it's a joy to give.
SPEAKER_05: And to enter into the spiritual discipline of not worrying how it's received.
SPEAKER_05: Not only is it godly, but all the research I've read suggests our lives would be happier if we gave that way.
SPEAKER_05: It's so difficult for me and my own spirituality and pettiness that it brings us to the second institution of the day, which has to do, of course, with the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_05: And Eucharist is that fancy Greek word which means thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_05: And we do it every week.
SPEAKER_05: We come in and we say, God, we're thankful and grateful for who you've made us and all the gifts you've given us, but we often forget that the Eucharist works both ways.
SPEAKER_05: We're grateful for God, and God is grateful for us.
SPEAKER_05: God is thankful for who you are.
SPEAKER_05: And the Eucharist is the celebration of God's thankfulness and our own.
SPEAKER_05: And it begins, many of us miss this.
SPEAKER_05: We think Jesus just made this up.
SPEAKER_05: And I don't know if you know it, it helps having a family member who's Jewish, but um you know every Friday night in the Jewish household, the scene plays out just like it would have that night in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_05: There's two candles on the table.
SPEAKER_05: A woman lights the candles and she says a blessing.
SPEAKER_05: So yes, there were women there.
SPEAKER_05: And then every Friday night the oldest man in the house takes a silver cup that looks a lot like this one, except instead of calling it a chalice, they call it a kiddish.
SPEAKER_05: And the oldest man holds up the cup and says, Blessed are you, O God, ruler of the universe, for giving us the fruit of the vine.
SPEAKER_05: And the cup is passed around the table, and our Jewish and brothers and sisters have been drinking out of a common silver cup for millennia.
SPEAKER_05: And when the cup comes to you, you might drink from it, you might not, but you're able to say, voice out loud, gratitude, not just for things that have gone your way, but for the presence of the divine in your life that day, that week.
SPEAKER_05: And lastly comes the bread.
SPEAKER_05: And this is for the children of the table to bless, even if they're 97 years old.
SPEAKER_05: Many of you know that most of the year our Jewish brothers and sisters eat chala, which is braided.
SPEAKER_05: It's rich, it has eggs and sugar in it.
SPEAKER_05: But during the Passover, and we're about to track back with the story, of course, it's matzah's flat.
SPEAKER_05: And the children pray this blessing out loud, and the family joins them.
SPEAKER_05: You'll hear it in English and Hebrew in the same song.
SPEAKER_05: Hamutzilehem in Haarritz, we give thanks to God for bread.
SPEAKER_05: Our voices rise in joyful chorus as our simple prayer is said.
SPEAKER_05: And a common piece of bread, whether round or braided, both of which show unity and inclusion, is broken and shared.
SPEAKER_05: The line from the rabbis is that more than the Jewish people have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_05: That's the normal order for every Friday night, but in Exodus we hear the story is a little bit different.
SPEAKER_05: In Exodus, the people are ready to get out of the land.
SPEAKER_05: There have been plagues, Moses has argued with Pharaoh, it's gone nowhere, and now the word is you're leaving tonight, so you better get ready.
SPEAKER_05: Instead of reclining at the table, you're gonna eat standing up.
SPEAKER_05: You're gonna have your staff in your hand because after the meal's over, you're out the door, and you're not just gonna have bread and wine, you're gonna have those things like you always would.
SPEAKER_05: There's gonna be something special about them, though, the bread.
SPEAKER_05: You know, they didn't have Fleischmann's yeast back then, they didn't have red star.
SPEAKER_05: Yeast came from the air, and it took time for the yeast to leaven the dough, or it came from sourdough.
SPEAKER_05: So you see, there's nothing wrong with yeast, they just didn't have time for it to work.
SPEAKER_05: They had to bake it flat.
SPEAKER_05: And there's another thing that's interesting in this story.
SPEAKER_05: Normally, killing any kind of livestock, back then people ate meat probably seven or eight times a year, and it was always on high holy days, and you always took it to a priest.
SPEAKER_05: And in this story, you don't even have time for that, so everybody gets to be their own priest and kill their own lamb.
SPEAKER_05: And you've got to eat all of it.
SPEAKER_05: And if you've ever had lamb, it's pretty fatty.
SPEAKER_05: And you know what fat has that carbs and protein don't calories.
SPEAKER_05: Like three more calories per gram.
SPEAKER_05: And when you're gonna go on a journey for the next 40 years, what you could really use is some nutrition.
SPEAKER_05: What about the blood business?
SPEAKER_05: You know, it's really early on in the scriptures that we hear the blood represents the life of the animal, and the life belongs to God, so you can't drink it.
SPEAKER_05: This still happens today on the black market.
SPEAKER_05: People do things like eat black rhino horns so they can have the animal's powers.
SPEAKER_05: We know in the United States we say that's unscientific and it's silly, and I'm glad we do that.
SPEAKER_05: But you have to realize that attitude is still prevalent today.
SPEAKER_05: So drinking the blood of the animal was.
SPEAKER_05: A way of taking its qi into yourself, and the scriptures are clear you can't do that because that life is not yours, it belongs to God.
SPEAKER_05: You can't have blood, you can't have that life.
SPEAKER_05: You give it back to the earth and you give it back to God.
SPEAKER_05: There's nothing in Exodus about this lamb taking on your sin.
SPEAKER_05: That happens on Yom Kippur.
SPEAKER_05: This story is about a people who are in bondage on the cusp of liberation, and what they need is energy for the journey.
SPEAKER_05: So Jesus sits with his disciples and they light the candles and they bless the wine and they bless the bread, and Jesus says something kind of different.
SPEAKER_05: He says, Hey, look, this bread is like my life.
SPEAKER_05: So look, this bread, I can tell you right now, it doesn't have a lot of nutrition in it.
SPEAKER_05: It doesn't really taste much like bread.
SPEAKER_05: It's pretty flat.
SPEAKER_05: Have you had church bread before?
SPEAKER_05: We understand, though, that bread goes into our body and gives our body energy to regenerate, to recuperate, to grow.
SPEAKER_05: And Jesus says, hey, this bread, I want you to think about our lives together.
SPEAKER_05: And particularly, I want you to think about the way I just showed love for you.
SPEAKER_05: And if you'll remember, I don't mean a fact that happened ten years ago or a fact that happened before you were born.
SPEAKER_05: If you will reattach that way of loving into your life right now, when you eat this bread, it won't just nourish your body, it'll nourish your spirit for the journey that God has in front of you.
SPEAKER_05: This wine.
SPEAKER_05: We often say things that we're grateful for when we pass this wine around, every Shabbat.
SPEAKER_05: When you drink this wine, I want you to think about my life poured out into yours.
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, tomorrow there's going to be some real blood, but not yet tonight.
SPEAKER_05: Tonight it's about my life being shared with you.
SPEAKER_05: I want you to think about the way Jesus says, I've shared my life with you.
SPEAKER_05: And when you drink this wine, you won't just have the flavor of the grapes.
SPEAKER_05: And wine, by the way, is a symbol of joy if you're Hebrew.
SPEAKER_05: You won't just have the joy of the wine, you'll have the joy of my love and my life shared with you.
SPEAKER_05: And it will give your body energy, but it will nourish your spirit so that you can love enough to focus on the joy of giving instead of being worried about what other people will do with your gift.
SPEAKER_05: So that you can include people who don't even want to be included by you, but might actually be mad enough to hurt you.
SPEAKER_05: That takes a special kind of energy.
SPEAKER_05: It takes holy energy.
SPEAKER_05: And that's why we come back here tonight.
SPEAKER_05: And that's why we come back every Sunday, so that God can give us energy for us to move out of whatever bondage we find ourselves in and away from whatever pharaohs there are that hold us back.
SPEAKER_05: Whether those pharaohs be the new Jim Crow or the old one, whether those pharaohs be glass ceilings, whether those pharaohs be our own anxieties and shame and guilt, God would deliver us from our bondage so we can go forward on a journey and love as Christ has loved.
SPEAKER_05: We know what's coming, so did Jesus, to be renewed also in our baptismal vows.
SPEAKER_05: We're not washing feet this year because of COVID, so it will be my privilege to help you remember your baptism by asperging you with this holy water that will later be used to clean God's table after it's stripped.
SPEAKER_05: So, in order to prepare for the journey of the next few days, please join me as we confess our sins against God and our neighborhood.
SPEAKER_05: We have not loved you with our whole heart.
SPEAKER_05: We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
SPEAKER_05: We are truly sorry, and we humbly repent.
SPEAKER_05: For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us, that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: The Almighty and Merciful Lord grant you absolution and remission of all your sin, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: I invite you to join me in standing as you're able, as we renew our baptismal covenant, knowing what lies ahead of us.
SPEAKER_05: Do you believe in God the Father?
unknown: I believe in God the Father Almighty.
SPEAKER_05: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
SPEAKER_08: I believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Mirror.
SPEAKER_06: He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
SPEAKER_06: He suffered the God.
SPEAKER_06: He descended to the dead.
SPEAKER_06: On the third day, he rose again.
SPEAKER_06: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_06: He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
SPEAKER_05: Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
unknown: I believe in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: The Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
SPEAKER_05: Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers?
SPEAKER_05: Will you persevere in resisting evil?
SPEAKER_05: And whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord.
unknown: I will be a side.
SPEAKER_05: Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?
unknown: I will still.
SPEAKER_05: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
unknown: I will still.
SPEAKER_05: Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?
SPEAKER_05: And just for tonight, will you strive to give not only with your hands, but also with your heart?
SPEAKER_05: I will, with God's help.
SPEAKER_00: Let us now pray to renew this sacrament of new birth.
SPEAKER_00: Deliver us, O Lord, from the way of sin and death.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Open our hearts to your grace and truth.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Fill us with your holy and life-giving spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Keep us in the faith and communion of your holy church.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Teach us to love others in the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Send us into the world in witness to your love.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Bring us to the fullness of your peace and glory.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Grant, O Lord, that all who are baptized into the death of Jesus Christ, your Son, may live in the power of his resurrection and look for him to come again in glory, who lives and reigns now and forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: Water is a symbol for hydration, for refreshment, for growth, and for cleansing.
SPEAKER_05: Receive these gifts from God.
SPEAKER_05: Not only in your body, but especially in your spirit.
SPEAKER_05: Maudi Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, concluding with the Easter vigil.
SPEAKER_05: So I just want to make sure you know the opportunities for worship in the next couple of days.
SPEAKER_05: Tomorrow we'll have Good Friday opportunities both at noon and 6 p.m.
SPEAKER_05: Not 6.30, but 6 p.m.
SPEAKER_05: Saturday's a quiet day.
SPEAKER_05: And then Sunday morning at 6.30, we'll have a service unlike any other in the Episcopal calendar, which is the Easter Vigil.
SPEAKER_05: So we'll come in in darkness, we'll bring our candles in, and we'll be holding a candle for a good 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_05: I want to prepare you that the morning of there was an earthquake, and apparently it was really loud, and there'll be a drumline.
SPEAKER_05: So you may want to be prepared to turn your hearing aids down.
SPEAKER_05: It is going to be very loud, that earthquake.
SPEAKER_05: And when it's over, we'll all be very happy and it'll be very joyous.
SPEAKER_05: So that'll be the Easter vigil in the morning.
SPEAKER_05: And then there's opportunities for worship at with different readings, a different liturgy and different sermons at 8:30 and 10:30 as well.
SPEAKER_05: And of course, we're streaming all of these services on YouTube as well.
SPEAKER_05: My hope is that you will carve out a little bit of extra time, not just to contemplate things that have happened in the history of the Lord and of the church, but to allow these stories and the new life that they offer us to resonate with your own story and thereby truly make these holy days.
SPEAKER_05: Continue to walk in love as Christ first loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_05: This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_05: It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more.
SPEAKER_05: Succumb.
SPEAKER_05: You who have much faith and you who have little, you who have been here often, and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.
SPEAKER_05: You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come.
SPEAKER_05: Not because the church invites you, it is Christ, and he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_05: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_05: Lift up your hearts.
SPEAKER_05: Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.
SPEAKER_05: It is very meet right and are bound in duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, holy, O Lord, Holy Father Almighty, everlasting God, who just bid by faithful people cleanse their hearts and prepare with joy for the Paschal feast, that fervent in prayer and in works of mercy, and renewed by thy word and sacraments, they may come to the fullness of grace which thou hast prepared for those who love thee.
SPEAKER_05: And therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we Lord and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
SPEAKER_05: Glory be to thee, O Lord Most High.
SPEAKER_05: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna and the highest.
SPEAKER_05: All glory be to thee, O Lord our God, for that thou didst create heaven and earth, and didst make us in thine own image.
SPEAKER_05: And of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to take our nature upon him, and to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption.
SPEAKER_05: He made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world, and did institute, and in its holy gospel command us to continue a perpetual memory of that, his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again.
SPEAKER_05: For in the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks to thee, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_05: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_05: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_05: Likewise after supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.
SPEAKER_05: And when he given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_05: This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for all, for the remission of sins.
SPEAKER_05: Do this as oft as ye shall drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_05: Wherefore, O Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy people do celebrate and make with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorials thy son hath commanded us to make, having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, and looking for his coming again with power and great glory.
SPEAKER_05: We most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us, and with thy word and Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_05: And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness to accept this, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, whereby we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies.
SPEAKER_05: Grant we beseech thee that all who partake of this holy communion may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, and be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and also that we and all, thy whole church, may be made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_05: By whom and with whom and in whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: And now, as our Savior Christ hath taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_05: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_05: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.
SPEAKER_05: These are the gifts of God.
SPEAKER_05: I invite you to receive bread or a blessing by coming to the aisle closest to your right, coming down forward in socially distanced intervals and returning to your seats on the far side.
SPEAKER_05: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_05: Almighty and ever-living God, we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us in these holy mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and thus assure us thereby of thy favor and goodness towards us.
SPEAKER_05: And that in the mystical body of thy son, the blessed company of all faithful people, and are also airs to the hope of thy everlasting kingdom.
SPEAKER_05: We humbly beseech thee, O Heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in woman through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost, be Father and Glory, world without end.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Yet you are the holy one.
SPEAKER_00: They cried out to you and were delivered.
SPEAKER_00: But that's for me.
SPEAKER_00: I am a worm and less than human.
SPEAKER_00: You trusted in God for deliverance.
SPEAKER_00: You are God are the one who took me out of the wood.
SPEAKER_00: I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born.
SPEAKER_00: Be not far from me for trouble, it's near.
SPEAKER_00: Young bulls encircle me.
SPEAKER_00: I am poured out like water.
SPEAKER_00: All my bones are out of joint.
SPEAKER_00: My mouth is trying out like a posture.
SPEAKER_00: Declare your name to my people.
SPEAKER_00: For you do not despise our poor the poor in their poverty.
SPEAKER_00: Neither do you hide your face from them.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the view in the Great Assembly.
SPEAKER_00: Or shall lead and be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: And those who seek you shall praise you.
SPEAKER_00: The ends of the earth shall remember and turn to you.