Call to Worship

Come, you with dirty feet, aching backs, and weary souls.

We come bearing a heavy load of worry, frustration, and isolation.

Come, you who are hungry, thirsty, longing to meet the one who will feed you, body and soul.

We come with emptiness in our stomachs and our hearts, desperate to be filled.

Come to meet Jesus who kneels to wash our dirt and grime, who feeds us with bread and with love that never ends.

We come to receive the balm for our anxiety, the provision for our hunger, the antidote for our loneliness.

Come to receive a new commandment: love one another as Christ has loved you.

We come to embrace this new commandment so that everyone will know we are disciples of Jesus Christ, God Incarnate who came to live and love among us. Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, October 2023.

Prayer for the Day

You knew your hour had come.
You knew your betrayer.
You knew your enemies.
You knew that the straw vote would not be in your favor.
But you loved unto the end.
Thank you for loving us, even unto death.
Teach us to love like you love.
Teach us to love each other, to love even our enemies,
like you loved us.

You took on the form of a servant,
washing the feet of those whom you discipled.
You defined humility and servanthood.
You are he who was surely sent from God.
Thank you for serving for us.
Teach us to be servants without fail;
to make humility our constant companion
and to seek no glory for ourselves.
Remind us when we forget.

On that solemn evening,
you surrounded yourself with friends and enemies,
persons of faith and persons of ill will.
Help us to be able to always emulate you
when we are surrounded by our friends
and especially when we are surrounded by our enemies.

You have established a “new commandment”;
help us to live it out in every moment,
in every aspect of our lives,
in our families, in our churches, in our communities,
and throughout the world.
On this Holy Day, we gather to remember again
the miracle that you performed in our lives.
You have brought us into the marvelous light.
At great cost to you,
you have given us new life and life eternal. Amen.

Written by Nolan Williams, Jr., and posted on The African American Lectionary website. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2012/02/holy-thursday-prayer-litany.html.

Prayer of Confession

Unison prayer

Merciful God,
We confess that we have failed to love
as you teach us to love.
We ignore the needs of our neighbors.
We shy away from those who are hurting.
We meet the suffering of others with trite answers
to distance ourselves from their pain.
We neglect creation, taking advantage of the earth’s resources
without caring for it in return.
We fail to love ourselves as you love us,
tending our own pain and distress by numbing our feelings
instead of drawing close to you, the source of our well-being.
Forgive us, we pray.
Free us to joyfully follow you into a life of love and service,
building a world in which all creation can flourish.

Offer silent prayers of confession.

Receive this good news:
Jesus who comes to us, washes our feet,
and invites us to sit at the table,
is the source of our salvation,
saving us from our sins
and reconciling us to God.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!

In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!

Glory to God. Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, October 2023.

Benediction

This is the night that Jesus gave himself up for us and the shadow of Good Friday began to fall. Go from this place carrying the love of Christ in your hearts that your life may be a witness to our Savior who was crucified because the world did not understand the depths of God’s love. Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, October 2023.

Liturgy for Holy Communion

(with optional handwashing ritual)

The following liturgy for Holy Communion incorporates the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and giving his disciples a new commandment. If a separate foot-washing ritual is not an option in your congregation, consider setting up stations in your worship space where congregants can wash each other’s hands as they make their way forward to receive Communion. At each station, include a basin of water and hand towels that congregants can use after they finish washing each other’s hands.

As part of incorporating the foot-washing narrative into the Communion liturgy, place a pitcher of water, a towel, and a basin on the altar in addition to the Communion elements. Alternatively, place the pitcher and towel on the altar and use the baptismal font as the basin. It is recommended that the celebrant be joined by another pastor—particularly if you have a deacon on staff or in connection with your church—or a layperson who can assist during the liturgy.

Celebrant:

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.

Lift up your hearts. (The celebrant may lift hands and keep them raised.)
We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing,
always and everywhere to give thanks to you,
almighty God, creator of heaven and earth.
In the beginning, you hovered over the waters and
poured out your love over the formless void,
turning chaos into life.
You formed us in your image
and provided for us from the fruit of creation.
Even when we turned away and our love failed,
Your love remained steadfast, sustaining us and giving us life.
When we were thirsty, you brought water from a rock,
When we were hungry, you fed us manna from heaven.
When we questioned your provision, you gave us grapes
as evidence of the promised land.
And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven
we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

The celebrant may lower hands.

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

The celebrant may raise hands.

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son, Jesus Christ.
When we turned away from you and abused your gifts,
you gave us in him your crowning gift.
Divine Love poured out in human form,
Christ fed the hungry, healed the sick,
ate with the scorned and forgotten,
and taught us how to love through his actions.
By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection,
you gave birth to your church,
delivered us from enslavement to sin and death,
and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

Pastor/layperson takes the towel and raises the pitcher of water while the celebrant says:

On the evening in which he gave himself up for us,
Jesus rose from the supper table, took a pitcher of water, poured it into a basin,
knelt down, and began to wash the disciples’ feet.
When he was finished, he sat down and spoke with the disciples.
He said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Pastor/layperson pours the water into the basin or baptismal font.

Celebrant and pastor/layperson prepare the Communion elements together.

The celebrant may hold hands, palms down, over the bread, or touch the bread, or lift the bread.

That same night, Jesus took bread,
gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:
"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me."

The celebrant may hold hands, palms down, over the cup, or touch the cup, or lift the cup.

When the supper was over, he took the cup,
gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:
"Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant,
poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

The celebrant may raise hands.

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

The celebrant may hold hands, palms down, over the bread and cup.

As Christ, Divine Love poured out for us,
came to show us how to love one another,
pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here
and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,
that we may be for the world the body of Christ,
redeemed by his blood and called to
love one another as Christ loves us.
For it is by this love that everyone will know
We are his disciples.

The celebrant may raise hands.

By your Spirit, make us one with Christ,
one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
Through your Son, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy church,
all honor and glory is yours, almighty God, now and forever.

Amen.

If you include stations for handwashing, direct congregants to go to one of the stations first to wash one another’s hands in pairs. Invite them to cup water in their own hands and pour it over the other’s hands while saying a simple blessing like, “You are a beloved child of God” or “May the love of Christ surround you.” Then, the pair will switch roles.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, October 2023. Adapted from “The Great Thanksgiving for Holy Thursday Evening,” Copyright © 1972 The Methodist Publishing House; Copyright © 1980, 1981, 1985 UMPH; Copyright © 1986 by Abingdon Press; Copyright © 1987, 1989, 1992 UMPH. Used by permission.”