Revised Common Lectionary
Year C:
Maundy Thursday
April 14, 2022
Highlighted Text: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Summary of the Text
I celebrate the many flavors of Christianity which gather within The Pastor’s Workshop. As such, I recognize and respect the different names we use to refer to the meal we share as Jesus commanded- Holy Communion, Communion, the Eucharist, and the Lord’s Supper being the most common. This worship guide will use the name Communion simply because its easiest to type. I also respect our diverse theology related to Communion, and hope this guide remains helpful to you.
Ancient Context
1. Passover and the Last Supper
Scholars are not in agreement as to whether the Last Supper was a Passover meal. They do agree it was not a Seder as it is now celebrated. The modern Seder includes additions and traditions added over time to reflect the continuing experiences of Jewish persons.
It’s interesting to consider how Jesus uses food at the Last Supper to tell the story of his role in the story of salvation. The use of food to tell a story would be very familiar to the disciples, since a Passover meal uses food to tell the story of God saving the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.
- The unleavened bread of quick escape
- The bitter herbs of years of pain and injustice
- The sacrifice of the perfect, male lamb whose blood washed the threshold of the home so death would pass over the home. (The 10th plague, death of first-born sons)
Just as the Hebrews were commanded to continue the Passover meal and continue to tell the story of their deliverance, Jesus commands us to continue the Communion meal and continue to tell of his saving death “until he comes.”
2. Corinth and Communion
The congregation in Corinth reflected the diversity of their seaport community, including both wealthy persons and poor persons. The congregation most likely met in the home of one of the wealthier members. When they gathered as a congregation, the wealthier members behaved like they were at a party, overindulging with their friends and excluding the poor.
In his commentary on First Corinthians for the Interpretation Series, Richard B. Hays interprets Paul connecting Jesus’s death to the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. Paul uses similar language to Isaiah 53, especially the idea of Jesus being “handed over to death by God.”
The lack of hospitality by the wealthy members of the congregation to the poor members of the congregation not only ignores the new covenant made in Jesus’s blood, but it further disrespects the sacrifice of Jesus’s crucifixion and death.
Modern Application
Christians look to Communion as one or more of the following
- a memorial of the Last Supper
- a mystical act of grace to strengthen and sanctify the faithful
- an act of thanksgiving for God’s gifts of creation, forgiveness, transformation, healing, and salvation
- a reminder of Christ’s presence among us and our unity in Christ
- a foretaste of the heavenly banquet
Yet this is Maundy Thursday, the night in which Jesus was betrayed and denied, the night of wrestling in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night of mocking and injustice followed by the day of agony and death. This night, we look to Communion, and we see sacrifice.
Jesus breaks the bread, telling the story of his broken body – his beatings, his flogging, Jesus being nailed to the cross, his exposure to the heat of the sun and the heat of humiliation, his stabbing by a Roman centurion to ensure he was dead.
Jesus raises a cup of red wine, telling the story of a new covenant not made and kept through the blood of animal sacrifice, but made once and for all through the shedding of his blood. Jesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus is the Threshold (the Gate). In Jesus we are freed from slavery to sin and shame. In Jesus, death passes over us like a shadow. A shadow can do no harm.
Lisa Degrenia is an ordained pastor currently serving Coronador Community United Methodist Church. Lisa studied at the University of South Florida and received her Masters of Divinity from Duke Divinity School. She’s served congregations in Largo, St. Petersburg, DeBary, and Sarasota.
In addition to serving as a pastor, Lisa enjoys leading retreats, photography, theatre, travel, and writing. She is indebted to the many wonderful mentors and teachers in her life, including her mother who first gave her a love for words.
Lisa met her beloved husband Ed on a trip to NYC and they were married ten months later. They are blessed with two grown daughters, two sons-in-love, one new grandchild, and two dogs. You can find more of her work at https://revlisad.com/.
Sermon Resources
Key Illustration
I am held. I need to be held. I will be held.
I am held captive by downfall and
falsehood or I am held by Christ
whose outstretched arms free me from fear and captivity
Who holds me? Death or Christ?
Great Love bends low to us
Suffers with us and for us
Tastes death so we might be free
What does death taste like?
Amniotic fluid and stable hay
Breast milk and sawdust
Bread broken before sour wine
Salty tears, bitter fear
Ashes to ashes, mud pie
Blood and water served on a centurion’s spear
Linen, spices, or stone?
Taste and see that the Lord is good
I am held. I need to be held. I will be held.
Hold me, Jesus
The Taste of Death by Lisa Degrenia, www.revlisad.com
Key Quote
was bought not by Jesus’ fist, but by His nail-pierced hands; not by muscle but by love; not by vengeance but by forgiveness; not by force but by sacrifice. Jesus Christ our Lord surrendered in order that He might win; He destroyed His enemies by dying for them and conquered death by allowing death to conquer Him.
A.W. Tozer, Preparing for Jesus’ Return: Daily Live the Blessed Hope
Additional Sermon Resources
Illustrations
Quotations
Liturgical Elements
Opening Prayer
Radiant Christ,
You are Mystery
You are Holy
You are God
Give us eyes to see you and your glory
Eyes to see your sustaining and saving
Eyes to see your future and your now
Eyes to see and to follow. Amen
Radiant Christ © 2021 by Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia, www.revlisad.com
Call to Worship
In the midst of all you are facing
Your burdens
Your responsibilities
Your hustle
Hear the invitation
“Come to the Table”
In the midst of all you are facing
Your longing
Your ambition
Your distractions
Hear the invitation
“Come to the Table”
In the midst of all you are facing
Your longing
Your ambition
Your distractions
Hear the invitation
“Come to the Table”
Listen…
Listen……
Grace is calling
Come, the feast awaits
Lisa Degrenia, www.revlisad.com
Prayer of Confession:
Jesus, you are our peace
You create it
You bring us near
Without you there is
No safety
No belonging
No nurturing
No identity rooted beyond this dust
Without you we are
Anchorless
Strangers, Aliens,
Outsiders, Outcasts, Orphaned
Our need is so deep, so desperate
So beyond us
It took flesh, your flesh to make peace
The congregation offers silent prayers of confession
Lisa Degrenia, www.revlisad.com
Assurance of Pardon
Your torture puts hostility to death
Your broken body breaks down every dividing wall
Your blood makes us blood
What wondrous truth
What dazzling grace
Bring us near again, Jesus
Help us remember and re-member
Make us one in your generous, fierce love
Lisa Degrenia, www.revlisad.com
Benediction
May Jesus Christ,
who chose the path of crucifixion and death for us and for all,
strengthen you and save you. Amen.
Lisa Degrenia, www.revlisad.com