Greetings from Austin Street

Happy Holy Maundy Thursday!  Allis well here at 811.

Dear God, I am a child in your arms. Thank you for holding me in your loving presence. I depend on your provision and protection. Thank you for accepting me completely without fault and with joy. To you be all the honor, glory, power and praise.  And thank you Lord, for dying for me while I was yet a sinner, and for instituting the sacrament of your body and blood. I love you Lord so very much. In Jesus name, amen.

As I sat around the hand washing and communion tables tonight in worship I imagined that night in Jerusalem. Jesus had just washed the feet of his disciples. This was a task given to the very lowest of the low and insignificant people in the land; the washing of the dirty feet of the guests in the house. And yet Jesus took on this lowly task himself as a model of service to his disciples that they were to follow after he was gone. Jesus stood in their midst and broke the bread and poured the wine saying the words of which we are all so familiar, “this is my body broken for you and this is my blood poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

But this service begins with these words, “On the night he was betrayed…” Tonight I thought about that phrase. I thought about Judas and how Jesus knew Judas was to betray him. Jesus still invited Judas to the table knowing that Judas was about to betray him into the hands of those who plotted to kill him.  I do not know why Judas made the choices he did. I know the thirty pieces of silver were an incentive, but I like to think that Judas loved Jesus and hoped that this act of betrayal would save his life and of course the opposite happened. I think Jesus still loved Judas even though Judas was not very loveable at that moment. And tonight as the bread was passed to me it came to me just how completely Jesus loves us…On the night Jesus was betrayed Jesus took the bread and gave it to us. We are invited to remember that Jesus offered his life for us not when we were particularly worthy, charming, faithful or successful, but when we betrayed.

“For I received from the lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

1 Corinthians 11: 23-25

Take joy in the journey and remember the body and blood our Lord shed for each of us no matter what state of life we find ourselves. Wear comfortable shoes, get some sleep and think pink!  Love you all, Bruce and Gaylene