Love Feast An Ecumenical Service on Maundy Thursday April 1, 2021 6 pm Albany Methodist Church, Faith Lutheran Church, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, St. Albans Episcopal Church Fresco of a banquet from the Catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Via Labinica, Rome Introduction Welcome to our ecumenical Love Feast. I am Pastor Lura from the Albany First United Methodist Church. Feel free to eat during this time since eating together is part of the Love Feast. I encourage you to mute the speaker on your device when you are not speaking so that we do not hear everyone’s background sounds. Does anyone need us to explain how to mute your speaker? The Love Feast, or Agape Feast, as it is sometimes called, comes from the early church. It is a Christian fellowship meal that recalls the meals Jesus shared with his followers and others during his ministry. It expresses the community, sharing, and fellowship enjoyed by the Christian family. The Love Feast is referred to in the New Testament in Jude 1:12, and by some of the early leaders of the church, such as Ignatius of Antioch. The Love Feast is a time of fellowship and community. The Love Feast and Holy Communion are two distinct services. The Love Feast is more informal, and everyone can be part of the discussion. It often includes prayer, scripture, and hymns, as well as discussions related to spiritual matters. While all our churches take part in the Lord’s Supper, the Love Feast is less common and may be new to most of you. It seems especially appropriate on this Maundy Thursday when we remember Jesus’ Last Supper, the last meal he shared with his disciples. Tonight’s service is a blending of traditions. We are using the United Methodist ritual for the Love Feast, incorporating the Church of the Brethren who have footwashing as a central theme, and using some of the Episcopalian and Lutheran traditions around Maundy Thursday. Since tonight's meal is being celebrated in the middle of a pandemic, we are adapting these rituals and traditions to our current time and reality. While we are physically separated, this evening as we worship and eat together, as we share and pray together, we are united by the Spirit. We come from different congregations and denominations, but we are all part of the body of Christ and united by the love of God. Gathering Prayer Be present at our table, Lord; Be here and everywhere adored; Thy creatures bless, and grant that we May feast in paradise with Thee. Charles Wesley (an important leader for the Methodists) wrote the following prayer specifically for the Love Feast. We will say it together now: Father of earth and heaven, Thy hungry children feed, Thy grace to our spirits be given, That true immortal bread. Grant us all and our race, In Jesus Christ to prove, The sweetness of thy pardonning grace, The manna of thy love. “Embrace” by Peter Wever 1950 Reconciliation Reconciliation is an important part of God's kingdom. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus implores his followers: “When you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your sister and brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:24 – 25) Reconciliation is a central part of our relationship with God and each other. Martin Luther, who warned his followers against looking at good works as necessary for salvation, still emphasized that they were a crucial part of community, saying: “God doesn't need your good works but your neighbor does.” Similarly, our communities, have emphasized caring for the stranger and neighbor as a way to be reconciled to each other. In some traditions, Maundy Thursday is the start of the Great Three Days (or Triduum), one of the oldest liturgies/practices of the church. The three days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil comprise one service over three days (with large breaks inbetween). The Maundy Thursday portion begins with a declaration of forgiveness. There are two reasons for this. First off, these services are the holiest time of the Christian year, the time when we remember Christ's death and resurrection. Secondly, the Ash Wednesday worship begins with a confession of sin. Uniquely among our services, it does not include a declaration of forgiveness. It is instead in some ways a hanging confession, waiting until Maundy Thursday. The Triduum begins with a laying on of hands and anointing, where all hear: “In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.” Our service tonight will contain a number of opportunities to worship together in smaller groups, to converse and to commune. The first of these is focused on reconciliation: Scripture:John 20:19 – 23 19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ We are going to be using breakout rooms – a pop up will come up on your Zoom screen, telling you to go to a breakout room, simply accept and you will be able to have sub discussions. After introducing yourselves to each other, each member is invited to say to each other: “In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.” and to use each other's name. Breakout Room Questions • What does forgiveness mean to you? • Is it hard to forgive someone else? Is it hard to accept forgiveness? Christ Washing the Feet of the Apostles by Meister des Hausbuches 1475 Footwashing Scripture: John 13.1-10 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4got up from the table,* took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5Then 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. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ 7Jesus answered, ‘ You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ 8Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet. ’Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ 9Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ 10Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet,* but is entirely clean. And you* are clean, though not all of you.’ 11For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’ 12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16Very truly, I tell you, servants* are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. Reflection With the commonplace tools of a basin of water and a towel, Jesus has revealed to us what love looks like: service. Love is service. It is taking the time to acknowledge the humanity, the pain, the brokenness in another and then strengthened by the grace of the Spirit, using your own hands, your own heart to soothe their weariness. Footwashing is dirty and awkward and uncomfortable for both recipient and giver; and yet what a most holy time, a time of intimacy and vulnerability and love. Following is a poem that paints a picture of a particular community’s foot washing journey: The Foot-Washing “I wouldn’t take the bread and wine if I didn’t wash feet.” Old Regular Baptist They kneel on the slanting floor given back clean before feet white as roots, to Sunday shoes and hightops. humble as tree stumps. Men before men This is how to prepare for the Lord’s Supper, women before women singing and carrying a towel to soothe the sourness and a basin of water, bound in each other’s journeys.