I came to faith in Christ in the fall of 1984. Holy Week of 1985 was one of the most profound experiences of my life. I went to the Maundy Thursday foot washing service at the church where I was a member. It was incredibly moving. The following afternoon, I spent time at the Good Friday prayer vigil. I went to my friend’s church that evening for another worship service. On Easter Sunday I went to both services to celebrate the risen Christ! I was excited about my faith, and I took in every opportunity I could to make that first Holy Week as meaningful as possible. Most Holy Weeks were like that, even in college. Later, when I knew the Lord was calling me into full-time ministry, Holy Week took on a more vocational (but no less personal) aspect – now I was part of helping other Christians participate in meaningful experiences during that most profound time of the year. And in both cases, as a layperson and as a pastor, there was a powerful sense of congregational connection for all of those services. Until this year.
The Coronavirus pandemic has made it impossible to worship the way we would like during Holy Week, 2020. And though we have been blessed to be able to stream our services, it’s just not the same preaching to a room full of the same three or four people service after service. That connection simply isn’t there. 2020 will be the year we remember how different Holy Week was for all of us.
However, it is vitally important to remember that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not about how many times we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, it’s not about which hymns we sing and when, it’s not about the Sunrise Service or the breakfast at church. Those things are important ways in which we celebrate the day, but they are not the day itself. We read these words in 1 John 4:9,10:
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
That is the Good news: God loves us, God saves us, and God offers us eternal life through his risen Son! We may not be celebrating the way we want to, but we must absolutely celebrate, for this is the eternal gospel of God, the good news in which we place our hope! He is risen! He is risen indeed!
Our traditional Maundy Thursday service uses low-lighting to symbolize the decent into darkness, representing Jesus’ death – the darkness before the light….In anticipation of Jesus’ resurrection in the following days… in anticipation of Easter Day.
Below, please find this virtual service’s program and all are welcome to share in a virtual communion with your bread and cup.
Charles Town Presbyterian Church Maundy Thursday, April 9, 2020
Welcome and Opening Prayer
Scripture Reading Exodus 12:1-7, 12-14
Song “Lamb of God” No.518
Your only Son, no sin to hide, but you have sent him from your side to walk upon this guilty sod, and to become the Lamb of God. (Refrain) O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God, I love the holy Lamb of God! O wash me in his precious blood, my Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Your gift of love, we crucified; we laughed and scorned him as he died; The humble King we named a fraud and sacrificed the Lamb of God. (Refrain) I was so lost, I should have died, but you have brought me to your side To be led by your staff and rod, and to be called a lamb of God. (Refrain)
Scripture Reading John 13:1-16
Hymn “Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us With Your Love” No. 203
(Refrain) Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love; Show us how to serve the neighbors we have from you.
Kneels at the feet of his friends, silently washes their feet, Master who acts as a slave to them. (Refrain)
Neighbors are wealthy and poor, varied in color and race; Neighbors are near us and far away. (Refrain)
These are the one we should serve; these are the ones we should love; All these are neighbors to us and you. (Refrain)
Loving puts us on our knees, willing to wash others’ feet; This is the way we should live like you. (Refrain)
Scripture Matthew 26:17-30
Message “At the Table”
Prayer of Confession (in unison)
Holy and gracious God, our sin is too heavy to bear. Trusting in your mercy, we lay before you the truth of who we are. We confess our failure to love as Christ loved… We confess our covetousness and greed… We confess our weakness before temptation… We confess our frailty before the challenges of this world… Merciful God, forgive us. Heal us, and make us whole, for the sake of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we humbly pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Friends, hear the good news of the gospel. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
*Hymn “Longing For Light, We Wait in Darkness” No. 314
Longing for light, we wait in darkness. Longing for truth, we turn to you. Make us your own, your holy people, light for the world to see.
(Refrain) Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts. Shine through the darkness. Christ, be our light! Shine in your church gathered today.
Longing for peace, our world is troubled. Longing for hope, many despair. Your word a lone has power to save us. Make us your living voice. (Refrain)
Longing for food, many are hungry. Longing for water, many still thirst. Make us your bread, broken for others, shared until all are fed. (Refrain)
Longing for shelter, many are homeless, longing for warmth, many are cold. Make us your building, sheltering others, walls made of living stone. (Refrain)
Many the gifts, many the people, many the hearts that yearn to belong. Let us be servants to one another, making your kingdom come. (Refrain)
Presentation of Gifts with Prayer of Thanksgiving
Celebration of the Lord’s Supper
Great Prayer of Thanksgiving… The Lord be with you; And also with you. Lift up your hearts. 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…
Scripture Reading Revelation 21:1-4
*Hymn “Were You There” No. 228
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when they pierced him in the side? Were you there when they pierced him in the side? O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Were you there when the sun refused to shine? Were you there when the sun refused to shine? O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
*Benediction
Online Giving. For several months we have made available online giving as a tool to help people bring their offering before God. This past week, we set up our online giving through the Presbyterian Foundation. The exciting part about working with the foundation is that they have mobile app connected to our account. The app is called Give Plus and you can find it at the Google Play Store or Apple app store. The great part about the Give Plus app is that you can set up for weekly, monthly or one time giving! If you have any questions, please contact the church office.
On Good Friday, people are welcome to check out this video, produced by members of the presbytery.
Alas, we continue in our corona-driven isolation and social distancing. I cannot ever remember a time in my life when I did not engage in Holy Week activities at church. My whole life, the time between Palm Sunday and Easter was a time for more prayer, more self-reflection, and more church. My family always attended worship on Maundy Thursday and whatever service we had on Good Friday (it was never the same year to year).
This year, the threat of the coronavirus (and executive action of our governor) prohibits us from meeting for any of the usual ways we like to celebrate Holy Week. And while this may seem like a real downer, all is not lost. We have had great response to our virtual worship broadcasts. Please be patient with us, we know there are some technical issues, and we are addressing those. This coming week, we plan to worship on Palm Sunday and then on Easter Sunday at 10:30am both mornings. On Maunday Thursday, we will post a video at 7pm. We are recording it earlier in the week and later at night so that it captures a more dramatic experience for Maundy Thursday.
Since the corona isolation began, I have been posting daily devotionals and prayer. A simple message with scripture and prayer. This week, because it is Holy Week, I want us all to be able to read and ponder the verses together. So here are my readings this week:
Our Facebook page is accessible through this link. I hope you are able to join us in the days ahead. I know this is not the kind of Holy Week and Easter we want, but it is the one we have. The gospel is still real, relevant, it is still good news. Let us, therefore, not let our current moment steer us away from that which is eternal.
Because of the coronavirus, most churches have been forced to either shut down or attempt a digital presence on the internet, usually through Facebook, YouTube, or some of live streaming option. Let me say this: I really don’t like virtual worship. Don’t get me wrong, I am very grateful to have social media and other digital tools at my disposal. Can you imagine going through this with no way to connect with others?
But therein lies my issue. The Church, the people of Christ, are connected to one another. In 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul refers to the Church as the “Body of Christ.” By that, he means that the Church is a living, active, growing organism.
My hope is that when life returns to “normal,” we never again forsake the opportunity to worship. We miss each other. We are family, and our weekly worship was the time we had to connect with one another and Christ. Virtual worship, while a welcome tool at the moment, just isn’t the same. It’s nice to share prayer concerns through email and other messaging tools, but it’s not quite the same as being present together and hearing the emotional content of that prayer concern. We can sing songs and hymns of praise during our self-quarantine (as well we should!), but it is not the same as singing in worship.
I think you get my point.
For now, we will continue to worship virtually, we will continue to connect the best way we can, but when it is safe to worship en masse again, we will worship with the greatest energy and joy we can muster. Yes, it looks as if we are not going to be able to gather for Holy Week worship, and this disappoints me. So, when we next gather, even it if is Mother’s Day , we will celebrate the passion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus!
Let us use this moment to remember what it means to be the Body of Christ, the “called out ones,” the Gathered before God!
That seems to be the big question around Covid-19. Things seem to be changing every day, don’t they? Last Thursday, when I finished writing my newsletter article, there were only a quarter of the cases and fatalities than we have now. This virus moves quickly and somewhat “silently” – those infected carry it with them some time before symptoms emerge, and that means every person they are around during that time will be at risk of the virus. This is why schools have closed, restaurants are take-out only, and we worship virtually. I expect that we will be closed longer than two Sundays, and I say that so that we are prepared. None of us is pleased that we may be celebrating Palm Sunday and Easter far differently than we imagined. That decision has not been made yet, but I do want you to be mentally prepared if we have to make that announcement.
My highest priority, as pastor, is the spiritual welfare of the congregation. To that end, I want to make sure you know of two virtual opportunities. Every day (except Sunday), around 11:00am, I am attempting to stream a short three to five-minute Bible reading and prayer. I started that this past week, and the response has been unbelievable. I am doing that through the church Facebook page. On Sundays we worship at 10:30, and we will do so virtually (same link).
I also want to encourage you to sign up for our virtual prayer meeting. While we are facing this pandemic, we must turn to Christ. Why not sign up for times to pray throughout the weeks ahead? Please visit this page for sign up information.
And as we have noted so many times, we rely on the generosity of this congregation, and we are hopeful that we will see little, if any interruption in our giving. It’s impossible to collect the offering while maintaining social distance, but people can still give online or through the mail.
This is an historic moment for the world. We will get through this, and I am certain that as we do so, we will find Christ faithful!
UPDATE: March 16, 2020 – with the recent recommendations surrounding coronavirus COVID-19, for the health of those who participate in the various community groups, Charles Town Presbyterian Church is closing the building to all groups and ministries. The ONLY exceptions to this are the essential ministries Meals on Wheels and the Homeless Dinner coalition. We prayerfully ask that all other groups also consider practicing social distancing where possible.
The governing body of Charles Town Presbyterian Church will continue to assess the situation in order to determine when we’ll reopen. Please direct any questions to our church office.
UPDATE – Pastor John is keeping us connected in this March 16th video:
On March 15, 2020, CTPC did a live broadcast of Worship services! As we navigate this difficult situation, we all will be praying for relief for those directly or indirectly affected.
