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Holy Thursday Prayers for the World

April 9, 2020 by Sybil Macbeth Leave a Comment

 

http://prayingincolor.com/wp-content/uploads/All-in-the-Morning-Thursday.m4a

It was on Holy Thursday and all in the morning

They plaited a crown of thorns for our Heavenly King

And was not this a woeful thing

And sweet Jesus we’ll call him by name.

These words are from a traditional English carol called And All in the Morning.
(If you receive these blog posts in an email, you might have to go to the blog site to hear the song.)

Even though I am physically separated and sheltered from a worshipping community this year, Lent feels much less private than normal. I usually turn inward and spend more time alone during Lent. This year, to my surprise, my attention is drawn outward towards what is happening outside the four walls of my house and across the waters to other parts of the world. This worldwide virus event is like a banquet to which everyone on the planet has received an invitation and no one chooses to attend. There is sacrifice, hardship, disease, and death across the globe. But there is also comradeship and common interest and concern and conversation. To experience this pandemic during Lent is being IN the drama of suffering and sorrow rather than just commemorating it like we do each year. Jesus was willing to share and experience the suffering of fellow humans.

I like the round, globelike template this week as a way to focus on the solidarity and not the separateness of the world. From the center of the circle I can view the North, South, East, and West. I also like the circle because it gives me a framework and a boundary. With so much to obsess and think about, the simplicity and structure of the circle offers a starting place of ease and freedom. for drawing. HERE is the link to today’s template.

The Exodus reading for today is about the Passover. The Israelites prepare a banquet in accordance with God’s orders and place the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and the lintel of their houses. This ensures that the plague will pass over them. Passover this year began last night and continues until April 16. It’s an appropriate time to pray that this modern day plague will pass by us and others around the world.

 

Here are the lectionary readings for the day:
Exodus 12: 1-4 (5-10), 11-14
Psalm 116: 1-2, 12-19
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13: 1-17, 31b-35

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Filed Under: Praying in Color Tagged With: Doodling prayer, Holy Thursday, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Praying in Color, Sheer Thursday

Footwashing

April 2, 2015 by Sybil Macbeth Leave a Comment

The Maundy Thursday service with communion and footwashing is one of my favorite worship experiences of the liturgical year. As parishioners walk down the aisle to the front of the church with all sorts and conditions of bare feet, it feels like a time of shared vulnerability and humility. We often sing one of my favorite hymns “Jesu, Jesu Fill Us with Your Love.”  Baby-soft young feet, well-pedicured polished feet, and gnarled, old, lived-in toes plunge into the same basin. Adults and children take turns at being washers and being the washed. Since this is not a weekly occurrence at church, parishioners have been prepared with articles in the newsletter and explanations about the procedure at the beginning of the service. It is a well-choreographed evening with advance preparation by clergy and lay leaders and a Mr. Rogers kind of reassurance for our comfort.

A few years ago I went to a spirituality and dance conference where most of the people did not know each other. At the opening session, the leaders announced that we were going to have a footwashing. I was horrified and thought: “This is not the way to start a conference. People do not understand what this is all about. A footwashing is too personal, too intimate an activity for an opening event. Don’t these leaders know anything about protocol and about not scaring off the introverts?”

We broke into groups of three. One person had her feet in the water, one person washed and the other person dried. I went into this activity with arrogance and resistance. “I don’t even know these people,” I thought. When it came time to have my feet washed, I complied. When the washer finished scooping handfuls of warm water on my feet, a woman on her knees wrapped my feet in a big towel. She held both feet on her lap and proceeded to dry them. With almost sacramental attention she moved the towel between each toe making sure there was no remaining moisture. With her careful and unhurried tenderness my resistance caved and I started to cry. Who but a loving parent would take the time to dry the toes of a child like this? Who but a loving, father-mother God would show up unbidden to shatter my narrow-minded assumptions and to give me needed care and attention in the form of a person with a towel.

Footwashing 2015 resized

 

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Filed Under: Praying in Color Tagged With: footwashing, Jesu Jesu Fill Us With Your Love, Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday/Last Supper/Passover Poem

March 28, 2013 by Sybil Macbeth Leave a Comment

Passover Poem

Pass through the Exit gates of Eden
Pass over the plagues of death
Pass under the Red Sea waves
Pass by in a pillar of cloud
Pass up the offerings of Baal
Pass down the Covenant of God
Pass into the Promised Land
Pass out the loaves and fishes
Pass around the bread and the wine
Pass along the story of salvation
Pass from life to death
Pass through the Entrance gates of Heaven

Sybil MacBeth
Copyright 2009

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Filed Under: Praying in Color Tagged With: Last Supper, Maundy Thursday, Passover, Passover Poem

Maundy Thursday Footnotes

April 2, 2010 by Sybil Macbeth Leave a Comment

Last night at church, a pair of women washed my feet. I washed a few sets of feet as well. Tittering and giggling were plentiful from the people hunkered at the basins of water. I heard multiple apologies like, “I did just take a shower before I came.” “I had a pedicure today.”–Three times I heard this comment. The feet at our footwashing last night were probably some of the cleanest and most well-heeled in the world. And yet awkwardness, even shame abounded.

Imagine what it was like for Peter to receive the ministrations of Jesus. Peter’s feet were probably some of the filthiest on the planet–fish guts and city sewage between the toes. In the embarrassing act of footwashing, Jesus taught the disciples about serving and being served, about loving and being loved. He gives them a mandate: “A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34 NIV)

I wonder if the footwashing was also an anointing. Jesus anointed the disciples’ feet for the sacred and dangerous journey they were about to begin—the journey to “Go and make disciples” and the journey to their deaths.

Sybil MacBeth ©2010

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Filed Under: Praying in Color Tagged With: footwashing, John 13:34, manundy Thursday, Matthew 28: 19, Maundy Thursday

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