The Saturday before Easter is a weird, in-between time; ...Perhaps it is a good time to confess that sometimes we don’t know what to do. Sometimes we feel like we have run out of options and that all hope is lost. Perhaps it is a good time to remember Joseph and Nicodemus and do something kind, generous, and faithful because it might just set the stage for an Easter miracle. --Jay Kieve

The Burial of Jesus
50 Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a member of the council, 51 had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. 52 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. 54 It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning. 55 The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56 Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
Luke 23: 50-56

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'God who knows my frailties, forgive my self-doubt and uncertainty 
when I am content from a distance to watch others' pain.
God who calls my name, even when I am reluctant, forgive my
resistance and fear of being overwhelmed by the task you compel me to take on.
God who offers me the cross, a burden too great for me to carry,
help me to be a willing participant on a journey I can 
neither understand nor change.
God who believes in me, help me to go on believing that you
take the little I have offered and use it to make a difference.
God who knows me and calls me, who burdens me and believes
in me, help me to hear your voice of thanks, and be ready to
serve again.'

Text © Tom Gordon from 'Lent and Easter Readings from Iona'
http://www.ionabooks.com/lent-and-easter-readings-from-iona…
Photo: St John's Cross © David Coleman

A Prayer For Good Friday: Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we might reach forth our own hands and hearts in love and mercy for you, for our suffering brother and sister, for the lost, for this world which you love so much that you send your son into its pain. We pray looking again on the crucified Christ. Amen.

A new commandment
An excerpt from the Companion to the Book of Common Worship (Geneva Press, 2003, 113-116, 131-132)

The name is taken from the first words sung at the ceremony of the washing of the feet, “I give you a new commandment” (John 13:34); also from the commandment of Christ that we should imitate his loving humility in the washing of the feet (John 13:14-17). The term mandatum(maundy), therefore, was applied to the rite of the footwashing on this day.
The opening service of the Triduum is not inherently mournful. The penitential acts of Maundy Thursday have celebratory aspects as well: restoration through the bold declaration of pardon; the act of footwashing connoting humility and intimacy; the celebration of the Lord’s Supper embodying the mystery of Christ’s enduring redemptive presence. Maundy Thursday’s acts provide the paradox of a celebratively somber and solemnly celebrative service.
Footwashing. A powerful symbolic response to the Word, representing the way of humility and servanthood to which we are called by Christ, is the act of footwashing, practiced within the church since at least the fifth century. The practice of footwashing in first-century Palestine may have been as common as when today a host helps guests take off their coats, a waiter seats diners, or a driver holds the taxi door open for passengers. Hospitality underlies all such welcoming gestures. …
What is startling if not jolting about the footwashing story in John is not the act of footwashing, but the identity of the servant who washed others’ feet — Jesus, God-with-us, the least likely person. Following the footwashing, Jesus took on himself the humiliation of the cross, the ultimate symbol of his selfless love for others. …
In the priesthood of all believers (not hierarchies of power), all members of the body of Christ can “kneel” before each other and wash one another’s feet as did our Lord and Savior himself — neighbor to neighbor, perhaps even stranger to stranger. More important, as the priesthood of all believers, our corporate kneeling before others for the earthly task of footwashing symbolizes our servanthood within and beyond the body of Christ.
The Lord’s Supper. Though on this night we remember and celebrate the final supper Jesus shared with his disciples in the context of Passover, we are neither celebrating a Seder (“order of service”), nor reenacting the Last Supper, but sharing with our risen Lord a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. …
The term “last supper” suggests that it was only one of many meals shared by Jesus and his disciples, and not the meal. The Eucharist is rooted not only in the Last Supper but also in Jesus’ eating with sinners, and in his feeding the crowd with the loaves and fishes, and it foreshadows the meals after his resurrection. All together they constitute the multiple meanings of the Lord’s Supper. To reduce the Lord’s Supper to the Last Supper is to cut off the Sacrament from its eschatological significance (that is, as it relates to the unfolding of God’s purpose and in the ultimate destiny of humankind and the world).
Stripping of the Church. The final act of this service is the evocative stripping of the worship space. This is most effectively done in absolute silence, and in an unhurried, orderly fashion. Designate several people to extinguish the candles, strip the Lord’s table of all cloths and vessels, and remove all textile hangings, candles and candelabra, flowers, and so forth, carrying all the items out of the room. The stark, bare, unadorned church now reflects Jesus’ abandonment during the night in Gethsemane. The visual aspect of the transformed worship space gives people a dramatic depiction of Christ’s desolation. The church remains bare until the Easter Vigil when the process is reversed and the worship space is “dressed” again.
Ordinarily, neither a blessing is given nor a postlude played on this night, as the services for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (the Great Vigil of Easter) are actually one unified ritual. … The church remains in semidarkness, and all depart in silence, thus making the transition from the eucharistic celebration to Jesus’ crucifixion and death. Symbolically, Christ, stripped of his power and glory, is now in the hands of his captors.


Source: PCUSA: https://bit.ly/2Fiijv2

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
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Maundy Thursday scripture reading:
John 13:1-35

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.” 12After 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....
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Here, on this night:
We remember the past- Jesus really did this.
We declare the present: Jesus is really with us.
We see the future…in this meal……we see ahead of us.
Here at this table: we remember Jesus Christ.
He says "Love one another as I have loved you."
Lord how can we love them? 
Jesus picks up a towel and a basin,
and says, "Go toward each other."
Jesus picks up the cup ..the cup of enduring love…and says, 
“Come to me.”

Prayer for Maundy Thursday:
Loving God, in the sharing of a meal
Jesus established a new covenant for all people,
and in the washing of feet
he showed us the dignity of service.
Grant that by the power of your Holy Spirit
these signs of our life in faith
may speak again to our hearts,
feed our spirits, and refresh our bodies, 
that we might be restored to loving you in loving one another. Amen.

God of beauty and worship, our hearts grieve at the fire in this great house of prayer. Be with those battling the blaze and those a part of rescue. In this Holy Week bring comfort now to the people of Paris in the midst of this great loss. Hear our prayers for all victims of fire, especially in houses of worship and faith. Nurture hope in the face of tragedy. We pray in the name of the one worshipped at Notre Dame, Jesus Christ...
​Amen.
(The PCPC Chancel Choir directed by Nancy Callahan singing at Notre Dame in November 2016. Video by Scott Wilson.)