Maundy Thursday

Holy Week continued...

Today is called Maundy Thursday.  I did not grow up in a church that used that term and it took me awhile to figure out that people weren't saying, "Monday Thursday", which sounded ridiculous.  I learned that it was  a name for the day when we commemorated Jesus' last meal with his disciples.  You've likely all seen artwork of Jesus at a big banquet table with them all seated on the same side of the table just as if they were on a sit-com.  When I went to Bing Images and Google Images I found a LOT of paintings of the Last Supper.  This one is by Da Vinci and likely the most famous...

The Last Supper, 1498 (post-restoration)

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452–1519)
Scala/Art Resource, NY
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

As I continued browsing through the images I found a lot of renditions of Da Vinci's painting.  Some had the apostles as dogs, I'm not sure why.  Another was an impressive recreation by Laura Bell.  What's so impressive about it was that she did it with laundry lint!  Now that's an art form I'd not considered before!

  (by Laura Bell...made with laundry lint)

At that Last Supper, Jesus taught his apostles about communion.  He taught them to eat the bread and drink the wine together when he was gone, remembering him, taking him into themselves.  This was a big deal.  The apostles don't seem to quite get it yet, then.  They weren't catching on that Jesus was soon to die.  Jesus knew, though.  Jesus loved these followers and he knew they would soon be hurting.  He wanted them to know that he would always be with them.  I think much of what began that night was not understood until after his death.  I don't know, maybe we still don't quite understand it as well as we should.  What I understand, though, is that when I take communion, Jesus is with me.  What more could I ask?

What I learned from Wikipedia about the word, Maundy, kind of surprised me.  I expected it to have something to do with communion.  Nope.  It refers to washing, specifically Jesus' washing the feet of the disciples.  Well, what do you know?  We had yet more to learn from that night.

Yes, Jesus washed the disciples feet.  These weren't feet that had already soaked in a tub.  These were feet that had probably been walking dusty roads for miles in sandals.  This was not a pretty job.  Washing someone else's feet is a pretty humbling thing to do.  It is a true act of service.  

Jesus demonstrated humility as he showed his apostles how much he cared for them.  Humility is not something we talk about much these days.  I think we should.  I don't think being humble means we should have a low self-esteem.   As a Christian, I think it means we need to recognize that any goodness within ourselves comes from God.  Knowing that makes us want to share that goodness by serving others. It seems simple but humility is often a challenge to accomplish.  

Other names for this day include Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Sheer Thursday and Thursday of Mysteries.  Not every Christian Church even names this day but they all talk about the lessons Jesus was teaching.  The first lesson that stands out to me is that we need to commune with one another as we take Jesus into our own beings.  The second lesson is that we need to be people of humility.  There are more lessons here, such as the lesson of obedience, as Jesus was obediently following God's plan for him.  What else?  What do you take from all this?  Do you do anything special on this day? 

First Communion Class

I know, I'm posting kind of late today.  I woke up kind of late this morning, 7:45.  I'm more of a 6:00 a.m. kind of gal so I was pretty startled to see the time.  It's even weirder because I slept much of yesterday, having worked the night shift Thursday night.  I think I slept 16 hours out of 24!  Anyway, I was teaching a class this morning so I had to get myself cleaned up quickly and out the door.

The class I was teaching was preparation for children about to have their first communion.  The students were grade school age and their parents came along as well.  Two years ago I worked up 4 lessons about communion and put them in worksheet form.  The parents work with their own children at home to do the first 3 lessons.  Today was the final lesson so we went through what they'd already done and did a craft as well.  Mike (aka Pastor Mike) then worked with the children, helping them know what to expect and explained some of the procedural things.

I loved this class!  We discussed how God watched over them and helped free them.  When Jesus first taught his disciples about communion it was when they were having the Passover meal, which is why it was important for the children to know what that was.  So, we discussed how the Jewish People were held as slaves and how God freed them.  All that happened before Jesus' earthly life so it was fun to see the children realize how it related to what Jesus was then teaching so many years later.

As we discussed Jesus as sacrifice for us, forgiveness of sins, God's love and the community of Saints these children had some great insights to share.  They and their parents made the discussion lively and thought-provoking.  I love it when that happens!  We tackled questions such as, "Do you think we are meant to have communion alone or as a group?" or "Is it ok to be joyful when taking communion or must we all be solemn?"  If anyone wants copies of the lesson plan, just leave a comment here or e-mail me at onlythemanager@yahoo.com.  I can send it to you via e-mail.

Their craft was a picture frame.  I asked them to paint it with symbols or words that represented something they'd learned about communion.  I received permission from parents so that I could show some of their work. Enjoy!

The children will then put a photo of themselves in the frame, reminding them they are also chosen by God.