Maundy Thursday 2012

Good Maundy Thursday Morning, to you my dear brothers and sisters. Please remember today that we are going to have communion together.

Thanks for all your calls about Dolores. She remains in the Holy Spirit Hospital with an infection in the tissues of her body that has been caused by her right knee. And yes, this third right knee has FAILED, according to the doctors. First the infection must be cleared, and then I guess we have some options, but they have not been pointed out yet. Please pray and I will keep you posted. Thank You.

This is the service of communion as found in the book of Luke.

Luke 22:19 - And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you, do this in remembrance of me."

Luke 22:20 - In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."

Message, Supper with the King, and Praying with Jesus.  A Special Message for Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday.

Supper with the King: Please take time to read Luke 22 verses 7 thru 22.

As we walk with Jesus this most Holy week, we are going to just take time to sit down and break bread with Him. But first let's take a look at what it might be like to just sit down at the table with Jesus at the head of it and have supper with Him. Not necessarily the Passover meal, but just sit at the table and have supper with the King, and also add this into the mix, we had to cook the meal.

Ok, we have done this before, this should be easy, it will be like a church social, a covered dish, and we just all bring what we make best, and of course you like to eat. You know each of us has that "best of the best" that we make. Now as an online prayer line, I am going to ask you if we indeed were sitting down as a group, you know this prayer group, what would we serve, so please just tell me, what dish you would bring to Carry The Light Ministries "Supper with the King"?  Ok, since I am up first here, let me tell you that I will make a Double Meat Loaf, always a good choice at a church type social. So how would I make it? Well, it just needs to be the best for I am going to serve it to Jesus. So here goes. It is Double Meat, so I start with very lean ground beef, no pink slim in this one, just really good stuff, and use about 10 pounds of that beef, and then blend in about 5 pounds of Ground Turkey, Ground after all the skin is removed. I would put them together in a very large baking pan, one that might be used to cook your 25 pound turkey on Thanksgiving. Then mix, and mix and mix. Then I would add in toasted English Muffins cut up into very small pieces. I would also put in about 9 or so raw eggs (yes, out of the shell) and also some onions, celery, a few cut up carrots, and a can or two of diced tomatoes. Then season it with a few of those, I am not telling you those things. After you have it mixed then pull it apart and roll up some cheese and put it down the middle. Then bake it up real good.

So I have the meat, what are you bringing? Come on, tell me tomorrow, and let's just see how balanced our meal would be. Remember it is supper with Jesus and Jesus should have your very best.

But now let's get past the food, let's just start to think about how we would act if we knew Jesus was coming, and let's move the supper from a church to one of our homes. Let's face it, Carry The Light Ministries does not have a social hall, so the first thing we are going to do is clean, and clean and clean. Oh and I hope you are not one who needs to "Dust off your Bible" or throw out those playboy or playgirl books. Now I can say that there are no books like that in our house, and the Bible is used, so it is not dusted, except for the big old, Bible on the coffee table, that might need a dusting.

Anyway we will get out our dishes and for us it will be our everyday stuff for we do not have that "good china" or special silverware to put out. But we for sure will not use paper plates and plastic flatware. So we set the table, and get ready. When Jesus arrives, how will we act? Oh, I pray that I would act the same as if I were greeting anyone of you into our home, except Jesus is one up from You. I love all of you, but Jesus is first. I would also give up my seat at the head of the table for our Lord Jesus would have that place. And then we would all find a place and pass around all those foods that we made. Gosh, how great would this be, and how long till one of us spills something in our laps. Just think about it my friends we are having supper with The King. Of course I would ask Jesus to grace the food, and I wonder, how would He pray? Would He open with Dear Father like we do? I think so, as I think Jesus would be very polite with His Father, and when finished, I believe He would thank Him and close with an Amen. Gosh, does it get any better than this? Yes, of course it does, for someday we are going to go to Heaven and we are going to sit with Jesus and have a supper. But for now, we are back to the one in our mind. Just thinking about eating with Jesus is exciting.

Now Supper is over and Jesus leans back, and picks up this loaf of bread. I noticed that during the meal, He did not eat from the bread or cut into it. Nor did He drink from the fruit of the vine we had on the table. So now Jesus leans back and picks up the bread, gives thanks, and breaks it and gave it to us. "This is my body given for you: do this in remembrance of me." So now, brothers and sisters, please take your bread let's pray.

Dear Father in Heaven, today in our minds we had supper with You and oh how wonderful it was just thinking about it, and oh, how we look forward to the day when You call us all home and we supper with You and You with us each day. Lord, please now bless the bread and the juice as we take communion with You. Lord, bless us and forgive us our sins as we do this in remembrance of You... In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Now please eat and remember the body that was broken for us... Now take your juice, and hear these words of Jesus. "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." Now please drink your juice...

This is so special today, and remember that while our dinner was in our minds, but this is right from the Bible. Just thinking of what it might be like to sit with Jesus, and believe me I could have written a book on this one. But just thinking about all of us, most of you I have never seen, or even talked to, and here in our minds we are sitting together with Jesus. This is special, and then to get cleaned up again by Jesus as we ask Him to forgive us and start us new. We are so blessed... Today we had supper with Jesus and now we will go to the Garden and pray with Him, and again this will be special. To get ready for this, I want you to think about your favorite praying place, and maybe sometime on Thursday evening you might go to that place and pray as Jesus went to the Garden to pray.

Special Places: Do you have any special places? Maybe a place that you remember from the past, or more so, places that are very special to you now.

For those of you who have pets, have you noticed that they have these special places where they go to take a nap, or just to get away for a while? Maybe it is their little bed, or maybe a spot under the bed, each might have a different place.

I know that I have a few special places. One of those places is a Steam Railroad just outside of Lancaster Pennsylvania. Dolores and I get season tickets each year and try and go ride this old steam train about once every two weeks. We just love the place, just a little over an hour from our home to the train, and then an hour on the train, then some good food and back home. Yes, this train is a special place for us. I have other special places also, one being my home. I am such a home body, really just do not like to leave anymore. In fact, all my life if I were to go someplace and stay for three days or more, I would get sick and just want to come home. This has caused me to not go on many vacations in my life. Of course I have my big garage out in back of the house, that I can go hide out, take Martin and Martha Mary and sneak a little nap... At one time I had a bed made up in the back of a pickup truck. (Now you know why they are called a "Truck Bed".) I also have two old hearses and I have been known to crawl in the back of them and take a nap. I also have this other very special place, and it is my "Rock of Hope," a large rock in my front yard. I have a bench by the rock, about 15 of our beloved dogs are buried beside the rock, one just buried there this past Monday, There are two cats, and two goats that died at birth and my pet rabbit. We have some nice flowers around the rock. It is a very special place for me to just go and sit and talk to Jesus. Do you have any special places? Do you have a special place where you go and talk to Jesus?

Special Places: I believe that Jesus had some special places also, and today I just want to take you to one of them. Please take time to read Matthew 26: 36 thru 46. This place called Gethsemane is where Jesus went to pray the night before He was put to death on the Cross. I think there some very important lessons to be learned from these verses, and I just want to bring out a few of them.

First I think this place is special to Jesus, for Jesus could have talked to His Father anyplace, He could have just leaned back in a chair in the "Upper Room" where He just had supper with His Twelve, but no, He went to Gethsemane to have this "heart to heart" with His Father. So I think we need to know that while we can talk to Jesus anytime, from anyplace we should have a special place where we can just go and be alone with Jesus. I think Jesus points that out to us loud and clear on this one.

Next I think that there are times we need to be alone with Jesus, for, well, for a little "one on one" so to speak. A place and time where You can pour out your heart to the one who really cares about it. Oh, we all have people in our lives that care for us, but my friends, no one ever cared for You like Jesus. Gethsemane, I think was one of those special places for Jesus, why else would He have gone there with death just around the corner? To be alone with His Father was also needed or he would have not told His disciples to "Stay here and keep watch for me" as He went on ahead to pray.

Special Places: The last lesson that I want to point out to you today from these scriptures is this found in Matthew 26: 42 - "My Father, If it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."

I think here we see the human side of Jesus knowing He was going to be put to death, going to His Father and saying, Father must this be done, must I go through with this, and then without another question He said to His Father, it is Your will and not mine that is to be done... Learn from this lesson, my dear brothers and sisters, that in good times and even in bad, we need to pray that God's will be done. GOD'S WILL BE DONE, GOD'S WILL BE DONE, in our lives, here on Earth as it is in Heaven... This was pointed out to us by Jesus when He taught us to pray, in the prayer we now call the "Lord's Prayer".

Now here, on the night before He was to be put to death and just before He was taken prisoner, Jesus is praying to His Father, and also teaching us to pray not just in a special place, but these words, "Thy will be done."

So my dear brothers and sisters, as you go about this day, the day before we celebrate the death of our Lord Jesus on the cross (and yes we celebrate that!!) please take time to remember the events of this day, that special supper with His most nearest friends, His disciples, and His going to a very special place to pray, in the gardens of Gethsemane, and the lessons from that Garden.

Dear Father Thanks for all you do for us, we love You very, very much... In Jesus' name, Amen.

Now go forth enjoying Maundy Thursday, and we will see you tomorrow, and remember this... Please, share those blessings.   Love ya, Pastor Dan.