Maundy* Thursday

Jesus,
we all love to eat
I love to think of you taking the bread
And sharing it in the traditional way–
for it was probably a tear and share loaf
(as bread was so often served, flat and ready)
And then you proclaimed
the most mundane
of acts

Holy

Whenever you break bread together
You proclaim my death
until I return

Then you allow for fellowshipping
and take the cup
And share it again
because
Let’s face it Jesus
We all need neon signs
and emphasis
And all the help we can get

And then you kneel
At the feet of your disciples
And signal

How you will return

I think of how
discomforted
the disciples are
Again

They didn’t like it when
Mary bathed your feet
in perfume

A Woman
Anointing
you
as King

And here you are
Passing it all on

And the blessing
is uncomfortable
(there is a deep truth there)

As you wash
between our toes
You also
tell us about your
return Again

On your knees
You show us

How

How
every knee shall bow
When you return

Of Course we will
Because you,
Jesus
will return as you arrived
Serving on your knees
And we will finally get it

And kneel,
to get next to you

Maybe Maundy
Is not a Good Name
Anyway

Maybe it should be
Learning Thursday
Feasting Thursday
Anointing Thursday
Kneeling Thursday
Mystery of Communion Thursday
Christ-is-not-that-Kind-of-King-Thursday

Teach us Jesus
Where to find you
How to hear you
Quiet the voices that want to anoint you to other kingdoms
Lead us into communion, help us to build at true sanctuary
Give us the tools build real and meaningful ways to serve
We pray, in the one who anointed us all
with the bread, the cup, and a beautiful act loving care

Amen.

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”

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Author: katyandtheword

Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. She now works at Capital CFO plus as the Non Profit Director. All opinions expressed on this blog are her own and do not reflect those of Capital CFO plus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ. She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible. "Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal. Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.

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