This is the night when Jesus “mandated” the Lord’s Supper – he told us that his commandment was that we would remember him, and that we would love each other.

At Graceview, on Maundy Thursday, we have had a prayer vigil in the past few years: stations of the cross are set up in the sanctuary, and people are invited to drop in during certain hours, to walk the stations of the cross. Each station includes a description, a scripture, some images and the lyrics of a hymn. It has been deeply meaningful to those who take part.

Clearly we can’t do that this year. Even though there is a way to do it with a practice of physical distancing, our leaders and health experts have been saying over and over: Stay at home.

So, in order to give you an experience of Maundy Thursday without going against the best advice we have for stopping the spread of COVID-19, I posted some Stations of the Cross colouring pages yesterday. I hope you will consider downloading them and taking time to observe them.

But, I also present to you, the very first ever conversational Zoom sermon and communion service between my Dad (The Rev. Dr. Morley Mitchell) and I.

The passage we are discussing is Matthew 26:17-30.

There is a meme that is part of our discussion, so I wanted to post that:

We invite you to gather some bread (or bread like substance – use crackers or a granola bar or even some cheerios!) and some wine/juice (again, be creative and use what you have on hand – Jesus won’t mind if you use orange juice or ginger ale or something else entirely!), and join us in taking communion during that portion at the end of our video (I will say that our Presbytery has communicated with us that it IS permissible to serve communion in this way – extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, even when it comes to the Lord’s Supper.).

I should also say, the title for this message was planned to be “UNDEFEATED: because of the blood of the Lamb!” I think that still applies, but since we didn’t really focus in on that in our discussion, I’ve title the video Maundy Thursday.

And, finally, again from my Dad – a little music for your soul. Here he is singing “All Hail King Jesus,” the lyrics can be found here, if you’d like to sing along!

Until tomorrow, dear friends, keep on following Jesus!