After the King of Egypt had refused to listen to all the warnings, the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron again, saying:

“Rewrite your calendars — from now on, this month is to be the beginning of the new year. Put the word out among all the Israelite people that on the tenth day of the month, each household is to obtain a lamb or a young goat to be eaten. Small households can combine with their neighbours to share one, dividing it up so that there is enough for everyone to have some. The lamb must be a healthy male yearling with no deformities — not a runt. Having obtained the lamb, the household is to keep it at home for four days. Just after sunset on the fourteenth, all the Israelites are to slaughter the lambs ready for cooking. Take some of the blood and paint it on the frame of the front door of the house where you are eating the lamb. Cook and eat it that night. Don’t serve it raw or boiled. Don’t even cut it up or gut it. Spit-roast it whole over the fire and serve it with unleavened flat-breads and bitter herbs. Eat it all that night. If there is any left over in the morning you are to burn it. When you eat it, you are to eat as though you were in a hurry and about to leave on a journey. You should be dressed and packed, with your walking boots on and your stick at hand. In this way you are to keep the feast of Passover in honour of me, the LORD.

That night, I will pass through Egypt, killing the firstborn sons of every family and the firstborn male animals. I am the LORD, and I will carry out the sentence I have passed on the gods of Egypt this night. The lamb’s blood painted on your door frames will be the sign that your households are to be exempted. I will pass over every house that I see marked with the blood, and you will not be touched by the plague that will strike down the Egyptians.

Remember this day and, in every generation to come, celebrate it as an annual festival to honour me, the LORD.”

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

I love you, LORD!
How could I not love you
when you always respond to my cries?

You are always ready to listen to me,
so I will bring my needs to you as long as I live.

How can I ever repay you, LORD?
What gift could ever express my gratitude?

I will raise my glass in your honour,
I will name you as the one who saved me.

I will make good on all I promised you, LORD,
and I’ll let everyone know its for you.

Whenever one of your faithful people dies
it affects you deeply.

LORD, you have released me from my chains.
I will serve you forever,
just as my forebears have done.

I will bring a gift to say thanks;
I will pray to you, and you alone.

I will be true to the vows I’ve made;
and I won’t keep it hidden.
In full view of all your people,
in the public place of worship,
I’ll do all I promised you, LORD.

All the praise and all the credit are your, LORD!

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

The teaching I gave you about the Lord’s Supper is worth repeating. I gave it to you exactly as I received it from the Lord himself. On the very night that he was betrayed, Jesus was sharing a meal. He took a loaf of bread in his hands, gave thanks to God and then broke the loaf, saying:

“This is my body. It is for you.
Do this so that I will be remembered.”

At the end of the meal he did the same thing with the cup, saying:

“This cup is God’s new alliance with you —
an alliance sealed with my blood.
Do this, every time you drink it,
so that I will be remembered.”

The meaning of this is clear: whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you are announcing the truth about the Lord’s death. This truth will continue to be broadcast in this way until the Lord returns.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Even before the sacred Passover festival began, Jesus knew that his time was running out. He knew that he had come from God, and he knew that it was time to leave this world and return to God. He had consistently loved his followers in this world, and he continued to demonstrate his love for them right up to the end. A seed sown by the devil had taken root in the mind of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, and by the time they gathered for supper, he was planning to double-cross Jesus.

Jesus knew that everything was up to him, because God had put everything in his hands. During the supper, he got up from the table, took off his jacket and tied a towel around his waist. Filling a large bowl with water, he began to wash the feet of each of the disciples in turn and to dry them with the towel tied around his waist. When it was his turn, Simon Peter objected saying, “Surely it’s not your job to wash my feet, Lord?”

Jesus answered, “I know you don’t yet understand why I’m doing this, but in time it will make sense to you.”
But Peter said, “No way! I’ll never let you wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “If I don’t wash you, then it’s all over between us. You’ll have nothing further to do with me.”

“In that case,” Simon Peter replied, “don’t just wash my feet! Wash my hands; wash my head!”
Jesus said to him, “You had a bath before you came! Once someone’s had a bath, they don’t need to wash anything on arrival other than their feet and they’ll be completely clean. You lot are clean.” But then, because he knew who was going to double-cross him, he added, “Well, most of you are clean anyway.”

When he had finished washing their feet, he put his jacket back on and sat back down at the table. He said to them:

“Do you understand what I have just done to you? You lot call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’, and that’s fair enough, because that’s exactly what I am. So if I’m your Teacher and Lord, and I’ve just been down on my knees washing your feet, then you too ought to serve one another in the same way. I’m modelling the way I want you to live. Do as I have done. You can take it from me: servants do not outrank their boss, and the postie who brings the letter does not rank as importantly as the one who wrote it. When you get these things sorted out for yourselves, you’ll discover just how good life can really be.

“Now the moment of glory has arrived for the New Human, and it is God’s glory too. If God’s glory is made known in him, then God will pour out his own glory on him. It’s all happening right now. 

“You are my children, but you’re about to be on your own because our time together is almost up. You’ll keep looking for me, but as I said to the people before, where I am going, there is no way you can come.

“I’ve got one new instruction for you – in fact take it as an order – love one another. I want you to love one another in the same way that I have loved you. If you do that – if you really have love for one another – then it will be apparent to everyone that you are following in my footsteps.”

©2001 Nathan Nettleton Laughingbird.net

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

We do indeed bring you a gift of thanks, O God,
as we raise the cup of freedom in your name,
for you have made a covenant with us in the blood of Christ
and broken us free from the grip of death.

In your creative love, you brought the world to birth,
and from the first you loved all who live in it.
You heard the cries of your suffering people
and protected them with the blood of the Passover lamb
as you struck down those who oppressed them.

You sent your Son, Jesus, as our Teacher and Lord
and gave all things into his hands.
Laying aside his power,
he gave himself to us in humble service
and taught us to love one another
as he had loved us.
When the hour for his departure came,
he was betrayed by a friend
and his body broken on the cross.
With his outpoured blood you marked out those
who will follow where he has gone,
into the promised land of resurrection life.

Therefore with .....

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

We raise the cup of freedom in thanks to you, O God,
for you have made a covenant with us in the blood of Christ,
who gave himself to us in humble service
and taught us to love one another as he had loved us.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

The blood of Christ, the true lamb,
seals God’s new covenant with us
and marks us out for salvation.
The Lord has forgiven your sins,
washed you clean,
and freed you from death’s grip.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Go now and fulfil your vows to the Lord.
Love one another as Christ has loved you
and give yourselves to one another in humble service,
just as Christ has given himself to you.
Celebrate these holy days as a perpetual ordinance,
for no gift could ever repay God’s goodness to us.

And may God hear you whenever you call;
May Christ Jesus keep you safe through his blood;
And may the Holy Spirit lead you further
into the depths of God’s saving mysteries.

We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
   In the name of Christ. Amen.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net