(Ex.12:1-8,11-14; Ps.116:12-13,15-18,1Cor.10:6; 1Cor.11:23-26; Jn.13:1-15) "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood." For this cup holds the Blood of our Lord. And, "Seeing the blood, I will pass over you," says the Lord. "When I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you." As the Israelites mark each of their houses with the blood of a lamb, so our bodies are marked by the Blood of the Lamb; and so we are saved by the Lord our God and become temples of His Spirit. "How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good He has done for me?" the psalmist cries in joy. Each day we "offer sacrifice of thanksgiving," taking up "the cup of salvation" and "call[ing] upon the name of the Lord": each day we partake of His blessed Body and Blood. And sharing in this celebration of the Eucharist we "proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes"; and so, into our midst He comes. "He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel around his waist" as "a model to follow": "as I have done for you, you should also do." He says to His brothers in the upper room the night "His hour had come to pass from this world to the Father": "You ought to wash one another's feet." And so by this teaching, and so by His masterful lead, He multiplies His presence in the world through His twelve apostles. And so shall these souls by whom the Bread of Life is multiplied, by whom we have inheritance with the Lord, wash the feet of all His followers by their witness and the ministry they shall bring to the ends of the earth. And so shall all who have bathed in His Blood be made clean for the Holy Day. And we, as they, as the Lord, find the strength to lay down our lives in service of one another by being as our Jesus, who was "fully aware that the Father had put everything in His power and that He had come from God and was returning to Him." Any power that any have comes only from the Father, and comes only through the Son, and is known only in His Blood – which all must share, by which all must be anointed, if we are to be preserved until the coming of the Christ again into this world of darkness. Writen, read & chanted by James Kurt; produced by Carie Fortney. Music by Carie Fortney; used by permission. ******* O LORD, let us be washed clean in the blood of your Son, and so protected from all harm; let us live in His New Covenant, eating His Body and drinking His Blood. YHWH, as your Son has laid down His life, the innocent Lamb sacrificed for our sins; as He has bowed down to wash our feet that we might be made clean and have inheritance with Him; so let us be humble and serve one another in His Name. Let His blood be upon us to save us from condemnation – let us die with Him that we might live again. In His feast let us partake, of His very Body and Blood. At His table let us sit, His disciples ready to follow Him. Indeed, even as we eat let us be prepared to go out and serve, to step from the table where we have been nourished and into the way of the Cross. Far from Egypt we would be taken, LORD, far from all our sin; and others we would see follow Him in the path to the kingdom. He has died that we might live – O LORD, let us be His children!