Maundy Thursday March 24, 2016
Ex. 12:1-14a Ps. 78:14-20, 23-251 Cor 11:23-32 John 13:1-15
Many
people believe that the reason one becomes wealthy and powerful is so that one
does not have to do the little things, like drive one’s car, take out the
trash, wash dishes, clean the house, or take care of the children.
Maundy
Thursday is a night when we remember that Jesus said that our lives of faith
involve being constituted by lots of little things, things so obvious that one
might forget them or neglect them.
The early Christian gathering was a table
meal. People have to eat and eating is
also a good time for renewing friendship and family relationship. The central Christian gathering is the Holy
Eucharist and long before it became a stylized meal of unrecognizable bread and
a sip of wine, it was an actual fellowship meal. Jesus hosted a meal and served; he told his
disciples to continue this simple practice.
“Continue to get together and eat and fellowship and when you do it as I
ask, you will realize that I am there with you.
When you eat this meal which I asked of you, in this meal you will be
connected with this very night when I first asked you to do it.”
Peter and his disciple friends were often
concerned about their position in the kingdom of Jesus. If Peter were thinking out
loud he would be saying, “ Jesus, you are the kingly messiah and this is not just
an ordinary meal among some friends.
This is like a banquet of a great king.
And since you Jesus are going to be our great king. You can’t be putting a towel on and washing
our feet. That is not kingly work.” And Jesus said, “Well guys we’ve set down to
eat and no one has offered the basic hospitality of washing our dusty feet
before we eat. No one saw the obvious
thing to do. And there were not servants
here to perform it. So I am going to set the example. Your gathering in the future is going to be
very basic; eat, discuss and fellowship together and serve each other doing the
little things and the obvious things which need to be done.” 99% of life is obvious, ordinary maintenance
things. Too boring for you? Well, if you only want to do big and heroic
things you will miss doing them if you don’t do the basic things really well as
a part of the formation of your character.”
The Holy Eucharist is the continual grace of
the gathered church sharing a meal, reading our family tradition as found in
the Scriptures and making sure that the basic needs of the community are
fulfilled. Because if we live really
well together, then that in itself will be the best evangelism.
If we really live well together, then others
will say, “I want what they have. I want
to be with them. I want their good
news. I want their fun. I want their peace and joy. I want to be with them because they share it
all, they rejoice with each other, they work with each other, they pray with
each other, they mourn with each other, they comfort each other.”
In 2000 years the church has become pretty
good at hiding the basic stuff of the Holy Eucharist into church laws or
obligations. What we need to remember
tonight is to return to the basic. A fellowship
meal together with the sharing of our best words of our traditions, prayers and
encouragement and just really basic, basic fix the meal, take out the trash, do
the laundry type of service. Does it
sound too boring? Too ordinary?
I believe if we do the basic things of
service very well we will also find that some extraordinary things will happen
because we practice belonging to each other in the name of Jesus Christ.
Let this meal tonight return turn us to
basic, basic Jesus Movement Christianity.
A meal together, prayers, passing the peace, wishing each other the very
best, and the basic service which will keep us together and help us to pass on
these habits of fellowship to another generation of people who need to be
connected to the original Last Supper.
May God let us know that we are connected to
the original Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples tonight. Amen.
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