Maundy Thursday March 24, 2016
Ex. 12:1-14a Ps. 78:14-20, 23-25
1 Cor 11:23-32 John 13:1-15
Lectionary Link
Tonight we read St. Paul's account of the Holy Eucharist. He said he received this practice "from the Lord," even though St. Paul never did see Jesus in the flesh. So the Pauline practice of the Eucharist came to him as a mystical experience. The Eucharist was the practice of the Corinthian church and in fact St. Paul wrote the instructions for the Eucharist because the Corinthian Christians were conducting themselves at the Eucharist in an unworthy manner. St. Paul warned them if they did not participate in the Eucharist in a worthy manner, they were guilty of the very body of Christ. These are rather strong disciplinarian words.
So the first writing on the Eucharist came because people were actually disrespecting the Eucharist. How could this be? I suggest it could have happened because there were Christians who very prosperous and had plenty to eat.
Can we appreciate the importance of the Eucharist being the religious or devotional aspect of an actual meal? The early Christians were often nomads within the Roman Empire. They were part of the process of urbanization. Wars and need for employment causes social change and the migrations of people. People who arrive at a new place where they have no family need help.
The early Christian Eucharist functioned as a hospitality meal for the gathered community. Those who had food were like the little boy in the Gospel who gave his bread and fish for the feeding of the multitude. Gathered Christians had brought food for the hospitality meal. By eating in a public gathering it could be verified that all present would have something to eat.
How did things get out of hand? Apparently, there were some who had so much excess of food and drink, that some got a little tipsy and in a partying atmosphere, the religious and devotional aspect of the Agape meal or Eucharist was not regarded or respected. And Paul wrote them: "Cut it out; don't you realize that the offered bread and wine represent the very provision of the presence of Christ to us?"
Was Paul doing the Eucharist as a Passover meal? Definitely not! As a Jew, Paul would have done the Passover meal with Jews, once a year. The Eucharist was not a Seder; what has come to be Seder did not really exist in the time of Jesus or Paul, because the Seder had its own further development in the various traditions of the synagogue.
Since the Gospels were written after St. Paul wrote and after the established liturgical practices of the early Christian communities, the Gospels were written to show how the subsequent practices derived and the Gospels are derivation stories of the mystical practices of the early church. Jesus was called the Lamb of God because his life and his death became regarded as a sacrifice. Jesus was called the living bread. In the biology of the Hebrew Scriptures, blood was regarded to be the life of the body. In the church as the body of Christ, Jesus was regarded to the inward blood/sap of the life of the church. The church was called the new Israel and so Jesus ate a meal with the twelve patriarchs of the church as the new Israel. The members of the church regarded themselves to be sons and daughters of God. People in this new family were not necessarily biologically related as flesh and blood members like what was the practice of ethnic Judaism; members of the church had the common new DNA of the Holy Spirit. A Passover meal was not a synagogue event; it was an event done in the family home. Jesus did not have his Passover or meal during Passover week in his family home, he hosted a meal for his new family, his disciples and friends.
All of this later theology of the church was being taught in re-telling the story of Jesus in the Gospel.
So what is the theology of Maundy Thursday? Hospitality and Service.
We celebrate tonight the Eucharist as a gift from Christ. Paul said that he received the Eucharist from the Lord. That's how we receive it tonight. It is an event of hospitality. God receives us into the family of God and Jesus is the host. But Jesus also says, "I am bread, I am wine. I am everything that I perceive because everything I perceive is my world and it is me." Tonight, you and I live within the perception of Christ. We are known and perceived by Christ. And just as Jesus said the bread and the wine was his body and blood, Jesus has taken each of us and declared us as his own. And Christ lives, moves, breathes, and sees through us. And we can't get much closer to Jesus than that. And the hospitality of God is expressed in the Eucharist of taking Jesus deep into our lives. But the Eucharist is just the outward sign of the fact that Christ has already become one with us.
Maundy Thursday is about Service. Jesus, the Rabbi, the professor notices that his students are very competitive. They all want to have the best positions in the administration. Peter, had strong notions; if you are really important then you get exempt from doing the little things, like doing the dishes, serving food or cleaning up. Jesus, the leader, took the towel and the water and washed the feet of his disciples. He probably did this because his friends had come to regard themselves as too good to do the menial tasks. Any organization that can no longer get the little things done, dies. Any organization that does not regard little things to be important things, dies. The witness of Jesus was this: the church will succeed because of sacrifice and service. This is true of every organization that survives. Any family, church or organization that tries to exempt itself from service, dies.
St. John the Divine exists and will continue to exist because of the sum total of deeds of service by our membership. I salute everyone at St. John's past and present who have offered the variety of service to comprise us and keep us going. I offer this Eucharist tonight in thanksgiving to Christ for the gift of the Holy Eucharist, but also for service of all of you and those who are not present who have given for the life of St. John's.
Let us pledge tonight to keep the tradition of hospitality and service alive at St. John the Divine. We owe it to Jesus, to ourselves and to the church of the future. Amen.
Ex. 12:1-14a Ps. 78:14-20, 23-25
1 Cor 11:23-32 John 13:1-15
Lectionary Link
Tonight we read St. Paul's account of the Holy Eucharist. He said he received this practice "from the Lord," even though St. Paul never did see Jesus in the flesh. So the Pauline practice of the Eucharist came to him as a mystical experience. The Eucharist was the practice of the Corinthian church and in fact St. Paul wrote the instructions for the Eucharist because the Corinthian Christians were conducting themselves at the Eucharist in an unworthy manner. St. Paul warned them if they did not participate in the Eucharist in a worthy manner, they were guilty of the very body of Christ. These are rather strong disciplinarian words.
So the first writing on the Eucharist came because people were actually disrespecting the Eucharist. How could this be? I suggest it could have happened because there were Christians who very prosperous and had plenty to eat.
Can we appreciate the importance of the Eucharist being the religious or devotional aspect of an actual meal? The early Christians were often nomads within the Roman Empire. They were part of the process of urbanization. Wars and need for employment causes social change and the migrations of people. People who arrive at a new place where they have no family need help.
The early Christian Eucharist functioned as a hospitality meal for the gathered community. Those who had food were like the little boy in the Gospel who gave his bread and fish for the feeding of the multitude. Gathered Christians had brought food for the hospitality meal. By eating in a public gathering it could be verified that all present would have something to eat.
How did things get out of hand? Apparently, there were some who had so much excess of food and drink, that some got a little tipsy and in a partying atmosphere, the religious and devotional aspect of the Agape meal or Eucharist was not regarded or respected. And Paul wrote them: "Cut it out; don't you realize that the offered bread and wine represent the very provision of the presence of Christ to us?"
Was Paul doing the Eucharist as a Passover meal? Definitely not! As a Jew, Paul would have done the Passover meal with Jews, once a year. The Eucharist was not a Seder; what has come to be Seder did not really exist in the time of Jesus or Paul, because the Seder had its own further development in the various traditions of the synagogue.
Since the Gospels were written after St. Paul wrote and after the established liturgical practices of the early Christian communities, the Gospels were written to show how the subsequent practices derived and the Gospels are derivation stories of the mystical practices of the early church. Jesus was called the Lamb of God because his life and his death became regarded as a sacrifice. Jesus was called the living bread. In the biology of the Hebrew Scriptures, blood was regarded to be the life of the body. In the church as the body of Christ, Jesus was regarded to the inward blood/sap of the life of the church. The church was called the new Israel and so Jesus ate a meal with the twelve patriarchs of the church as the new Israel. The members of the church regarded themselves to be sons and daughters of God. People in this new family were not necessarily biologically related as flesh and blood members like what was the practice of ethnic Judaism; members of the church had the common new DNA of the Holy Spirit. A Passover meal was not a synagogue event; it was an event done in the family home. Jesus did not have his Passover or meal during Passover week in his family home, he hosted a meal for his new family, his disciples and friends.
All of this later theology of the church was being taught in re-telling the story of Jesus in the Gospel.
So what is the theology of Maundy Thursday? Hospitality and Service.
We celebrate tonight the Eucharist as a gift from Christ. Paul said that he received the Eucharist from the Lord. That's how we receive it tonight. It is an event of hospitality. God receives us into the family of God and Jesus is the host. But Jesus also says, "I am bread, I am wine. I am everything that I perceive because everything I perceive is my world and it is me." Tonight, you and I live within the perception of Christ. We are known and perceived by Christ. And just as Jesus said the bread and the wine was his body and blood, Jesus has taken each of us and declared us as his own. And Christ lives, moves, breathes, and sees through us. And we can't get much closer to Jesus than that. And the hospitality of God is expressed in the Eucharist of taking Jesus deep into our lives. But the Eucharist is just the outward sign of the fact that Christ has already become one with us.
Maundy Thursday is about Service. Jesus, the Rabbi, the professor notices that his students are very competitive. They all want to have the best positions in the administration. Peter, had strong notions; if you are really important then you get exempt from doing the little things, like doing the dishes, serving food or cleaning up. Jesus, the leader, took the towel and the water and washed the feet of his disciples. He probably did this because his friends had come to regard themselves as too good to do the menial tasks. Any organization that can no longer get the little things done, dies. Any organization that does not regard little things to be important things, dies. The witness of Jesus was this: the church will succeed because of sacrifice and service. This is true of every organization that survives. Any family, church or organization that tries to exempt itself from service, dies.
St. John the Divine exists and will continue to exist because of the sum total of deeds of service by our membership. I salute everyone at St. John's past and present who have offered the variety of service to comprise us and keep us going. I offer this Eucharist tonight in thanksgiving to Christ for the gift of the Holy Eucharist, but also for service of all of you and those who are not present who have given for the life of St. John's.
Let us pledge tonight to keep the tradition of hospitality and service alive at St. John the Divine. We owe it to Jesus, to ourselves and to the church of the future. Amen.
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