Eucharist and Service are Essences of the Church

Maundy Thursday April 1, 2020

Ex. 12:1-14a Ps. 78:14-20, 23-25
1 Cor 11:23-32 John 13:1-15


When writers were writing about Jesus decades after he left this earth, as much as they might want to pretend to forget what happened in those decades, history cannot be written without acknowledging that the conditions of the writers are more prominent than the actual events in the life of Jesus.

Why?  The writers are presenting Jesus in ways that indicate why the churches came to their practices decades after Jesus was gone.

What were the churches like when John's Gospel was written?  They were groups spread throughout the cities of the Roman Empire.  They had become "social clubs, private house clubs" integrating Jews who followed the teachings of Jesus with Gentiles who also had come to have a spiritual experience of the Risen Christ by the Holy Spirit.

How did the early churches stay together?  By the meal of the fellowship.  When they met they ate together as a way of guaranteeing that all members had enough to eat, but also with the "tag on" of the sacred meal of the Holy Eucharist.  They believed that eating together in the name of Jesus and reciting the words of this is my body over the bread, and this is my blood over the wine,  was a way to keep the gathered people reconstituted in the presence of the Risen Christ.

And this practice was associated with the command of Jesus to "do this as oft as they ate and drank in remembrance of him."  Maundy Thursday, is the commemoration of Jesus instituting the Holy Eucharist as the continuing social reconstituting the church again and again in each gathering.

What did those early social church clubs of diverse people need to stay together?  They could only survive through service.  If everyone lived ego lives of being "bosses and chiefs," then the dishes wouldn't get done nor the trash taken out.  When Jesus washed feet, he was saying, "I'm you're boss and I am also your servant."  Now you too, check your egos and serve each other.  This is the secret to how you can survive and thrive as a community.

Eucharist and Service, that the essence of Maundy Thursday.  It is still today two of the key ingredients in our lives now.

Let us continue to break bread together to realize the presence to Christ who was the servant and taught us service.  Amen.