Ex. 12:1-14a Ps. 78:14-20, 23-25
1 Cor 11:23-32 John 13:1-15
Lectionary Link
Prelude means "before the play." Have you ever thought of liturgy as Holy Play? That might seem embarrassing since as people of faith we would want to say that we are not childish in our thoughts and habits. And we don't want to be accused of being disconnected with actual living situation.
It could be that liturgy and ritual have become disconnected from life situations and have lost their sign value for people who may be coming to church out of social habit or simply to obey church leaders.
Maundy Thursday is Holy Play and with profound connective purposes which are important for our lives.
A crucial issue for the church is being a significant community negotiating the survival of people among other communities of people. The Jesus Movement communities of the Gospels and those presided over by St. Paul were communities threatened by the great social force of the first centuries, namely, the Roman Empire.
What are the key elements for a community of people to survive within a Empire. One element is that they needed to stay together to provide some very basic support for each other. If we understand the need to stay together for mutual support, then we can understand Holy Eucharist as a meal with a purpose. The Holy Eucharist is the most concrete expression of the social reality of the church. It shares some of the same functions as a family meal. Why does a family have meals? To make sure that each member is fed with the basic sustenance of life. The family meal is not just about food; it is also about fellowship, a mutual checking in with each other to express care, concern, stories, and prayer.
St. Paul and the early church leaders understood that Holy Eucharist was a gift and command of Jesus to keep the church together as a continuing community into the future. The early church understood Jesus to be a leadership of hospitality, the kind of hospitality which keeps people together. And so on Maundy Thursday, we commemorate the gift of the Holy Eucharist as the gathering which is always an anticipation of the next gathering in the future with those who care for each other and for those who want to invite others to the same benefit of a mutual caring community.
The Holy Eucharist is also an evangelical aspiration of hope because it expresses the ideal desire for all the people of the world to be able to sit down together in hospitality and the care which sees to everyone having enough.
The aspiration the future fellowship of all humanity is met with reality of the differences of the egos of the people of this world. Not only is it difficult for heterogenous people to get along and have fellowship; it is also a challenge for homogeneous people to get along and share unbroken fellowship. People from the same society and backgrounds and from the same family still face the individual ego that demands that "it is my way or the highway."
And that brings us to the second feature of the Holy Play of Maundy Thursday: Foot-washing. Jesus, is the Rabbi, the chairman of the board, and yet he emptied himself of exalted position and did something which no one else would do for the meal. He perform the task which was forgotten by his disciples. He took the role of a servant and washed their feet. By so doing, he was showing them that is was only in service that the community and fellowship could survive and be perpetuated into the future.
Many Christians in America do not find themselves in servant roles. Why? Because we have so much that we can pay to get things done. We can pay and so seeming to "not need other people." We act as independent financial agents paying for the goods and services of our lives.
This means that we have a greater challenge. If we don't need the Holy Eucharist for checking in or we don't need the services of others, then we miss the point of Maundy Thursday.
The point is that we "check our egos" to comprise the community and we "check our egos" to serve to pay the community forward into the future. In our baptisms, each Christian is an "ordained" minister with gifts for the community.
Let us remember tonight, not to forsake the gathering of the Holy Eucharist. It is still the most concrete social expression of the church. And let us also remember the Holy Play of foot-washing; serving and loving to serve in knowing that we are usefully beneficial to each other.
May God open our eyes to the connection of the holy play of Holy Eucharist and foot-washing to reality of community and service tonight. Amen.
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