Maundy Thursday April 2, 2015
Ex. 12:1-14a Ps. 78:14-20, 23-25
1 Cor 11:23-32 John 13:1-15
Tonight
is the night of the mandatum novum or the New Commandment, or the eleventh
commandment, from which we derive the English Maundy, in Maundy Thursday.
Yes, tonight is the night when we commemorate
the institution of the weekly feast of the Holy Eucharist but it is ironic that
we use John’s Gospel, because in the time sequence of John’s Gospel, it is not
certain that the meal presented in John’s Gospel is a Passover Meal. We also note that John’s Gospel does not have
the words of institution which are usually associated with the Holy Eucharist. And yet John’s Gospel has the most physical
expression about partaking of the body and blood of Jesus. Jesus is quoted as saying in another part of
John’s Gospel, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part of
me.”
But what strikes me most about Maundy
Thursday is the stressing of the importance of little things.
Jesus watched the behavior of his friends; he
noticed that no one took the role of being a hospitable host, and so he took
the towel and basin and washed feet.
Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet, probably thinking that Jesus
was too important to do this. “Jesus,
you’re the messiah, you should not be bothering with washing my feet. That’s not the way the messiah behaves.”
Yes, Peter, that is exactly how the messiah
behaves. The little things are
important.
What keeps the world and life going are
people doing the little things because the little things are important to the well-being
of the community.
Little things, begin with what Woody Allen
said, “Eighty per cent of life is showing up.”
One’s intentional presence may seem like something small but it is the
most important beginning to everything.
But then, buying groceries, fixing meals, cleaning, doing the laundry,
running errands, fixing coffee, attending rehearsal, setting up the altar,
taking it down, trimming the trees, acolyting, serving at the altar, singing in
the choir, setting up for coffee hour, teaching Sunday School, doing office
work, proofing bulletins, on and on the list of unsung little things
grows. And if those little things are
not done things don’t happen, the trains don’t run on time, church does not
happen.
For me, Maundy Thursday is about how Jesus
isolated the seemingly insignificant act of being a good host and washing dusty
feet of the sandal wearers of Palestine.
No big deal; but a really big deal.
Jesus is the most important person in our
tradition and we put him on a pedestal and we make promises to do anything for
him.
But he puts us on the pedestal and asks us to
take off our sandals and he washes our feet.
No big deal, but a really big deal because it highlights all of the
really small sacrificial stuff that makes life go on and on and on.
And so I salute those who have discovered
the secret of the little things, even without knowing it, because when the
little things are done as an expression of one’s character, one does not know
that one is even doing it.
And so tonight Jesus just whispers, “keep
doing the little things.” And if we say,
“What little things?” then we are doubly blessed to know that we are in the
rhythm of the new commandment, to love one another as Christ loved us.
Yes, once in a while it may be nice to do
something big and excessive and even showy, but the so called big things only
have sincere meaning if we have made the little acts of sacrifice the ordinary
character expressed in the routines of our community life together.
So, tonight I say to everyone here, Thanks
for the really big little things that you and others have done to make us the
Episcopal Church of St. John the Divine.
Amen.
