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Thursday March 24, 2005 - Maundy Thursday, Year A

It's hard to believe
that Holy Week is almost over.
Lent caught most of us unawares this week, coming as early as it did,
and because it was so early, we haven't yet had the usual signs of Spring life that normally tell us that Easter is coming near.
But the forty days have passed, and whether we are ready or not, today is Maundy Thursday,
the day
when we come together
to celebrate that great gift of Christ,
the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, the Holy Communion,
in which Christ meets us, the body and blood of our Lord
in the simple food of bread and wine.

It's interesting, those three names that we have for this simple meal: Eucharist, Lord's Supper, Holy Communion.
Each of them reminds us of something different about what we are doing here.

Eucharist
comes from a Greek word that means to give thanks or to be grateful.
That's why the prayer we say over the bread and wine
is called the Great Thanksgiving, and begins, "It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth."
We give thanks for all that God has done and is doing and will do for us, and most especially for the death and resurrection and promised return of Christ.
In this meal
we give thanks
to the God who made us and loves us and continues to care for us.

And the Lord's Supper, it's not difficult to see why we call it that. Because this meal
belongs to Jesus. He started it, and we do it in his name, in remembrance of him. But even more than that, at this meal Jesus is the host. He welcomes us
and offers us food, food that is his own body and blood, the most intimate sharing of his life.

And Holy Communion. Communion
literally means to participate. In this meal, we share in bread and wine, and so participate in a meal together, But even more than that, we participate in the life of Christ, because Christ promises to be present here, as we eat and drink the bread and wine, body and blood of our Lord.

And so, in this precious meal come together our thanksgivings
and our remembrance and the very presence of Christ.
In that most ordinary — and most holy — of things, a meal,
we eat
and we drink
bread and wine, the body and blood
of our Lord.

It seems so simple, and yet we so easily forget how much
it matters.

For the last few weeks,
our children at Trinity have been learning about the Last Supper.
They have heard stories and watched videos, they have made bread and grape juice, they have decorated crosses, they have sung chants.
But the highlight of the program for me was the drama activity,
watching one of our youngest children
look at a reproduction of Hans Holbein's painting of the Last Supper,
Jesus sitting at a table, bare feet knobbled from walking showing underneath, blue sky showing through the windows behind,
and the disciples seated around him, most looking everywhere except
at him. But his attention is focused on the table,
his hands stretched out, a loaf of bread, broken in front of him.

And it came time to recreate the picture, to act out the story we knew so well, and this child
rushed to choose the blue piece of fabric out of the bundle we use for costumes.
That's what Jesus was wearing in the picture.
And she sat at the table, surrounded by a bunch of wriggling boys,
and took bread, and broke it, and there was suddenly silence.
"This is my body, which is of the Christ."

It matters.

Here we are, Maundy Thursday,
coming together to celebrate Christ's great gift,
thanksgiving and remembrance and the presence of Christ
coming together in this time and this place.

But there is a shadow, a shadow
that hangs over all our celebrations.
Because we know
that just a few hours after Jesus gave us this precious gift,
one of the people
sitting at that table
turned his back on his Savior
and betrayed him to his enemies.
And this was the last meal he ate
before he went out to be arrested, tried, and crucified.
It was a kind of funeral meal,
so that alongside thanksgiving and remembrance and the presence of Christ
we are also aware of the shadow of death.
And yet even death, in all its ugliness,
holds the promise of blessing.
Because this was not just any death. This death
was in place of our own death, death that we deserve for our sins, but that Christ took upon himself
so that we might have healing, so that we might have forgiveness,
so that we might have life
forever.
Jesus died,
out of love for us. Remember what he said that last night, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."
Jesus loved us so much
that he laid down his life for us.
That's how Maundy Thursday got its name: from the Latin, "Mandatum novum"
"A new commandment."
Maundy Thursday, the day of the commandment, the day of love.

George Herbert, and Anglican priest in the seventeenth century
describes Christ's loving invitation to us:
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.

A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:
Love said, you shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful: Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat.
So I did sit and eat.

Thanksgiving, remembrance, the presence of our Savior,
we come to this meal
drawn by Christ's love.
It matters.

Come, and eat. For this is the body and blood of our Savior,
and in his love he meets us here.
Remember, and be thankful.

 

Sermon ©Raewynne J. Whiteley 2005