Maundy Thursday

+Remembering, washing and loving. These are the themes of tonight’s liturgy.

Our first reading sets the stage. As millions of Jewish people across the globe this week remember the first Passover, we here the Hebrew scriptural instruction given to the Exiled Jews in Egypt. In order to protect themselves from the tenth plague, they were given precise instructions. Now, while most modern day Jews don’t slaughter lambs and place the blood on their doorframes, they do re-enact many of the details in their Passover Seders. They do this so they’ll never forget---so that they Remember. 2000 years ago, as Jesus and his friends settle into the tumultuous atmosphere of Jerusalem during Passover, they too are preparing to remember…preparing for the festival—their Passover observance. Jesus and his followers are getting ready as well---getting ready, unbeknownst to them, for something completely new.

Jesus plans on taking the familiar and with a few words turn the whole thing inside out and upside down.

So he takes, he blesses, he eats and he tells us to always remember—to never forget—that he is with us and that his dying on the cross is a necessary defeat…Necessary because only when one is seemingly, thoroughly and utterly beaten, can one surprise, shock and transform us…..because only when our guard is down, only when we are stripped clean of expectation, only when our false hope is wiped away, can we receive the Good News of New Life. Jesus knew that

remembering the utter defeat would be absolutely pivotal to relishing the eternal victory. So we remember…not only the glory of Sunday but the pain of Thursday Friday and Saturday. We remember.

Washing.

We wash feet, we strip the altar area of all ornamentation, we remove the sacrament. We wash away all of the old---the good old, our sacrament, our beautiful linens and silver, and we wash away the weary old---the symbolic dust and dirt of our feet and we wipe clean the old order.

Jesus says: “Do you know what I have done? I have set you an example, that servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.” I wash the feet of you so that we all remember that to truly live as Jesus lived means we must get down on our hands and knees and serve those who have no one, we must reach down a helping hand to the downtrodden, the despised and the destitute. Because only when we wash others, do our waters of baptism mean a thing. Because only when we serve others, will we be recognized as followers of Jesus… because to follow Jesus means to walk with him…. and walking with him means touching the untouchable and loving the unlovable. So we wash.

Loving. Tonight’s Gospel reading ends with Jesus giving us a new commandment (for this is where we get the word Maundy, it derives from the Latin word for Mandate) And Jesus’ mandate to us is: that we love one another just as he loves us.

It all comes down to this, doesn’t it?

When we take and eat, we are performing an act of love.

When we reach out to those in need, by washing their feet, by feeding them, by clothing them, by working for their rights as citizens of this world, by respecting them as children of God, we are performing an act of love.

And when throughout this night, we sit with Christ, waiting with him, watching with him, crying and praying with him, we are performing an act of love.

Maundy Thursday is about taking and eating, remembering and digesting. It’s about bending down and reaching out, realizing that until the entire world is treated with dignity and respect then any dignity or respect we are granted really doesn’t mean a thing.

Maundy Thursday is about stripping ourselves of everything: all the pretense, all the colors, all the sound, exposing ourselves to just one thing…. love. … A Love which is so strong and so enduring that nothing, not even the deepest and most piercing betrayal, can break it. A love that, if we sit quietly enough with it, will serve us well.

This is one of those nights where there’s nothing else to say. So, I invite each and everyone of you to listen and really hear, to wash and be made clean, to take and eat, and to wait and watch, for the Son of God is about to take everything we know, turn it upside down, shake it up and present it to us fresh and sparkling new on Easter morn. +